# Thunderbolt External HDD's



## Walid F. (Nov 1, 2015)

Hey!

I tried searching around for this but didn't find much here.

I recently bought a Macbook Pro 15" Retina, (512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 3.5GB graphics, 2.8ghz i7), and I need more storage to stream my samples from so I'm going to get a thunderbolt HDD.

I am simply trying to find a good affordable 2-3TB thunderbolt drive, that also is powered through the Thunderbolt connection. I would not like to have an extra power supply for it. Oh and it needs to be 7200 RPM and not any 5400 snail speed :D!

Anyone have any ideas or experience with these?

Thank you!

W.


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## chimuelo (Nov 1, 2015)

Check out Seagates premium line of LaCie TBolt II enclosures.
Most bypass the SATA III bottleneck using fast M.2 or RAID 0 SSDs.


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## kclements (Nov 1, 2015)

I'm not sure about self powered, but I buy all my drives from OWC. Macsales.com great service and have never had an issue with any of their drives or RAM


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## Walid F. (Nov 2, 2015)

chimuelo said:


> Check out Seagates premium line of LaCie TBolt II enclosures.
> Most bypass the SATA III bottleneck using fast M.2 or RAID 0 SSDs.



You mean the SSD's? I need 2-3 TB of storage, so SSD isn't an option. I checked LaCie stuff, but I think the one for 290 euros with 2TB (powered through TBolt) is 5400 RPM: 

http://www.lacie.com/gb/en/products/mobile-storage/rugged-thunderbolt/#specs

I'd want 7200 for proper sample streaming!

W.


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## Astronaut FX (Nov 2, 2015)

There is a self powered G-Drive mobile, but it's only 1TB. I'm not sure what you've described exists.


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## Walid F. (Nov 2, 2015)

They exist, but they cost like 500-600 euros for a 4TB one. I'd like to spend maybe 350 or so. But maybe that is too optimistic, maybe I have to spend 500 euros for a 4TB, 7200rpm, "self-powered" one.

W.


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## chimuelo (Nov 2, 2015)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LaCie-2big-4-TB-External-7200-RPM-2-Bays-Thunderbolt-cable-included-/262122964194?hash=item3d07bf04e2:g:H-sAAOSwuTxWA1fY

Buy it now.


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## Astronaut FX (Nov 2, 2015)

chimuelo said:


> http://www.ebay.com/itm/LaCie-2big-4-TB-External-7200-RPM-2-Bays-Thunderbolt-cable-included-/262122964194?hash=item3d07bf04e2:g:H-sAAOSwuTxWA1fY
> 
> Buy it now.



I'm pretty certain that drive is not powered by the thunderbolt cable. Pretty sure it requires its own power cable.


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## babylonwaves (Nov 2, 2015)

Tone Deaf said:


> I'm pretty certain that drive is not powered by the thunderbolt cable. Pretty sure it requires its own power cable.


you can see the connected power supply on the picture.


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## Walid F. (Nov 2, 2015)

Tone Deaf said:


> I'm pretty certain that drive is not powered by the thunderbolt cable. Pretty sure it requires its own power cable.



Alas, this is powered externally as well, so I need to carry with me extra power supply for it. :/

W.


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## blizzard (Nov 27, 2015)

Hey Walid - I posted in your "Portable Composing Gear" thread before I noticed this one here. What did you end up going with for streaming samples? I am about to purchase the exact rMBP and I'm looking for options. 

Would 7200rpm drives in a Thunderbolt enclosure be fast enough to stream a lot of samples? Or should it definitely be SSD?


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