MBP Thunderbolt port and Aperture/Lightroom libraries

[John.B]

Anyone else psyched about the Thunderbolt port in the new MBPs for their Aperture/Lightroom library external drives?

All this time I've pined for the mythical xMac so I could have access to an eSATA port without shelling out for a Mac Pro. I've even considered getting the big-arsed 17" MBP with the Express/34 slot and a matching eSATA card. Last month I almost ordered a 27" iMac just so I could send it off to OWC to have them do their eSATA port surgery.

With the new Thunderbolt port, I can now keep the portability of a smaller MBP but still get much-faster-than-FireWire-800 drives to host my Aperture and Lightroom libraries. (I'll still need FireWire for my recording audio interfaces, at least until Apogee or MOTU make Thunderbolt-compatible audio interfaces.)

Now, if LaCie or Promise or whoever would just get around to shipping an actual Thunderbolt drive array...

 

[VirtualRain]

I think it's exciting. I own a Mac Pro, and love it for the expansion capabilities, but when technology like this makes it easy to connect fast mass storage, it somewhat negates the appeal of a large expandable chassis like the Mac Pro in favor of something more portable.

 

[Cliff3]

On the other hand, I am sure you'll be able to buy a thunderbolt card for your Mac Pro at some point. I am not ready to retire mine just yet. For one thing, a MBP is still limited to 8GB of memory. My MP has 14GB in it to support my use of VMWare.

Hopefully someone will come up with some sort of port replicator/dock for the MBP. Back when I used one as a desktop replacement, it was kind of a nuisance to unplug various drives, monitors and power adapters when it came time to hit the road. However, thunderbolt should definitely quiet the complaints of those who need an expresscard slot in their laptops ('cept they'll complain about having to buy a new machine now...).