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Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean to Metatron2008

MVM

to Metatron2008

Re: THunderbolt drives are rediculously priced.

said by Metatron2008:

Anybody know of some thunderbolt enclosures to put ssds in? I wouldn't care if they are Chinese knockoffs (That just means the price is super low due to not needing apple certification, everything's made in china anyway..), I just would like to find some thunderbolt enclosures...

The cheapest one that comes to mind is the "Seagate Backup Plus Portable Thunderbolt Adapter (STAE128)" which can be about ~$88. This doesn't include a Thunderbolt cable though. There is also only a single Thunderbolt port so this device will end / terminate the chain. It also might not fit anything other then a 2.5" drive.
said by kitsune:

said by HiVolt:

Dejavu FireWire when it was new... It's the Apple Tax for sure, as there are very few PC options for thunderbolt even now 2 years after its debut.

Apple isn't the one charging for Thunderbolt. Intel is. Apple was only a collaborator, main tech is owned by Intel.

said by skeechan:

It comes from the lack of volume. They aren't producing enough to get the price down. Unfortunately there isn't the demand to support them producing enough to get the price down. The market just isn't that big.

Indeed, Intel seems responsible for Thunderbolt's limited distribution in the market which in turn effects price. Apple computers while growing in market share don't support the volumes necessary to force Thunderbolt prices down. Not all Mac computers even support Thunderbolt so then it becomes a subset of supported Macs with respect to volume.

It was my understanding that Intel specs and certification required a specific use of Intel iGPU video subsystems which is why the more powerful / expensive / pro-sumer Intel Sandy Bridge-E LGA2011 X79 / C606 platform doesn't have Thunderbolt support now in the PC market while the lower-end Ivy Bridge LGA1155 / Z77 does,....

Its Thought that any Mac Pro refresh would be based on Intel Ivy Bridge-E LGA2011 / X79 / C606 (or new chipset / same socket) however there hasn't been any indication that Ivy Bridge-E (an upgrade from Sandy Bridge-E) would have an Intel iGPU. A process shrink still wouldn't likely make an iGPU a viable option on what is already a large and expensive chip.

To be clear, technically an Intel iGPU shouldn't be necessary for Thunderbolt support but it seems to be something Intel mandates anyway and Apple or any other company would likely have to comply.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

said by Octavean:

To be clear, technically an Intel iGPU shouldn't be necessary for Thunderbolt support but it seems to be something Intel mandates anyway and Apple or any other company would likely have to comply.

Well a Mac Pro will certainly not have integrated graphics, but a PCI-E card... And how Apple handles that will be interesting... Some sort of custom video card with thunderbolt data IO as well as video output...

This is what I never liked about the connector that its shared with the displayport... They should have kept it separate.

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

1 edit

Octavean

MVM

said by HiVolt:

said by Octavean:

To be clear, technically an Intel iGPU shouldn't be necessary for Thunderbolt support but it seems to be something Intel mandates anyway and Apple or any other company would likely have to comply.

Well a Mac Pro will certainly not have integrated graphics, but a PCI-E card... And how Apple handles that will be interesting... Some sort of custom video card with thunderbolt data IO as well as video output...

This is what I never liked about the connector that its shared with the displayport... They should have kept it separate.

That's my point,...

Near as I can tell, the Intel spec / and certification for Thunderbolt would require an Intel video subsystem be present.

When the PC market started to get Intel Thunderbolt support it was considered a high-end option for high-end products but the highest end platform for consumers that Intel offers, LGA2011 / X79 Sandy Bridge-E, never received such support. There was no reason for this unless it didn't meet the standards that Intel itself set.

Asus had an add-in board called ThunderboltEX which was supposed to add Thunderbolt support to what they considered Thunderbolt ready motherboards via a "TB_Header". It never came to market because it was denied certification likely for the way it allowed non-Intel video support over Thunderbolt or something similar. Asus was also going to bring Thunderbolt to its AMD line of motherboards using this add-in card.

What you're suggesting is technically possible but it wont happen unless Intel signs off on it and I don't think Intel will.

So basically something has to give.

A new Mac Pro, if one ever comes, might not have Thunderbolt support. If it does it will likely have an Intel iGPU built into the CPU. That's not to say a GPU add-in card wouldn't work but it would have to integrated in a way that Intel would certify. I believe there are examples of this in the wild now with lucidlogix virtu software on the PC platform.

Or we could just put it this way, what Mac now has Intel Thunderbolt but no Intel video subsystem built in,.....?

I believe the answer to that is "not a single one".

That's not to say it will never happen but it hasn't happened so far. This gives us reason to think it might not happen any time soon,...

***edit***

Links to the Asus ThunderboltEX add-in card that never made it to market:

»www.pcper.com/news/Mothe ··· erboards

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· M7sRizvw


It was supposed to launch with Intel Ivy Bridge.