Thunderbolt Drive Bay systems so expensive!!

M

maxiedaniels

Gawd
Joined
May 25, 2005
Messages
1,006
Why are thunderbolt drive bay systems so expensive? I'm migrating to the new Mac Pro, and the obvious problem is getting more storage...

The Pegasus r4 is what I'm looking at - but surely there must be less expensive versions of these things? What about USB 3.0?

I'm just trying to run three or four drives (they don't need to be in RAID) in a bay, using Thunderbolt or USB 3.0....
 
1) Implementing the chip logic on the board is expensive. That will add to the cost of any device whether an adapter card, built-in to the MOBO, HDD enclosure, etc. It's actually much more costly than USB or Firewire or hell even 1GbE.

2) The cables have very sophisticated and expensive logic in them and are incredibly expensive to produce. I think some folks in China reversed it, or tried to, but even still it's expensive to replicate, which means fewer vendors.

3) Lack of mainstream adoption. The most Thunderbolt will ever become is a Firewire replacement at this point. It's DOA compared to even the slower USB 3.0 which has a decade long foot hold in electronics. Buy into TB at your own risk but it'll never be USB's replacement. Low market share = higher prices. The longer prices stay high the less likely Thunderbolt will be widely adopted. It's a brutally vicious market cycle that Intel put itself in even purposefully holding back USB 3.0 for TWO YEARS.

Curiosity, what makes the Pegasus R4 more appealing than other, cheaper, NAS solutions? Is it just because the Thunderbolt because if you're not running them in RAID you're just throwing money down a hole for the luxury of running Thunderbolt.
 
Liger88 said:
Curiosity, what makes the Pegasus R4 more appealing than other, cheaper, NAS solutions? Is it just because the Thunderbolt because if you're not running them in RAID you're just throwing money down a hole for the luxury of running Thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

Wait - that's why these systems are expensive? The fact that they do RAID? I'm confused.

I was going Thunderbolt because I'm doing pro audio work and I've heard (and this seems to be debated) that USB 3.0 isn't good for pro audio due to the way it works compared to Thunderbolt... something about bursts of data?

Say I need to hook up four HDD's, USB 3.0, non RAID, and I want them all in a bay. What is the best solution?
 
I say get ahold of some old hardware and build a Freenas box.
 
Sorry if this sounds stupid but I'm not sure why I'd need to setup an additional computer for my storage...

To clarify: I have a Mac Pro coming that only has Thunderbolt and USB3.0 connections. I need to hook up ~4 drives to it for audio samples/backups/sessions, I'd like to do it using a single bay type system. RAID is not necessary.

FreeNAS does seem cool for other reasons though.
 
You need a lot of fast storage and picked a computer not suited for it and the only way out is expensive add on storage.

Buy the R4 or a fast NAS, as that is the options.

Next time you look at a computer, try to consider what you need it to be able to do.
If you had bough a computer with space for 2 or 4 large disk drives, you would not be here complaining about the cost of Thunderbolt accessories.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top