no thunderbolt hard drive enclosures?

[decay]

$200 hub ... ouch.

[rz]

MGS_forgot_password wrote:
Apple should just support eSATA like everybody else.

They support it, they just don't offer it. I have eSATA on my Mac Pro, using an eSATA card that I got from OWC. I have two 4-bay enclosures connected. As noted, they aren't hot swappable though. They have to be powered on when the machine boots. If I unmount/power-down the boxes without shutting the machine down, I have to reboot in order for them to be mounted again.

[RAMd®d]

They have to be powered on when the machine boots.

They don't power on automatically? That would be a drag for someone who shuts the machine off on a regular basis.


So, having to turn a computer off and/or using an external ac adapter isn't going to be an issue.

No, if you define issue as an aggravating, teeth grinding, epithet/expletive hurling evolution.

But if you define it, as I do, a annoyance that can be a PITA, then I disagree. And I'm more of a typical user than most people here. Even the definition of typical is suspect because I think the typical user doesn't have an external drive let alone the need for a portable external HD.


I don't think the average person needs more than USB3. Not sure they would bother with eSATA.

Agreed.


$29 for the Apple adapter, plus the cost of a FW800 enclosure.

If I tell myself that it's only $10 more then the $20 iPod cables I've purchased, maybe it won't bother me much. And it's still cheaper than a T-Bolt > T-Bolt cable. Most of my enclosures now are FW800. So it looks like FW800 and USB3 will be in my future.


I recenlty bought an Apple branded Thunderbolt -> FW800 adapter from OWC. It works fine... But, as you all have mentioned, it sure would be nice to have a 3.5" thunderbolt enclosure.

Agreed.


Maybe OWC Larry can shed some light on why there are no single Thunderbolt enclosures at OWC..?

Guesswork on my part, but I'm thinking the minimum price point would discourage all but a very few, i.e., not economically feasible. I wonder what licensing alone would cost.


They support it [eSATA], they just don't offer it.

There ya go.


They have to be powered on when the machine boots.

They don't power on automatically? That would be a drag for someone who shuts the machine off on a regular basis.

[MikeF]

If you can get past the sticker shock:

[Chakravartin]

Ken Sp. wrote:
I think I read here, at one time, that thunderbolt is a bit overkill. FireWire 800 would completely saturate the drive speed, unless you're using an SSD.

Nope. FW800 delivers about half the bandwidth necessary to hit the peak speed of a fast hard drive.

But Thunderbolt IS overkill for a single HD.

USB 3.0 is more than enough for that.