p.1 #1 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
Its time for me to FINALLY invest in a machine. I never really set out to shoot the amount of weddings I've been shooting. My current setup is severely lacking.
Initially, I thought about getting a MacPro, but I think an iMac with Thunderbolt externals might be the way to go.
Curious to see if any of you are running such a setup and wanted to know what you thought.
p.1 #4 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
Yeah... there's not much in the way of Thunderbolt stuff out there yet... Personally I can't stand the glossy display of an iMac, so that keeps it from even being an option for me. Wonderful machines, aside from the stupid glossy panel... Love everything else about it.
p.1 #6 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
I too have been using Promise Pegasus R6 RAIDS. Superb durability and performance. Bought them the week they were made available and have not had a hiccup. Make sure you buy the same HD that they use in it for spare drives as any other drive can cause stability issues.
p.1 #7 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
ryan21 wrote:
I too have been using Promise Pegasus R6 RAIDS. Superb durability and performance. Bought them the week they were made available and have not had a hiccup. Make sure you buy the same HD that they use in it for spare drives as any other drive can cause stability issues.
I bought one from B&H. Set it up just fine, was really fast. Then, 4 days into using it, I wake up, and ALL of the drives died. Could not get a response.
While this could happen to any HD system, backing up a very large RAID array sucks. I didn't lose any data, but, it's still a very scary thing. Chances of failure in a RAID system increase by every drive you add.
I'll be looking into USB3 options, the TB only adds benefit if using a RAID array, adding multiple monitors (that use TB or MDP) or other devices where speed in excess of USB3 bandwidth is crucial.
p.1 #8 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
I run a MacBook Pro 15", quad-core, max specs, hi-rez matte screen, and a 13" MacBook Air, max specs. I am using a combination of FW 800 and Thunderbolt drives; and both machines can run the 30" Cinema Display screen perfectly. The interesting thing is that the little MBA tests 7,500 on geekbench; the MBP 10,300, and the quad-core Mac Pro desktop that these both replaced tested out at 4,300—and this was a quad-core machine.
The 15" MBP will perform as well as an iMac; if you need a bigger screen you can, and the laptop is portable. I will never use a desktop bound machine again.
If anyone's interested, I wrote a blog on how I keep these two machines synced, and it's HERE.
The beauty of either of these machines is that they have enough power to process big image sets AND you can take them on the job for those occasions where you need to work with the client on the location (John Deere is one of my clients, and this is something I need to do with them on every job).
p.1 #9 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
I've been using my pegasus promise thunderbolt system for a while and i haven't experienced any problems.
transfers 50 gigs in under 2 minutes. pretty awesome
p.1 #11 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
For there to be an appreciable speed increase via thunderbolt you need to have a SSD or RAID device connected. I wouldn't bother going thunderbolt if it was just a single spinning drive.
p.1 #14 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
Thunderbolt = 6Gbps (768MBs)
USB3 = 5Gbps (640MBs)
Current speed of fastest single-disk SSDs = 4gbps (512MBs)
While the good SSDs are running around 550MBs, USB3 lacks any daisy-chain capabilities. If you think thats something you'd like to have in the future, I'd consider investing in it as it's pretty stinking cool.
p.1 #15 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
Check out OWC. Other world computing. They have SSDs and have videos and tool kits for do it yourselfers. I'm waiting for the new iMacs and hoping that they have USB3. The thunderbolt on specs allows u to 10GB/s so your external drive will be the bottleneck in the system. If you have a RAID0 drive with thunderbolt (G Technology makes them in 6 and 8TB) they will be faster than another single external. If you have a current iMacs you can add 2 SSDs and watch it fly. I want to upgrade as well but I'm waiting to see what the new iMac will have.
The other cool thing with thunder bolt is the adapter that allows 2 esata connections so you can use current drive if y have them with thunderbolt. The esata hubs are a little pricey.
p.1 #16 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
Chuck, I'm running a MBP i7 2.0 with 16GB of RAM a 250GB SSD and a 500GB 7200RPM in the super drive slot. All of my images are stored on a R6. I edit directly from the drive. It's really really fast! I'm also running a 23in cinema display
p.1 #17 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
mosier wrote:
Chuck, I'm running a MBP i7 2.0 with 16GB of RAM a 250GB SSD and a 500GB 7200RPM in the super drive slot. All of my images are stored on a R6. I edit directly from the drive. It's really really fast! I'm also running a 23in cinema display
seen this in action first hand... " It's really really fast!" is an understatement.
p.1 #18 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
I run my MBP 15" with the same OWC SSD, i7, max RAM; it's amazingly fast (2.5 times faster with the full range of geekbench.com tests than my Mac Pro, quad-core, with 16GB RAM). I stick to external FW drives in combination with Thunderbolt drives, as I make the transition to an all-Thunderbolt workflow, but these new machines are amazing.
p.1 #19 · Anyone Running an iMac with Thunderbolt Externals?
Have a 17" i7 MacBook pro, I have a 27" Dell monitor connected via a LaCie TB BigDisk drive.
When working on a wedding I have the files on my hard drive, but once finished I move them over to the LaCie drive, speed is unreal, and if working with photos on the LaCie drive I don't notice any difference compared to working with files off the hard drive.
So no problems with TB and highly recommended.
