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External thunderbolt recommendations

A

applebutter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 30, 2014
29
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I want to buy a decent External thunderbolt enclosure as a windows no boot camp drive. Ideally I would like to do it as inexpensive as possible, but not so cheap as to end up with potential problems down the road.

I have a Samsung 830 512gb that is in a usb 3 case. I don't think that thunderbolt would be much faster, but trim and possible firmware updates would be nice.

I may want to upgrade to a newer drive in the future, but for now the 830 does what I want it to do.

Thanks
 
Thunderbolt will be less of a hassle than usb3 (spontaneous ejects, improper ejects). If you already have the ssd, circa $150 will get you a bus driven Thunderbolt drive (OWC at $159, there's probably others).

I had the OWC enclosure, not as small as many 2.5" enclosures, built like a brick, for an OS with tons of small files, should run circles around usb3.
 
Can the bus powered enclosure run the bigger (500& up) ssd? I'm thinking about doing that myself if I can find a decent enclosure with the tbolt pass-through.
 
Drewski said:
Can the bus powered enclosure run the bigger (500& up) ssd? I'm thinking about doing that myself if I can find a decent enclosure with the tbolt pass-through.
Click to expand...

I've got one of the OWC bus-powered TB enclosures with a 480GB Intel 730 SSD, so it should work with 500GB at least...
 
thedeske said:
Too bad they don't offer a bare case version.
Click to expand...


I'd recommend checking out MacMall. They have a LaCie rugged thunderbolt drive with a 1tb HDD in it fork $89. I ordered on Thursday evening, and I just received it. They are labeled on the MacMall site as "refurb", but mine had the original plastic on it.

The LaCie rugged can easily be disassembled (the same way the OWC one is... by 4 phillips head screws) and an SSD can be inserted.

I have just done this for my 2013 iMac, and I am now using the LaCie with a Samsung 850 EVO SSD inside as the boot drive. My computer is SOOOOOOO much faster.

Definitely worth it, and the LaCie will save you a considerable amount of money over the OWC setup.

FYI: the LaCie 1 tb thunderbolt case from MacMall ($89) also comes with the original directions, a USB cable, and a Thunderbolt cable.

PLUS the LaCie case is made of metal that matches the iMac / Macbook aluminum. The OWC case is plastic, and I personally think it looks tacky. Some individuals enjoy seeing the inside of the drive, but I personally prefer a clean, aluminum look.
 
triple-tap said:
I'd recommend checking out MacMall. They have a LaCie rugged thunderbolt drive with a 1tb HDD in it fork $89. I ordered on Thursday evening, and I just received it. They are labeled on the MacMall site as "refurb", but mine had the original plastic on it.

The LaCie rugged can easily be disassembled (the same way the OWC one is... by 4 phillips head screws) and an SSD can be inserted.

I have just done this for my 2013 iMac, and I am now using the LaCie with a Samsung 850 EVO SSD inside as the boot drive. My computer is SOOOOOOO much faster.

Definitely worth it, and the LaCie will save you a considerable amount of money over the OWC setup.

FYI: the LaCie 1 tb thunderbolt case from MacMall ($89) also comes with the original directions, a USB cable, and a Thunderbolt cable.

PLUS the LaCie case is made of metal that matches the iMac / Macbook aluminum. The OWC case is plastic, and I personally think it looks tacky. Some individuals enjoy seeing the inside of the drive, but I personally prefer a clean, aluminum look.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Didn't know you could get one so cheap. I hate lacie, but that's tempting.
 
Sanlitun said:
Does anyone have any opinion on the Startech Dual Bay enclosure?

http://www.ncix.com/detail/startech-thunderbolt-dual-bay-2-5-1c-98931.htm

I may go this route as we have two leftover 2.5 inch drives here. Seems pretty expensive for just the enclosure though.
Click to expand...

It's based on the Akitio Neutrino Thunder Duo enclosure and I have two of them, the fans in them are too tiny to keep the drives cool enough and the fan on one of the enclosures failed (which I am getting replaced)

I would not recommend them.
 
triple-tap said:
I'd recommend checking out MacMall. They have a LaCie rugged thunderbolt drive with a 1tb HDD in it fork $89. I ordered on Thursday evening, and I just received it. They are labeled on the MacMall site as "refurb", but mine had the original plastic on it.

The LaCie rugged can easily be disassembled (the same way the OWC one is... by 4 phillips head screws) and an SSD can be inserted.

I have just done this for my 2013 iMac, and I am now using the LaCie with a Samsung 850 EVO SSD inside as the boot drive. My computer is SOOOOOOO much faster.

Definitely worth it, and the LaCie will save you a considerable amount of money over the OWC setup.

FYI: the LaCie 1 tb thunderbolt case from MacMall ($89) also comes with the original directions, a USB cable, and a Thunderbolt cable.

PLUS the LaCie case is made of metal that matches the iMac / Macbook aluminum. The OWC case is plastic, and I personally think it looks tacky. Some individuals enjoy seeing the inside of the drive, but I personally prefer a clean, aluminum look.
Click to expand...

