My backup drive, while very pretty, has horribly broken itself and needs to be replaced. I don’t FireWire, don’t want another USB3 drive (because I hate to connect to storage or audio I/O through a hub and need the USB ports for the latter), and would kick myself every time I had to wait for slower tech, so I feel that Thunderbolt, though expensive and lacking selection, is the way to go.
While I would love a Promise Pegasus, the $2000 price tag is insane. I would rather invest that in a musical instrument.
Thunderbolt is awesome. Well…it will be when people actually start using it. There’s also a $250 docking station coming out later this year from Belkin that has USB 3 and FW800 ports.
It’s one of the tragedies of early adopters that peripherals end up expensive for a while……just one more reason I don’t think the Retina MBP is ready for the prime time yet.
Does anyone know why thunderbolt is so expensive compared to USB 3? They’re both relatively new and it’s not like USB 3 has hit the mass market point where it’s products can be cheap. It kind of sucks because I feel like thunderbolt is just going to be another Apple thing that gets phased out (like Firewire) based on it’s high price point.
FW isn’t phased out. Virtually every single professional audio interface runs over a dual FW400 I/O. Except for the newer “state of the art” racks that are TB enabled. You need a FW I/O if you plan on doing any kind of digital recording, from the low end up. Even that cheapo (and fucking awesome) Presonus hybrid desk has an integrated FW card. Just because FW drives aren’t constantly on sale at your local Staples doesn’t mean they aren’t bring used.
Give it time, I think thunderbolt will become quite popular, it’s just ahead of it’s time.
Files we use on day to day basis are okay with USB and for the people who want speed FW is still adequate.
Thunderbolt is still something we don’t need and a lot of companies have yet to jump on the band wagon.
I love this computer! There certainly isn’t anything wrong it.
Depending on how many things I need USB for, I might pick up the Belkin (which incidentally will be $399 MSRP, not $250) or similar. I will probably need to connect to a lot of I/O, and I don’t know if or how soon any audio interfaces will run Thunderbolt. I don’t want multiple hubs and dongles on my desk.
Apple doesn’t really phase things out due to high price points. Look at any of their products: Their profit margins are INSANE and their products always in a higher price point than competitors.
Using arithmetic, I’m deduced that LaCie marks up their drives around $100 for thunderbolt connectivity.
Thunderbolt has a lot of opportunity, but I feel like it won’t become VERY popular until there are some cheaper options. I do although agree with Botstein about how apple’s products are extremely expensive yet people still buy them. And people will always buy them.
If you’re working with text files, yes. The speed difference is noticeable for me when I hit about 10MB. With FW, it just happens. With USB2, I have to wait. And waiting sucks.
[quote=“botstein, post:8, topic:44399, username:botstein”]
I might pick up the Belkin (which incidentally will be $399 MSRP, not $250)
[/quote]The press announcements and belkin’s website say 299. Also, who pays MSRP?
So does my early-2011. The Retina MBP is not ready for the prime time because it dropped firewire.
I agree that it’ll still be a while before anything meaningful comes out for it in the Audio world. The UA Apollo is supposed to get it as an upgrade, there are PCIe chassis that use it (which is awesome, and Apogee has a Thunderbolt Symphony IO thing coming out as well……and they’re not exactly consumer pieces.
Which is why I use firewire. Without firewire, I think the computer’s a joke……unless you do video editing, since they’ve been using USB2 for a long time to connect to cameras and just dealing with painfully slow import times because they didn’t have a better option.
Seriously…guys into video have the patience of mountains. I can’t stand to wait for my 6MP still camera to transfer over USB……I have to be doing something else at the same time.
I can’t help my self, but for back-ups and data ( movies, music, photos - family, party etc.). I would use a network drive. So it is available 99% of the time you are at home and not when you plug the drive in and it is available for every one on the network (it is handy sometimes - like sharing photos, music, videos somewhere else in your apartment/house or with your friends) . IMHO I would buy some smaller drive for TB and use it for storing files which requires fast transfer rates or to be with you everywhere
The transfer speeds of WiFi are nowhere near that of Thunderbolt. Besides, wireless security is a joke.
I know it didn’t appear in my original post, but I tour a lot and really push my electronics to the limit (like many on this forum). If I’m in Quebec for a week, (slow, easily compromised) network drives in New York are just useless.
The Elgato SSD, the smallest thunderbolt drive, starts at $450, which is not particularly cheap.
Having any file in only one place is asking to lose it.
its not optical thunderbolt that is not coming out for a few more years. So you have mechanical thunderbolt so you have your 10gig speed thats awsome, right ok so lets write to it, hey wait im only getting though put of 2.2gig per second. Oh ive got a sata 2 hdd(chances are it will be lower). if you use usb3 you get the same speed! ok so a few years have passed you though lets get a new macbook pro! we now have sata3 so you get about 5.5 gig on the thunderbolt vs 4.5 gig on usb 3.
also remember with usb 3 can plug into pretty much any computer made in the last 10 years! Thunderbolt your stuck to the latest macs from the last 2 years and a few PC’s only know of 2 mobos supporting thunderbolt as of yet.
so in 99% of use cases for no or very little performance increase is it really worth an extra 400 bucks?
of course if all your storage is on raided ssd’s go for it and you have a forest of money tree’s
