nMP pricing compared to 2012

[-hh]

I hear you and the others on the storage front, but I think the storage issue with the new Mac Pro is the least of it's problems. I mean seriously, anyone complaining about the cost of moving storage external has not been over to Amazon lately. This is just one of many adjacent pairs of drives with similar price similarities/differences I found... (see attachment)

Yes, if my office caught on fire and burned to the ground such that I'd have to buy everything new, the cost impact (via Amazon) wouldn't be so horrible.

But that's not the typical lifecycle / Total Cost of Ownership.

And sure, multi-bay TB RAID enclosures are pricey,...

Indeed, which is why the question isn't merely cost, but the: "What I would need to spend TODAY just to do a transition?" lifecycle economics.


You're correct that RAID arrays >10TB aren't wise ... that's why I don't have any that large. For a simple transition of my current MP, I'd be looking at having to buy at least two of those pricey TB RAID enclosures...the two additional RAIDs that are on my externals can get away with the $30 TB-FW800 adaptor.

FYI, the legacy storage can't rely too much on USB3, because there's also other preexisting hardware investments that need connectivity, such as printers, scanners, card readers, cameras, etc.

Without any disrespect, I just really have a hard time buying all this complaining about external storage as a legitimate financial hardship. It sounds more to me like a reluctance to change.

Sorry, but that's still not really seeing the point. The point isn't necessarily merely how much "Total" money is involved in as much as when that it must be spent.

What's been far more typical (right or wrong) is that during the life of a desktop system, there's incremental adds in capability (here: storage capacity) ... and then when the desktop itself has reached EOL and needs to be replaced, some of that capability can move forward onto the new system, so that it gets the remainder of its effective lifespan consumed, rather than discarded prematurely.

With the nMP, this lifecycle management model breaks: its lack of storage accommodation incurs a front-loaded expense, so instead of the annual budget having a modest bump for just a new system, there's also the replacement cost of now-'incompatible' storage capacity too: the sum of the two cause a "bubble" in the IT budget.

The impact on the IT budget is that money that used to be able to be spread over a few years ... can't, at least for this transition. Even if the three year costs work out to be exactly the same, that bubble is still a barrier to adoption.


-hh

PS (EDIT addition): the sticking point on a lot of this revolves around how the nMP differs significantly from prior technology updates: Apple did not afford its customers any "bridge". Thunderbolt wasn't offered on the old MP systems prior to the nMP system which simultaneously deleted the traditional internal expansion capabilities (legacy), forcing an immediate transition expense to TB. And what is most frustrating about it is that we knew that TB was Apple's Road Map, but we could do nothing to parepare for this change.

 

[gmmort3]

Long, Short and FYI

Investment and return and how it's applied is based on your business model and where your are on the timeline. "One size does not fit all"

As time has progressed, there has been 4 primary focuses for all manufactures in relation to computing. Storage, Speed, Security and Power. Yes, I know there is much more out there but these core pieces drive them all.

Storage- If we were to look as personal computing timeline storage and the need for it continues to dramatically increase. If I recall correctly, in the past 53 years we had to re-define the metric measurement for bytes 3 times. Developers know that the cost associated with keeping pace for a component that is relatively cheap (as a % of the products over-all cost) is not wise. ANSWER: Cloud services, servers and more now exist to address the concerns regarding storage. In part these new forms of storage have caused HDD sales (along with other factors) to drop 12%.

Speed: Out of our obvious desires and competitive edges speed provides, comes the need for faster processing and transmission. Of the core 4, processing is the factor that directly and indirectly impacts power consumption, storage needs and application of security.

Security: Outside of the normal security concerns we hear about, the need for greater security always boils down to human interface. Security questions, passwords etc. Therefore, we layer it with protections in conjunction with constant updates all while reenforcing best interfacing practice.

Power: Though obvious, power feeds them all. Nothing beats the piece of mind you get knowing you packed your AC adapter in your carry-on as you hear you flight has been delayed. On the other hand, explaining the power costs associated for maintaining an additional 50 terabytes for the company server. Basically wether it's portable or not, RandD work around the clock focussing on improving efficiency, capacity and life.

BottomLine: Regardless of your needs or reasons, I suggest to look closely at the Core 4 when making any decision regarding your needs for computing.
FYI: Regarding MAC and personal computing, I find the market place a good place to determine true value of a product. Example: Price a used 2009 MAC vs. another comparable machine on the Internet. The fact is, the consumer is willing to pay more speaks directly to value.

