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Thunderbolt is a technology, that doesn't mean that every enclosure that implements it will use its full potential. Thunderbolt as a technology has potential to be very fast since it got more bandwidth. Obviously Seagate did a bad job or the people who posted the speedtests used a slower SSD.

And can you read? I posted that in all speedtests I've seen of the Seagate TB, it has been slower than some USB3 enclosures. This means that I HAVE seen tests of it.

But just compare it yourself if you don't believe me. Check out Firmtek USB3 vs Seagate TB. Or perhaps you're the one trying to defend your TB setup...

Would you please post your Speed Test results using the Firmtek USB3 enclosure? What SSD are you using with that enclosure to achieve your results?

Thanks....
 
I don't have a TB setup. Maybe it's you that's the issue not the ones who provided the test results in this forum. Likely.

Anyhow, Thanks to those who actually provided test results showing the Seagate is in fact, NOT slow, but quite fast. Tanax can watch jesus on his toast .

Shenan1982: I don't think Tanax is stating TB is slow. What he is pointing out is what most of us that have tested multiple enclosures (like myself) are seeing. Which is such a wide range of performance from the same SSD in different enclosures. This does not mean its slow at all. For instance I had the Seagate adapters both the desktop and goflex and my results with an 840 Pro, 840 non-pro and OCZ Vector are around what the benchmarks on this thread show. But, on a OWC Helios + PCIe card the Vector and 840 Pro performed markedly faster in terms of the MB/s times:

830 Pro 128GB
Seagate (either adapter): 349 / 384
Helios + PCIe: 380 / 477

OCZ Vector 512GB
Seagate (either adapter): 352 /368
Helios + PCIe: 408 / 478

So, implementation of the product is key. The speed is still way faster than HDD on all the adapters. The issue for me is that if I am shelling out $$$ for the top speed SSD's and then for enclosures, I want the max performance I can get for my dollar.

Which is why I like the J4 as its looking to give similar performance to the Helios but allows for multiple drives. Just need someone to verify 4 + 512GB or larger SSD's working in that puppy before I bite.

Edit: Last in terms of USB3 being faster than TB, I haven't seen that on the adapters I have tried but, who knows. USB3 has been around a while and most of the kinks worked out of it. TB is still young but, has very high potential as manufacturers get used to working with it... to each their own.
 
I don't have a TB setup. Maybe it's you that's the issue not the ones who provided the test results in this forum. Likely.

Anyhow, Thanks to those who actually provided test results showing the Seagate is in fact, NOT slow, but quite fast. Tanax can watch jesus on his toast .

No thanks, I don't believe in Jesus and all that crap.

Would you please post your Speed Test results using the Firmtek USB3 enclosure? What SSD are you using with that enclosure to achieve your results?

Thanks....

Here you go: http://barefeats.com/hard161.html
Seems they were using the Samsung 840 Pro.

And here's the Thermaltake Silver River: http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.se/2012/10/blacx-5g-usb-30-update-fastest-usb-30.html
Seems he was using the Samsung 830.

Both of those tests show faster performance with USB3 than the speedtests from the Seagate TB by both you and others I've seen on Macrumors.

But it's true that USB3 is more CPU-heavy so for those who really use their CPU to the full extent, a USB3 boot-drive is probably not a good idea.

----------

Shenan1982: I don't think Tanax is stating TB is slow. What he is pointing out is what most of us that have tested multiple enclosures (like myself) are seeing. Which is such a wide range of performance from the same SSD in different enclosures. This does not mean its slow at all. For instance I had the Seagate adapters both the desktop and goflex and my results with an 840 Pro, 840 non-pro and OCZ Vector are around what the benchmarks on this thread show. But, on a OWC Helios + PCIe card the Vector and 840 Pro performed markedly faster in terms of the MB/s times:

830 Pro 128GB
Seagate (either adapter): 349 / 384
Helios + PCIe: 380 / 477

OCZ Vector 512GB
Seagate (either adapter): 352 /368
Helios + PCIe: 408 / 478

So, implementation of the product is key. The speed is still way faster than HDD on all the adapters. The issue for me is that if I am shelling out $$$ for the top speed SSD's and then for enclosures, I want the max performance I can get for my dollar.

Which is why I like the J4 as its looking to give similar performance to the Helios but allows for multiple drives. Just need someone to verify 4 + 512GB or larger SSD's working in that puppy before I bite.

Thank you! Someone that is actually reading what I write and understanding it. You hit it spot on. Implementation is key!
 
No thanks, I don't believe in Jesus and all that crap.



