Upgrade from usb 2 to thunderbolt your thoughts

[SamTheeGeek]

I got a wd 6tb usb 2 external drive and im looking to upgrade for the new mac pro

Should i get the thunderbolt drives available now or wait for thunderbolt 2 drives?

Thank you

 

[maflynn]

Thunderbolt 2 just became available and there's no guarantee that drive makers are going to rush to provide TB2 drives. If they do they'll probably be more expensive. Unless you need the performance, i'd opt for thunderbolt

 

[SamTheeGeek]

Thunderbolt 2 just became available and there's no guarantee that drive makers are going to rush to provide TB2 drives. If they do they'll probably be more expensive. Unless you need the performance, i'd opt for thunderbolt

Difference is 10gb/s and 20gb/s right? I think 10gb is more than enough

 

[Weaselboy]

I got a wd 6tb usb 2 external drive and im looking to upgrade for the new mac pro

Should i get the thunderbolt drives available now or wait for thunderbolt 2 drives?

Thank you

What kind of drives do you plan to use? Unless you are doing RAID for example, a standard hard drive cannot even saturate a USB3 connection, much less TB. If you are just using standard drives there is little reason to spend the extra money for TB over USB3. See this test.

From the test:

SO WHO WINS?

Turns out that the newest, latest USB 3.0 bus powered notebook storage devices are as fast or faster than their Thunderbolt counterparts. How is this possible when Thunderbolt is rated at 10Gbps (theoretical) and USB 3.0 is rated at 5Gbps (theoretical)? Two reasons: a) no single 6Gbps SSD can go faster than about 500MB/s (or 5Gbps) and b) improved USB 3.0 controllers squeeze the full potential from USB 3.0.

 

[SamTheeGeek]

What kind of drives do you plan to use? Unless you are doing RAID for example, a standard hard drive cannot even saturate a USB3 connection, much less TB. If you are just using standard drives there is little reason to spend the extra money for TB over USB3. See this test.

From the test:

This is the thunderbolt one i am thinking to get

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630

The ones i already have is the same thing but usb 2

 

[Weaselboy]

This is the thunderbolt one i am thinking to get

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630

The ones i already have is the same thing but usb 2

How do you plan to configure it? If you put two SSDs in there in RAID0 for speed, then yes, you would benefit from TB. But if you are just going to pop a regular hard drive in there in non-RAID, you will get the same result with USB for less money. If you want to multiple drives in one unit like that though, yes the TB is a good option.

 

[SamTheeGeek]

How do you plan to configure it? If you put two SSDs in there in RAID0 for speed, then yes, you would benefit from TB. But if you are just going to pop a regular hard drive in there in non-RAID, you will get the same result with USB for less money. If you want to multiple drives in one unit like that though, yes the TB is a good option.

Im not gonna change anything with the drive i sent ya, what it comes with is what i get. I just want faster speed for final cut pro x etc and yes raid 0

 

[Weaselboy]

Im not gonna change anything with the drive i sent ya, what it comes with is what i get. I just want faster speed for final cut pro x etc and yes raid 0

Then yes raid0 with TB would be worth it.

 

[SamTheeGeek]

Then yes raid0 with TB would be worth it.

Excellent

 

[Panch0]

Im not gonna change anything with the drive i sent ya, what it comes with is what i get. I just want faster speed for final cut pro x etc and yes raid 0

Those are two HDD, not two SSD. They are not going to exceed USB3. In fact unless you need the storage capacity, a single SSD will be faster than two HDD.

Make sure you back up - RAID0 is more likely to fail than a single drive.

 

[SamTheeGeek]

Those are two HDD, not two SSD. They are not going to exceed USB3. In fact unless you need the storage capacity, a single SSD will be faster than two HDD.

Make sure you back up - RAID0 is more likely to fail than a single drive.

Even when they are not ssd why would they just sell it thunderbolt and say its ultra fast?

 

[PicardsDome]

Spinning drives won't saturate TB 1 much less TB 2.

 

[paulrbeers]

Even when they are not ssd why would they just sell it thunderbolt and say its ultra fast?

Marketing

 

[SamTheeGeek]

I just hope that i notice the difference on the new mac pro instead of the usb 2 dual hd wd 6tb

 

[webcity]

I was looking at some thunderbolt drives yesterday and noticed that some of the units have WD Green drives in them (5400 or 5900rpm) so the reviews were saying there was little point in them being thunderbolt because the actual drives weren't fast enough. Brands like the G-Tech drives are 7200rpm drives so much quicker.

 

[gnasher729]

Marketing

Or less politely, looking for victims who are willing to pay through the nose for technology that doesn't give them any actual benefits.

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I was looking at some thunderbolt drives yesterday and noticed that some of the units have WD Green drives in them (5400 or 5900rpm) so the reviews were saying there was little point in them being thunderbolt because the actual drives weren't fast enough. Brands like the G-Tech drives are 7200rpm drives so much quicker.

Still nowhere fast enough to get any benefits from Thunderbolt.