I'm starting to appreciate Thunderbolt

[Pentad]

Who ever said Thunderbolt was for ordinary users? I have more than 12tB of storage on my network.

There is so much wrong about your statement that I don't know where to begin. 12 TB on your home network? Really? Really?? I'm sorry, I just don't believe you...

If TB is not for ordinary users, than whom do you think it is for? It is installed on a wide range of consumer and professional label computers from Apple. Are you trying to tell us that it's for some other users?

While I don't have 12 TB of data wallowing around my house, I do have a great deal of information that I would like to move around on something other than USB2 or Ethernet.

TB is quickly looking like the looser in the TB vs USB3 fight and that is a shame.

-P

 

[Mak47]

Thunderbolt is still very new, I'm patient enough to see where it goes. As others have said, fast transfer rates are great, but if the ceiling on your HDD is maxed out it won't make much difference--nor will USB 3.0.

Thunderbolt is about a lot more than simple data transfers. It's about peripherals. Once the technology matures, we'll see all kinds of devices that connect to it. External GPU's, SSD's, displays and combinations thereof. We'll see video and audio workstation interfaces equipped with it, not just to offer faster speed, but better quality too.

There's a lot of places this technology can go. USB 3.0 will likely win out in the external hard drive connection race because it's cheap and ready to go. Eventually, Apple will move from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 as it will become a standard single device connection, but that doesn't mean Thunderbolt doesn't have a place. It's about more than simple storage.

 

[GuitarG20]

Thunderbolt is still very new, I'm patient enough to see where it goes. As others have said, fast transfer rates are great, but if the ceiling on your HDD is maxed out it won't make much difference--nor will USB 3.0.

Thunderbolt is about a lot more than simple data transfers. It's about peripherals. Once the technology matures, we'll see all kinds of devices that connect to it. External GPU's, SSD's, displays and combinations thereof. We'll see video and audio workstation interfaces equipped with it, not just to offer faster speed, but better quality too.

There's a lot of places this technology can go. USB 3.0 will likely win out in the external hard drive connection race because it's cheap and ready to go. Eventually, Apple will move from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 as it will become a standard single device connection, but that doesn't mean Thunderbolt doesn't have a place. It's about more than simple storage.

This.

I was gonna say that I see more potential for thunderbolt for things like external peripherals that pump a lot of data (GPU's for example) instead of for data transfer, which are limited by hard drive i/o capabilities. I think that thunderbolt wouldn't even be able to use it's full speed on SSD's (10GB/s vs. about 1? is that correct? )

 

[getz76]

If TB is not for ordinary users, than whom do you think it is for? It is installed on a wide range of consumer and professional label computers from Apple. Are you trying to tell us that it's for some other users?

The target market for Thunderbolt is professionals that need PCIe in a laptop. It debuted in the MacBook Pro for a reason. Professionals doing video and audio work need that kind of bandwidth. High samplerate multichannel audio is one of the clear winners here; while Firewire is fantastic, Thunderbolt's possibilities could hold us over for the foreseeable future.

Take a look at the Intel press release.

Ordinary computer users are not buying gear from AJA, Apogee, Avid, Blackmagic, and Universal Audio.

The consumer side of things will have some things filter down that are useful, but the focus on Thunderbolt is going to be high-end, high-bandwidth hardware.

Tell me, if you really needed USB 3, why didn't you buy a machine with USB 3? Do you really need Mac OS X for what you do?

12 TB on your home network? Really? Really?? I'm sorry, I just don't believe you...

12tB is not that much. Between recording sessions, movie projects, Tivo transfers, and then all the family's DVD and blu-ray collection for distribution within the house. That currently adds up to about 8tB. Six 2tB drives in a ReadyNAS Ultra 6 using RAID 5 gives 10tB of data storage. I have that unit backed up using Rsync to a ReadyNAS NV+ and then an Intel SS4200E (RAID is not a substitute for a backup). Add to that Time Machine backups for five Macs, and you are looking at a lot of data.

