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What have you done with an early Intel recently?
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Thunderbolt-dock, 2 or 3? I've been using TB2 dock with my iMac 2011 and it works great. Few weeks ago I found the TB3 dock very cheaply and bought it too.
2, it will be very useful!
First heard of it from @ToniCH above, booting not an issue. Looks like quality kit.Great gear to get USB3 from 2011 devices !
But you won't be able to boot from USB3
If you want to boot, look for the LaCie orange TB2 external drives, often on eBay with an 1TB harddisk.With a bit luck you find them for less than 50€.
Remove the disk and put a SSD instead.
Full bootable and 10GBit throughput.
Apple made 2 lengths of TB 1/2 cable. The long 2m ones are plenty and everywhere, the short 50cm ones are harder to find (especially cheaply). I have several of the long ones but only one short one.
Well, cable length is no issue if cable management is not something you think about. I don't like bundles of cables behind my iMac or Minis so I try to find shortest ones that will work.
The dock sits neatly under the iMac screen, on top of the iMac stand so the short one is quite ideal.
For some weird logic the elgato TB2 dock has a HDMI out but the TB3 dock has the DisplayPort out. I have always thought the DP connector to be older style than HDMI but maybe I am wrong. At least HDMI seems to be more popular nowadays. Does either have any advantages on other or is it just a different form factor?
Ps. with the TB3 dock an Apple TB3-TB2 adapter is needed when used with an old TB1/2 Mac.
Well, cable length is no issue if cable management is not something you think about. I don't like bundles of cables behind my iMac or Minis so I try to find shortest ones that will work.
The dock sits neatly under the iMac screen, on top of the iMac stand so the short one is quite ideal.
For some weird logic the elgato TB2 dock has a HDMI out but the TB3 dock has the DisplayPort out. I have always thought the DP connector to be older style than HDMI but maybe I am wrong. At least HDMI seems to be more popular nowadays. Does either have any advantages on other or is it just a different form factor?
Ps. with the TB3 dock an Apple TB3-TB2 adapter is needed when used with an old TB1/2 Mac.
Top case arrived for my 11" 2011 MBA, and the transplant is done. No more sticky keyboard or mangled trackpad.
HDMI is about five years older than DisplayPort. I've used them as I have them, but still seem to be using HDMI more than anything else.
Nice idea, but not a single one available where I am. They're all TB3/4, and pretty expensive also!
Ok, have totally forgotten such a detail. Is there any advantages in DP vs HDMI? It seems more like a hassle to get those DP to whatever is in the other end for each -cables. I never seem to have the right combo no matter how many cables I have - and I have many. And I am now talking about full size DP, not the mini-DP which was popular in the Mac laptops before they went to HDMI.
And of course then there are also the DVI -variants which also are all over the early intels. Oh dear... In them olden days it was so easy - you only needed an adapter or two with 10 dip switches to put into right order to make a Sony etc. monitor to work with your Mac... those were the days... oh wait! 😳😱 😂
I haven't invested in any TB drives/cases yet due price vs. existing or even new USB drives. In my use I am perfectly ok with USB 3.0 speeds (with vintage iMac where I use TB). I boot and do most of my stuff with internal SSD's anyway. External stuff is for backups and file transfers mostly.
You have to screen regularly eBay, every month one or two appear, they may even stay for a week or two before been sold. Everything below 60€ is OK.
There is also an even rarer Seagate TB2 adapter with open SATA connector. It is convenient because you can swap many drives.
Experimented with EyeTV 2 on Mountain Lion using one of my 2009 Minis. According to the manufacturer, EyeTV 2 doesn't work on Mountain Lion or newer. However, some posts on other forums seem to suggest that EyeTV 2 does still work on Mountain Lion and that it was on Mavericks where it broke. I can confirm that EyeTV 2 is indeed broken on Mavericks. Specifically, when you try to run the setup wizard it doesn't work, thus the application can't see your video capture device.
