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philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
6,429
308
Howell, New Jersey
http://www.sonnettech.com/news/nab2011/index.html

has many options for t-bolt due out.

rest your mac mini on this:


Remarkable Performance, Diminutive Package
The Fusion™ F2TBR 2-drive portable SSD storage system with Thunderbolt™ technology harnesses the power of ultra-fast 2.5" solid state drives to deliver unparalleled read and write performance. With its SSDs configured as a RAID 0 set, the Fusion F2TBR achieves data transfers up to 640 MB/s read and 430 MB/s write—this small wonder’s amazing performance make it ideal for high def video capture and editing. Two Thunderbolt ports support daisy chaining of up to six devices to a single port on the host computer. With its drives mounted side-by-side in a tough aluminum shell slightly larger than two stacked CD cases, this is the perfect high-performance storage solution for any editor packing light for on-location work.

Ultra-Fast—Data transfers up to 640 MB/s read, 430 MB/s write from two SSDs.
Two Thunderbolt Ports—Daisy chain up to six devices to a single port on the host computer.
Compact—Fusion F2TBR is about the size of two CD cases; it takes up so little space, you can carry it just about anywhere.



add a real graphics card!


Expand Your Adapter Card Possibilities
Sonnet’s Echo™ Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt™ Ports enable you to connect high-performance PCI Express® 2.0 adapter cards to any computer with a Thunderbolt port. Imagine using full-size professional video capture cards, 8Gb Fibre Channel cards, 10-Gigabit Ethernet cards, and RAID controller cards with your new MacBook® Pro—the Echo Express expansion chassis makes it possible! Available in two sizes, the standard Echo Express PCIe 2.0 Expansion Chassis with Thunderbolt Ports supports one half-length, double-width, x16 (x4 mode), PCIe 2.0 card, while the XL model supports full-length cards; both models have fans to cool the cards. The standard model includes a built-in 75W power supply, while the XL model includes an integrated 150W power supply with a 75W PCIe power connector. Two Thunderbolt ports support daisy chaining of up to six devices to a single port on the host computer.

Room to Expand—Connect a half-length (full-length in XL model), double-width PCIe 2.0 adapter card to a computer with a Thunderbolt port.
High Bandwidth—x16 (x4 mode) 2GB/s PCIe 2.0 slot perfect for special-purpose PCIe cards for video capture, Fibre Channel, 10-Gigabit Ethernet, digital audio, RAID control, multiple screen video, etc.
Power for Powerful Cards—Integrated 75W power supply (150W including one 75W PCIe power connector in XL model).
Two Thunderbolt Ports—Daisy chain up to six devices to a single port on the host computer.


These are killer diller if they work correctly.

how about booting with a raid0 ssd and running games with top of the line graphics.



add this for endless storage.


Small Footprint, Big Performance
The compact Fusion™ E400TBR5 4-drive RAID 5 desktop storage system featuring Thunderbolt™ technology includes an internal RAID controller that supports RAID 5 for great performance and file protection in case of a single drive failure, RAID 0 for maximum performance, and JBOD for maximum flexibility. Drive configuration is managed through a simple-to-use application. Available in 4, 6, 8, or 12TB configurations, Fusion E400TBR5 takes advantage of the huge bandwidth available through the fast Thunderbolt interface connection to deliver great I/O performance. With its drives formatted as a RAID 5 set, the Fusion E400TBR5 achieves data transfers of up to 400 MB/s read and 340 MB/s write, nearly twice as fast as similar 4-drive storage systems using an eSATA interface. Two Thunderbolt ports support daisy chaining of up to six devices to a single port on the host computer.

Brains—Built-in hardware RAID controller supports multiple drive configuration choices.
File Protection—RAID 5 drive configuration enables great performance while safeguarding data in case of a single drive failure.
Fast Performance—With drives configured as a RAID 5 set, data transfers up to 400 MB/s read, 340 MB/s write, nearly twice as fast as similar 4-drive systems with an eSATA interface.
Two Thunderbolt Ports—Daisy chain up to six devices to a single port on the host computer.



realize these have a max of 3 meter cables. but t-bolt will go much further when it becomes fiber optical instead of copper.
 
As long as it does it looks like I may have to get one to run my media server and take over from the various Minis I have doing this job now (And because I cant (yet) add TB to my Mac Pro, so it'd be nice to have the port for testing before I upgrade to a TB-capable Mac Pro anyway.)
 
Interesting. Anyone have any thoughts on what would be a good card to get to pair with the Mini using this adapter? I think someone mentioned in another thread that using this adapter you would only get 4 channels instead of 16 or something like that. So maybe getting a card that's too powerful might be a bit wasteful (and expensive).
 
Sounds good. But, to add a touch of realism, it'll be several months before there is a reasonable range of ThunderBolt accessories, and another several months before there's enough competition and volume to drive prices down to sensible levels. So my view is that ThunderBolt will be a great addition for me in about a year from now.

But, of course, i wouod appreciate if everyone else buys now to help speed the adoption / mainstreaming curve :rolleyes:

David
 
Anyone have any thoughts on what would be a good card to get to pair with the Mini using this adapter?

None. TB is too slow for a graphics card, its slower than even AGP was. At best, you'd get the data rate of a PCI video card.
 
Interesting. Anyone have any thoughts on what would be a good card to get to pair with the Mini using this adapter? I think someone mentioned in another thread that using this adapter you would only get 4 channels instead of 16 or something like that. So maybe getting a card that's too powerful might be a bit wasteful (and expensive).

Something like a gtx 560ti would be sweet. Run crysis maxed.
 
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