PROMISE Announces First 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 RAID Arrays

[Kramerica1]

Basic question about thunderbolt.

Not that I have any interest in buying one of these arrays, but I'm curious about TB technology. Can you use a thunderbolt 1 port with a thunderbolt 2 device? Obviously you would only have TB1 speed, but are the devices backward compatible, like usb?

I have a rMBP with TB1, and am starting to feel left behind already!

Same goes with a new thunderbolt display (if apple ever makes one!). I'm sure the new display will be TB2. So will I be able to use it with TB1 . . . again, obviously at a lower resolution, but will it work?

thanks

I think you can, only it will be at the speed of Thunderbolt 1.

I don't know if the new display has to be TB2. It probably will, but I don't think it has to. It's a display port device essentially. It just has Thunderbolt to carry additional signal from USB, etc.

I'm actually surprised Apple didn't release their 4K display yet. They might just show one in a "by the way" press release since it's not a major product.

I'm also surprised they didn't include TB2 in the iMacs and also release the MacMini's with the latest announcement.

 

[Ifti]

I'll stick to my TB1 devices for now - they cope with my video editing more then fine!

The only people needing TB2 that I can think of are movie professionals etc - not home users.

 

[verpeiler]

Thunderbolt... nice idea, but IMHO this time Apple backed the wrong horse..

 

[rhett7660]

Thunderbolt... nice idea, but IMHO this time Apple backed the wrong horse..

Couldn't that be said about Firewire also?

 

[troop231]

I believe 20Gbps will create a black hole This is some fast stuff!

 

[Antares]

I can't imaging how bad the pricing out of most consumers will be with these.

It's not intended for consumers.

Though, I wonder if these will actually be cheaper than the thunderbolt 1 devices. That would be nice.

 

[Peace]

I still haven't used my Thunderbolt 1 port for anything yet.

I've got 4 hard drives and a RAID attached to mine.

 

[aajeevlin]

I have no idea how much they are to make. But do these companies really expect regular folks to pay $300+ for something they can get for $100 or less (usb ones of course). I'm not bashing them or anything, I know it's a free market and they can market it how much they want, but I just want to say that as much as I love new technology, I simply don't have money for these.

 

[PlainviewX]

I can't imagine how anyone would think this product is aimed at "consumers".

I didn't say it was aimed consumers.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

What does that equate to in "first borns"?

If your first born has a functioning kidney and a soul, it'll do. They won't give you back your change, though (who wants a soulless first born with just one kidney, anyways?)

 

[PlainviewX]

It's not intended for consumers.

Though, I wonder if these will actually be cheaper than the thunderbolt 1 devices. That would be nice.

It's not intended for consumers and I was just pondering how expensive these will be that consumers will be completely priced out.

 

[mingoglia]

These things seem cheap... but then again I've been pricing out additional SAN arrays lately.

 

[iPad Air]

But... but... I use a computer at work to do spreadsheets, so since I make money with my computer doesn't that make me a Pro user?

The people who "need" these kinds of peripherals are willing to pay these prices because it translates into a real return in terms of faster rendering, or loading, etc. The rest of us just want them, like we want a Ferrari, but can't afford it and definitely don't need it.

Well said...nuff said.

 

[needfx]

Only costs your soul and one kidney.

can they make do with some other organs?

 

[WaxedJacket]

Gimme dat bandwidth!

 

[barkmonster]

Even though external enclosures with single SSDs are closer to SATA 6Gb/s speeds via Thunderbolt than they are with USB 3.0, the 7200rpm drives they'd come with don't even saturate USB 3.0, in fact even 8 HDDs wouldn't be more than a dual drive SSD RAID array via Thunderbolt/2 or via USB 3.0.

There's also an increasing amount of far cheaper USB 3.0 enclosures that people are free to fit their own drives into. Typical HDDs hit 150-160MB/s. It doesn't matter if they're in a RAID configuration via a direct SATA 6Gb/s connection or SATA to Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 bridge, the HDDs are the bottleneck to never getting any speed advantage anyway.

Thunderbolt... nice idea, but IMHO this time Apple backed the wrong horse..

It's far more versatile than either USB 3.0 or Firewire because it's PCIe based.

 

[zonesey]

I am a "user needing the fastest possible storage", no reason, I just need it.

 

[bloggerblog]

I'm not sure why Apple promoted Promise as a replacement to their Xserve RAID drives. Promise RAIDS are horribly loud and the UI is frighteningly unstable. I had several close calls on my data. In one situation it wouldn't accept the password to get into the backend. Another, it degraded my drives when they were all new and working fine, I had to reformat them for it to accept them back into the RAID. All that started happening within a month from opening their brand new box. I would never purchase from this brand again, EVER! Customer support is virtually invisible.

 

[yadmonkey]

To those of you complaining about the hypothetical price, Promise's thunderbolt RAIDs are significantly cheaper than their fiber channel RAIDs and you don't need to buy an expensive fiber channel controller card to go with them.

If that's any indication, then this will be a great value for professionals and consumers who like big-boy toys.

 

[neuropsychguy]

From the info page: "Pegasus2 R4 : 4 x 2TB Model = 8TB (5.7TB formatted with HFS+)"

So 8TB really gets you 5.7TB...

 

[Orr]

Thunderbolt... nice idea, but IMHO this time Apple backed the wrong horse..

That does seem to be the consensus opinion currently but I think another few years are needed to fully make that determination.

 

[tdgrn]

I have no idea how much they are to make. But do these companies really expect regular folks to pay $300+ for something they can get for $100 or less (usb ones of course). I'm not bashing them or anything, I know it's a free market and they can market it how much they want, but I just want to say that as much as I love new technology, I simply don't have money for these.

Please tell me where I can get a 4 bay RAID that will transmit at 10x what Gigabit Ethernet can handle.

I'm serious

I want to know where there are 4 bay RAID arrays for less than $600, I've been eyeing the Drobo 5N and Sysology 5 bay model for quite some time and the price barrier for the bottom seems to be $500-$600.

 

[AppleNewton]

Kinda wish that, too, along with both the iMacs & TB Display updated to retina/4K.

I wonder what max throughput is on these? How many would we need to saturate a TB 2 connection?

I agree, it's BS that the new iMac doesn't have thunderbolt 2. I guess they wanted to distinguish the "pro" machines.

I would have thought maybe they'd make a high end iMac with 4K resolution w/ Thunderbolt 2 (Similar to the Retina addition to the MBP lineup)? but its hard to tell that they may do that this year or not..suppose its all in the transition.

 

[Alphabetize]

I'm looking forward to external GPU's over Thunderbolt or even USB 3.

 

[aajeevlin]

Please tell me where I can get a 4 bay RAID that will transmit at 10x what Gigabit Ethernet can handle.

I'm serious

I want to know where there are 4 bay RAID arrays for less than $600, I've been eyeing the Drobo 5N and Sysology 5 bay model for quite some time and the price barrier for the bottom seems to be $500-$600.

Well, if you really "need" the speed, you probably will have to go with these. But what I'm simply trying to say is that it's been almost 2 years since the technology came out and it is still quite expensive for the regular consumers. Like I said, I have nothing against how they want to price these items. I just won't be able to afford them that's all.