Just my opinion for your consideration.

 

[iBug2]

Is that really saying something for the new Mac Pro, or is it just saying the old ones were overpriced?

If the old ones were overpriced, then nobody should be whining since the news ones are of better value.

If the old ones weren't overpriced, then it's even better now.

----------

As an example, my MP is currently north of 10TB of data, both internal and external.

Moving from my current MP to the nMP means an additional $1,300 ($600 for 3.5" drive enclosure, $300 for ssd enclosures, $300 for TB dock for missing connecters, and $90 for TB to HDMI connectors for 2 monitors).

USB 3.0 3.5" dock stations cost 25$ each. Get 3 of them and you are done. You have the exact same amount of 3.5" bays as before for only 75$. If you are spending 1300$, that means you are getting something better than what you had, and it's considered an upgrade.

 

[wallysb01]

Storage- ...ANSWER: Cloud services, servers and more now exist to address the concerns regarding storage. In part these new forms of storage have caused HDD sales (along with other factors) to drop 12%.

Is that why? Or is it because disk space is now growing faster than people can fill it up. Ie. now we're jumping from 2TB to 3 or 4. Not too long ago we were jumping 256MB to 1GB. File size demands from average computing just isn't keeping pace anymore. Text files and basic JPEGs only need to be so big.

Certainly people now consume media only Netflix, for example, that not stored locally. But its not like many were putting whole seasons of TV shows and a library of movies on their computers....

----------

USB 3.0 3.5" dock stations cost 25$ each. Get 3 of them and you are done. You have the exact same amount of 3.5" bays as before for only 75$. If you are spending 1300$, that means you are getting something better than what you had, and it's considered an upgrade.

Seriously? Three USB 3.0 docks are not equivalent to what he had. And just because you spend extra cash, doesn't mean you're actually get an upgrade. Logic fail.

 

[iBug2]

Seriously? Three USB 3.0 docks are not equivalent to what he had. And just because you spend extra cash, doesn't mean you're actually get an upgrade. Logic fail.

Really? Because 2012 Mac Pro's did not support SATA3, so they were limited to SATA2 speed, which is 3Gb/sec. USB 3.0 supports 5Gb/sec, so even with 75$ worth of HDD docks, you already have more bandwidth. I'd say that's an upgrade already. As with more cash = upgrade, I never said that it does. But if you are spending 1300$ for storage, that means you are in the realm of TB RAID enclosures, which offer speeds the old Mac Pro didn't even come close in its default config so it's a huge upgrade.

 

[rcp27]

Should we still be thinking about local storage at all?

The nMP is a computing beast. It is designed for tasks that need serious numbers of computational cycles. These are tasks like graphics rendering and video processing. It is seriously wasteful to use it for tasks like keeping a bunch of backups and serving up iTunes to the family.

Those tasks should be handled by a dedicated machine at the other end of a Cat6 cable. Realistically a 3+ year old mac mini with a bunch of USB disks hanging off it can do the job perfectly, or some sort of dedicated NAS box. If you have a last-generation MP that is being replaced for the computational heavy lifting, then that can be re-purposed.

 

[VirtualRain]

With the nMP, this lifecycle management model breaks: its lack of storage accommodation incurs a front-loaded expense

And just because you spend extra cash, doesn't mean you're actually get an upgrade. Logic fail.

As the old saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water…"

Look… A 3TB drive in a USB 3 enclosure costs $109. You can even get an attractive Lacie Porsche Design external 3TB that's worthy of being next to your new $3-$4K workstation for just $129. A USB 3 enclosure without drive costs around $25. None of these will impact HD performance at all.

I'm sorry, but I just can't take you guys seriously. $25 or $109 (even x4) is not a financial burden when buying a new $3-$4K workstation.

 

[deconstruct60]

Is that why? Or is it because disk space is now growing faster than people can fill it up. Ie. now we're jumping from 2TB to 3 or 4. Not too long ago we were jumping 256MB to 1GB. File size demands from average computing just isn't keeping pace anymore. Text files and basic JPEGs only need to be so big.