Here you go: http://barefeats.com/hard161.html
Seems they were using the Samsung 840 Pro.

And here's the Thermaltake Silver River: http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.se/2012/10/blacx-5g-usb-30-update-fastest-usb-30.html
Seems he was using the Samsung 830.

Both of those tests show faster performance with USB3 than the speedtests from the Seagate TB by both you and others I've seen on Macrumors.

But it's true that USB3 is more CPU-heavy so for those who really use their CPU to the full extent, a USB3 boot-drive is probably not a good idea.

I love how you compare a review of one product to a marketing claim from another, lol
 
No thanks, I don't believe in Jesus and all that crap.



Here you go: http://barefeats.com/hard161.html
Seems they were using the Samsung 840 Pro.

And here's the Thermaltake Silver River: http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.se/2012/10/blacx-5g-usb-30-update-fastest-usb-30.html
Seems he was using the Samsung 830.

Both of those tests show faster performance with USB3 than the speedtests from the Seagate TB by both you and others I've seen on Macrumors.

But it's true that USB3 is more CPU-heavy so for those who really use their CPU to the full extent, a USB3 boot-drive is probably not a good idea.

----------




Thank you! Someone that is actually reading what I write and understanding it. You hit it spot on. Implementation is key!

I can get markably different test results with the same setup, but using different test programs and test parameters. This is why I asked for your test results of your FirmTek "miniSwap/U3" enclosure using the same BlackMagicDesign test program (free) as is widely used on this forum for comparison purposes. The BlackMagicDesign is probably not the best test program for SSDs, but it is free from the App Store and provides a common base for all of us to compare "real-world" results between setups.

If you would be so kind as to post your results it would make comparing this enclosure to others here much more valid.

Thanks...
 
I can get markably different test results with the same setup, but using different test programs and test parameters. This is why I asked for your test results of your FirmTek "miniSwap/U3" enclosure using the same BlackMagicDesign test program (free) as is widely used on this forum for comparison purposes. The BlackMagicDesign is probably not the best test program for SSDs, but it is free from the App Store and provides a common base for all of us to compare "real-world" results between setups.

If you would be so kind as to post your results it would make comparing this enclosure to others here much more valid.

Thanks...

He has said several times he doesn't have a thunderbolt drive nor enclosure nor thunderbolt setup of any kind. That's why it's completely baffling me as to why he's even involved as if he has any first-hand experience. He's only quoted one test result from one drive someone else did, and then he linked to the USB drive's website to show it's marketing claims. LOL
 
I can get markably different test results with the same setup, but using different test programs and test parameters. This is why I asked for your test results of your FirmTek "miniSwap/U3" enclosure using the same BlackMagicDesign test program (free) as is widely used on this forum for comparison purposes. The BlackMagicDesign is probably not the best test program for SSDs, but it is free from the App Store and provides a common base for all of us to compare "real-world" results between setups.

If you would be so kind as to post your results it would make comparing this enclosure to others here much more valid.

Thanks...

So.. if I post that I did the test and achieved the same results as those in the links I provided, it would make it more "valid"? I could even mock up a fake screenshot in Photoshop. IMO the reviews are much more valid than what some random username on a forum says that they got.

But no, like shenan said I have not got either a TB nor a USB3 setup. So if reviews on other sites are not valid enough, don't bother replying to this as further discussion would be quite pointless :)

For the record though, the second review I posted(the Thermaltake Silver River), he did a "real world" test by copying a file. Check out the end of his blogpost.
 
So.. if I post that I did the test and achieved the same results as those in the links I provided, it would make it more "valid"? I could even mock up a fake screenshot in Photoshop. IMO the reviews are much more valid than what some random username on a forum says that they got.

But no, like shenan said I have not got either a TB nor a USB3 setup. So if reviews on other sites are not valid enough, don't bother replying to this as further discussion would be quite pointless :)

For the record though, the second review I posted(the Thermaltake Silver River), he did a "real world" test by copying a file. Check out the end of his blogpost.

So why did you take such a strong position if you don't have any first hand experience, and admittedly the test you posted provides evidence that the seagate thunderbolt is very fast? Makes absolutely no sense, you just discredited everything you've said thus far.
 
I think a good firmware and chipset in the TB or USB 3 enclosure is the key. This will improve in the next month, I hope.
Both are fast now compared to HDD`s but TB is a little bit expensive.

