Hello , Im looking for a large thunderbolt storage solution for my video and photos....soon I will be getting one of the new full frame DSLR cameras from either Nikon or canon.....d800 or 5D mark iii. I plan on doing 1080p video on it a lot and have up graded my memory on my 2011 imac to 16 gigs....now i need fast storage....this is why im thinking thunder bolt but i like quality and reliability as well cost effective. Any experiences or suggestions would be appreciated.
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Video/photo storage solution
- Thread starter mdturpin
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There really aren't a lot of choices in TB storage right now. And the ones that currently available aren't exactly what I'd consider "cost effective".
LaCie makes a dual-disk solution called the 2big Thunderbolt that currently goes up to 6TB and is RAID 0/1 switchable. Those start at a lofty $649 for 4TB. They also have a Thunderbolt variant of the Little Big Disk, but it's really not a ton of storage for video. And again, expensive (starts at $380 for only 1TB). Western Digital has a few similar products out now as well, at similar price points.
And then there's the Promise Pegasus arrays. They come in 4- or 6-drive configurations (R4 and R6, respectively) and they're expensive (over $1,000 for the 4TB R4). AFAIK, there's no way to buy an R4 or R6 chassis without drives already installed. The notable advantage with the Pegasus stuff is that it'll do the RAID-5/6 configurations that aren't possible on the dual-disk LaCie and WD offerings.
Those are really the only options available at the moment...
speed
Well if i cant seem to get anything thunderbolt yet ......is there any product available with an interface faster than firewire 800 like using ethernet on my IMac that will work like raid but cost effective?
There really aren't a lot of choices in TB storage right now. And the ones that currently available aren't exactly what I'd consider "cost effective".
LaCie makes a dual-disk solution called the 2big Thunderbolt that currently goes up to 6TB and is RAID 0/1 switchable. Those start at a lofty $649 for 4TB. They also have a Thunderbolt variant of the Little Big Disk, but it's really not a ton of storage for video. And again, expensive (starts at $380 for only 1TB). Western Digital has a few similar products out now as well, at similar price points.
And then there's the Promise Pegasus arrays. They come in 4- or 6-drive configurations (R4 and R6, respectively) and they're expensive (over $1,000 for the 4TB R4). AFAIK, there's no way to buy an R4 or R6 chassis without drives already installed. The notable advantage with the Pegasus stuff is that it'll do the RAID-5/6 configurations that aren't possible on the dual-disk LaCie and WD offerings.
Those are really the only options available at the moment...
Well if i cant seem to get anything thunderbolt yet ......is there any product available with an interface faster than firewire 800 like using ethernet on my IMac that will work like raid but cost effective?
Using the Ethernet port probably wouldn't be much faster than FW800.
However, OWC does offer a turnkey upgrade program where they can add an eSATA port to a 2010 or 2011 iMac (you ship the iMac to do them for the upgrade). An eSATA port would give you a lot more flexibility in external storage options for sure.