That by itself wouldn't lead to a drop of the minimal capacity sold keep going up. ( which it is. ). The trigger point is both this and an alternative that this is also reaching "good enough" capacity sizes at "good enough" prices: SSDs. People switching to buying something else is what will bring larger drops. [ Only buying a new HDD due to failings (as opposed to outgrowing capacity) would result in a slower/smaller buy rate drop. ]

The other unaccounted for factor actually has some tie in to the new Mac Pro design assumptions. Shared storage. Instead of buying 10 disks used at 40 capacity for 10 clients, groups are buying Somewhat fewer disks and filling them to higher capacities. So yes, people, collectively, can fill them up if just simply aggregate storage. But that will actually pull larger disks out of the clients for somewhat fewer larger ones in the servers. Frankly, often at much higher efficiencies also, since very often a huge chunk of that individual client capacity usage was redundant copies. Easier, cheaper, and faster networks enable this.

 

[D*I*S_Frontman]

As the old saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water…"

Look… A 3TB drive in a USB 3 enclosure costs $109. You can even get an attractive Lacie Porsche Design external 3TB that's worthy of being next to your new $3-$4K workstation for just $129. A USB 3 enclosure without drive costs around $25. None of these will impact HD performance at all.

I'm sorry, but I just can't take you guys seriously. $25 or $109 (even x4) is not a financial burden when buying a new $3-$4K workstation.

Couldn't agree more.

For people who earn their livings off of their workstations, the initial costs of their systems and miscellaneous periphery are not nearly as important factors as a) the speed their workstation completes the SPECIFIC workload their endeavors demand, and b) how robust the system is, i.e., uptime vs. downtime, long-term.

If your work is valuable and you bill by the hour, time matters. Speed matters. Durability matters. Let's say you charge $100/hr for whatever work you do. If you cobbled together a hackintosh and saved $1500 over a conventional Apple system, and you have to keep fiddling with it for even 30 minutes a week to keep it running right, you've blown your savings over the Apple system in what, less than a year? God forbid an accidental OS update bricks the thing on you while you're in the middle of a project!

It remains to be seen as to how "robust" and glitch-free the nMP will be. If it proves to be rock-solid it'll be a great productivity tool. If not, a hackintosh or uber-modded cheese grater MP tower would become a better option.

 

[iBug2]

As the old saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water…"

Look… A 3TB drive in a USB 3 enclosure costs $109. You can even get an attractive Lacie Porsche Design external 3TB that's worthy of being next to your new $3-$4K workstation for just $129. A USB 3 enclosure without drive costs around $25. None of these will impact HD performance at all.

I'm sorry, but I just can't take you guys seriously. $25 or $109 (even x4) is not a financial burden when buying a new $3-$4K workstation.

Maybe next time quote the actual poster of that sentence, I just quoted it in my reply.

 

[ssgbryan]

But if you are spending 1300$ for storage, that means you are in the realm of TB RAID enclosures.....

Congratulations, Captain Obvious - If you had read my sig, you would have already figured that out.

Since you are quoting my numbers, but not actually understanding what I wrote, let me dumb it down a bit more.....

Adding a couple of USB docks isn't going to help when the internal storage is configured as a series of RAID 0s due to data set size (the speed increases are just an added bonus) - 1 is currently over 3.5Tb and the other is just over 2.5Tb. Single drives simply are not going to be enough now, much less for my near future.

Furthermore, you don't seem to grasp that there are only 4 USB ports on the nMP. Let me repeat that, because it seems important:

There are only 4 USB ports on the nMP.

How much is a Thunderbolt to USB cable? Oh, wait, there isn't one. Well, how about a TB to eSATA adapter? I can't find one of those either. I am going to need at least 1 dock, possibly 2 unless I just start throwing away working peripherals or constantly juggling them.

I have 9 USB devices - 3 external HD enclosures, camera, iPhone, iPad, scanner, mouse, and keyboard. No, I am not using wireless for the last 2 - Apple's offerings have been bought, used, judged, and found lacking, especially the keyboard - beautiful design, ****** functionality. Much like everything else that has come out of Sir Idiot-Boy's head lately.

$1300 covers replacing my current internal storage requirements ($900 for 2 HD enclosures), replacing the missing connectors that my current MP has and I use($300), and TB - HDMI adapters for my monitors ($90).

Once again, this is about external storage requirements - some of us have large ones.

 

[VirtualRain]

Maybe next time quote the actual poster of that sentence, I just quoted it in my reply.

