Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
BackupHardware
Antec Easy SATA
(
http://www.antec.com
)
SYBA SD-ENC50020
(
http://www.syba.com
)
Seagate 3 TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk
(
http://www.seagate.com
)
We actually installed no backup hardware in our media center system, be-
cause what little backup it requires can be done across our network. If you do
need backup hardware for your media center system, there are three obvious
alternatives: an internal hard drive docking station (like the Antec Easy SATA),
an external hard drive docking station (like the SYBA SD-ENC50020), or a stan-
dard external hard drive (like the Seagate FreeAgent).
Installing the Antec Easy SATA or a similar internal docking station requires a
second 5.25” external drive bay, which is available with the Antec NSK-2480
(and many other media center cases), but not with the Antec Fusion Remote. If
you have an available 5.25” external drive bay, the Antec Easy SATA is both the
cleanest and least expensive solution. It allows you to recycle older SATA hard
drives, and its eSATA transfers are very fast.
The SYBA SD-ENC50020 external hard drive docking station offers the same
performance as the Antec Easy SATA for about the same price, but it supports
two hard drives simultaneously at the expense of additional clutter. However,
neither of the cases we recommend has an external eSATA port, let alone the
two eSATA ports required by the SYBA unit to support dual drives. You can, of
course, substitute a case (or motherboard) that does provide external eSATA
connectors, but it's easy enough to solve the problem with the components
we used.
The SYBA unit includes two long eSATA cables, which have a standard SATA
connector on one end and the special eSATA connector on the other. These
cables can't be used on this system, because it has no eSATA connectors. The
solution is simple. Just order an extra pair of standard SATA cables 18” to 24”
long. Connect one end of each cable to a motherboard SATA port, run the
cables out the back of the case, and connect them to the SYBA unit. Problem
solved.
If you prefer a standard external hard drive, any of the Seagate FreeAgent
models is a good choice. In particular, we're looking forward to seeing the 3 TB
Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, which had been announced but was not yet
available when we were building this system. Obviously, we can recommend
it only provisionally, since we haven't actually seen it yet, but the specifications
and suggested retail pricing indicate that this external drive will offer a lot of
bang for the buck.
There is one obvious problem, though, at least for our chosen media center
configuration. The 3 TB Seagate external unit can use any of three interfaces:
USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and FireWire 800. We don't have either of the latter two on
our media center system (although you may choose a motherboard that pro-
vides one or both of those), and USB 2.0 is simply too slow. Filling a 3 TB drive
at a typical USB 2.0 data rate of 25 to 30 MB/s would require more than a full
day.
