20Gbs Thunderbolt 2 coming ‘later in 2013’.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Seems to collide with the ‘New Mac Pro in late 2013’-rumor… Very curious to see what Apple will bring. Let’s hope it gets a place at the WWDC keynote.

[Craig Seeman]

So does this mean anyone about to buy a Mac has to consider holding off for fear that as soon as a peripheral comes out taking advantage of the new speed, they’ll have a TB2 port to take advantage of it?

Of course it may well be a year before we see a significant number of peripherals using TB2 but it does mean some will have to think about the longevity of their computer purchase.

Welcome to the method Apple will use to have you replace the yet to be announced MacPro every two years.

[Joseph W. bourke]

And of course any PC users who’ve been drooling for Thunderbolt and might consider doing a build, can, for under 200 dollars, get a Gigabyte motherboard, with 2 Thunderbolt ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and extra SATA ports:

https://www.maximumpc.com/article/%5Bprimary-term%5D/gigabyte_z77x-up4_th_review

It interests me, seeing some of the portable drives with Thunderbolt which are available.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Lance Bachelder]

I built a Gigabyte thunderbolt workstation a while back – in fact typing this message on it. It would be silly to hold off buying any new workstation because you want to wait for 2nd generation Thunderbolt – the current version already exceeds the speed of any available hard drive or SSD and most Raids. Yeah it will be great to have more throughput in the future when the world goes 16k but currently I’m not even close to maxing our my USB 3 ports, let alone my Thunderbolt ports on my PC or iMac…

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Craig Seeman]

[Lance Bachelder] “I built a Gigabyte thunderbolt workstation a while back”

And if possible you may be able to replace the motherboard.

The concern Mac users may have is that while there may no utilitarian reason to have TB2 today, that might change 2 years from now. Some people keep MacPros running, even as their main computer, for years more than that (or would at least like to). Timing the buy can significantly impact the prime longevity of the computer. Imagine buying a PowerMac with USB1.1 just before USB2 came out for example or buying a Mac with Firewire 400 just before 800 came out. For some it might turn out to be the difference between a 2 year or 4 year prime life.

[Jason Jenkins]

[Lance Bachelder] “I built a Gigabyte thunderbolt workstation a while back”

Lance:

What kind of storage are you using with it?

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

Check out my Mormon.org profile.

[Lance Bachelder]

None lol! I bought a Drobo 5D with Thunderbolt and USB 3 – Drobo currently does not support Thunderbolt on Windows – USB 3 works fine. Drobo currently attached via Thunderbolt to my iMac.

Gigabyte Thunderbolt port does not work with my BMD Ultrastudio Mini Monitor either even though BMD drivers are supposed to support Win 7. Works okay on iMac. Seems to me that Thunderbolt not exactly top priority in the PC world and not working well. Most folks seem to be waiting for new USB 3 update which will match current Thunderbolt speed…

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Lance Bachelder]

Okay hadn’t played with this for a while since the Mini Monitor has been on my iMac to output to client monitor. Just installed latest drivers and firmware on Gigabyte PC and it is now working with Premiere Pro 6 via Thunderbolt so kudos to BMD!

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Rick Lang]

[Craig Seeman] “Of course it may well be a year before we see a significant number of peripherals using TB2 but it does mean some will have to think about the longevity of their computer purchase.”

Intel seems to be pushing this towards those who are working with 4K video files and 4K monitors. With the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K about to be released in July 2013, it shouldn’t be too long before some people will appreciate having the TB2 capabilities. TB2 may not be necessary for the BMPC4K camera workflow, but it won’t hurt to have a bigger pipe. And who knows if Apple will be outing a 4K monitor before long to match the redesigned Mac Pro. If not, other options will be there. Again, may not be necessary, but will help make everything run smoothly.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Craig Seeman]

These days it would seem the purchase decision timing of just a few months can be significant. I think one should be concerned that a year from now there’s a good chance many of us may working with 4K source (even if not delivering 4k) and some may have reason to be using 4k monitors. Add to that, that the GPUs may not be upgradable in new MacPro and one can spend a lot of money on a computer that one may have to consider replacing in a year or two.

Of course one might hope that Apple is forward thinking and the GPUs will be more than adequate and that TB2 will be part of it if released late this year.