Here we see that the firmware is making USB faster than TB:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1510842/

hfg you asked for some benchmarks:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1483374/

I hope we will see soon some TB enclosure that use the hole speed of TB. Like we can see here from the Promise Pegasus J2, I know it is not a encloser, but it shows what is possible with TB.
http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3537/3/promise-pegasus-j2-superfast-external-mini-storage-performance-black-magic-speed-test
 
I think a good firmware and chipset in the TB or USB 3 enclosure is the key. This will improve in the next month, I hope.
Both are fast now compared to HDD`s but TB is a little bit expensive.

Here we see that the firmware is making USB faster than TB:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1510842/

hfg you asked for some benchmarks:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1483374/

I hope we will see soon some TB enclosure that use the hole speed of TB. Like we can see here from the Promise Pegasus J2, I know it is not a encloser, but it shows what is possible with TB.
http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3537/3/promise-pegasus-j2-superfast-external-mini-storage-performance-black-magic-speed-test

This. Although I'm sure they will say that the benchmarks are "invalid" somehow :) But yes, you are correct. Firmware is definitely the key here.

In addition to using the full speed of TB, I also hope that there will be some single-drive TB-enclosures that comes diskless.
 
This. Although I'm sure they will say that the benchmarks are "invalid" somehow :) But yes, you are correct. Firmware is definitely the key here.

In addition to using the full speed of TB, I also hope that there will be some single-drive TB-enclosures that comes diskless.

LOL, so now you refer to benchmarks, earlier you were making statements about first hand experience, make up your mind. If you're going to comment about a technology you've never used, it's usually a good idea to say you've never used it prior to making absurd blanket statements.
 
I really don't understand the arguments going on here. It's like people fighting over 3DMark results...

WHO. CARES?

I'm using two Seagate Backup Plus 2.5" (not the GoFlex) with several SSDs. I have a Samsung 830 256GB in one, as my boot drive, which has been working perfectly for three weeks now. Not one issue.

It benches at 365MB/s read, and 325MB/s write. OH NOES IT'S NOT 400MB/s read, and 380MB/s write! How will I ever sleep at night knowing that when I somehow have a giant file to read/write at max velocity, I won't be going higher than my pathetic speeds!

Seriously, people. Who cares? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a SATA III Samsung 830 vs a SATA III Samsung 840 Pro anyway except in benches.
 
I really don't understand the arguments going on here. It's like people fighting over 3DMark results...

WHO. CARES?

I'm using two Seagate Backup Plus 2.5" (not the GoFlex) with several SSDs. I have a Samsung 830 256GB in one, as my boot drive, which has been working perfectly for three weeks now. Not one issue.

It benches at 365MB/s read, and 325MB/s write. OH NOES IT'S NOT 400MB/s read, and 380MB/s write! How will I ever sleep at night knowing that when I somehow have a giant file to read/write at max velocity, I won't be going higher than my pathetic speeds!

Seriously, people. Who cares? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a SATA III Samsung 830 vs a SATA III Samsung 840 Pro anyway except in benches.

Yeah that was my point, he came in and said Seagate was slow, and my response was "No, it's not". . . ???
 
Yeah that was my point, he came in and said Seagate was slow, and my response was "No, it's not". . . ???

Please quote me where I said that it was slow :)
What I said was that it was SLOWER than some of the USB3 enclosures. That's not the same as saying that it is slow.

----------

Surprisingly, all the diskspeed-tests I've seen shows that the Seagate TB is slower than the USB3 Thermaltake enclosure. Perhaps they used a slower SSD but still.. Weird that a TB-enclosure that is more than double the price is slower than a USB3-enclosure.

That Seagate TB has 100mb LESS(!!) in both read and write than the Thermaltake Silver River/Firmtek miniSwap USB3.

Again, the Seagate adaptor is really slow for TB. Maybe it's safer for those who are pushing their CPU's but for regular people who need a fast external SSD, it's really slow.

Above means that it's slow for a TB-device since TB has the potential of being much faster.

What I also said was that the Seagate is slower than some of the USB3 enclosures, such as the Thermaltake and the Firmtek.

The Firmtek USB3 achieves speeds of 500~ which is far faster than the Seagate.

I posted that in all speedtests I've seen of the Seagate TB, it has been slower than some USB3 enclosures.

Yeah that was my point, he came in and said Seagate was slow, and my response was "No, it's not". . . ???

There you go. I quoted pretty much all of my posts regarding the Seagate TB-enclosure in this thread. So please point me where I said that it is SLOW.
 
Please quote me where I said that it was slow :)
What I said was that it was SLOWER than some of the USB3 enclosures. That's not the same as saying that it is slow.

----------







Above means that it's slow for a TB-device since TB has the potential of being much faster.









