Will a Thunderbolt SSD Be Worth It Someday?

[turbobass]

I don't know about the price relative to other SSDs on the market right now, but I would like to wait in general to get an SSD for them to be cheaper.

Will an external Thunderbolt SSD whenever they come out be bottlenecked by the Thunderbolt such that it will be slowed down more than an internal HDD? That is, should I just wait for the new Mac Pros so that I can add an SSD when the prices come down without having to hack my iMac?

 

[philipma1957]

No it will be fast. QUESTION IS WILL IT BOOT?


http://www.lacie.com/dk/products/product.htm?id=10549

THIS WILL FLY!! but will it boot?


http://www.sonnettech.com/news/nab2011/ this will also fly just have to wait .

the fusion f2tbr would look very nice sitting on a new macmini

 

[turbobass]

No it will be fast. QUESTION IS WILL IT BOOT?


http://www.lacie.com/dk/products/product.htm?id=10549

THIS WILL FLY!! but will it boot?

Ah, so if you were me and wanted to pimp out an 27" iMac (figuratively speaking here) you would probably nix the extra RAM and SSD and get the RAM 3rd party and wait for Thunderbolt SSD expansion?

 

[zepharus]

I don't know about the price relative to other SSDs on the market right now, but I would like to wait in general to get an SSD for them to be cheaper.

Will an external Thunderbolt SSD whenever they come out be bottlenecked by the Thunderbolt such that it will be slowed down more than an internal HDD? That is, should I just wait for the new Mac Pros so that I can add an SSD when the prices come down without having to hack my iMac?

You realize Thunderbolt is bidirectional 10 Gb/s correct? That SMOKES anything going right now by almost double.

 

[turbobass]

You realize Thunderbolt is bidirectional 10 Gb/s correct? That SMOKES anything going right now by almost double.

FUUUUUUUU no I have been basing my whole life around actually somehow reading that as 1 GB/s, but was unsure how the seek times of an HDD would compare against SDD.

Thank you for proving me so very ****** wrong. Thank you. Thank you all.

 

[Battlefield Fan]

FUUUUUUUU no I have been basing my whole life around actually somehow reading that as 1 GB/s, but was unsure how the seek times of an HDD would compare against SDD.

Thank you for proving me so very ****** wrong. Thank you. Thank you all.

Haha yeah thunderbolt will be rather future proof. The real question is will the market ever adapt it?

My own opinion coming from a disappointed user of a TB MBP is no. Apple hasn't even updated their cinema display to allow for TB. I'd love to get a second CD to daisy chain to my current but noooo.

 

[turbobass]

Haha yeah thunderbolt will be rather future proof. The real question is will the market ever adapt it?

My own opinion coming from a disappointed user of a TB MBP is no. Apple hasn't even updated their cinema display to allow for TB. I'd love to get a second CD to daisy chain to my current but noooo.

I *do* know that this is just the electric version of a format that may eventually be optical. Another good question is, if Thunderbolt becomes popular, will it be backwards compatible with the electric ports on the 2011 iMac?

I'm sure SOMEONE will make an SSD >> Thunderbolt adapter for this iMac someday, just will it be cost effective when it happens is my thought. Hmm.

 

[philipma1957]

This is why I am waiting out my next purchase. I really want to know if t-bolt will boot. I may get a mac mini or an imac and a mac mini if t-bolt will boot. No booting no sale.

If I had to buy an iMac today I would get the biggest hdd 2tb and the lowest ram in a 27 inch model. for me the GPU does not matter much. or the cpu as the lower end ones would both work for me. Since I can wall mount my iMac like I am doing right now I could use the fusion f2Tbr as the booting drive and hide it between the iMac and the wall.

my main use is tv/dvr so I have a 2009 with a 3.06 c2d a 1tb hdd a mistake 2tb would have been the better choice for me. so now i could get a new imac but only if the t-bolt boots. why then I will have a fast boot drive with instant replacement if it crashes..

if t-bolt does not boot I may get a 2010 and have an esata jack installed. owc makes a few units that would fit out of site behind the iMac like this one


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

 

[turbobass]

This is why I am waiting out my next purchase. I really want to know if t-bolt will boot. I may get a mac mini or an imac and a mac mini if t-bolt will boot. No booting no sale.

If I had to buy an iMac today I would get the biggest hdd 2tb and the lowest ram in a 27 inch model. for me the GPU does not matter much. or the cpu as the lower end ones would both work for me. Since I can wall mount my iMac like I am doing right now I could use the fusion f2Tbr as the booting drive and hide it between the iMac and the wall.

Not to pretend to be an expert about this after getting happily schooled in my own thread here, but wouldn't this be expected if it's basically a PCI slot? Do you think Apple specifically will arbitrarily disable this feature?

 

[philipma1957]

Not to pretend to be an expert about this after getting happily schooled in my own thread here, but wouldn't this be expected if it's basically a PCI slot? Do you think Apple specifically will arbitrarily disable this feature?

one would think so, but if it does not boot it does not work for my install. BTW many pcie esata jacks don't boot.

I just posted photos of my iMac if t-bolt does not boot. i may buy a 2010 refurb and have owc put an esata jack into it. I could then stick this behind the iMac


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

this unit along with a 2tb internal would work well for me. if I had an esata jack this would be almost as good as a booting

t-bolt.

 

[zachchai]

That is too slow

Haha yeah thunderbolt will be rather future proof. The real question is will the market ever adapt it?

My own opinion coming from a disappointed user of a TB MBP is no. Apple hasn't even updated their cinema display to allow for TB. I'd love to get a second CD to daisy chain to my current but noooo.

BUY LaCie two little big disks daisy chained together for max speeds.

 

[shortcut3d]

Currently running LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk modified with two (2) 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs. The OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs are capable of +500MB/s on a SATA III 6Gbps channel. The LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk limits the OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs to SATA II 3Gbps speed. In OSX Lion 10.7.2 and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1 (AHCI enabled), the modified LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk can only reach 480MB/s in Black Magic Disk Speed Test and ATTO Diskbench respectively. Real world copy on a 2011 Mac Mini Server with two (2) 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPs to the modified RAID 0 480GB LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk sustain +400MB/s file transfers.

Obviously, I would prefer a single OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPs at 550MB/s on an internal SATA III 6GB/s over the modified LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk. However, for the average iMac user it is much easier to use the LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk than to install / replace / add your own SSD (been there, done that). Don't forget voiding the warranty, potential SSD failure, firmware incompatibilities, etc.

I'm sure that LaCie or another manufacturer will release a portable consumer enclosure with SATA III 6Gbps interface.