So, I decided to see what happens under Mountain Lion. The setup wizard mostly works, until you get to the part where it asks you to connect your video capture device. Despite having the device plugged in, the next button remains grayed out. However, after cancelling the setup wizard, my capture device is recognized in the app and I am able to watch and record footage from my device. I was even able to export the recording to MPEG 4 and watch the file in QuickTime. I had audio issues at first, but once I selected A/V Input, I had audio working. Despite receiving a composite video signal, the app was set to antenna input by default. This discovery makes me consider swapping out Lion for Mountain Lion on the 2012 MBP, which would also allow me to sync my iPod Touch on the Mac version of iTunes instead of the Windows one. Not sure if Mountain Lion's last version of iTunes can still download songs though. Have also been considering buying a ThinkPad for Windows/Linux stuff and making the 2012 MBP macOS only again, but that will be its own thread in the appropriate subsection.
So, I decided to see what happens under Mountain Lion. The setup wizard mostly works, until you get to the part where it asks you to connect your video capture device. Despite having the device plugged in, the next button remains grayed out. However, after cancelling the setup wizard, my capture device is recognized in the app and I am able to watch and record footage from my device. I was even able to export the recording to MPEG 4 and watch the file in QuickTime. I had audio issues at first, but once I selected A/V Input, I had audio working. Despite receiving a composite video signal, the app was set to antenna input by default. This discovery makes me consider swapping out Lion for Mountain Lion on the 2012 MBP, which would also allow me to sync my iPod Touch on the Mac version of iTunes instead of the Windows one. Not sure if Mountain Lion's last version of iTunes can still download songs though. Have also been considering buying a ThinkPad for Windows/Linux stuff and making the 2012 MBP macOS only again, but that will be its own thread in the appropriate subsection.
It also has a DP out disguised as its second (downstream) TB port. And the HDMI out uses an active DP-to-HDMI converter chip anyway (it has to because TB encapsulates only DP video) so to the host, it is a DP out.
All TB3 docks have a direct DP out in addition to the second (downstream) TB port because one TB3/TB4 controller can extract two DP streams from a TB stream (provided the host is providing two); one TB1/TB2 controller can extract only one. That is, you can run two monitors off one TB3/TB4 dock simultaneously but you can run only one monitor off one TB1/TB2 dock. See here.
IIRC HDMI was first specced 2002 or so, with it appearing on devices around 2006. DP was first specced around 2006. First devices using it appeard in 2008, such as the 24" LED Cinema Display, Dell 3008WFP or the late 2008 MacBook/Pro/Air.
HDMI is more popular because the consumer electronics industry loves it so every PVR, streaming box, gaming console or TV has it. DP is much more common on computers and actual monitors, and it is "better" because it has more bandwidth.
And up to DP 1.2, the specification was and still is available for free. If you want to use any form of HDMI in a device you sell, you need to pay big time.
If you have a monitor that requires lots of bandwidth (i.e. has a high resolution and/or refresh rate), DP is preferable. DP 1.4 (HBR3×4) can do up to 25.92 Gbps (theoretically, overhead not included). The contemporary HDMI 2.0 can do 14.4 Gbps. For example, DP 1.4 will push 5120×2880 at 60 Hz easily... good luck trying to do that with HDMI 2.0.
And you can daisy-chain multiple monitors off a single DP output using an MST hub (not on macOS though!): another thing HDMI won't do.
This is TB1. No biggie because TB1 (10 Gbps) is still faster than SATA III (6 Gbps). And there's this puppy.
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Yes, this is me, really. If I must do something at USB3 speeds, I try and ensure I can do it on the PC, which is well-equipped with it. The Elgato hub just gives a bit more flexibility when the PC can't be used for whatever reason. Or that's the plan, anyhow!
Are the actual SATA III drives any faster than the specced 6Gbps for the SATA bus ie. is there any advantage in using the TB vs. internal SATA? Or is the advantage only against USB-connected drives?
What about NVMe in a SATA-adapter plugged into Seagate TB-adapter? Would that break the SATA -speed barrier? I guess the NVMe-SATA -adapter is the key here. If they are just arranging pins then it would be faster? Or is there some protocol conversion happening too?
I usually would just try but this is one of those cases where I have no real need and the parts are too expensive to satisfy my curiosity.
I don't see the point of the Kanex adapter as TB docks do the pretty much same thing (+many more connections) except maybe the eSATA -connection which seems quite rare anyway.
