What to do? Wait TB desktop or eSATA now?

[olindacat]

Is it smart buying a new Mac RAID card to have RAID 5 in a new MP w/4x3TB drives and NEC 27" display if I am doing video editing, today, or save the $ on the MP, and card, and use (instead) either an iMac with eSATA card rigged for external RAID or a MacBook Pro w/Thunderbolt somehow connected to what doesn't exist until summer? Or, should I wait for iMac refresh??? I need machine ASAP, but suppose I could get quad interface and suffer w/FW8 until TB comes online. What to do? Any ideas?

 

[aarond12]

I guess it all depends on several factors:

1. What purpose do you have for external drives? Time Machine? Video editing?
2. Do you need it today? If so, eSATA is your only real choice until more Thunderbolt drives come to market.
3. How many drives do you need to attach externally? eSATA is one drive per connector. Thunderbolt allows for daisy-chaining drives.
4. Are you filthy rich? The first-generation Thunderbolt drives are gonna be very expensive.

 

[olindacat]

I guess it all depends on several factors:

1. What purpose do you have for external drives? Time Machine? Video editing?
2. Do you need it today? If so, eSATA is your only real choice until more Thunderbolt drives come to market.
3. How many drives do you need to attach externally? eSATA is one drive per connector. Thunderbolt allows for daisy-chaining drives.
4. Are you filthy rich? The first-generation Thunderbolt drives are gonna be very expensive.

Thanks for even bothering, as I can see no one else is touching this.

1>> I'm not filthy rich by any means. My show is an hour long and gobbles up around 100GB, with raw footage, intermediate renders, etc. Each issue of my magazine is 10GB, but when I shot images I am shoot RAW D2X files and downloading 10-20GB per session. So, it all adds up. I wanted to have 9TB of storage using an external eSATA enclosure. I was thinking I cold get the iMac with OWC eSATA upgrade, but then I won't have anything for back-up, right?

2>>I need 'a machine' today, but am afraid if I buy now—judging from this site's own buying guide, which says not to—that'll I'll deeply regret it. It just looks like iMac is due out this or next month!

3>>I thought I could connect a RAID enclosure to one connector, no? I was going to have an enclosure, maybe eight or 10 drives.

4>>The big issue is my lack of exp with video. I have been doing my show for only one year and have seen my storage world go to pot, and the demands on the processor eclipse what I have. I feel like I'm in computer purgatory: I can't move to HD (timeline rendering for an hour just to see what is going on is absurd), if I buy a MP now I'll regret it.