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Do you use your Thunderbolt ports and if you do, for what?

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
5,632
2,347
USA
I have a 13" retina. I use the USB ports, HDMI port, and headphone jack regularly.

I never use the thunderbolt ports. I'll probably end up using the SD card slot before the thunderbolt ports.

What do you use them for?
 
Hieveryone said:
I have a 13" retina. I use the USB ports, HDMI port, and headphone jack regularly.

I never use the thunderbolt ports. I'll probably end up using the SD card slot before the thunderbolt ports.

What do you use them for?
Click to expand...

I have several Thunderbolt peripherals at home (Promise Pegasus R6 12TB RAID array, Buffalo HD-PATU3 Thunderbolt 1TB HDD, Seagate GoFlex adaptor for connecting SATA3 drives to my Mac via TB, LaCie Rugged SSD with a 250GB 840 Evo in it, Caldigit TB dock for expansion).

I use them because I do heavy video editing and photography, so I need the speed.

I could have just put the 250GB 840 Evo in a USB 3 enclosure, but TRIM wouldn't work over USB (it works over TB). Besides, I carry it with me all the time.
 
Hieveryone said:
I'm guessing you have the thunderbolt display? I'm not sure if there are other monitors that have thunderbolt. I have a Dell monitor and have a DVI to HDMI cable I use.
Click to expand...

One does not need an Apple Thunderbolt Display to use the TB ports, one can also just use a DisplayPort or Mini DisplayPort or DVI or HDMI or VGA display with that.
 
Hieveryone said:
I'm guessing you have the thunderbolt display? I'm not sure if there are other monitors that have thunderbolt. I have a Dell monitor and have a DVI to HDMI cable I use.
Click to expand...

I have two HDMI monitors, one I connect straight to the HDMI port on my rMBP and the other I connect to one of my Thunderbolt ports with a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter.
 
On my rMBP I use it for the ethernet adapter, so I won't waste a USB port.

Nothing overly exciting.
 
I have a CalDigit expansion port attached to give me USB 3 and my ACD is also attached. Only connections to my clamshelled MBP are power and thunderbolt so I can disconnect quickly.
 
Certainly do use a lot.
Thunderbolt Display.
Various Thunderbolt Drives for backup and extra storage.
UA Apollo audio interface (Thunderbolt option card added).
Sonnet Echo Express Pcie Chassis.
 
yjchua95 said:
I have several Thunderbolt peripherals at home ..... LaCie Rugged SSD with a 250GB 840 Evo in it.

I could have just put the 250GB 840 Evo in a USB 3 enclosure, but TRIM wouldn't work over USB (it works over TB). Besides, I carry it with me all the time.
Click to expand...

1) Are you sure about TRIM working on external TB enclosures? Does this work with any external TB enclosure?

2) The LaCie Rugged comes with a drive in it. Did you buy it and swap the drives? Isn't that very expensive? LaCie should offer case only so you can use your own drive.
 
Last edited:
whitedragon101 said:
1) Are you sure about TRIM working on external TB enclosures? Does this work with any external TB enclosure?

2) The LaCie Rugged comes with a drive in it. Did you buy it and swap the drives? Isn't that a very expensive? LaCie should offer case only so you can use your own drive.
Click to expand...

1. Yes, TRIM works via TB - be it a GoFlex, HD-PATU3, LaCie Rugged....etc.
2. Yup I swapped the drive with my own 840 Evo. It's costly, but worth it because I need the speed :)
 
TB is used 24/7 at our house. It connects from our rMBPs to our ATDs. TB connects from our ATDs to our LaCie 2Big 6TB drives.

Can't image a modern Mac ecosystem without TB. ;)
 
Always.

When I'm at work, one TB port is used with an external HD and FW800 adapter and the other one is used with an ethernet adapter.

When I'm at home, they're both occupied by DVI adapters for monitors.

I'd kind of like to get a thunderbolt display at home to simplify things but I'll probably wait til the next generation comes out.
 
Hieveryone said:
I'm guessing you have the thunderbolt display? I'm not sure if there are other monitors that have thunderbolt. I have a Dell monitor and have a DVI to HDMI cable I use.
Click to expand...
I have a 15 rMBP + Thunderbolt display at work.

What I love the most about Thunderbolt is that one cable connects all of these devices to my notebook:
monitor
ethernet
speakers
video camera
LaCie TB drive
USB security token

I'm constantly coming and going from my desk during the day and really like being able to quickly connect/disconnect those devices using one cable.

If I didn't have a TB display, then I'd def. have one of the TB docking stations out there.
 
Thunderbolt Ports Usage

Have an iMac 27 and a Macbook Pro Retina 15 both have two TB ports which i regularly use to hook up two external monitors so i can have a three monitor setup. very handy. more productive.
 
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