Thanks… fixed.

 

[-hh]

As the old saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water…"

*sigh*. I'll try once more before you drown.

Look… A 3TB drive in a USB 3 enclosure costs $109.

And the ones that I already own are ... free.

A USB 3 enclosure without drive costs around $25.

Only until you run out of USB3 ports.

I'm sorry, but I just can't take you guys seriously. $25 or $109 (even x4) is not a financial burden when buying a new $3-$4K workstation.

I'm sorry, but when you lowball after being told the use case scope, it is hard to take your comments seriously too.

Ditto for when one keeps on trying to push USB3 after you've been told that it can't realistically go, because of other competition for those ports.

And I'm still looking for those "CHEAP" empty Thunderbolt RAID enclosures that are needed to free up USB3.

For example, this one is a four bay for a mere $880.

I've not noticed any empty two bay ones, just stuff like this one, which while it does cost less ($600) it includes 2 x 2TB preinstalled, so it isn't as cheap as it otherwise could (should) be...I've retired nearly all of my 1TB spindles and I know that 2TB is next, so I don't want to be wasting my money buying more 2TB drives.

Looking at just my own use case, I think I could squeak by and get most everything moved over for just a shade over $1000...that's a +30% increase to this notional "cost of a new system" exercise. And what irritates me about this is that this is the expense for me to just move legacy stuff over, which means money that I'm NOT really investing in enhancing my system's storage capabilities.


-hh

PS: And this isn't the first time that I've gone through this excercise: I did the same exact thing when I did a Pros/Cons of a 2012 Mac Pro versus an iMac with a TB-Promise RAID...the MP won.

 

[VirtualRain]

*sigh*. I'll try once more before you drown.



And the ones that I already own are ... free.




Only until you run out of USB3 ports.




I'm sorry, but when you lowball after being told the use case scope, it is hard to take your comments seriously too.

Ditto for when one keeps on trying to push USB3 after you've been told that it can't realistically go, because of other competition for those ports.

And I'm still looking for those "CHEAP" empty Thunderbolt RAID enclosures that are needed to free up USB3.

For example, this one is a four bay for a mere $880.

I've not noticed any empty two bay ones, just stuff like this one, which while it does cost less ($600) it includes 2 x 2TB preinstalled, so it isn't as cheap as it otherwise could (should) be...I've retired nearly all of my 1TB spindles and I know that 2TB is next, so I don't want to be wasting my money buying more 2TB drives.

Looking at just my own use case, I think I could squeak by and get most everything moved over for just a shade over $1000...that's a +30% increase to this notional "cost of a new system" exercise. And what irritates me about this is that this is the expense for me to just move legacy stuff over, which means money that I'm NOT really investing in enhancing my system's storage capabilities.


-hh

PS: And this isn't the first time that I've gone through this excercise: I did the same exact thing when I did a Pros/Cons of a 2012 Mac Pro versus an iMac with a TB-Promise RAID...the MP won.

Even if all 6 drive bays of your current MP have 2TB drives in them, you could consolidate that down and use a multi-bay USB 3 enclosure one of these for as little as $119, only consuming a single port.

 

[Tutor]

… .

I made a correction to my post # 16, above. My Tyan Server (with eight Titans) has the GPU rendering ability of over 80 CPU based systems, each with a single E5-2687W V1 [ http://www.nvidia.com/content/tesla/...verview-LR.pdf ]. A GTX Titan is faster at 3d rendering than a Tesla K20X; but the new GTX 780 Ti which (I call the "Titanator") will be released on November 7, 2013 for $699. At factory settings, that Titanator will be faster than a factory Titan for 3d rendering.

 

[ssgbryan]

Even if all 6 drive bays of your current MP have 2TB drives in them, you could consolidate that down and use a multi-bay USB 3 enclosure one of these for as little as $119, only consuming a single port.

Uhmm... yeah.......I have 6 Hard drives, so I'd need 2 or 3 of these.

2 1/2 star rating from owners- wonder why.

Some quotes from 3 different reviews (of 6) available:
"Connected to the USB 3.0 port the enclosure would disconnect at random intervals."

or how about:

"UPDATE: The drive started randomly having problems around the 6 month mark. It would just randomly disconnecting while using the drive. It started happening more and more and finally corrupted my drive."

