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First 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 RAID Arrays Now Shipping Ahead of Mac Pro Release

wildmac said:
Do we really have to post a 5-page explanation of the technology and the difference between a Raid-0 system and an NAS everytime one of these stories comes out?

This isn't your basic external HD, or a NAS. Enough said.
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Not 5 pages, but why is a Promise TB setup so much more than a Drobo 5D or Lacie 5Big TB setup.

The Promise 4 bay Diskless is about $10 more than the Drobo 5D, which isn't to bad. Don't know if/how much a Diskless 6 bay is. But I can buy a 15TB (5x3) Drobo 5D for under $1300 but a 8TB Promise (4x2) is $1499. The 18TB Promise (6x3) is $2999. The Lacie 5Big 20TB (5x4) is $2100. Is Promise that much better? Is their Tech better? Do they uses better HDD? Give better service? More reliable? Better warranty?

Why does going from (6x2) to (6x3) cost $600 more when a 3TB Seagate Barracuda cost $30 more (newegg pricing) than a 2TB (180 total). If there using Enterprise class drive (Seagate Constellation), the biggest difference I see is $60 ($360 total). But most of the 2TB and 3TB cost the same price.

I'm looking at getting the R4 diskless and popping in (4) 4TB Seagates for under $1400. Unless I go Drobo. Wish they had the R6 Diskless.
 
Why is the 4 bay the only model sold as diskless? Come on, Promise. You can do better than this.
 
I'm more interested in TB2 multibay 2.5 inch cases for SSD. 7200 rpm hard drives? I'll just get a cheap multibay USB case for that.
 
That's one expensive piece of kit.. !!!

Although the "Pro's" will be able to afford it..... Unfortunately, that's the only ones who can....
 
WOW.

if These are going to be the only real Thunderbolt expansion bays for hard drives, especially for the Mac Pro, there's going to be trouble.

The Mac pro's will cost enough on their own. Factor in if you want any expandible drives, you will be buying somethin glike this!

expect to spend easily another $500+ just to be able to add more drives. Then the cost of the drives themselves!

where are the cheap Thunderbolt products for those who aren't looking to spend super premium dollars.
 
Am I the only one who wonders why the don't offer the 6 and 8 bays diskless? I mean really. I'd love to buy this if I could buy my own HDD but still have them come pre-installed if that person wants to be lazy.

Seriously, you can get the 4 bay for $699 and if I bought 4 3TB for $130 each, I'd be saving money and getting more storage. Really, just charge me for the chassis.
 
barkmonster said:
The fact it isn't SSDs already is a waste of the bandwidth Thunderbolt 2 offers in the first place and not even offering a user expandable version with the top end model is a joke. I've read the arguments about the "theoretical peak" of certain HDDs but put SSDs in there instead and they'll always be faster, always have seek time measured in the 10,000s of IOPs instead of several ms of track to track seek time like HDDs and as a result, ludicruously faster random read/write times than HDDs.
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It was made in jest. Its doubtful they would make an external enclosure, they usually leave that to third party manufacturers. But if they did, I see more of a Thunderbolt version based on fiber optic as something more doable.
 
LordVic said:
WOW.

if These are going to be the only real Thunderbolt expansion bays for hard drives, especially for the Mac Pro, there's going to be trouble.

The Mac pro's will cost enough on their own. Factor in if you want any expandible drives, you will be buying somethin glike this!

expect to spend easily another $500+ just to be able to add more drives. Then the cost of the drives themselves!

where are the cheap Thunderbolt products for those who aren't looking to spend super premium dollars.
Click to expand...

Cheap thunderbolt drives = USB 3.0.
 
Finally, a diskless version of this!

Now if they can only offer the higher-end models as diskless options but this is a good start.
 
I wonder how well will the new, small MacPro look next to these gigantic storage devices…
 
May the new Mac Pro Flop

I sincerely hope Apple eats it on the new Mac Pros. It may be the cutest trashcan on the block, but the price of having real hard drive storage to add to the garbage can makes my blood boil. I was on the Apple site and saw that the Mac Pro does not even come with a keyboard or mouse.

I realize that this thread is about external drive systems, but this apple fan boy is disgusted with this whole new rip off.
 
Too much storage

One of my favorite memories from the mid 80s: two early adopter friends each owned the new Mac, one of them went whole hog and bought an HD for it, probably cost him 1000s. His buddy shot back at him "Why would you ever need 20 MBs?"

I'm retired now, glad not to deal with this, still love reading how others solve these problems.
 
Keyboard bigger than new Mac Pro

Ironclad said:
I sincerely hope Apple eats it on the new Mac Pros. It may be the cutest trashcan on the block, but the price of having real hard drive storage to add to the garbage can makes my blood boil. I was on the Apple site and saw that the Mac Pro does not even come with a keyboard or mouse.

I realize that this thread is about external drive systems, but this apple fan boy is disgusted with this whole new rip off.
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It doesn't come with a keyboard because the keyboard is bigger than the computer (length/height)! Seriously. I can't wait to run Motion and the new FCPX to be released coinciding on this baby. Resolve smokes on it according to Grant Petty of Blackmagic. My new Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4k Thunderbolt 2 with passthrough arrives tomorrow. Amazing product.
 
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Keyboard bigger than Mac?

It doesn't come with a keyboard because Apple has gone to Greed City.

This computer is just a J Ives Wet Dream. Cute, Eye Candy with little functional value. Just like the Cube of a few years ago.

Storage is a critical part of a computer - this design spits on anyone who wants a working system without a bundle of wires running all around the room.
 
I currently have a Mac Pro with 6 4tb hard drives in it and I am happy it is all in one unit. I was waiting for the new Mac Pro for a while but was disappointed at the lack of internal storage options. I'm also waiting for all the new Mac Pro pricing and I accepted to spend money on it but I hate the I need to come up with an external hard drive solution for my current drives. while this would solve the problem for me i dont want extra hard drives i dont need. I hate the clutter of all the extra external drives and the lack of reliability. I don't know if most users feel the Same way but I think apple will have to make a new expandable desktop Mac Pro again depending how this computer does.
 
Bought a 4-bay server from HP for a fraction of that price instead. Now running FreeBSD and it works like a charm for Time Machine use.
 
qamaro said:
the ARECA-8050 TB1 version runs for $1399. Adding 8 x 4TB 5900rpm Seagate NAS drives, totaled less than 3K with tax and shipping. That is a better and more effect use of money to me than buying the Promise at 4.6K.
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Thanks Qamaro, i didn't know that Areca had a box containing one of their raid cards ... great news! Currently i have an Areca raid card in my MP with an Avio enclosure, and it's fantastic.

I'm definitely going to get one of these to use with the nMP.
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
This a lazy response that reeks of elitist snobbery and does nothing to answer the question asked.
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Not sure about elitism or snobbery but there is truth in his comment. These systems are designed for high throughput and if you're a media pro editing multiple streams of 4K video or similar work then you understand the value of a setup like this. Given the specifications, the price seems pretty good and if your not seeing the value in this then your not the target audience and a lower priced lower throughput setup like Drobo will work fine for you.
 
Ironclad said:
I sincerely hope Apple eats it on the new Mac Pros. It may be the cutest trashcan on the block, but the price of having real hard drive storage to add to the garbage can makes my blood boil. I was on the Apple site and saw that the Mac Pro does not even come with a keyboard or mouse.

I realize that this thread is about external drive systems, but this apple fan boy is disgusted with this whole new rip off.
Click to expand...

For every MacPro that is sold, another puppy dies.
 
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