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Thunderbolt drive enclosure only?
- Thread starter xgman
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Looks good but I'm really impressed with the thunderbolt enclosure idea. Anyone now a relatively cheap ssd / thunderbolt enclosure setup I could go with?
The LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt is relatively cheap. I like it a lot. People tend to suggest it with the quip "$199 for the enclosure but comes with a free drive." It also comes with a Thunderbolt cable. It's not slim, though! The orange bumper actually makes it significantly bigger than most, and it's only going to keep it from sliding off your desk. The cheapest version used to come with a 1 TB HDD, but now the cheapest version has a 120 GB SSD. No daisy-chaining port, but it will work as a USB 3.0 drive, which a lot of Thunderbolt enclosures won't do.
Here it is a few years after thunderbolt was introduced on Macs, and it's still almost impossible to find a thunderbolt drive enclosure -- that is, an empty enclosure that you put your own drive into.
Kind of revealing about thunderbolt's market acceptance and future...
Kind of revealing about thunderbolt's market acceptance and future...
More likely a limit of the certification and ecosystem for Thunderbolt to not permit drive-less, bus-powered devices where a user might install something that will not work properly either due to drawing too much power (likely), to not behaving properly. Note well, the Seagate bus-powered Thunderbolt adapter was certified to support Seagate USM modules.
There are plenty of drive-less enclosures that are self-powered.
^^
Yes, I think companies that typically cater to DIY and people on a budget, like Sans Digital and Rosewill, just can't make the numbers work to develop Thunderbolt products under license to a smaller group of buyers and a very slim profit margin at their price level. But companies like Promise, Sonnet, and LaCie are probably finding a good deal of customers capable of spending at their level.
I think Thunderbolt is doing well at the moment. More devices are still coming out, lots of devices got updated for Thunderbolt 2, Apple is leaning hard into Thunderbolt (look at a Mac Pro ffs) at the Pro and Consumer level. The only competition is USB 3.0, which was an inevitable upgrade to the hugely successful protocol. Without Thunderbolt, everything would have to run off of USB or HDMI.
For Thunderbolt to go away Apple would also abandon MDP, which is unlikely due to all the displays out there relying on it.
I think Thunderbolt is guaranteed to be on every Apple computer for the next few years. It definitely needs to make some gains and find more adopters though. I think Apple and Intel are going to try to make it happen. Where they will have to fight is to make it relevant to the average consumer. It's the best professional option, but has little consumer necessity. If the Thunderbolt Display were more popular or affordable, people would love being able to use one cable to dock their laptop. It's an extremely strong feature on an often overlooked dock.
Fishrrman should just get a USB 3 enclosure.
Yes, I think companies that typically cater to DIY and people on a budget, like Sans Digital and Rosewill, just can't make the numbers work to develop Thunderbolt products under license to a smaller group of buyers and a very slim profit margin at their price level. But companies like Promise, Sonnet, and LaCie are probably finding a good deal of customers capable of spending at their level.
I think Thunderbolt is doing well at the moment. More devices are still coming out, lots of devices got updated for Thunderbolt 2, Apple is leaning hard into Thunderbolt (look at a Mac Pro ffs) at the Pro and Consumer level. The only competition is USB 3.0, which was an inevitable upgrade to the hugely successful protocol. Without Thunderbolt, everything would have to run off of USB or HDMI.
For Thunderbolt to go away Apple would also abandon MDP, which is unlikely due to all the displays out there relying on it.
I think Thunderbolt is guaranteed to be on every Apple computer for the next few years. It definitely needs to make some gains and find more adopters though. I think Apple and Intel are going to try to make it happen. Where they will have to fight is to make it relevant to the average consumer. It's the best professional option, but has little consumer necessity. If the Thunderbolt Display were more popular or affordable, people would love being able to use one cable to dock their laptop. It's an extremely strong feature on an often overlooked dock.
Fishrrman should just get a USB 3 enclosure.
http://www.akitio.com/desktop-storage/akitio-thunder2-quad
Akitio is selling TB enclosure without drives, I had the Neutrino Thunder Duo and now looking forward to their TB2 products.
Akitio is selling TB enclosure without drives, I had the Neutrino Thunder Duo and now looking forward to their TB2 products.
Yes, there are several vendors selling self-powered (aka wall/AC powered) drive enclosures. I think the OP was asking for bus-powered enclosures. This one is announced but not shipping.
When you visit the page to review the benchmarks for the new Thunder2-Quad, read closely - the performance shown in the benchmarks are for 4 x 1TB SSD, not HDD.
I guess no pricing available yet, too.
Although this is a 2 year-old thread recently revived from the dead, I would strongly recommend the OP (or anyone else) go with an AC-powered option if they intend to boot the OS from the enclosure and especially if they are using a 500GB or larger SSD.
I'm using the Delock 42490 2.5" enclosure and it's about $100 with no cable included. It's very light and quite well-designed. I've been very happy with it.
