Confused re. Thunderbolt accessories

[eladnova]

I read that Thunderbolt technology supports daisy chaining peripherals.
Recently I started looking at TB external drives but most only have a single TB port. How exactly does that support linked devices or do I need a TB hub and starfish devices off that?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Daisy chaining does only work with TB peripherals with two TB ports, but sadly some such peripherals only come with one TB port, thus making it impossible to daisy chain from that device and only use it as last item in a chain or via such hub.
You probably have to look for peripherals with two TB ports in order to circumvent an additional hub.

 

[Moonloop]

Thunderbolt

Western Digital's Thunderbolt Duo range come with 2 TB ports for daisy-chaining
And various 1-8 TB sizes . I keep iTunes and Aperture libraries on there .

M

 

[maflynn]

I read that Thunderbolt technology supports daisy chaining peripherals.
Recently I started looking at TB external drives but most only have a single TB port. How exactly does that support linked devices or do I need a TB hub and starfish devices off that?

As stated, you either need to get (or use) TB devices that have 2 or more ports for daisy chaining or use a hub which are very expensive at the moment.

 

[xraydoc]

As stated, you either need to get (or use) TB devices that have 2 or more ports for daisy chaining or use a hub which are very expensive at the moment.

AFAIK, there is no such thing as a Thunderbolt hub. Unlike a multiport USB hub, you cannot create a multiport TB hub in to which you plug multiple devices. Same deal with FireWire. No such thing as a hub. If the device you've got only has one port, then it has to be at the end of the chain.

 

[g4cube]

RE: no FireWire Hub -- not true

Belkin has had a 6-port FireWire hub for quite some time:
http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F5U526-APL/

You are correct for Thunderbolt, though. Architecture has no provisions for splitters or hubs.

 

[chabig]

Here is a Thunderbolt hub for eSATA drives: http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10574

I have one. It works great. $200.

 

[xraydoc]

Here is a Thunderbolt hub for eSATA drives: http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10574

I have one. It works great. $200.

I have one too. Not the same thing though. We're talking about TB multipliers like a multi-port USB hub. Can't do that with TB.

----------

RE: no FireWire Hub -- not true

Belkin has had a 6-port FireWire hub for quite some time:
http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F5U526-APL/

You are correct for Thunderbolt, though. Architecture has no provisions for splitters or hubs.

Interesting. Never saw that. FW-400 only though.

 

[g4cube]

Interesting. Never saw that. FW-400 only though.

Here you go for FW800, and even more ports!

http://www.amazon.com/NitroAV-8-Port-FireWire-Professional-Repeater/dp/B00506K4NC

 

[xraydoc]

Here you go for FW800, and even more ports!

http://www.amazon.com/NitroAV-8-Port-FireWire-Professional-Repeater/dp/B00506K4NC

Guess I never need one, though I can only imagine the bottleneck if you tried to access data over more than a couple of those ports at the same time. After using an eSATA RAID over the last year, I was amazed at how slow FireWire 800 was on my old iMac after needing to connect a hard drive a couple weeks ago.