I just ordered one!
 
Last edited:
applebutter said:
I just ordered one!
Click to expand...

Good call. The Orange ring/bumper comes off easy enough. Be sure to post your results when you receive. It. I have a feeling that quite a few people will be looking for this option in the coming months as the benefits of SSD's continue to be realized and the concerns with early SSD's are put to rest.
 
Thanks for the heads-up; that is a great deal. Keep in mind though, that there is only one TB port, so this one is end-of-chain only; no pass through here. I'm currently using both TB ports on my 2011 imac (one for second display, one for the Kanex TB>USB3 adapter>USB3 Hub. AFAIK, the cheapest pass through solution is the Seagate STAE129 Thunderbolt Desktop adapter at $119 for the bare adapter. You still have to supply the drive.

triple-tap said:
I'd recommend checking out MacMall. They have a LaCie rugged thunderbolt drive with a 1tb HDD in it fork $89. I ordered on Thursday evening, and I just received it. They are labeled on the MacMall site as "refurb", but mine had the original plastic on it.

The LaCie rugged can easily be disassembled (the same way the OWC one is... by 4 phillips head screws) and an SSD can be inserted.

I have just done this for my 2013 iMac, and I am now using the LaCie with a Samsung 850 EVO SSD inside as the boot drive. My computer is SOOOOOOO much faster.

Definitely worth it, and the LaCie will save you a considerable amount of money over the OWC setup.

FYI: the LaCie 1 tb thunderbolt case from MacMall ($89) also comes with the original directions, a USB cable, and a Thunderbolt cable.

PLUS the LaCie case is made of metal that matches the iMac / Macbook aluminum. The OWC case is plastic, and I personally think it looks tacky. Some individuals enjoy seeing the inside of the drive, but I personally prefer a clean, aluminum look.
Click to expand...
 
I'd love to utilize this SSD option for my slow 2011 iMac. However, I have recently upgraded to Yosemite. I'm assuming that this precludes the use of this option unless I undo the TRIM function on the SSD drive.
 
I just found a potential new source for the Delock 42490/42510 Thunderbolt enclosure in the US now that they've sold out on Amazon:

http://www.mfactors.com/delock-products/

I haven't personally dealt with them though. The Delock is aluminum and AC powered. Like the Lacie, it lacks a pass through TB port so it is also the end of the line for your TB devices. I've had a great experience with the device in the 11 months I've been booting OS X and Bootcamp from it.

foto-max said:
I'd love to utilize this SSD option for my slow 2011 iMac. However, I have recently upgraded to Yosemite. I'm assuming that this precludes the use of this option unless I undo the TRIM function on the SSD drive.
Click to expand...

TRIM still works in Yosemite if you disable KEXT signing and remember to disable it before resetting PRAM, and/or running OS updates. I use Cindori's Trim Enabler but Chameleon SSD Optimizer works as well.
 
Drewski said:
Can the bus powered enclosure run the bigger (500& up) ssd? I'm thinking about doing that myself if I can find a decent enclosure with the tbolt pass-through.
Click to expand...

I ran a crucial MX-100 500gb drive with it. Worked fine.
 
Ray2 said:
I ran a crucial MX-100 500gb drive with it. Worked fine.
Click to expand...

I just saw an ad from Newegg for the 512gb mx100 for $179. Throw a $15 USB enclosure into the mix, and I'll have a bootable 512gb TBolt SSD and a 1TB USB spinner for $285. Done and done.

I did say my two Tbolt ports were occupied, but I don't really need the second monitor hooked up to the Mac.. Only used it for movies anyway. Should be booting up fast by Thursday. :)
 
Last edited:
matreya said:
The fans on the dual-bay enclosures are tiny and don't push enough air, then they burn out :/

I'm waiting on Akitio to send me a replacement fan atm.
Click to expand...

If you use two ssd drives are the fans even necessary? I like the idea of fan-less cases if they will work.
 
Richdmoore said:
If you use two ssd drives are the fans even necessary? I like the idea of fan-less cases if they will work.
Click to expand...

I'm using SSDs, and they get hot without a fan... in the range of 48 to 53° C... with a proper fan (like in the Thunderbay 4 mini) they operate at 30°C.
 
ColdCase said:
SSDs may get warmer when writing, they stay cool when reading.
Click to expand...

Well, even when the SSDs I use (Samsung 840 EVO & Intel 730) are written to for a couple of minutes every hour, they remain hot unless the enclosure they're in has a fan. When the fan died out on the aforementioned Akitio enclosure, the case was hot to touch, and the SSD temps were just under 50° C.
 
For now rather than buying a TB2 enclosure I am thinking about one of the Angelbird USB3 512 SSD drives.

It's going to be faster than any mechanical drive set up, and it is currently on sale:

http://www.ncix.com/detail/angelbird-ssd2go-pocket-usb3-5gb-s-8e-100289-1360.htm

After reading a few reviews I think that the only unit I think I am interested in is a bare OWC Thunderbay 4.

Really I am still undecided, but these look interesting.
 
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