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standard TB storage options? or just USB3?

W

wildmac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 13, 2003
1,167
1
So, realizing that if I do get a nMP tomorrow or February, I'm going to need some external storage.

What I realized quickly is there is a dearth of standard external storage that is available with TB now. (There are a lot more raids, docked systems, and whatnot, but not a lot in the way of standard external HD available.) I was going to get a G-Tech, but that doesn't appear to be an option for the next few months.

So.. what to get that's reliable? Or should I just get a USB 3 unit?

(I'll be doing PS and LR work on the files that will be stored on this drive, with backup to an existing G-Tech docked drive).
 
USB 3 is more than fast enough to handle a single external HDD. Thunderbolt's performance advantages only really start to matter with RAID or SSD.
 
If you just want a "standard external HD", then USB 3 is the way to go. The interface is more than fast enough, it is far less expensive, you have far more choices available, and it's backward compatible with an interface that will be available on every other computer.

Probably the one caveat I've seen is that USB transfers use a big percentage of the CPU (last I checked, around 10%), and since it is a percentage, it doesn't matter how fast your processor is. So if your workflow is CPU-bound and crunches at the same time while accessing the disk, USB is not a good choice. In that one scenario for a "standard external HD" I'd go eSATA on the oMP or Thunderbolt on the nMP, instead of going USB 3.
 
wildmac said:
So, realizing that if I do get a nMP tomorrow or February, I'm going to need some external storage.

What I realized quickly is there is a dearth of standard external storage that is available with TB now. (There are a lot more raids, docked systems, and whatnot, but not a lot in the way of standard external HD available.) I was going to get a G-Tech, but that doesn't appear to be an option for the next few months.

So.. what to get that's reliable? Or should I just get a USB 3 unit?

(I'll be doing PS and LR work on the files that will be stored on this drive, with backup to an existing G-Tech docked drive).
Click to expand...

How much storage do you need? How fast do you want it?

There are options ranging from $100 to $3000 depending on your answers to these two questions.

For example, if you want 4TB of storage and new drives, these are a few options at different performance levels and price points (copied from another recent thread... and adding a couple more HD options)...

4x 1TB SSDs in Pegasus2 R4 costs $3000 and provides 2000 MB/s (theoretical ~ 1500MB/s actual?)
4x 1TB SSDs in Promise J4 costs $2700 and provides 750 MB/s
2x 2TB WD VR Duos costs $1100 and provides 700 MB/s
4x 1TB HDs in Promise J4 costs $700 and provides 400 MB/s
1x 4TB WD TB Duo costs $500 and provides 230 MB/s
1x 4TB Lacie Porsche $200 and provides 120 MB/s
 
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