large external drive recommendation

[steve harley]

they whom i call Kevin Callahan wrote:
> I was about to order at least one LaCie Big Extreme 1T drive until 
> someone sent me this link:
> 
> <http://macworld.pricegrabber.com/rating_getprodrev.php/product_id=11165851/id_type=masterid> 
> 
> 
> can someone recommend a reliable big drive (750 minimum, preferable 1T)

i've been planning to buy two 500 GB SATA barracudas (5 yr 
warranty) from newegg and put them in one of the dual-drive 
enclosures from OWC; total price if i catch the right fluctuation 
should be about $340 for a RAIDable FW 800/USB 2 unit:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136>
<http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW924AL2K/>

> are the LaCie BIG drives that unreliable ?

testimonials are helpful, but also, themselves, quite unreliable

like many other drive packagers, LaCie just slaps a case around 
some standard drives and an OEM bridge board; maybe they have 
some say in how the cases are made, and perhaps they have 
something to do with the firmware on the bridgeboard, and i guess 
they have to decide how much they're willing to spend on the 
power supply, but most of the reliability of any "packaged" drive 
is going to be out of the hands of the packager, unless they are 
really reaching for the bottom (which LaCie might or might not be 
doing; they seem to still be trading on the reputation they 
deserved 10 years ago)