Hey guys, I've been looking to purchase a thunderbolt external drive to plug in to my rMBP but wanted to get your opinion on which one you guys think is the best one? Anyone have any experience with any specific one? Thanks!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Best thunderbolt external drive?
- Thread starter nolegirl01
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you dont get one with an SSD its just a waste as a HDD cannot utilize the TB speeds.
If thats the case, save the $ and get a USB3 HDD.
If thats the case, save the $ and get a USB3 HDD.
I was looking at the WD My Book Thunderbolt or the Lacie little big disk, I think those have SSD?
Very few do actually. Here are two listed on Apple's site.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/ho...tsConnections=thunderbolt&m.tsStorageType=ssd
The WD doesnt have an SSD inside it, just a traditional HDD.
Wow quite expensive! I think you are right I better stick with a regular HDD with USB 3.0 for now lol
Stick with a 7200RPM USB3 HDD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... 600003484 600003340&IsNodeId=1&name=7200 RPM
I have this one and it works great http://www.amazon.com/HGST-7200RPM-...8&qid=1347854593&sr=8-2&keywords=usb3+7200rpm
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
There is still one use case where thunderbolt + hard disks is better. We have both the LaCie and Seagate GoFlex thunderbolt drives, and you can chain them together and each runs at max throughput simultaneously without performance problems. I doubt most people need that, but the sheer flexibility of pass-through and performance running pairs of external HDs without contention on a single cable is very useful in several cases.
I managed to get a second hand (basically new, 1 month old) WD 6TB thunderbolt for almost half price. Made it worth the money, would be even if it was USB 3.
Also, got a buffalo thunderbolt drive for $150usd from amazon (comes with thunderbolt cable) and switched out the hd for a Samsung 830 ssd. Now using that as a bootcamp windows drive. Not sure if any other thunderbolt drives are really worth the expense for now, but as a boot drive, the buffalo + ssd is awesome.
Also, got a buffalo thunderbolt drive for $150usd from amazon (comes with thunderbolt cable) and switched out the hd for a Samsung 830 ssd. Now using that as a bootcamp windows drive. Not sure if any other thunderbolt drives are really worth the expense for now, but as a boot drive, the buffalo + ssd is awesome.
If you pop open most external drives... all you would do is find a 2.5 Sata HDD
I would swap it with an SSD and format and you good to go
I would swap it with an SSD and format and you good to go
This is intriguing. Do you have a post somewhere with more detail? Seems like a cool option for the occasional boot camp excursion.
I guess best overall....I'm a graphic designer and have a lot of files and animations and kind of needed a big drive to store all my work. I don't necessarily care for portability because I already have a 1TB my passport that I carry around but I was looking for something to leave on my desk in my home office and just plug it in to my laptop when I need it. Just wanted something that is fast and dependable and not too crazy expensive (maybe less than $500), definitely the best value for money. I was attracted to the thunderbolt drives because of how fast they supposedly were...
they are fast, you need them in raid 0 to start to bottleneck the thunderbolt, however they are expensive.
These two threads are great.
First is buffalo and ssd:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1400221/
Second is bootcamp on a thunderbolt drive:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1414769/
If you do stick a ssd in the buffalo, you really need to use a hair dryer to separate the drive. It's easy, just slow.
The Buffalo and OWC Options are shown here.. of course the need of portability is the other question to address..
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/#tbexternaldrives
Obviously, I think, any enclosure that has an SSD will cost at least what the SSD does separately.. That pretty much rules out any 512GB Thunderbolt external being under $500.. as of now at least.. But in time it will of course be available I am sure..
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/#tbexternaldrives
Obviously, I think, any enclosure that has an SSD will cost at least what the SSD does separately.. That pretty much rules out any 512GB Thunderbolt external being under $500.. as of now at least.. But in time it will of course be available I am sure..
I would get the Lacie 2Big. It's very fast for sequential access and good value $/MB. Not as fast as the Promise Pegasus, which I also have, but it's fast enough for most users. I use the 2Big in RAID 1 so the stuff I am working on is automatically backed up. RAID 1 is slower than RAID 0, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make. It comes in RAID 0 by default so be careful, because if one of the drives fails, then all of the data is gone. I use the Lacie to store my raw footage and to save my work in FCP X. The drive is not a bottleneck in this workflow so I don't think it will be for you either.
However, if you have a 2012 Mac with USB 3, then you might want to look at that direction as well.
Both the wife and I hooked up Lacie 2Big 6TB units via Thunderbolt. We run them in RAID 1 for 3TB of duplicated storage. We keep all the large media folders (photos, music, documents, videos) on them. That frees up SSD space for photo collection during trips. I do a complete backup to a 3TB Time Capsule. My wife does Time Machine towards a Seagate 3TB USB 3 drive ($129 at Costco).
Macmall has some great deals on Lacie thunderbolt drives.
http://www.macmall.com/p/LaCie-External-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~9237532~pdp.hhbeafj
http://www.macmall.com/p/LaCie-External-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~9237532~pdp.hhbeafj