Do I need Thunderbolt 2 for a HDD Enclosure and 2560x1440 Display?

[Sirc]

I just bought my 5k iMac and I'm looking at getting a 2 bay Thudnerbolt enclosure to put a BootCamp SSD and a storage HDD in.

Currently I am using a 2560x1440 display on that port, but with an SATA 3 SSD and the display will I have any need to buy a Thunderbolt 2 enclosure or will I be ok with "plain old" Thunderbolt 1?

I don't do any video editing, and the main reason for the drives will be to boot to Windows for 1 or 2 games and Time Machine backup. From what I've read is Thunderbolt 2 is mainly for editing 4k video and driving a display, which I will never do.

I haven't been able to find a 2 bay Thunderbolt 2 enclosure and I will never need a 4 bay one, so I'd rather save the money if possible. Will I have any issues with just a Thunderbolt 1 enclosure?

 

[jdphoto]

You should be fine the Thunderbolt 1 enclosure. I have a Late 2013 iMac and am powering a Thunderbolt Display & Thunderbolt 1 RAID array through the same Thunderbolt port (iMac -> HD Array -> Screen). I get great speed off the array (greater than 300MB/s) and the display works beautifully.

 

[Sirc]

So I picked up an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual and installed a SATA 3 SSD in it with a 1TB WD Green drive.

I'm also getting speeds around 300MB/sec. The Thunderbolt enclosures are rated up to around 500MB/sec for single drive, I understand there's some overhead but only 300MB/sec seems low doesn't it?

 

[matreya]

So I picked up an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual and installed a SATA 3 SSD in it with a 1TB WD Green drive.

I'm also getting speeds around 300MB/sec. The Thunderbolt enclosures are rated up to around 500MB/sec for single drive, I understand there's some overhead but only 300MB/sec seems low doesn't it?

On this page http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/External-Drive/OWC/Elite-Dual-RAID

it quotes speeds up to 442MB/sec, which would be the maximum speed of two SSDs in RAID 0... these enclosures are not as fast as the Thunderbay 4s.

 

[Sirc]

That's unfortunate considering the store I bought it from listed performance up to 1250MB/sec over Thunderbolt, which I would think is RAID 0.

Perhaps I should contact them and OWC for clarification.

 

[matreya]

That's unfortunate considering the store I bought it from listed performance up to 1250MB/sec over Thunderbolt, which I would think is RAID 0.

Perhaps I should contact them and OWC for clarification.

1250MB/sec is the THEORETICAL maximum of Thunderbolt, it's the same as hard drive manufacturers quoting 6 Gbps maximum when hard drives can't get anywhere near that fast.