Thunderbolt external hard drive... Oh my...

[rockymtnhigh]

So, my five month old MacBook Air, with 256Gb of storage has gone from 125GB of free storage to about 34GB. It took me a while to figure out what happened, but ultimately 18GB of iOS app backups in iTunes, some movies, music, and a LOT of image files from my research trip was responsible. I realized that if I am going to use this as my primary machine, I needed a better external hard drive setup.

I looked at buying an external SSD drive, but the prices were crazy. $250 for 128GB and then hit by the bottleneck of the USB2.0 connection to the Air. So I started researching thunderbolt. Seagate has a "GoFlex" line of external hard drives, and they have a thunderbolt adapter for it. For $240, I bought a 1TB drive, the thunderbolt adapter, and a thunderbolt cable. Same price as the external SSD, but 8X the storage, and at a much higher transfer rate.

So it arrived today, and I hooked it up (very easy, unplug the bottom of the hard drive, replacing the USB interface, and plug it into the thunderbolt adapter, connect it, and poof! Instant hard drive. It is blazingly fast. As if I have a second internal SSD. My first test was to transfer a 1GB folder from my Air's SSD to the thunderbolt drive. it did it in 11 seconds. I about fell over. Currently transferring stuff from a USB 2.0 G-Drive external drive. This is slower. From external drive to air to thunderbolt drive, 20 seconds per GB. Still impressive.

I am going to ask for my work to get me one of the GoFlex Desk drives (which include a second thunderbolt port in it) for my work machine. That is a bit more, about $350 for a 3TB drive with thunderbolt.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I realize this may not be the cheapest form of HDD storage, but I am incredibly impressed by the speed of thunderbolt. Now if vendors will jump on board - and get this technology moving. From what I read, it is double USB 3.0 (which I have never used) and 5X USB 2.0. There is no lag whatsoever.

 

[JamesJ]

Alright Mike, Here is what I decided, and I was going to continue the thing on facebook we got but I will bring it here..
for those that dont know: I was caught in a situation where my wife has about 700 gigs of photos for clients on her computer...well we only have a 500 gig internal hard drive and a 500 gig external hard drive plus a 2 terabyte backup drive...we use a iMac 21.5 inch 2009 model at home so no thunderbolt. so I have been looking at solutions to our problem (my wife does not need to be mobile, she is a stay at home mom so she should be home taking care of the kids and making me sandwiches right? ) anyways I have been debating between a mac pro or another solution maybe getting a 1 terabyte drive and TRYING to install it even though it seems pretty rough.

Well yesterday I stumbled on a website that has great reviews and sells macs pretty cheap and started looking at their B-Stock and they had a Mac pro 2008 model that had a dent in the case (big deal to us as the tower will not be in view) it has a 500 gig internal drive, superdrive, 4 gigs of ram and a quad core processor...for 625 bucks..so I bought it and a one year warranty. for 700 bucks I got a 12 to 1500 dollar machine. I also bought a 2 terabyte hard drive to pop in it for 100 bucks and I got a 24" HD monitor off a friend for 25 bucks...I will be able to sell my current imac for around 800 (still has applecare till next year Feb 2013 if anyone wants a great imac!) also I can take the ram up to 32 gigs if so desired, and I will add the newest Video card soon for her as well...

I love the mac pros because it scratches that itch I get everyone once in a while to tinker with computers, and EVERYTHING can be tinkered with on a mac pro..I am pretty excited...now after reading how fast thunderbolt is, I wonder if they sell thunderbolt adapters for the mac pro

 

[Ronnie-]

(my wife does not need to be mobile, she is a stay at home mom so she should be home taking care of the kids and making me sandwiches right? )

End thread, because nothing else really needs to be said besides she better not forget the cold beer.:up

 

[TheForce]

Mike- I have the Seagate system here as my off computer backup. Works well. But for large archive storage I needed a quick system that transferred much faster so I got a Thermaltake cradle with esata connection. This can transfer my 10-50Gb files very fast, then I can hand carry the hard drive fromm my office to my Home theater for playback on the big screen as I have a second one there connected to my OPPO player.
If you know, what is the difference in speed performance between Thunderbolt and sata III?

 

[Ronnie-]

End thread, because nothing else really needs to be said besides she better not forget the cold beer.:up

Sent from my Rezound using SatelliteGuys

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Mike- I have the Seagate system here as my off computer backup. Works well. But for large archive storage I needed a quick system that transferred much faster so I got a Thermaltake cradle with esata connection. This can transfer my 10-50Gb files very fast, then I can hand carry the hard drive fromm my office to my Home theater for playback on the big screen as I have a second one there connected to my OPPO player.
If you know, what is the difference in speed performance between Thunderbolt and sata III?

I don't know the answer to that. But for my needs Thunderbolt has far surpassed my expectations. I can take a 30Gb iPhoto library on the mounted volume, double click it, launch it in iPhoto or Aperture almost instantly and it performs as if it was sitting on the SSD drive of the Air.

My only frustration is that the portable thunderbolt adapter does not have a second thunderbolt port, so it has to be the end of the chain. The desk version has one, and thus I am probably going to go that route at work. Since that machine uses a 27" Dell external monitor. Cheaper to buy the Desk adapter then switch to a Thunderbolt 27" monitor (although I wish they would get me one. ).

 

[Foxbat]

Refurbished Thunderbolt displays are $849 on the Apple Store. My greatest disappointment with the TB display is the lack of an internal SATA bay. It seems silly to hang a Thunderbolt EHD off of a TB display so your MacBook Air has access to extended storage when docked.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Refurbished Thunderbolt displays are $849 on the Apple Store. My greatest disappointment with the TB display is the lack of an internal SATA bay. It seems silly to hang a Thunderbolt EHD off of a TB display so your MacBook Air has access to extended storage when docked.

Since there is no way I can get a thunderbolt display, that isn't a problem, but good point. Those monitors are crazy expensive.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Something I notice about Thunderbolt - never seen this before on any device -- the cable's electronics wrapped in plastic gets seriously warm. Oh, not painfully so, but unlike any other connector I have seen. And the Seagate drive, if in use for a while is a little toaster as well.

But I don't use it constantly and only mount it when I need to, as otherwise when sitting on my recliner with my Air, I have a power cable on my left side, and a thunderbolt on my right and I am blocked in.