I am looking to purchase an external drive for an iMac 5K. Thought I would take the plunge into Thunderbolt over USB 3.0. Does anyone have any recommendations for an external Thunderbolt drive? It's going to act as a backup / occasional use drive so I don't require anything fancy such as RAID configurations. A single, high capacity drive will suffice. Prices seem pretty high for what I've seen...would like to keep it south of $300 if possible. If not I may abandon Thunderbolt and go with USB 3.0.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Thunderbolt Drive Recommendations
- Thread starter 996085
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
For nearly any setup other than RAID SSD, you are wasting your money with Thunderbolt. USB 3 is plenty fast enough for most configurations. Read this Macworld article http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/how-fast-is-usb-3-0-really-.html
Thanks...that was an interesting read. Looks like I should probably go with USB 3.0.
Your main decision is 3.5 inch AC-powered or 2.5 inch USB bus-powered drives. For single-platter USB 3 drives the fastest I have tested is the 7200 rpm 1TB HGST Touro S: http://www.touropro.com/en/product/touro-s/
For multi-platter bus-powered drives the fastest I've tested is the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Fast: http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/performance/backup-plus-fast-hdd/
I recently bought two Thunderbolt external 2Tb drives. I needed to keep the usb ports free'd up for other things. I bought one Transcend and the other is a Buffalo. Both interestingly have the same model HDD installed in them. They work great... very quiet, don't get hot.. so if you decide to go Thunderbolt, i can highly recommend both of these.. (and both also have USB 3.0 connections on them).
I'd be very interested in hearing more...or at a minimum the model numbers so I can look them up.
I've got two of these Lacie drives in service, love them. http://www.lacie.com/products/desktop-storage/d2-usb-3-thunderbolt-series/
It features both thunderbolt and usb3, an advantage only if you see yourself swapping around occasionally. The aluminum lools good next to an iMac if you're into the astetic.
Good luck on the hunt!
It features both thunderbolt and usb3, an advantage only if you see yourself swapping around occasionally. The aluminum lools good next to an iMac if you're into the astetic.
Good luck on the hunt!
if you are just looking for backup and occasional use, and dont need redundancy in case of HD failure, your best bet is Seagate 4tb portable hard drive.
it's basically the largest you can get for portable HD (single drive), for portable drives, even SSD's, you dont see the difference between TB and USB3.
also because it's small, portable, you can use a twelvesouth backpack to put it behind you imac, so that you'll simply forget that there is a external HD connected. and it will not break the simplicity of imac AT ALL. and since it only has one single laptop drive, it's extremely quiet. (something you definitely should take into consideration when buying a desktop HD, they are NOISY)
or, if you need redundancy, or want to try fancy thunderbolt, WD has a similiar portable 4tb thunderbolt drive. everything else remines the same, just it utilizes thunderbolt so it saves you one USB port. and it contains two 2tb HD's, that you can use RAID1 to save you from hard drive failure, or use RAID0 for faster speed.
it's basically the largest you can get for portable HD (single drive), for portable drives, even SSD's, you dont see the difference between TB and USB3.
also because it's small, portable, you can use a twelvesouth backpack to put it behind you imac, so that you'll simply forget that there is a external HD connected. and it will not break the simplicity of imac AT ALL. and since it only has one single laptop drive, it's extremely quiet. (something you definitely should take into consideration when buying a desktop HD, they are NOISY)
or, if you need redundancy, or want to try fancy thunderbolt, WD has a similiar portable 4tb thunderbolt drive. everything else remines the same, just it utilizes thunderbolt so it saves you one USB port. and it contains two 2tb HD's, that you can use RAID1 to save you from hard drive failure, or use RAID0 for faster speed.
I have one of those WD Thunderbolt 2x 2.5" devices, and unfortunately RAID0 is not any faster with SSDs, which is a major downer. I was expecting a speed increase with two SSDs over one, when I installed them, and - nope.
Maybe not a concern to the OP, but worth pointing out.
i believe for those portable 2.5'' devices, raid should be more a redundancy (raid1) function than a speed improevement (raid0)
Sure, but it's still disappointing to get no performance benefit if you should wish to use a couple of SSDs in there...
Hi again. Buffalo 2TB: http://www.buffalotech.com/products.../portable-hard-drives/ministation-thunderbolt
Transcend 2TB: http://au.transcend-info.com/Products/No-678
both are 2.5" external drives running on bus power.
Those HDDs are single-platter drives with transfer rates in the 120MB/sec range. No matter how fast Thunderbolt is, the transfer speed is limited by the drive. They are also much more expensive than drives like the HGST Touro S, although that one is 1TB only.
The 2TB Buffalo drive is more expensive than the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Fast, and probably not as fast. OTOH it is a single-platter solution, not RAID 0 like the Seagate so it may be more reliable.
I guess it depends on what you actually wanna use it for doesn't it. Personally, all my important stuff is on my NAS. Like i said, i chose these for Thunderbolt connectivity NOT for the speed. Each to their own
That seems to be almost as fast as the internal blade SSD but really expensive:
http://www.lacie.com/products/mobile-storage/little-big-disk-thunderbolt-2/#specs
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J2CDX06/
Not really what you are looking for.
But it's a nice upgrade for Macs with Thunderbolt 2, that have a slower, smaller or no internal SSD.
http://www.lacie.com/products/mobile-storage/little-big-disk-thunderbolt-2/#specs
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J2CDX06/
Not really what you are looking for.
But it's a nice upgrade for Macs with Thunderbolt 2, that have a slower, smaller or no internal SSD.
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
3
One thing I do want to mention is the preference for Thunderbolt is to conserve USB ports but I can work around that if need be.
Thanks. These look like nice solutions. Reasonable prices too.
One thing I do want to mention is the preference for Thunderbolt is to conserve USB ports but I can work around that if need be.