JBOD for extra MP Drives - Any differences?

[Michael73]

I'm replacing my 2008 MP with the new one when released. I'm going to need to find a place for drives 2, 3 and 4 which are all 7,200RPM SATA (1.5TB, 1.5TB & 3TB, respectively). Drives 2 and 3 are media drives and rarely accessed. Drive 4 is my Time Machine drive.

Given the size, power consumption and what I'm using the HDDs for, it seems ridiculous to keep the '08 MacPro around as a glorified enclosure. So, I'm thinking a simple 4 Bay JBOD box will do the trick. So here a few questions:

1. Since I have 7,200RPM drives, won't the speed of the drives themselves be the bottleneck vs the connection itself. In other words, I don't need to spend a fortune for a Thunderbolt enclosure when the drives are no where near as fast.
2. Assuming the above is correct, what is the fastest connection to maximize my drives…if not TB then USB, right?
3. Since the drives won't be RAIDed, is there any real difference between one enclosure and another?
4. Can anyone recommend a good JBOD box given my needs?

 

[krell100]

This is exactly the situation I'm in, will be replacing a 1,1 rev with a new Pro and need to find a JBOD box solution, preferably Thunderbolt, to house my drives. 5-bay would be preferable. I've scoured the net but as far as I can see there's nothing out there apart from RAID solutions such as the Drobo 5d. If anyone has ideas...

 

[rwbarna]

One possibility

The LaCie 5Big comes with either TB or USB, and can be configured as JBOD or Raid (selectively).
Only problem is that for $1100 you get 5 2-TB drives and we all have drives from our old MP's. Guess there's eBay...