MBP storage options?

clv101 · 21 Jan 2013 at 12:52

I've got a MBP with USB 2, FW800, Thunderbolt and Gigabit Ethernet. It's only got a 500GB internal drive and as I'm giving up the desktop I need a 2-3TB storage solution.

If it had USB 3, then I'd probably just get a 3TB USB drive. But it doesn't and USB 2 isn't really fast enough. Am I right in thinking FW800 is on its way out, replaced by Thunderbolt? Some of the external USB 3 drives say they can be made Thunderbolt compatible with an additional adapter? What's the deal with that?

My Virgin Media Super Hub claims to have Gigabit Ethernet, so would a NAS and Ethernet cable be the best bet?

What do people tend to do for external storage?

Tunney · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:01

NAS boxes tend to be very slow compared to external HDDs. A NAS is essentially a low-powered computer and the lack of processing power (compared to your MBP) is a real disadvantage. However, NAS boxes are very convenient for laptop use.

Your best bet is a Thunderbolt external drive. They're stupidly expensive for the storage they offer though - about £200 RRP for 1TB of storage.

clv101 · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:30

Thunderbolt's just too expensive. So I'm left with slow USB 2 or slow NAS?
I guess I could add a 1TB 2.5GB drive in place of the optical and use a slow USB 2 for other stuff. Not ideal.

Raymond Lin · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:32

Save a bit more and get Thunderbolt?

Otherwise you have to suck it up with USB 2 or a NAS. You can get a NAS running in RAID 0 for speed.

kitkat9933 · 21 Jan 2013 at 14:55

It depends how much data and how often you will need to transfer this data in-between your macbook and storage solution.

If you use a NAS you can 30 MB/s (300mbps) on a cheap one, over double on a better one, which can be similar or even faster than the speeds of USB 2, so rule USB 2 out straight away.

Thunderbolt drives totally depends on what drives you use and how you use them. But will be a lot faster.

For storing films on and documents the NAS will be perfectly fine. If you however, want to use it to store photoshop/ video files on for continuos back and fourth it won't cut it.

I personally now have a Drobo Mini with 4 Samsung 840 Pros which I use for my external data access which give me speeds at over 1 GB/s, which I use for my video files e.t.c. I also use a NAS for backup and storage of important office documents and Films

So tell us what you will want to store on your macbook and what on your storage solution then we can better advise I guess.

JonJ678 · 21 Jan 2013 at 15:58

Tunney said:
A NAS is essentially a low-powered computer and the lack of processing power (compared to your MBP) is a real disadvantage

You can use whatever processor you like for a NAS. You can use thunderbolt, gigabit ethernet, infiniband etc at will. It's difficult to see any performance arguments for an external drive over a dedicated computer containing the drive(s).