I am a big video editor, and in my latest project was having some difficulty. When I would capture video directly to my external USB hard drive, I would get loads of dropped frames, where capturing directly to my internal SATA or IDE would be fine. I had filled up my internal drives, which was why I had to use the external. Thinking back to the last external drive I used, a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500gb, I couldn't recall having any dropped frames. So, I went out to purchase myself a FreeAgent Pro external hard drive. I did ask myself why these external drives were so different, and I came to the conclusion that mine was using USB, where the FreeAgent Pro I had used in the studio was firewire.
One at the store I almost made the mistake of purchasing a regular FreeAgent Drive, not the FreeAgent Pro drive. Right before purchasing I noticed a difference in their design. Apparently only FreeAgent Pro's have the Firewire interface, and the regular FreeAgent's are simply USB. This wasn't much of a problem, I quickly went to a different store that had a better price on the FreeAgent Pro and purchased it. I brought it home only to realize the FreeAgent Pro 750gb hard drive I purchased had USB and eSATA interfaces, but not Firewire. I looked online at the CircuitCity website, and apparently not all FreeAgent Pro's have Firewire, and there is a different FreeAgent Pro 750gb hard drive that does have firewire. but costs a bit more. I payed more for the stinking FreeAgent Pro, because I though I was getting my stinking Firewire.
So now I decided to figure out what the hell eSATA is. It seems that eSATA is faster than both USB and Firewire, which is a good thing. In fact, I am considering keeping the drive if eSATA is faster than Firewire, because that would mean capturing video directly to it would be perfect. The problem I am faced with is nobody at CircuitCity told me the drive only comes with a USB cable. My Asus A8N5X motherboard doesn't seem to have an eSATA port on the back, and frankly, I don't know what the hell to get. I already blew $210 on this hard drive, and I don't want to have to spend much more on expensive cords and PCI cards. I would like to go back to CircuitCity and purchase the cord and whatever else I need to complete this picture because it is close by, and I really need to get editing and not waiting for an item to ship, but whatever I need to do I will do.
So, what exactly do I need to get this running? Can someone link to items at *CircuitCity*, or if not, newegg? The problem I ran into is I think there is an eSATA PCI card and an eSATA cable, but I found very few on newegg, and didn't find any at CircuityCity. I think its strange that neither of these places have a wide selection of a seemingly necessary item.
One at the store I almost made the mistake of purchasing a regular FreeAgent Drive, not the FreeAgent Pro drive. Right before purchasing I noticed a difference in their design. Apparently only FreeAgent Pro's have the Firewire interface, and the regular FreeAgent's are simply USB. This wasn't much of a problem, I quickly went to a different store that had a better price on the FreeAgent Pro and purchased it. I brought it home only to realize the FreeAgent Pro 750gb hard drive I purchased had USB and eSATA interfaces, but not Firewire. I looked online at the CircuitCity website, and apparently not all FreeAgent Pro's have Firewire, and there is a different FreeAgent Pro 750gb hard drive that does have firewire. but costs a bit more. I payed more for the stinking FreeAgent Pro, because I though I was getting my stinking Firewire.
So now I decided to figure out what the hell eSATA is. It seems that eSATA is faster than both USB and Firewire, which is a good thing. In fact, I am considering keeping the drive if eSATA is faster than Firewire, because that would mean capturing video directly to it would be perfect. The problem I am faced with is nobody at CircuitCity told me the drive only comes with a USB cable. My Asus A8N5X motherboard doesn't seem to have an eSATA port on the back, and frankly, I don't know what the hell to get. I already blew $210 on this hard drive, and I don't want to have to spend much more on expensive cords and PCI cards. I would like to go back to CircuitCity and purchase the cord and whatever else I need to complete this picture because it is close by, and I really need to get editing and not waiting for an item to ship, but whatever I need to do I will do.
So, what exactly do I need to get this running? Can someone link to items at *CircuitCity*, or if not, newegg? The problem I ran into is I think there is an eSATA PCI card and an eSATA cable, but I found very few on newegg, and didn't find any at CircuityCity. I think its strange that neither of these places have a wide selection of a seemingly necessary item.
