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Thunderbolt drives
Thunderbolt claims a speed of 10 Gb/s. However, I’m looking at various drives from G-Technology, Buffalo and LaCie with speeds of 115 MB/s – 250 MB/s. Which is the same performance (according to their own benchmark tests) as USB 3.0.
What gives? Why should I invest in a thunderbolt drive that is only going to be as fast as USB 3.0?
-Trevor F. Ward
Red Eye Film Co.
http://www.redeyefilmco.com
http://www.MemoriesofGuantanamo.com -
3 Replies
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Look at Pegasys raid systems, more drives in a raid will yield higher data rate.
Chris
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Thunderbolt can move massive amounts of data, but the hard drive has to be able to supply the throughput and that is the limiting factor.
A singe drive, or two drives in a RAID, are nowhere near as fast as Thunderbolt is capable of. As mentioned, there are solutions with multiple drives that will of course offer much higher throughput to better utilize the capabilities of Thunderbolt.
Why use it for slower drives then? Because that is what Mac has, and it is pass-thru so it is pretty convenient for MacBook and iMac users to add “fast” storage with a single-cable connection.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Yeah, I think I’ll stick with the less expensive USB 3 drives. They are about half the cost. I suppose I don’t need passthrough. And perhaps in 6 months, when I have new hard drive needs, TB will be less expensive and more prolific.
-Trevor F. Ward
Red Eye Film Co.
http://www.redeyefilmco.com
http://www.MemoriesofGuantanamo.com
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