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canuckle

macrumors regular
Dec 18, 2011
137
1
I believe that's the G-RAID? I didn't think they had any other Thunderbolt products. That looks nice but the drive I linked is a single drive, so no RAID.

How is the noise on that G-RAID? Do the drives ever go to sleep? I saw conflicting reports on whether the drives ever powered down when not in use.

I haven't experienced any powering down with mine, and it's nearly silent 99% of the time. You can hear some faint disc activity when it's writing, but it's only about 3 feet from my head an even then I don't notice most of the time.
 

Siderz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 10, 2012
991
6
Here is a link to their page for the drive:

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm

I was gonna suggest the same drive.

I have one myself, but the older one with 2x FireWire 800 ports, 1x eSATA, and 1x USB 2.0.

It's very good, but rather loud on my particular desk. I put up with the noise for just over a year before (Recently) putting foam underneath it and now it's whisper quiet.

I got the foam from the bottom of the brown box that my iMac came in, the foam fits perfectly :p
 

chfilm

macrumors 68040
Nov 15, 2012
3,298
1,984
Berlin
This entire thunderbolt/USB 3 transition is vey exciting I think for someone like me with an entire iMac 2009 infrastructure..
I'm doing lots of video editing and photos and went with a Pegasus r6 from eBay for 900€. Then got a drobo 5D, put the drives from the Pegasus in there and got new 2 TB drives for e Pegasus. Then I sold my 5 external FireWire 800 hard drives and am now thinking if it would be good to invest maybe in one portable that has usb3 and FireWire, just in case that I have to move data somewhere where people haven't adopted yet.. Not sure what to get though. Best would be usb3+Tb but my MacBook is still an old one without both ports.

The Pegasus is so crazy fast though! 700mb/s read is standard.
 

qamaro

macrumors member
Jun 30, 2007
56
0
I've commented on my test with OWC Helios and the OCZ Vector and Samsung 840 Pro before but, I thought I'd provide a quick update.

I basically had always planned on installing the Samsung 840 Pro into my sons '12 Mac Mini so it was perfect to compare straight bus performance vs. TB. Well the after the install I ran Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and my results were exactly the same internally connected and via the Helios (480MB/s READ and 380MB/s WRITE).

So, end result is that the implementation of TB makes a huge difference to the performance. Hopefully the Pegasus J4 will show the same results as it accepts more drives than the 1 or 2 that the Helios will accept (with additional PCIe card that is). RAID is of course faster but, sometimes I like to keep things simple. It definitely is an exciting time as TB becomes more prevalent!

All I know is my RAW, CS6 and Capture One files will be happy off that drive and I can use it while tethered as well (just in case the Fusion drive isn't fast enough to keep up...lol)!
 

Kadath

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 28, 2006
117
1
Thanks for all the input, think I will be going with either the LaCie 2big or the 8tb G-raid. Will let ya know how it goes
 

Kadath

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 28, 2006
117
1
Purchased the 8gb G-raid with Thunderbolt, via B&H. I intend to have other drives on USB 3.0 for backup purchases so figured it was the best way to maximize the port availability even if this drive itself will not fully realize the capabilities of TB.

Would have ordered via Amazon but no Prime vendors for this item, surprisingly.

Also purchased that powered hub via Amazon. Not sure on the quality of that so a little hesitant, but will give it a shot.

Will keep ya posted when they come in.
 

peterpica

macrumors newbie
Oct 29, 2010
2
0
Bensalem, PA
T-Bolt alternatives for new iMacs

USB 3.0 is more than capable of handling the throughput of one or two hard drives, so Thunderbolt wouldn't make any difference other than a bigger hole in your wallet.

I too just bought a new 27" iMac (awaiting delivery) and am looking for a good, fast 1T HD for Time Machine backups. I currently have a WD 1T external but it's noisy and gets very hot and would require a firewire-2-Tbolt adaptor. I'm looking for a quiet drive, and one that will stay on, but spin down when inactive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
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Kadath

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 28, 2006
117
1
Can't help you there, all of my USB 2 drives are clicky-clacky and it really doesn't bother me enough to shop for quieter ones.

My RAID and TB cable are out for delivery, I should have some impressions tonight. That is unless Apple is really serious that I have to sign or pre-sign for my stupid $40 thunderbolt cable. Since I didn't do the pre-sign I may not get it until tomorrow, and I'll be off the computer again this weekend =(
 

ashleypenny

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2012
58
2
2TB for a lrcat sounds a lot, mine's about 1/4 of that and I'm fairly prolific & covers a similar time frame. Do you need to keep all of your previews? Lightroom is pretty bad at cleaning up after itself in that respect - i found the preview data file recently sat at 1.5TB. I deleted this with no repercussions - LR will just build previews again on the fly as you open shoots. Handy, as quite often you may want to have shoots in your library but not necessarily view them regular/at all so no need for the previews (even thumbs) to be stored. Good practice to give it a cleanup every now and then :) Now library sits at about 700mb
 

Kadath

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 28, 2006
117
1
That's the size of my RAW files, not the catalog library database.... I don't build previews until I edit a file.
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
My iMac should be at my home soon. I bought the 3TB Fusion drive and intend to keep my iTunes library on that, tho I may move that to a USB 3.0 external too. But my Lr library for 2004-2012 is hovering around 2TB and I intend to start a fresh library in 2013 on a new drive. I'm not looking for raid solutions, I back up to USB drives and store them off site so I don't need RAID features, I just want a big ass fast disk.

I'm looking at the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Thund...-STCB3000400/dp/B009HPGBNY/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

Seems cool, can plug any SATA drive into that base it seems.

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thunderb...F8&qid=1356023067&sr=1-4&keywords=thunderbolt

Seems cool, can pop dual drives into that enclosure.

http://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-...8&qid=1356023149&sr=1-33&keywords=thunderbolt

Little more pricy, full RAID even if I don't need it.

Any other options I should be considering? All of the Promise enclosures seem to be more than what I need....


Honestly? For true fast access and real-time work, I use a Pegasus R4, shortly to be daisy chained to an R8..yes, they cost, but you do get what you pay for:
 

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Kadath

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 28, 2006
117
1
Well I took a baby step towards that with the G-Raid. 8TB is plenty for me for now. =)

Got screwed on delivery by holiday UPS and B&H being dopes, my tracking page said "paperwork sent in, shipping soon" for 2.5 days and then on the day it was to be delivered it noted "signature required". So I missed it yesterday and then when I tried to get it held at the regional hub they told me that B&H prohibited same day holds, so I had to have it held there today. Going to go pick it up at lunch time and won't get to play with it till after new year's day....
 
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