Do you think this might be an issue:

"The power supply is 5A which is too small for four drives which require 2-2.5A each during spin up and the Sans Digital spins up all the drives at the same time so it needs more like a 10A power supply. "

It isn't about what is cheapest - it is about what is most reliable.

 

[VirtualRain]

Uhmm... yeah.......I have 6 Hard drives, so I'd need 2 or 3 of these.

2 1/2 star rating from owners- wonder why.

Some quotes from 3 different reviews (of 6) available:
"Connected to the USB 3.0 port the enclosure would disconnect at random intervals."

or how about:

"UPDATE: The drive started randomly having problems around the 6 month mark. It would just randomly disconnecting while using the drive. It started happening more and more and finally corrupted my drive."

Do you think this might be an issue:

"The power supply is 5A which is too small for four drives which require 2-2.5A each during spin up and the Sans Digital spins up all the drives at the same time so it needs more like a 10A power supply. "

It isn't about what is cheapest - it is about what is most reliable.

Just throwing some ideas out there. I'm sure if you look around you'll find something that suits you. I have two SansDigital enclosures for my Mac Mini and they are quiet, reliable, and perform well.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, but I see the storage problem as an easy one to solve... Storage has never been cheaper and there are enclosure solutions for every budget.

 

[chirpie]

I use my MacPro for 3d art. All of the applications in my workflow are optimized for multi-core CPUs, not GPU computing. For the cost of a 6-core nMP plus the above mentioned costs ($1,300), I can purchase a 16 core Dell Precision T7600 workstation.

Why not use something like Octane Renderer on the Mac?

http://render.otoy.com/

 

[yoak]

I have a 16TB RAID and a 12TB RAID + another 20 or so TB spread over different Drives, and that´s just at home.
Ofcourse Moving all this data to new enclosures will be a considerate additional cost. USB3 is not where I want to put most of this (Photo backups etc would be ok, but I won't do any editing over ****** USB3 enclosures.

That said, I´m planning to get the new MP, I just don´t like the additional cost of upgrading my storage.

 

[chirpie]

Uhmm... yeah.......I have 6 Hard drives, so I'd need 2 or 3 of these.

2 1/2 star rating from owners- wonder why.

Some quotes from 3 different reviews (of 6) available:
"Connected to the USB 3.0 port the enclosure would disconnect at random intervals."

or how about:

"UPDATE: The drive started randomly having problems around the 6 month mark. It would just randomly disconnecting while using the drive. It started happening more and more and finally corrupted my drive."

Do you think this might be an issue:

"The power supply is 5A which is too small for four drives which require 2-2.5A each during spin up and the Sans Digital spins up all the drives at the same time so it needs more like a 10A power supply. "

It isn't about what is cheapest - it is about what is most reliable.

I think it's pretty easy to find 3 star reviews for about half of the internal hard drives on NewEgg.

I've checked, and the cost difference is, what, 5%? 10%? I'll miss the internals, but it's pretty low on my list of concerns at this point...

 

[VirtualRain]

I have a 16TB RAID and a 12TB RAID + another 20 or so TB spread over different Drives, and that´s just at home.
Ofcourse Moving all this data to new enclosures will be a considerate additional cost. USB3 is not where I want to put most of this (Photo backups etc would be ok, but I won't do any editing over ****** USB3 enclosures.

That said, I´m planning to get the new MP, I just don´t like the additional cost of upgrading my storage.

What are your plans then? NAS? TB? Just curious (and it might get other folks to start thinking about alternative solutions).

BTW, isn't 16TB (or even 12TB) in RAID (of any kind) a ticking time bomb? Is it RAID 0? RAID 5? Rebuild times on arrays that large are almost guaranteed to cause added issues in the event of a drive failure.

Lastly, what do you have that consumes nearly 50TB of storage?

 

[ssgbryan]

Why not use something like Octane Renderer on the Mac?

http://render.otoy.com/

Let me count the reasons......

1. Octanerender™ requires a CUDA capable NVIDIA graphics card, which I don't have - and isn't an option on a nMP.

2. It appears one has to buy a separate plug-in for each application.

3. Octane renderer plug-in for Poser is Windows Only.

4. Octane Renderer plug-in for Blender is Beta.

5. Octane Renderer plug-in for Vue is non-existent.

6. I am already invested in learning how the Lux shaders work (money & more importantly, time) and the OSX native plug-in for Poser (Reality 3 for Poser).

