Thunderbolt for iMac .. Pegasus or SSD? VOTE PLEASE :)

[iSayuSay]

Well .. actually it's not just for iMac .. any Mac with Thunderbolt may be asked the same question. But whatever, I enjoy my iMac .. so I post this poll here, hope you or some Demi-god dont mind with it

Yeah .. Yesterday Pegasus Thunderbolt R4 and R6 has been released, 4 or 6 HDD bay, Thunderbolt port + RAID make transfer rate and benchmark fast as hell,faster than we can ever imagine consumer HDD can be

First, lets talk about 512GB SSD as the closest contender ... it's single drive, it's still internal drive (no TB enclosure whatsoever), priced around $1000, transfer speed is around 400 -500MB/s for sequential data.

Now Pegasus R4 4TB priced around $1000 (cable not included, what a bummer, but whatever ) .. yeah it's crazy I know, we can get 3TB WD External HDD with USB3/eSATA for around $150 - $200 .. But let's be honest, for this R4, I think we pay $250 for HDD, and another $750 for chassis, Thunderbolt chip and RAID support ... let alone $50 separated cable (LOL)

For that money, you can get 8x capacity on Pegasus, with similar transfer rate.

The question: IF 512GB SSD has been sold as external with TB enclosure, and also Pegasus on the market, which would you choose? Would you still worship SSD as "God's drive" which can perform out of sense .. or switch to this Pegasus?

No additional assumption, and no "512GB SSD configured as 4x128GB SSD with RAID could easily beat Pegasus" .. since we're comparing them on same league, and price.

Vote, people .. and comment .. thank you

 

[awer25]

Pegasus. In a year that SSD will cost half what it does now, but a 4-drive RAID DAS will always be a crap ton of money.

 

[iSayuSay]

Pegasus. In a year that SSD will cost half what it does now, but a 4-drive RAID DAS will always be a crap ton of money.

Yeah .. external SSD on Thunderbolt seems to be our wet dream to compete with internal SSD nowadays. But seeing how well this Pegasus performs on benchmark, and also generous capacity for that price and performance .. Hmm it makes me think again

Ok,folks ...
Another vote ..please .. how do you think about this comparison?

 

[philipma1957]

I want owc to make this for t-bolt


http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/RAID/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB


and I want to start with a pair of western digital scorpio black 750gb hdds in a raid0. then buy a pair of large ssd when the prices drop. I will back mount it on my wall mounted iMac like this lacie fw800 is right now

 

[iSayuSay]

So many views, so little vote .. hmm you don't get interested with Thunderbolt device .. yeah

 

[KasperH]

fair price for the pegasus, outrageous for the SSD IMO

 

[nochnia]

where do you find a price for an ssd thunderbold enclosure?

 

[Hellhammer]

The Pegasus may offer similar sequential read/write performance but it's lightyears behind in random speeds and latency. Those two things are what make SSDs so fast. It's rare that you will be reading or writing multiple GBs so the Pegasus won't feel much faster.

SSD is the only way to go if you want SSD level performance.

 

[Panch0]

So many views, so little vote .. hmm you don't get interested with Thunderbolt device .. yeah

Very interested in Thunderbolt devices. Not interested in this comparison. A 512GB SSD vs. a 4TB RAID set? They have very different purposes. They are not competitive. I'm not even sure in what way you are suggesting they are comparable. Read performance maybe?

 

[OllyW]

First, lets talk about 512GB SSD as the closest contender ... it's single drive, it's still internal drive (no TB enclosure whatsoever), priced around $1000, transfer speed is around 400 -500MB/s for sequential data.

You won't have too long to wait if you want a Thunderbolt SSD drive.

 

[johnfkitchen]

Very interested in Thunderbolt devices. Not interested in this comparison. A 512GB SSD vs. a 4TB RAID set? They have very different purposes. They are not competitive. I'm not even sure in what way you are suggesting they are comparable. Read performance maybe?

Exactly. They solve two entirely different problems. It's almost like choosing between a mouse and a keyboard, or a trackpad and a display.

 

[theSeb]

The Pegasus may offer similar sequential read/write performance but it's lightyears behind in random speeds and latency. Those two things are what make SSDs so fast. It's rare that you will be reading or writing multiple GBs so the Pegasus won't feel much faster.

SSD is the only way to go if you want SSD level performance.

It depends on your workflow and I assume most people would not be using the promise tb das as a primary partition for their os. I am interested ib sequential read and write and large files, hence I am planning get the Pegasus or a similar product.

 

[SamEllens]

The Pegasus may offer similar sequential read/write performance but it's lightyears behind in random speeds and latency. Those two things are what make SSDs so fast. It's rare that you will be reading or writing multiple GBs so the Pegasus won't feel much faster.

SSD is the only way to go if you want SSD level performance.

Uh, speak for yourself there cowboy. People who buy a DAS like this probably will be reading and writing multiple GBs very regularly. The final output of a film I worked on was over 250GB, and each of the source files were up to 50GB. I'd love one of these monsters.

 

[BigBeast]

It just depends on what you need. If space is your biggest concern, get the raid. However, IMO, I like the Idea of having a 256 or 512 GB TB portable SSD with me wherever I go. With all Macs now about to contain a TB port, I could keep my whole OS on my SSD and boot from that- whether on my iMac at home, or on my MBA when I'm traveling. The fact that SSDs are much more dependable when being transported is great as well. And with a fully saturated link speed, I wouldn't tell the difference between an internal or external SSD. I can't wait until 2.5" TB enclosures come to market!

 

[iSayuSay]

Hmm yeah .. for $1000 Thunderbolt device, those two options would be confusing.

But when 2.5" Thunderbolt enclosure reach the market, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it, contain it with 120GB SSD and we're good to go for around $300 I guess.

RAID would be great, but I can live without that, as long as I can get my job done more quickly, in a reasonable price to pay