Recommend external drive to use as working drive for macbook?

I just bought a retina macbook pro and am looking for an external drive that I can use to store images from a session that is also fast enough to work off of. I do have an internal 500GB drive that will be used as a scratch disk, but would like and external 1tb drive that is USB3 and doesn't have much spin-down/spin-up.

A couple that I'm looking at are Hitachi Touro and G-Technology.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I would recommend a Thunderbolt drive over USB 3.0 for added speed.

I've been buying from these guys for 15 years or more https://www.macsales.c​om Right now I have a Mercury Elite Pro Mini via firewire on my desk and one of their SSDs in my Macbook.

they don't sell junk, so anything you get will be fine. If you want portability get an on-the-go, if you just need something for the desktop get a larger enclosure.

The spin up spin down is generally set with your system preferences. A drive with a faster RPM is, well, faster, but might need more time to spin up. One of their hybrid drives might be the best thing for you, as recent files will be held in flash storage and immediately available. I don't think you'll get the full performance out of an external SSD, but i could be wrong.

They have incredible customer and technical service, so if you don't get a question answered here, go direct to the source.

I've had good luck with Lacie drives so far but G Tech are also stellar. I have a 2TB thunderbolt Lacie that I use as an external drive for editing and I edit using Aperture and Photoshop and you'd never know the drive was external, it's that good. No hiccups, no slow down, no nothing. They're pricey but like I said, knock on wood, I've had really good luck them.

had more failed lacies recently than i care to think about.

in my opinion thunderbolt is an expensive waste of time if you are using individual mechanical drives. USB3 would be better bang for your buck.