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Who is Going To Switch?
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[Herb Sevush] “Does the not cost any more include all the thunderbolt cables, pcie to thunderbolt converters and external pcie and drive enclosures that your vision of a new MacPro will require?”
I have an older 8 drive RAID that I am not using since we moved to the SAN.
Thanks to Thunderbolt, I can now get a relatively inexpensive PCIe to Thunderbolt box and put that raid on any thunderbolt computer I like.
It’s much cheaper than buying a whole new RAID.
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For an editor like myself, 1 computer, 1 raid enclosure, 1 pcie card – how is adding an external pcie box and thunderbolt connectors as cheap as having internal pcie slots. How is having external drive boxes and slots not more expensive than having internal bays. I understand the advantages for multi-system users such as yourself and Craig, but to deny that their is a “tax” for setting up a MacPro this way is ingenuous. You could reasonably argue that the flexibility is worth the cost, but you can’t argue that there is no extra cost.
The most cost effective single user design I’ve seen is the ProMaxx One where everything is internal – system drives, loaded Pcie slots, full raid, LTO5 drive if you want it – nothing external but the monitor and keyboard. While it might be less practical for a multi-user system, for a single user it’s incredibly cost and space efficient with no external cabling or power requirements. Which design is “better” is in the eye of the beholder.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “Does the not cost any more include all the thunderbolt cables, pcie to thunderbolt converters and external pcie and drive enclosures that your vision of a new MacPro will require?”
Hmm, that would actually drive down the cost as the number of computers one uses goes up.
Every Thunderbolt device can easily moved to any Mac from the lowly Air and Mini right on up to (I suspect) the new MacPro replacements. Imagine being able to use/move PCIe cards in a chassis or a RAID system to any Mac computer to continue work. -
[Craig Seeman] “Hmm, that would actually drive down the cost as the number of computers one uses goes up.”
As I posted to Jeremy, how does that help if you have only one computer? Even when I owned a multi-seat environment each room had it’s own raid – where’s the advantage for me in portability. Unless you expand and contract with lots of laptops the reason and opportunity for exchanging raids between desktop systems seems rather limited. Go ahead Craig, you can say it — it will cost more. The additional costs may be worth it to some, but the costs are there.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “For an editor like myself, 1 computer, 1 raid enclosure, 1 pcie card – how is adding an external pcie box and thunderbolt connectors as cheap as having internal pcie slots.”
For you right now, it might not be.
You’d have to decide if you wanted to keep your Raid and but a PCIe box, or buy a new Thunderbolt raid that will work anywhere with a thunderbolt connector. The includes portable computers, windows computers, et al.
You can’t do that with a PCIe card and any computer, at least it’s much harder.
If you’re buying a brand new setup, it’s cheaper.
[Herb Sevush] “The most cost effective single user design I’ve seen is the ProMaxx One where everything is internal – system drives, loaded Pcie slots, full raid, LTO5 drive if you want it – nothing external but the monitor and keyboard. While it might be less practical for a multi-user system, for a single user it’s incredibly cost and space efficient with no external cabling or power requirements. Which design is “better” is in the eye of the beholder.”
If that’s what you need and better fits your situation, it seems like a no brainer.
We need the flexibility and Thunderbolt can and will provide it.
Jeremy
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This does get back to where I think Apple is as a company and business model.
They are not a “consumer” company so much as a “commodity” company (mass produced products).
With the meteoric rise in mobile computing, they’re likely to design desktops that allow you to interchange things as facilitated by Thunderbolt.I think Apple is betting (correctly) that even if you’re going to need a desktop power beast, there’s a laptop in your work life as well. For those, Thunderbolt is a savings in many respects.
As to PCIe chassis it may well depend on what you need hooked up to your computer. Thunderbolt Video I/O for example will range from the Blackmagic Recorder or Monitor ($135 ish supposedly in December) to things like the AJA ioXT and similar boxes. The chassis certainly helps if you need Blackmagic Quad, multiple Intensity Pros or other multiple PCIe combinations that might not be better served with Thunderbolt daisy chaining. Basically even the need for a PCIe chassis is diminished (although obviously not eliminated).
Sure you can find exceptional need for a PCIe chassis but for most of the market (which includes many professionals) the need is declining. Such is the nature of a company that want mass market (the masses to which even many professionals now belong to).
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[Craig Seeman] “Sure you can find exceptional need for a PCIe chassis but for most of the market (which includes many professionals) the need is declining. Such is the nature of a company that want mass market (the masses to which even many professionals now belong to).
“I think we can leave it at the thought that the next Mac Pro will probably leave a lot of older users in the dust, much like many Apple offerings. The cost benefit rewards will vary from case to case, and there will be much gnashing of teeth amongst the rejoicing. So what else is new.
If they had actually come out with something like this last spring, and if I had determined that my current pcie setup could be made to work with Tbolt connectors, I would have jumped on it. By next year it is not at all certain that I will.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf
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