[juiceweazel]

I'm sure this question has been asked before. I did a quick search though & did not see it answered:
I just installed the Pioneer 4000NEX & am loving all the features this thing has. After loading my 32GB I discovered I was only getting roughly 2 albums per GB. I quickly realized I need A LOT more space to hold my music collection. I was wondering if anybody has installed a portable hard drive for this reason? Memory is cheap. My manual says my deck only puts out 1.6 amps. Will this be enough to power the drive? And will the hard drive last being installed in a car? This is one example of what I'm looking at:

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB External USB 3.02.0 Portable Hard Drive Black STDR1000100 - Best Buy

Any insight or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[knever3]

If anything I would suggest a solid state hard drive instead of the disk type. That said I don't know if the radio supports it, did you buy it from Crutchfield? Call pioneer for details if not.

 

[gijoe]

In my opinion, solid state drives haven't gotten to the point where they are worth the premium price. Last time that I checked they still had a higher failure rate than standard drives. Having said that, the stereo likely will not be able to control a TB drive, most of them max out at around 64 GB or so. Check the manual for your deck before buying anything.

 

[juiceweazel]

I was thinking solid state as well but the prices haven't come down as much yet. Still I think I could get a 100GB SSD for a reasonable price though. That should hold quite a bit. Also I am thinking the power requirements would be far less than a traditional drive. No I bought this deck from Sonic.

 

[juiceweazel]

I've had an SSD drive for a few years at home with no issues. Then again that is a controlled environment. Hmm, I didn't think about the size limits. Good point.

 

[Beckerson1]

I'm sure this question has been asked before. I did a quick search though & did not see it answered:
I just installed the Pioneer 4000NEX & am loving all the features this thing has. After loading my 32GB I discovered I was only getting roughly 2 albums per GB. I quickly realized I need A LOT more space to hold my music collection. I was wondering if anybody has installed a portable hard drive for this reason? Memory is cheap. My manual says my deck only puts out 1.6 amps. Will this be enough to power the drive? And will the hard drive last being installed in a car? This is one example of what I'm looking at:

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB External USB 3.02.0 Portable Hard Drive Black STDR1000100 - Best Buy

Any insight or suggestions are appreciated.

Solid state would be more efficient power wise (not quite half power), most coming in around 500mA, and your regular HDD, come in around 800mA or so but if your HU really puts out 1.6 amps you should be fine. That's actually quite good for a HU. IIRC my Pioneer only does 800mA to 1A at the most. It may even be less then that. I'd have to look. All I know to even charge my phone it needs to be off completely or I may only get a couple % charge on a 20 min drive into work. It's not much.

I run a 500gb (might be a 250, can't remember) SSD and absolutely love it. Boot time was cut about a 3rd of the time and I don't have to worry about vibrations, weather (is it cold or hot). Initial cost up front was about double what I would pay for a HDD of the same space but anymore SSD's are becoming cheap. Completely up to you OP

 

[juiceweazel]

Well that is the max rated so I am not sure how long it could handle that. Also I am not sure if that means the 1.6 amps would be split between the 2 ports? I am assuming that's per port. As time goes on this option will probably appeal to a lot more people as drive costs go down.
Thanks for the replies. I will probably wait to see when there is a good deal on a drive on NewEgg. Until then I will just live with the SD cards & Bluetooth from my phone (Which I understand is not nearly as good a signal).

 

[JoshHefnerX]

I've been getting flyers from newegg over the last couple of days.

Crucial M550 CT512M550SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA 6Gbps MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._mmc=EMC-GD010515-_-index-_-Item-_-20-104-483

 

[subterFUSE]

An Audison BitPlay HD is going in my car now. It has a 240 GB SSD, but that can be upgraded to a 2TB SSD if I want.

 

[juiceweazel]

Unfortunately I believe this has to be an external drive due to the USB powering it. Otherwise those would work.
I will have to check out the BitPlay. I wonder how much drive space my deck can handle? The specs don't state it. I will have to call Pioneer.

 

[t-man]

I have the 8000NEX. Currently I am using a 256GB flash drive and it works fine. It does take a little time when it first reads the drive as I have 170GB of data on it. I am guessing an SSD would be a bit quicker but I got that flash drive for $79. I have also used a 128GB flash drive and it worked quite well. No worry about power.

 

[juiceweazel]

Good to know T-man. I tried calling Pioneer several times yesterday but was not able to speak with someone. A 256gb flash drive should hold around 500 albums so that would be a good amount of music to have. That's a good deal for that size of drive. I wish the SD drive prices would come down a little more then I wouldn't have to worry about it.