makaveli316
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- Jun 1, 2010
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chituntang
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- Feb 18, 2010
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NAS with raid and wireless N is way to go if you care about data backup. It covers all the computers you have without plugging and unplugging on each computer, like usb3.0 or thunderbolt or firewire or what your wired connection is.
Leave all the high speed stuff to sever environment.
Leave all the high speed stuff to sever environment.
captaincharisma
Glorious
- Oct 13, 2004
- 10,959
- 76
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What type of thunderbolt controller? The one channel 2 lane controller with one external thunderbolt port, or the 2 channel 4 lane controller that supports 2 ports. I would rather have the 2 port controller with 2 thunderbolt ports, so my computer does not have to be an end point on the chain!
It's funny how the computer industry is. You always have people saying something with this or that performance isn't necessary, the existing this or that is enough, etc..., and they are much more often than not. Yet, even with this benefit of hindsight, you still have people saying it, because somehow they view this time different, just like everyone else did that was wrong.
OK, first thing people here need to understand so they don't sound stupid about this subject is that speed encompasses two things, throughput and latency. USB, also known as Universally sucky bus, has high latency, and is a low performance interface. It works OK for a lot of stuff, but not great. Thunderbolt is for when you really care about performance. It has not only more bandwidth, but it's got lower latency, not to mention can use longer cords. Someone is going to need this, and some devices are going to show real advantages. Not all. Your mouse probably won't, but that doesn't mean there's no place for it.
Even if 2% of the devices out there show a real benefit, the technology is a good one. Because 2% times a really big number is a really big number. It will be higher, of course, and as time goes by, even more so.
It's good to have, not bad.
Oh, and Apple didn't invent it. You Apple lovers might point out they used it first, but it's from Intel. I'm not sure how Apple can take pride in being the first one to buy something, but then again, they tried to take credit for the GUI, which was invented at Xerox, so reality doesn't have much relevance in the land of Apple.
OK, first thing people here need to understand so they don't sound stupid about this subject is that speed encompasses two things, throughput and latency. USB, also known as Universally sucky bus, has high latency, and is a low performance interface. It works OK for a lot of stuff, but not great. Thunderbolt is for when you really care about performance. It has not only more bandwidth, but it's got lower latency, not to mention can use longer cords. Someone is going to need this, and some devices are going to show real advantages. Not all. Your mouse probably won't, but that doesn't mean there's no place for it.
Even if 2% of the devices out there show a real benefit, the technology is a good one. Because 2% times a really big number is a really big number. It will be higher, of course, and as time goes by, even more so.
It's good to have, not bad.
Oh, and Apple didn't invent it. You Apple lovers might point out they used it first, but it's from Intel. I'm not sure how Apple can take pride in being the first one to buy something, but then again, they tried to take credit for the GUI, which was invented at Xerox, so reality doesn't have much relevance in the land of Apple.
Thunderbolt YES! Think of being able to to a system image backup of your hard drive in 5 min. or less for the average hard drive. For that alone thunderbolt is worth it! Screw up an uninstall, scramble your restore points, just plug in your external hard drive and restore the system image.
killerclick
Distinguished
- Jan 13, 2010
- 1,563
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- 19,790
Uh, Intel doesn't completely own USB 3.0, so they're pushing this Thunderbolt. Sure, double the bandwidth but it's not going to be used for a while. It's just a power grab, all these big companies (apart from Google) are always pushing towards proprietary standards, which translates to higher retail cost. Thunderbolt cable costs 10 times what USB 3.0 cable costs, and motherboards that have Thunderbolt will also carry a price premium. Not because it's technically complicated to manufacture, but because Intel is charging a lot.
captaincharisma
Glorious
- Oct 13, 2004
- 10,959
- 76
- 45,290
The cables are expensive because it is new tech. HDMI cables were 50-100 bucks for the first 2 years until everyone was selling them for 20 bucks or less
Thunderbolt matters LOTS for laptops. If you hadn't noticed laptop sales are fairly handily outstripping desktop sales so it suddenly matters a lot.
Thunderbolt basically gives laptops the ability to use desktop hardware in a dock. Not laptop built, stripped down, overpriced hardware but just regular desktop cards via a breakout board attached to laptop via thunderbolt. That's going to make a HUGE difference.
When you can take your nice, low powered laptop on the road, use it for emails etc etc during the day then take it home, plug it in and it becomes an all singing/dancing desktop class setup with all the same settings/bookmarks/software/media/cookies/logins etc etc you can kiss another huge section of the classic desktop market goodbye.
Personally my next "desktop" is going to be a laptop with the biggest graphics card I can put in it as soon as thunderbolt becomes generally available. When the graphics card starts to get a little long in the teeth I'll invest in what, by then, should be a fairly common set of components for use via thunderbolt to keep it viable a bit longer with a better graphics card sat in the dock. Once we have those basic components sorted I can then upgrade the laptop again a year or 2 later and just keep alternating the dock and laptop upgrades.
I'll have the full power of a decent gaming laptop on the road with the greater power of a decent desktop setup sat waiting for me at home. I call that progress.
Thunderbolt basically gives laptops the ability to use desktop hardware in a dock. Not laptop built, stripped down, overpriced hardware but just regular desktop cards via a breakout board attached to laptop via thunderbolt. That's going to make a HUGE difference.
When you can take your nice, low powered laptop on the road, use it for emails etc etc during the day then take it home, plug it in and it becomes an all singing/dancing desktop class setup with all the same settings/bookmarks/software/media/cookies/logins etc etc you can kiss another huge section of the classic desktop market goodbye.
Personally my next "desktop" is going to be a laptop with the biggest graphics card I can put in it as soon as thunderbolt becomes generally available. When the graphics card starts to get a little long in the teeth I'll invest in what, by then, should be a fairly common set of components for use via thunderbolt to keep it viable a bit longer with a better graphics card sat in the dock. Once we have those basic components sorted I can then upgrade the laptop again a year or 2 later and just keep alternating the dock and laptop upgrades.
I'll have the full power of a decent gaming laptop on the road with the greater power of a decent desktop setup sat waiting for me at home. I call that progress.
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