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Was thunderbolt a big rip-off?

doktordoris said:
I think the most exciting thing about TB is being able in the future to buy a box full of PCIe slots. So imac owners can upgrade their video cards and other internal gubbins which are at the moment unreplaceable. One company whose name eludes me at the moment are supposed to be releasing a rackmount unit this month which contains a mac mini and several PCIe card slots. Amazing.
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I thought the point of an imac was to NOT have cords everywhere.

Kind of looks like a return of the desktop...
 
cirus said:
I thought the point of an imac was to NOT have cords everywhere.

Kind of looks like a return of the desktop...
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The desktop computer has never left, and the iMac was never about a cordless experience, just a less-tangled and more esthetically pleasing experience. And that's precisely what an iMac is today.

And I can see the potential in Thunderbolt's ability to transfer so much data from so many different inputs in to one single port. The future may hold replacing the multiple different ports on the back of the computer with just 5-8 thunderbolt ports, and the thunderbolt port shape and design being adopted by the entire industry for almost all devices.

Sure, that's probably a little too optimistic... but just imagine how easy computing would be if the "but my computer doesn't have that port" barrier were completely lifted.
 
bungiefan89 said:
Sure, that's probably a little too optimistic... but just imagine how easy computing would be if the "but my computer doesn't have that port" barrier were completely lifted.
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Maybe at the moment, but Thunderbolt is really just PCI(e?) made external and convenient, and unless I'm missing something there's no device that can't be connected via PCI(e?) given the right card.

So like I said, unless I'm not understanding the technology correctly, the only real limiting factor to Thunderbolt is that it only uses 4 lanes instead of 16 (or whatever the standard is) which really limits the use of external graphics cards and the like.

Oh well, all I really want thunderbolt for is big fast external storage. Though having an external desktop class GPU would be pretty awesome, but I'm not that much of a gamer anyway.
 
SR20DETDOG said:
So like I said, unless I'm not understanding the technology correctly, the only real limiting factor to Thunderbolt is that it only uses 4 lanes instead of 16 (or whatever the standard is) which really limits the use of external graphics cards and the like.
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This is only an impact on the fastest desktop cards.
 
bungiefan89 said:
The desktop computer has never left, and the iMac was never about a cordless experience, just a less-tangled and more esthetically pleasing experience. And that's precisely what an iMac is today.
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Yes, the problem, though, is that many people suggest that an TB equipped iMac is now fast enough to replace the mac pro for many users. It is not. Imagine how an iMac will look just with a couple of TB devices - it will look like a mess and completely go against the aesthetics of the iMac.

lol.png


The thick lines are thunderbolt cables (which are currently quite long so it will be fun trying to get them to connect to devices close to each other). The thin lines are power cables.

Yup, that looks great. :(
 
Apple fans are going to disagree (especially *LTD*), but yes Thunderbolt is just another useless port. Its been a year and there are no consumer devices. The very few that exist cost an arm and a leg:rolleyes:
 
jmpnop said:
Apple fans are going to disagree (especially *LTD*), but yes Thunderbolt is just another useless port. Its been a year and there are no consumer devices. The very few that exist cost an arm and a leg:rolleyes:
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I agree :\
 
jmpnop said:
Apple fans are going to disagree (especially *LTD*), but yes Thunderbolt is just another useless port. Its been a year and there are no consumer devices. The very few that exist cost an arm and a leg:rolleyes:
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I wouldn't call it useless. I think it has a lot of potential and uses, but it's not the silver bullet some expect it to be. It took over a year for USB 1 devices to become mainstream, so let's see what 2012 brings.
 
mmomega said:
also because Apple wants the iPhone and iPad to be completely wireless so you never have to plug it to your computer.
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And, also, because they just signed up to have micro-USB be the standard in the EU (at least on iPhone).

Not a whole lot of value to putting a thunderbolt port on. I bet we seem them approximately never.
 
forty2j said:
And, also, because they just signed up to have micro-USB be the standard in the EU (at least on iPhone).

Not a whole lot of value to putting a thunderbolt port on. I bet we seem them approximately never.
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That means nothing. To comply they have a mini USB adaptor for the iPhone/iPad.
 
Speaking from a thunderbolt user

I have adopted the technology and Im sorry to say Im quite disappointed in it.
My set up is 17" MBP quad core, P6 12TB raid Pegasus, (2) 27" TB displays, and the Blackmagic Ultra Studio 3D.
What they don't tell you about TB is that is slows down when you daisy chain, esp with TB displays.
MBP and the P6, I'm getting 550 mb/sec write speed.
After I plug in the displays and BM Ultra Studio the raid speed drops to 166 mb/sec. Also audio distorts after a few minutes of using professional editing and graphics software if you are trying to play audio through the built in TB speakers. I have posted in other forums about this. Some say it is a Pegasus problem, but on a 13" MBP the raid is a bit faster and without audio distortion.

anyone else have this set up and have similar problems????
 
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