1TB Fantom G-Force MegaDisk
When asked a few weeks ago what drives we should order for some mid-level storage and back-up of files to take back to the states with us when we retrograde, I started poking around on TigerDirect. After researching almost every external drive in existence, I decided on the 1TB Fantom G-Force MegaDisk. We didn’t need anything fancy like a NAS RAID array or anything like that - just a large hard drive that has to handle only regular backups of some of our shared files.
So I ordered four of them from TigerDirect. They just got here a couple days ago and they are AWESOME.
Solidly built, heat dissipating, and cool looking (they look just like the G5/MacPro tower cases). The stats are average on them - 16mb buffer, 7200 rpm, 8.9ms seek time, etc. But for the price (currently $449 with rebates) you cannot beat it. The only thing I wish it had was a FireWire 800 port. USB 2.0 just isn’t fast enough when I am doing some heavy graphics or video editing or transferring my 50gb music library or my 500gb movie library. For scheduled file backups on a dumb terminal attached to the network, USB 2.0 is fine.
So the verdict is: 8 out of 10 (lack of FW 800 and strange feet) A great drive for light to medium use with massive storage space. If you are going to be doing alot of network and multiple user intensive stuff, go with one of the out-of-the-box NAS RAID arrays that TD offers. Otherwise, this drive will do everything you want, and more, with room to spare.
Cheers,
Jason
I would like to know what the Archival Stats are on this drive and how it compares to tape.
Thanks
Jason,
Great post! Glad to hear that it met your needs - you are a power shopper!
I hope to see more individuals contribute like Jason. It’s with this type of great interaction we help one another!
Lonny
Sr. Editor
Michael- What archival stats, exactly? I am unsure what you are looking for. As far as my experience with tape: We have given up using tape out here (Iraq) due to the constant failures due to the environmental conditions (dust, heat) which is why we went for a simple, single drive configuration.
We have a total of 4 different networks of classification out here (5 if you count commercial, civilian net) and we only have to worry about archiving on two of them. So I have two drives per network for redundancy. I have it currently setup so that one drive does a backup of the shares once per week (about 500gb give or take) and then the other drive backs up the first drive upon completion. Fairly simple and not the perfect solution, but fine for what we need.
Lonny- Recently we made a fairly large order from TD consisting of the HD’s, some monitors, some monitor mounts and swingarms, KVM switches, and some DVD burners. I am not sure how the whole order process went (if they submitted it in one mass order or ordered one item at a time, etc) because I just submit my request to my supply warehouse and they do all the actual ordering. I always tell them to use TD, though. I will write a blurb about everything we order out here from TD, after I have tried it out.
Cheers,
Jason
http://www.myersonline.org
Jason
I am very much into photography and have just found out that DVD’s and CD’s that we burn have a short life…..about 5 years. I want to keep my files much longer than that and from what I have read tape lasts up to 30years, so that is what I was really interested in hearing about. Thanks for the response.
I am not in Iraqi, but have just as much dust….Sonora Desert.
Mike
Have you tried the gold CDs or DVDs? I think Kodak is one of the companies selling them. They claim to have 100 year lives. So far computer stores that I asked about them did not have them or even know what I was asking for.
Ouch! It only has a 1-year warranty? Seagate and WD now offer 5-year warranties standard on the majority of their drives. That alone almost makes me prefer to build a low-power, microATX system with RAID 0+1 and 250 GB drives. At least then it would be a NAS, not just an external disk. Find the right deals and it could cost just about as much, too.
Ah, but if you read the details on the page, the drives carry the original manufacturer warranty. Fantom doesn’t make drives, only enclosures, so you can be assured the drives probably have a 3-5 year warranty.
Jason, any idea what kind of drives are actually in them?
Mike- I do not know the archival stats of these drives, unfortunately. I was also going to mention the gold DVD’s with lifespans of 100+ years, in theory.
Rebates- Yeah, only a year warranty. Like Lonny said, they use third party drives in their cases, but I am unable to find out what brand of drives they use. I am currently scouring the net for an answer. I will also take the case apart after my warranty is void in a year, anyway.
I wonder if Seagate or similar would take a bad drive that was from another manufacturers product?
Lonny- I WILL find out what kind of drives they use. If I had to take a shot, it would be Seagate, but I will get confirmation.
–Jason
http://www.myersonline.org
Nov 4th, 2006 at 9:46 am
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