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How would someone in Australia go about purchasing a Delock enclosure? They appear to sell to Europeans exclusively.
By now there exist several multidrive TB enclosures. At first I was disappointed by the lag of single bay enclosures as well, but have now understand that it just doesn't make that much sense since most single drives,even ssds, don't even push on the limits of USB 3..
It's a good question...
The company is based in Taiwan and the enclosure is fairly readily available here in Japan online.I've had some correspondence with the company and they are very helpful and prompt. Drop them a line at sales@tragant.com.tw and I'm quite sure they'll be able to help point you in the right direction.
The aforementioned Delock is a single-drive Thunderbolt enclosure and its merits over USB3, in spite of minimally slower results are quite compelling in my opinion. Chief among these are the fact the SSDs are properly recognized as AHCI SATA devices and thus able to use TRIM commands and flash the SSD firmware.
Im looking a 1Bay Thunderbolt DISKLESS!
like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MES3F0GB/
or this:
http://www.amazon.com/Icy-Dock-MB08...1396772512&sr=1-2&keywords=icy+dock+enclosure
but!!! thunderbolt
any help?
like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MES3F0GB/
or this:
http://www.amazon.com/Icy-Dock-MB08...1396772512&sr=1-2&keywords=icy+dock+enclosure
but!!! thunderbolt
any help?
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So you're looking for a 3.5" single disk enclosure?
Because if you're looking for a 2.5" you could try reading back two posts.
So you're looking for a 3.5" single disk enclosure?
Because if you're looking for a 2.5" you could try reading back two posts.
sorry, yes I need 3.5! a thunderbolt 3.5 1 bay enclousure.
??
I'm in the same boat, I've got a 2011 27" iMac and want an SSD, a 120gb Lacie drive is £170+ which is crazy considering you can get a 128gb drive now for £60, so basically for the enclosure your paying £110, you can't find many driveless TB caddies/enclosures and the ones you can find are £90+........... FOR A DRIVELESS CADDY!!!
The thing that annoys me the most is that you can get USB 3.0 enclosure for about £8 off eBay.
Thunderbolt will be another dead standard soon just like FW as everything is sooooo expensive
The thing that annoys me the most is that you can get USB 3.0 enclosure for about £8 off eBay.
Thunderbolt will be another dead standard soon just like FW as everything is sooooo expensive
OK, Did some hunting but found 2 really good options.
First off this is for Thunderbolt 1 not two ( 2 seems to be nonexistent at the moment ).
Desktop : http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backu...pter/dp/B009HQCAPQ/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_4_dp
Portable(ish) : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009HQCARY...UTF8&colid=20AD7GUIN2GB0&coliid=IK79P74Q3NQR3
First off this is for Thunderbolt 1 not two ( 2 seems to be nonexistent at the moment ).
Desktop : http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backu...pter/dp/B009HQCAPQ/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_4_dp
Portable(ish) : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009HQCARY...UTF8&colid=20AD7GUIN2GB0&coliid=IK79P74Q3NQR3
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I've been running a Pegasus2 R4 (diskless) w/ a 1TB Samsung Evo SSD without issue for a month.
The unit is great except for the loud power supply fan (loud compared to the nMP).
The Seagate Backup Plus TB adapters are quite well known in these parts.
However, there are several advantages to the Delock 42490 I recommended above. For one, the Delock is actually designed with 2.5" SSDs in mind. For another it's an actual enclosure. Finally, and most importantly, it's about $60 cheaper.
However, there are several advantages to the Delock 42490 I recommended above. For one, the Delock is actually designed with 2.5" SSDs in mind. For another it's an actual enclosure. Finally, and most importantly, it's about $60 cheaper.
I have been searching for a reasonably priced enclosure for years. Every 6 months or so, I come back, often to this thread and find nothing has changed. I cannot justify spending hundreds of dollars on this, I'd rather suck it up and use USB 3. But still, it is infuriating. I wonder what it costs to license the technology? From the prices I would have to assume somewhere around $100. Can this really be true?
If only there were a Kickstarter campaign to get something built. A simple Thunderbolt 2 enclosure with an extra port for daisy-chaining. It should cost no more than $80. Even that seems excessive. Why will nobody build this?
If only there were a Kickstarter campaign to get something built. A simple Thunderbolt 2 enclosure with an extra port for daisy-chaining. It should cost no more than $80. Even that seems excessive. Why will nobody build this?
Because Intel sell the chipsets, and judging from the prices of enclosures, the cost of the dual TB2 port chipset is over $100 per unit.
Personally, I have 5 thunderbolt enclosures, and they're far more reliable than USB3 ones, and they're a lot faster too, especially when used in Software RAID.
Despite your perception, the situation is improving. About 12-18 months ago, you would have paid $600-$700 for a 4-bay TB enclosure from Promise, now a similar model from OWC is half that price.