While I don't have 12 TB of data wallowing around my house, I do have a great deal of information that I would like to move around on something other than USB2 or Ethernet.

Does your MacBook Pro not have Firewire? Firewire 800 is rather speedy. You can get about 60mB/s on Firewire 800, which is pretty close to what your average platter hard drive can do in most situations. Or upgrade your network, because you should be getting decent speeds on your ethernet too.

There is so much wrong about your statement that I don't know where to begin.

Indeed.

 

[getz76]

Magma is going to change the game for people who do remote recording. You are looking at a multi-thousand dollar product from them, but most of the time you have $10k+ of PCIe cards installed, the $2-3k for the box isn't really the concern.

 

[harmonica01]

Just grab an ethernet cable and connect the two. Open up migration assistant and select what you want to transfer. (I believe)

(You can also try using AirDrop! This may be even easier and about the same speed because it doesn't rely on your internet connection, rather a peer to peer connection)

Airdrop with lion --> lion really has been splendid for my family this past week

 

[lugesm]

If Thunderbolt if for professional users and not for common folk, then why didn't Apple bother to support USB-3 in addition on the latest machines for us "common folk" in order that we should not be locked out of future high speed peripherals ? Many of the common (read cheap) PC's are coming out with USB-3. I see it as the wave of the future.

 

[mark28]

Please, Gear doesn't equal Pro.

Some guys who won Grammy awards just used a PC with Fruity Loops.

Just wait till next year when Ivy Bridge hits, TB should be more widely supported. It's stupid to have TB in 2011 when only Apple has it.

 

[Aidoneus]

If Thunderbolt if for professional users and not for common folk, then why didn't Apple bother to support USB-3 in addition on the latest machines for us "common folk" in order that we should not be locked out of future high speed peripherals ? Many of the common (read cheap) PC's are coming out with USB-3. I see it as the wave of the future.

It's not Apple's problem. Intel didn't support USB 3.0 on their Sandy Bridge chipsets.

 

[snaky69]

Do the 2011 MBPs support SATA III HDDs? What is their theoretical read/write ceiling?

SSDs are just out of my price range at the moment.

Yes, but since SATA II hard drives cannot even saturate the SATA II link, a SATA III spinning hard drive will not be any faster.

 

[getz76]

If Thunderbolt if for professional users and not for common folk, then why didn't Apple bother to support USB-3 in addition on the latest machines for us "common folk" in order that we should not be locked out of future high speed peripherals ? Many of the common (read cheap) PC's are coming out with USB-3. I see it as the wave of the future.

If USB 3 gets you so wet, why don't you buy a machine with USB 3? USB 2 and FireWire 800 is enough for most people. USB 3 is nice, but unlikely critical to your average user.

Please, Gear doesn't equal Pro.

And some people say cucumbers taste better pickled.

Not that I disagree, but it will be nice to have a single connection that will support a large number of tracks and the requisite storage instead of the less than ideal current solutions.

 

[Coarseman]

Who ever said Thunderbolt was for ordinary users?

If it wasn't it would not be on ALL the new macs,but on the one-thousand-cores, 2 million GB RAM,MacPro's only.

The point of the (almost complete) lack of TB devices, in this point in time is still valid, I am afraid...

 

[lugesm]

If USB 3 gets you so wet, why don't you buy a machine with USB 3? USB 2 and FireWire 800 is enough for most people. USB 3 is nice, but unlikely critical to your average user.

Unnecessarily crude response, but . . .

You are correct in stating that I, and most other users, don't need USB-3 . . . today.

I also don't need the Core i7 that I bought . . . today, but I expect technology to change in the future and the demand for processing power and speed to increase.

I suspect many of us will look at the large selection of USB-3 devices in less than 12 months and wish we had a way to interface.

This is my last comment on the subject.