Not all TB docks are created equal. The Kanex adapter outperforms my Belkin F4U055's USB 3.0 data transfer rates. See the discussion here.
HDMI is just a DVI video signal bundled with digital audio and HDCP copy protection in a new connector. This means that cheap, passive adapters can be used to connect a DVI device to an HDMI device (for video only). DisplayPort uses a different video signal, but most devices can operate in dual-mode and output an HDMI/DVI signal to a passive adapter as well.
To add to what Amethyst1 wrote about DP vs HDMI, DisplayPort can also be used to carry other signals such as USB at the same time as video, so devices like touch screens that might otherwise need a video and data (USB) cable can get by with only using a single DisplayPort connection. HDMI 1.4 added the ability to carry ethernet signals, so it too can now carry data over that standard.
So while I await the Elgato Thunderbolt dock, I have another small but knotty task. I have to turn off the chimes on the two Macbook Pros. As neither of them can now run macOS, this may well be a less than trivial excercise. The Early 2011 gets into Monterey recovery but not High Sierra. No idea why. The Late has less trouble seeing any recovery.
Now, assuming I can get to recovery of some sort using a USB installer, I ought to be able to turn off the chime from the terminal. So, research!
Now, assuming I can get to recovery of some sort using a USB installer, I ought to be able to turn off the chime from the terminal. So, research!
MBP 2011 Late: fired it up into internet recovery and used an nvram command in terminal. Silence!
MBP 2011 Early: white screen in internet recovery and HS. Fire up Monterey installer. Same command, no result. Several different things. No result. Even more different things from the Linux terminal. No result.
The Early has this white screen problem, whatever it is. Doesn't seem to be related to GPU failure in the same way that the Late has a GPU failure. If I could somehow reset the base machine to factory specs, I think I could actually get macOS running on it again. I've simply run out of ideas. Why a white screen instead of HS recovery, yet get to recovery just fine in Monterey? Will try an El Cap installer and see what happens. EDIT: white screen.
MBP 2011 Early: white screen in internet recovery and HS. Fire up Monterey installer. Same command, no result. Several different things. No result. Even more different things from the Linux terminal. No result.
The Early has this white screen problem, whatever it is. Doesn't seem to be related to GPU failure in the same way that the Late has a GPU failure. If I could somehow reset the base machine to factory specs, I think I could actually get macOS running on it again. I've simply run out of ideas. Why a white screen instead of HS recovery, yet get to recovery just fine in Monterey? Will try an El Cap installer and see what happens. EDIT: white screen.
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No luck recovering from the White Screen of Death. Not much I haven't tried at this point, but so many remedies assume macOS still installed. So have removed the drive and will install HS via the iMac, then put the drive back. Doubtless the install being for different machines will cause some gotchas, but it just might get me to safe mode or some such. Or maybe not! Who knows...
First hand experience hier.
1. 13" MBP 2011, 2/3 full Samsung EVO860 500GB internal drive pegs at 520 MB/s reads, 460 MB/s writes
2. Second drive in place of DVD drive - Seagate Barracuda SSD, 250GB, almost full - 500MB/s reads, 470 MB/s writes
3. Delock TB external enclosure , 1/2 full Samsung EVO860 250GB connected to the same MBP - 380 MB/s reads, 350 MB/s writes.
4. LaCie orange TB external enclosure Samsung EVO860 500GB, almost full, connected to the same MBP - 380 MB/s reads. 325 MB/s writes at the moment.
All are used daily. Internal is faster.
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Nope. At one point, I got a slightly greyer screen, but that's it. Just going through extended Apple Hardware test, but don't really expect that to tell me much.
AHT negative. Just made up the latest Sonoma installer on the iMac, and now using that on the 8,2 Early. Doing what it should at the moment. How come I can see recovery and onward on Monterey and Sonoma, but not HS or El Capitan?
I imagine that when the 8,2 finishes installing, OCLP will, after reboot, install root patches, and at that point try and activate the Radeon GPU. If it fails, it's back to Linux MX permanently for this machine, as that is the only OS I can make run properly!
Yes, I think it will. It doesn't know automatically that your GPU is broken or disable them by default. You need to tell it to do so.