7. $450 more expensive than Lux Renderer.

8. For the price of Octane, I can purchase 2 off lease Dell 690s, drop in a pair of quad core processors and use the render farm capabilities I have already paid for.

 

[BJonson]

I have been through this already. Tried to duplicate my mac pro with a mac mini in my other room. Bought tons of external drives. Here is my conclusion. They suck. Either there is a hardware incompatibility, or the fans are way too loud, or they cost too much, or they take up too much space. Sometimes all applied. I tried every one on the market and I sent them all back. Tons of issues like they sleep on their own and take forever to wake back up. Random disconnects, plus they are all slow. Thunderbolt is a joke. Not the same speed as being in the computer don't care what anyone says. It's too expensive and there are bottlenecks. Nope got me another mac pro and love it.

With the old mac pro I can replace the CPU up to 3.4ghz 12 core for $1500. I am at 8 core 2.93ghz for only $250. What a deal. I have a sonnet pcie hard drive card in there with a samsung 840 pro and it flies. I can add another one to get double the speed if I want. I don't need super graphics so the 5770 is fine. The machine has 5 - 4tb hard drives in it and its quiet. I also have a Blu-ray burner in there too. My total cost for this system was around $3k. It gets a 17000 on geekbench and could get a 24000 score if I get the 6 core cpus. Why would I want to spend a ton of money on a new one that would cost me $10K for the same setup if not more? Makes no sense. My mac pro sits on the floor next to my desk. It has 4 cables coming out of it. Its minimalistic and beautiful. Its silent. I can swap drives in it all day long and keep upgrading. It has firewire 800 which I have a ton of.

The new mac pro is fail all day long.




BEST MAC EVER

 

[yoak]

What are your plans then? NAS? TB? Just curious (and it might get other folks to start thinking about alternative solutions).

BTW, isn't 16TB (or even 12TB) in RAID (of any kind) a ticking time bomb? Is it RAID 0? RAID 5? Rebuild times on arrays that large are almost guaranteed to cause added issues in the event of a drive failure.

Lastly, what do you have that consumes nearly 50TB of storage?

RAID5. I didn't know about the problems with rebuilding big arrays I have to admit.
I do have at least one copy of everything on the RAIDs, hence all the smaller drives.

I have a RED EPIC camera, and on a busy day, I have come back with 4 * 128GB cards almost filled up. Other cameras as well have filled up hard drives over the years. I should be getting a LTO5 setup, but I never get around to it.

NAS is just too slow for my needs ( I have a Readynas Pro), so it will be thunderbolt from here on

 

[-hh]

Just throwing some ideas out there.

Fair enough.

Unfortunately, I immediately see 'JBOD', not RAID support. Strike one.

Next, there's the hardware issues that ssgbryan pointed out. Strike two.

Third, it only supports up to 3TB, which is smaller than the 4TBs I already have running. Strike three

Fourth (and despite OEM's poor documentation), it doesn't support SATA-3 drives. Might not apply to most of my current (legacy) drives, so had it been earlier in the count, I would have given this one just a 'Foul Tip'.

Fifth, as I've already repeatedly pointed out, the existing USB3 ports are already going to be oversubscribed from other peripherals even before I consider using them for any attached storage. Sure, one can buy a gaggle of Hubs at $50 each, but these can bottleneck throughput.

Oh, and speaking of performance, until we know just how many controller chips Apple is using inside the nMP for its four USB3 ports, we really can't assume full bandwidth capability across each port, which means that a data transfer has a high risk of taking a large performance hit.

I'm sure if you look around you'll find something that suits you.

Oh, I have ... the solution is pragmatically forced to only be Thunderbolt based.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, but I see the storage problem as an easy one to solve...

Easy = just throw money at it.

So how much of your cash are you going to donate to my needs? I'd prefer to not "tread water" with my IT expenses and go spend my pennies on another new camera body, as my backup-to-the-backup has a failed shutter button.

Storage has never been cheaper...

So long as we neglect^H^H^H avoid including the cost of a Thunderbolt interface.

...and there are enclosure solutions for every budget.

Except for "inexpensive" with "Thunderbolt"

Yes, I do know that TB should (should!) eventually come down in price. By the time that happens, I'll be retired.


-hh