There you go. I quoted pretty much all of my posts regarding the Seagate TB-enclosure in this thread. So please point me where I said that it is SLOW.

Oh so now you change it. So now it's slow for the technology, not slow compared to the others on the market. I get it, LOL. Funny how you can change your context after you're proven wrong.

I have an Arris cable modem that's utilizes 304Mbps Docsis 3.0. but my cable company uses the technology below it's full potential, only giving me 50mbps. Forget that it's faster than the other comparable internet service providers by almost quadruple, by your logic my internet at 50Mbps is awful and slow.

That's EXACTLY what you've now gone on to say. Oh, and I my car is awful because I drive at 80 mph on the freeway and the engine technology has the ability to go 120mph, I guess either me or my car are a poor product because it's not fully utilizing the technology's potential.

Wow, you flipped and went from sounding like you didn't know what you were talking about to now bringing up an argument (the on-the-market-products not taking 100% advantage of the potential technology) that it's all or nothing. Wow, high class.

You stated that you don't have USB 3 or TB, so you're starting to sound like you have a lot in common with your own technology... SLOW.
 
hfg, I think the power issue is a bit more complex then that. The manufacturer specs are highly idealized, not sure exactly how they came up with such a small number.

Here is some data found in a review of the 840 pro:
Image

As you can see, during a heavy write workload it is quite possible to exceed or near 4W. Some SSDs are better, some are worse, and I think the Samsungs are on the better end of that scale, especially the 840Pro 512GB.

As far as thunderbolt power. I've been searching for exactly where in the standard it has a minimum power. The supply voltage that Thunderbolt provides can be spec'd as anywhere between 3.3V and 18V. It's really "up to 18V" and "up to 550mA" which makes it "up to 10W"? Can the Thunderbolt device specify the voltage and current it requires? And is the host obligated to provide it?

It is quite possible that some of these Thunderbolt HDD solutions request less than 10W, and/or can't dc-dc convert from 18V down to 5V. A quick calculation, if the device requests 5V (not having a dc/dc converter) and the Thunderbolt can only supply up to 550mA, that's 2.75W of available power.

Just a couple thoughts on the topic,
Mark.

Hi Mark,
That was an interesting article ... thanks for posting the link.

There was (is) some confusion regarding the power consumption of the 840 Pro as presented by Samsung:

As SSDs spend much of their time in the idle state, low idle power consumption is a key factor in overall SSD power management. Samsung’s SSD 830 handled power management very well, but Samsung’s published power benchmarks for the 840 Pro, 0.068 watts in active operation and 0.042 watts in idle, were shockingly low. When we asked Samsung how they achieved such mind-bending numbers, they were unable to answer, which makes us think they were chosen to meet the needs of the press release, rather than reflecting real-world values.


Update 9/24/12 - Samsung has responded as to how they got their extremely low power consumption numbers. “The results presented are based on MobileMark 2007 and require DIPM to be enabled. This test is geared towards laptops. If the test was on a desktop machine, DIPM is not enabled by default, and power consumption results will be significantly higher.”


samsung_ssd_840_pro_512gb_power_values.png



HIPM = Host Initiated Link Power Management
DIPM = Device Initiated Link Power Management

Any idea if DIPM is enabled or even available in OS X, or is this just a Windows 7/8 function?

-howard
 
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I never said Thunderbolt is slow. I said that the Seagate TB is slow from all speedtests I've seen on Macrumors. According to the speed that other dude wrote here in this thread, he got read/write of 260/386 or something like that. The Firmtek USB3 achieves speeds of 500~ which is far faster than the Seagate.

I'm curious where you've seen that the Firmtech USB 3 gets ~500MB/sec, particularly since even the Firmtech PR release only claims 440MB/sec, and I'm guessing that their PR claim is at least a wee bit optimistic. Grain of salt, and all that.:D
http://www.prweb.com/releases/FirmTek/MiniSwap-U3/prweb10288002.htm
Additionally, Bare Feats ran some tests and from their results, the fastest USB 3.0 setup was as fast as the slowest TB setup, but about 30% slower than the Seagate GoFlex.
http://www.barefeats.com/hard154.html
I don't have a TB or USB 3.0 SSD yet, but I'm looking, and that's why your claim is interesting.
 
These CalDigit Thunderbolt T1 and T2 enclosures look interesting:

http://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt/t1t2.html

Bootable & Native OS support
Thanks to the zero driver installation requirements, the CalDigit T1 and T2 work right out of the box, featuring the full hot plug support. Also, being a native Mac OSX supported device, your CalDigit drives will never require a driver update, ever. It just works!

