Understanding Thunderbolt External HDs

[sydsam1]

If I buy an external hard drive with a thunderbolt connection will it be noticeably faster than a FireWire800 external drive, or is the drive itself a bottleneck in terms of its read/write speed?

 

[popatim]

Firewire peaks at around 75MB/s regardless of the drive inside so if you get a fast drive in the TB enclosure it will be noticeable faster. Of course TB is noticeably more expensive too. LoL

eSata is usually able to fully utilize the drives best speeds too if you have a port available.

 

[kenrivers]

popatim is absolutely correct about the cost of a Thunderbolt drive. The only reason I have one is that I purchased a refurb from LaCie. I use it for backup on a MacBook Pro and can connect it via either the Thunderbolt port or Firewire 800. I use the Thunderbolt port and have no complaints regarding speed. I guess because of the Thunderbolt port the MacBook Pro does not have an eSATA port (unless the newer models do).