Computer running hot in target disk mode

[alphaod]

I never really used target disk extensively, but now with Thunderbolt I've been using it quite a bit. It's a lot faster to use TDM to transfer, say 300GB at a time, between two computers than through gigabit or any other medium.

Right now the fan is spinning up and the heat produced is like I'm encoding videos. Power draw is also very high. This happens every time.

Is this normal?

 

[Intell]

That's normal when using Thunderbolt for Target Disk Mode. The CPU needs to be active to work between the SATA chip and the Thunderbolt chip. Unlike FireWire Target Disk Mode when the FireWire chip handled all of the data and the CPU could cycle down.

 

[Dark Void]

Data Transfer can be quite intensive, I would say that it is normal.

 

[alphaod]

That's normal when using Thunderbolt for Target Disk Mode. The CPU needs to be active to work between the SATA chip and the Thunderbolt chip. Unlike FireWire Target Disk Mode when the FireWire chip handled all of the data and the CPU could cycle down.

I guess Thunderbolt has the same limitations as USB; requiring host processing.