CalDigit T1 and T2 also supports OSX bootable. You now have the ability to start up from Thunderbolt™ interface as is possible using FireWire. Mobile workers can use this external bootable T1 drive or T2 RAID to make workstations hot-swappable, allowing the flexibility to shift users to different machines as efficiently as possible. The boot up time is lightening fast with less waiting time on the startup and login screens, allowing you to get a head start on any tasks before anybody else.
 
These CalDigit Thunderbolt T1 and T2 enclosures look interesting:

http://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt/t1t2.html

Bootable & Native OS support
Thanks to the zero driver installation requirements, the CalDigit T1 and T2 work right out of the box, featuring the full hot plug support. Also, being a native Mac OSX supported device, your CalDigit drives will never require a driver update, ever. It just works!

CalDigit T1 and T2 also supports OSX bootable. You now have the ability to start up from Thunderbolt™ interface as is possible using FireWire. Mobile workers can use this external bootable T1 drive or T2 RAID to make workstations hot-swappable, allowing the flexibility to shift users to different machines as efficiently as possible. The boot up time is lightening fast with less waiting time on the startup and login screens, allowing you to get a head start on any tasks before anybody else.

yes they do and if you put these ssds in them


http://www.crucial.com/company/media/releases/pressrelease.aspx?id=D24A603AEFA2B68E


the 960gb is under 600... if the single case above is low cost 85-135 counting cable you could have a 1tb single drive ssd for 700 to 800
 
Hi Mark,

HIPM = Host Initiated Link Power Management
DIPM = Device Initiated Link Power Management

Any idea if DIPM is enabled or even available in OS X, or is this just a Windows 7/8 function?

-howard

I'd be surprised if it wasn't already, that said I haven't found much about DIPM on OS X. I did find this, which references DIPM. The blogger is writing about OWC SSDs, likely used on a Mac in OS X:

Power usage SSD

My bet would be that DIPM would reduce average and standby power, (perhaps by having the "device" micromanage with fine time resolution when it is in sleep mode and when its not), but likely not peak write power.

-Mark
 
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Also the CalDigit enclosures do look nice, but last time I looked at them I found no pricing information, nor any estimated availability date. Also lately it seems like I look for a teardown of anything I am considering purchasing. I doubt we'll see one for the CalDigit T1 or T2 any-time soon.

So I went with the LaCie Rugged TB SSD because it also requires no drivers and you can boot from it (both OS X and Windows and neither requires drivers). The price point isn't too bad either, if you compare to other TB solutions.
 
I'm curious where you've seen that the Firmtech USB 3 gets ~500MB/sec, particularly since even the Firmtech PR release only claims 440MB/sec, and I'm guessing that their PR claim is at least a wee bit optimistic. Grain of salt, and all that.:D
http://www.prweb.com/releases/FirmTek/MiniSwap-U3/prweb10288002.htm
Additionally, Bare Feats ran some tests and from their results, the fastest USB 3.0 setup was as fast as the slowest TB setup, but about 30% slower than the Seagate GoFlex.
http://www.barefeats.com/hard154.html
I don't have a TB or USB 3.0 SSD yet, but I'm looking, and that's why your claim is interesting.

It is perhaps optimistic, we'll see once it's released I guess :)
The Thermaltake Silver River has been released and tested by people here on Macrumors and that is faster than the Seagate TB ^^
 
These CalDigit Thunderbolt T1 and T2 enclosures look interesting:

http://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt/t1t2.html

Bootable & Native OS support
Thanks to the zero driver installation requirements, the CalDigit T1 and T2 work right out of the box, featuring the full hot plug support. Also, being a native Mac OSX supported device, your CalDigit drives will never require a driver update, ever. It just works!

CalDigit T1 and T2 also supports OSX bootable. You now have the ability to start up from Thunderbolt™ interface as is possible using FireWire. Mobile workers can use this external bootable T1 drive or T2 RAID to make workstations hot-swappable, allowing the flexibility to shift users to different machines as efficiently as possible. The boot up time is lightening fast with less waiting time on the startup and login screens, allowing you to get a head start on any tasks before anybody else.

Any bets on how noisy that fan will be in there? I simply don't believe in single-drive solutions with fans. Just a personal thing. I like a quiet workplace, thank you very much!
 
Best option I can find so far is the Drobo Mini, the Promise J4 won't take anything beyond 240GB

The Drobo Mini is not optimized for performance, so you won't be getting the max out of your SSD. It's a great solution for ruggedness if you need to pick up your external storage and take it with you. That is what it was designed for!
 
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