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Helloha

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 1, 2013
35
9
I know the 5,1 mac pro was not capable of having an additional thunderbolt 1/2 card.

But with this new USB-C standard that has thunderbolt, displayport and USB 3.1 it makes things very confusing.

I have a Inateck USB3 PCI-E card that works with normal hard drives and raid drives with normal UBS3 plugs.

If someone drops by with a thunderbolt 3 raid array, will this work? Will this negotiate to the USB protocol?

Can I use USB-C SSD's from Samsung on this?

Any advice is appreciated!
K.
 

mattspace

macrumors 68040
Jun 5, 2013
3,147
2,861
Australia
a thunderbolt 3 port, using a usb-c connector, provides usb3, but a usb 3 port using a usb-c connector doesn't provide thunderbolt 3. *slow 80's movie clap for the geniuses who went ahead with this idea*

edit
negotiation to a lower protocol TB -> usb only occurs downstream afaik. the array, being TB, probably wouldn't be able to go upstream to the computer via usb
 
Last edited:

mcnallym

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2008
1,181
911
Firstly your card has USB-A Connectors, not USB 3 Connectors.

USB 3 and 3.1 comes in either USB-A format or USB-C format connectors.

USB-C is simply a Connector not a Data Standard, same as USB-A and USB-B are connectors. USB-C doesn't define the controllers/electronics used with the Connector.

If you want to connect a TB Device then will need a TB Card with a TB Controller on it, either as add-on card or built in on Motherboard.

Is yet another attempt to make the Universal Connector which it has a good shot at providing they don't change to a new one.

Considering one of the problems that USB-C was solving was people having difficulty putting USB-A Cables and Devices into the Connectors the right way round so made USB-C reversible connector then perhaps explains something about the average Computer User.
 
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Helloha

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 1, 2013
35
9
Maybe a better question would be: are there usb-c connected disks, ssd's out there that are only thunderbolt? And no USB3(.1)?
 

Pakaku

macrumors 68040
Aug 29, 2009
3,138
4,452
Maybe a better question would be: are there usb-c connected disks, ssd's out there that are only thunderbolt? And no USB3(.1)?
What's so important about getting them with a Thunderbolt connection? USB3 is fast enough for standard drives.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
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What's so important about getting them with a Thunderbolt connection? USB3 is fast enough for standard drives.
I think the question is how do you know you're not getting a TB3-only drive.
 

Helloha

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 1, 2013
35
9
I think the question is how do you know you're not getting a TB3-only drive.

Exactly, I'm a video editor and I have to give a production company a recommendation about what external raid and external SSD's to buy. I want to make sure they don't buy a thunderbolt only drive that does not connect to my mac pro which only has USB3.
 

cube

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May 10, 2004
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Exactly, I'm a video editor and I have to give a production company a recommendation about what external raid and external SSD's to buy. I want to make sure they don't buy a thunderbolt only drive that does not connect to my mac pro which only has USB3.
What about buying a 10GbE card for your Mac and telling them to buy a 10GbE NAS?
 

cube

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May 10, 2004
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I think you mean to look for iSCSI

Probably the best because I think there's no fast SAS or FC for the classic Mac Pro.
 

Helloha

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 1, 2013
35
9
It's a very small production company so they don't have the budget to implement 10GbE. They would need a simple plug and play solution. That said I have a dedicated 50TB server with 10GbE hooked up over fiber. I can R/W at 700 MB/s. No iSCSI needed :).
 

cube

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May 10, 2004
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Then you should go for an USB 3.0 solution. But note that some RAID boxes have slow processors.
[doublepost=1484218969][/doublepost]eSATA 6G could be better, eg. 4-way JBOD box.
 
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