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Dirty Jacket

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 14, 2015
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I am in the market for an external thunderbolt drive, at least 1TB. Ideally it will be used a back up storage but I am hoping to be able to do some video editing off the drive itself. Hoping to spend <200$. Any suggestions?
 
I am in the market for an external thunderbolt drive, at least 1TB. Ideally it will be used a back up storage but I am hoping to be able to do some video editing off the drive itself. Hoping to spend <200$. Any suggestions?

I use a delock thunderbolt enclosure and have it paired with a 1tb ssd drive. Just the drive caddy + thunderbolt cable will be over $100 however, not including the ssd.

If your iMac has USB 3, I think that would be a better way to go. Get a USB enclosure with uasp, if you use a USB hub to connect the drive both the drive caddy and the hub must support UASP (many don't, as they have to pay a licensing fee to use it.)
 
OP:

It's not worth "paying thunderbolt prices" for an external drive that is going to be used for "backups". It's a waste of money.

Get a USB3 drive instead. It will read/write nearly as fast and give you much more value for your $$$$.
 
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Enclosure and add your own drive? G-Tech TB Enclosure - $99

The only problem with that enclosure is it's designed for a specific drive module to fit inside it. According to the single review, you need to wedge rolled up gaffer tape to keep a regular internal hard drive in position...
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Even for backups, USB 2.0 is more than sufficient. If USB 3.0 is available, I don't see a reason to pay extra for TB.

USB 2.0 is pathetic for any kind of file transfers. Even if a user was using Time Machine, restoring would be faster (with say migration assistant) with a USB 3 drive. If a user is using something like Carbon Copy Cloner, then USB2 is just a joke.
 
USB 2.0 is pathetic for any kind of file transfers. Even if a user was using Time Machine, restoring would be faster (with say migration assistant) with a USB 3 drive. If a user is using something like Carbon Copy Cloner, then USB2 is just a joke.

I don't know that I would characterize it as "pathetic," but if you're restoring from a backup more than once you probably have bigger problems than whether your backup drive is USB 2.0 or 3.0. Like I said, for backing up the slower speed is fine. If you have to restore, do a restore. If you're doing it often enough that becomes a burden, then the interface of your drive is not the main issue.
 
The only problem with that enclosure is it's designed for a specific drive module to fit inside it. According to the single review, you need to wedge rolled up gaffer tape to keep a regular internal hard drive in position...

Did not see that. o_O
 
OP wrote above:
"http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters...TF8&qid=1455858838&sr=8-3&keywords=ssd+reader
Something like that?"


CAUTION:
If you're buying ANY kind of USB3 external device -- whether it's an enclosure, a dock, or a "dongle adapter" -- BE SURE that it is SPECIFICALLY STATED to support "UASP".

UASP = "USB Attached SCSI Protocol", and you need this to obtain all the speed that USB3 is capable of delivering.

If it doesn't specifically state that it has UASP support, you must assume that it DOES NOT have it.
 
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Just get Thunderbolt. UASP brings the cost right up anyway, and you get better power capacity to boot.

USB 3 is fine for video editing even on a 2.5" HDD if you are using proxy files, a la Final Cut Pro X. Otherwise Thunderbolt is at least around twice as fast as non-UASP 3.0.
 
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