Thunderbolt enclosures... when?

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Hi;

I've had my iMac 2011 model for about a year and a half now, and ever since I have been keeping an eye on storage expansion via thunderbolt. With SSD's becoming affordable now, the ideal situation would be a 2.5" case, with e.g. a Samsung 840 Pro, 256 GB. With the OS on the SSD, and data on the internal drive with an external Time Machine drive, I'd be quite happy.

The SSD I can buy. Bought one a few day ago to put in my son's laptop, and that system now rocks!

But a tunderbolt case..... still not! I have seen so many thunderbolt hardware announcements, and so far just a few can actually be bought. Like CalDigit, Belkin docks, Sonnet Echo 15 dock... the announcement list just goes on. But to be purchased? Not!

Now there's the DeLock 42490 case, which would do the trick. Videos on YouTube, websites... but no pricing and where to buy info.

I honestly cannot understand why in the past years so many new technologies have been developed and become available, but a thunderbolt case... that seems to be impossible.

So... unless I have missed something... am I wrong in suspecting that (affordable and simple) thunderbolt solutions are never to surface in the real world? And that it is actually a matter of strategy and not technology?

Thymen
 
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.. and finally!

Just ordered one. Will put a 500 GB Samsung SSD in it, and use it as an OS disk.

Thymen
 
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BTW.... why not have the SSD installed inside your iMac? The 2011 27" model has a bay for it.
 
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I bought a CallDigit dock a few months ago, together with two USB 3.0 WD Book drives of 4 TB each (data and TM). The dock allows the drives to be used at their maximum speed, and for the data that is OK.

But for the OS disk I wanted an SSD. The Delock is just an empty enclosure, I can put in any 2.5" drive, and it is actually not that expensive.The 2-bay OWC is two and a half times more expensive then de Delock, and I do not need the two bays, just one

Samsung SSD's are not too expensive either nowadays, so this is, for me, the best bang for the buck.

And installing an SSD inside requirers the iMac to be opened, and I don't want to do that while it it still under warranty.

Thymen
 
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Received the enclosure. It is nothing special, except that is has a Thunderbolt connection. Enclosures like this with USB 3.0 can be found for a hundred euros less, at a fifth of the price....

However, after exchanging the cable I bought a few days ago (one in a hundred thousand that has a flaw, and I happened to stumble upon one!) I put in the 500 GB Samsung EVO SSD, performed a fresh install of Mavericks. First application I put on is was BlackMagic speed test..

Results: 350 MB/sWrite - 385 MB/s read, @ 1GB and @ 5 GB load; and now, after I installed all my other applications, it still has that speed.

So, it is about three times as fast as the standard internal drive, and about 2 1/2 as fast as the WD Mybook 4TB @ USB3.0 (through a CallDigit dock). The internal 1TB drive has about 160 GB data on it, the external about 2.5 TB.

So, I am quite happy.

Thymen
 

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