So i was thinking about having the thunderbolt display with my mac mini. However, my mac mini only have 1 thunderbolt plug just for the thunderbolt display, and same way for the display. What was apple thinking about having more than 1 plug?
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How am i supposed to have an external thunderbolt hdd with just 1 thunderbolt plug?
- Thread starter aziatiklover
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So my thunderbolt hdd will have to be plug into the usb from the mac mini or thunderbolt display? Im a bit confused. To get the speeds dont we need to be plug into the exact plug that is meant to be such as thunderbolt.
I think you are confused about the underlined portion of your post. The TBD has two TB ports. One is hard wired male connector to connect to your mini... and the 2nd is a female TB port on the back of the monitor.
Yes... your mini only has a single TB port... but you can daisy chain devices through your TBD.
/Jim
So from what i understand from your view is my mac mini TD>TD display> USB 2.0 from TD display will most likely have TD speed?! Is that how apple wants it to be?
No.
If you plug the drive in using one of the USB 2.0 ports on the thunderbolt display it will have USB 2.0 speeds.
If you plug it in using the thunderbolt port on the thunderbolt display it will have thunderbolt speeds.
Ok so pretty much if i use the Thunderbolt port from my mac mini to the Thunderbolt display i have no extra port for a Thunderboltd external hdd.
im guessing extra thunderbold ports will cost apple a lot more 
Ok so pretty much if i use the Thunderbolt port from my mac mini to the Thunderbolt display i have no extra port for a Thunderboltd external hdd.
Plug the thunderbolt HDD into the display via thunderbolt!!
Wat about the mac mini then? Since the thunderbolt display only have thunderbolt port and no hdmi rite?
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Mac mini | <- Thunderbolt Cable from display -> | Display | <- Thunderbolt Cable from HDD -> | HDD |
Why would you plug a Thunderbolt HDD into USB 2.0 when there's a Thunderbolt port on the display???
----------
What?
You daisy chain them.
The Thunderbolt Display plugs into the Mac mini's Thunderbolt port and the Thunderbolt HDD plugs into the Thunderbolt Display's Thunderbolt port.
Then you can plug another Thunderbolt device into the Thunderbolt HDD's Thunderbolt port and so on for up to 6 devices.
Thunderbolt.
Why would you plug a Thunderbolt HDD into USB 2.0 when there's a Thunderbolt port on the display???
----------
What?
You daisy chain them.
The Thunderbolt Display plugs into the Mac mini's Thunderbolt port and the Thunderbolt HDD plugs into the Thunderbolt Display's Thunderbolt port.
Then you can plug another Thunderbolt device into the Thunderbolt HDD's Thunderbolt port and so on for up to 6 devices.
Thunderbolt.
But how? I only see 1 thunderbolt port on my mac mini and the thunderbolt display! How i see it is my mac mini thunderboltd cable into the thunderboltd display port then im out of thunderbotld port rite? Unless the thunderboltd cable is split in 2?! Or using a thunderboltd hub?!
Ahhh. I think I see where the confusion is coming from. I was reading this thread on the dunny and I just had to run over here and remedy the situation!
So here goes, as other posters have pointed out, there is a cable coming from the lower middle back of the display which has the magsafe and thunderbolt cable ends on it. That end you plug into your machine. There is also another port (female) on the back lower left of the display where the other ports are. That is there you plug in your Thunderbolt Hard drive.
Capiche?
What?!?
I think you're confusing yourself.
You plug the display into the mini. This fills the port on the mini but leaves the port on the display empty. You plug the HDD into the empty port on the display.
Awesome thanx guys. I always thought i had to plug the thunderbolt cable into both ports mac mini and thunderbolt display. Since i didn't know it has an extra cable with magsafe. I thought that cable was just for mbp and mba.Btw wat about the ethernet port? Should i plug my ethernet cable into the thunderbolt display or straight to the mac mini?
Personally... I would plug the ethernet cable into the mini, since it is fixed setup. OTOH... if I was using a laptop, then I would plug the ethernet cable into the ATD so that the notebook could be disconnected with just the TB & magsafe cables.
/Jim
Here is the simple fact: Thunderbolt is PCIe.
It's that simple.
Now, there exist PCIe cards for Ethernet, graphics, drives and so forth. You name it, and there's a PCI[e] card for it.
So, imagine that the ports on the back of the display are directly attached to a PCIe card in your Mac. They will run at fully native speed and operate precisely the same.
Now, the only thing that would be sacrificed is if you clog the throughput. Gigabit ethernet will use a maximum of 1GB/s up and down. USB will consume a max of 480MB/s, FireWire is 800MB/s and so forth.
So it would be difficult to max out the throughput with these interfaces, but add a few FireWire or Thunderbolt hard drives and such and it would become, at that point, beneficial for you to use the Mac's internal Ethernet port instead. In any other case, you wouldn't notice a difference at all.
Summation: All of the ports on the Display should be treated as equal to the onboard ports of your Mini, so long as you're not using many high-throughput devices.
</thread>
<threadjack>
So who's waiting for the day when we only need a single port on our Apple portables? I mean, PCIe is so versatile there's almost nothing that can't be accomplished with it. If there are ThunderBolt hubs, I would never need another port again.
MagSafe, Thunderbolt, SD/Express Card (why the hell not)... that's all!
I know Apple made a mistake by assuming the same with USB when they made the iBook, but Thunderbolt is so much more capable and chain-able.
It's that simple.
Now, there exist PCIe cards for Ethernet, graphics, drives and so forth. You name it, and there's a PCI[e] card for it.
So, imagine that the ports on the back of the display are directly attached to a PCIe card in your Mac. They will run at fully native speed and operate precisely the same.
Now, the only thing that would be sacrificed is if you clog the throughput. Gigabit ethernet will use a maximum of 1GB/s up and down. USB will consume a max of 480MB/s, FireWire is 800MB/s and so forth.
So it would be difficult to max out the throughput with these interfaces, but add a few FireWire or Thunderbolt hard drives and such and it would become, at that point, beneficial for you to use the Mac's internal Ethernet port instead. In any other case, you wouldn't notice a difference at all.
Summation: All of the ports on the Display should be treated as equal to the onboard ports of your Mini, so long as you're not using many high-throughput devices.
</thread>
<threadjack>
So who's waiting for the day when we only need a single port on our Apple portables? I mean, PCIe is so versatile there's almost nothing that can't be accomplished with it. If there are ThunderBolt hubs, I would never need another port again.
MagSafe, Thunderbolt, SD/Express Card (why the hell not)... that's all!
I know Apple made a mistake by assuming the same with USB when they made the iBook, but Thunderbolt is so much more capable and chain-able.
