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Thunderbolt external HD solutions – eSata Hub or PC/34 express card and USB3.0 converter?
Hi.
I wonder if someone could advise me, please?
We’ve just ordered the 27″ iMac, 3.4Ghz i7core, 8GB ram, 2TB HDD, 2GB graphics card.
What was putting me off for a while was the lack of USB 3 and only Thunderbolt (TB) with no TB HDDs available. We do Hi Def Video editing, and have loads of external HDDs from the various projects over the years.
As far a I can work out, I have 3 options and wonder which you’d recommend:
1) But one of the few TB drives now. Though they are ridiculously expensive. This is the least appealing option.
2) Buy a TB cable, a TB to PC/34 card adaptor and a PC/34 to USB 3 (2 port) adaptor. Total cost $250 (+ prob 20% VAT if I have to pay to import it to the UK as I’ve only seen the prices listed in $). This would allow us to use USB3, but would we get the full 5Gb/s per drive? I think I read somewhere that the card would bottleneck at 2.5Gb/s.
3) (This is what I’m considering the most). I was gonna but a TB cable and a Lacie TB to eSata hub.( https://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10574) Total cost $250. The hub has 2 x eSata ins and 2 x TB outs. This would mean I could have 2 eSata drives theoretically running at the full 3 Gb/s each through the hub, and still use the TB ports for an extra screen or whatever. Apparently I can buy a 2 TB verbatim external HDD (eSata and USB 2) for £85. So I could buy two of these drives and, with the hub, have 4 TB of external drives running at 3 Gb/s each, i.e 6x the speed of USB 2.So:
a) Should I go for a TB drive? Can you get the full 10 Gb/s? Do I need this?
b) What about the USB 3 option? Would I get 5 Gb/s? Would I really notice a difference over eSata?
c) Would this eSata system work? Are these drives really the same price for having an eSata or USB 2 connector? Could I plug both in and have them both running at 3 Cb/s each? Is this the best option?If anyone has any ideas I’d be really grateful.
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1 Reply
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Hey, I have myself a eSATA hub from LaCie, I got it from the day it was anonced because I have loads of eSATA drives from my pre Thunderbolt life…
It works perfectly with my drive and one of my friend got 2 to import rushes from eSATA Memory card readers that go very well too.
I have the full bandwith of my Lacie eSATA RAID system (4big) I have posted somewhere here the screen shot.
So I don’t see why your setup (3) would not work…
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