Thunderbolt

[piasabird]

Are thunderbolt adapters going to catch on?

I saw some videos on Thunderbolt and I was wondering if it was going to be the next big thing for backup drives and video.

Intel is trying to go forward and sell this the 4.5" computer they refer to as NUC one of the SKU's said it was for consumer use and had a Thunderbolt port. This is kind of interesting because a Thunderbolt cable is suppose to handle both a backup hard drive and a video source from the same cable at the same time and is faster than USB3.

Intel calls their new little computer "New Unit of Computing", NUC.

 

[kleinkinstein]

It's cool, fast and sexy but it fills no real or current need.

 

[ViRGE]

It needs a better Windows implementation before it goes anywhere outside of Apple. It's generally fine on Mac OS X, but it's a complete mess on Windows right now.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

We are starting to see boards rolling out with it but I am not seeing many devices with it. I think in time we'll see more Thunderbolt products but it is slow going for now.

 

[trasixes]

It may take some time, but it will likely catch on since Intel is pimping it versus USB 3.0

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It needs a better Windows implementation before it goes anywhere outside of Apple. It's generally fine on Mac OS X, but it's a complete mess on Windows right now.

We are starting to see boards rolling out with it but I am not seeing many devices with it. I think in time we'll see more Thunderbolt products but it is slow going for now.

The real problem with thunderbolt is the current complete lack of backward-compatibility. Almost no PCs has a TB port, but almost every PC out there has a USB1/2/3 port...

Thunderbolt makes a lot of sense, but it will be a good while before its ubiquitous like USB.

 

[philipma1957]

The real problem with thunderbolt is the current complete lack of backward-compatibility. Almost no PCs has a TB port, but almost every PC out there has a USB1/2/3 port...

Thunderbolt makes a lot of sense, but it will be a good while before its ubiquitous like USB.

It is far better then USB3 performance wise. But a Porsche is better then a buick. so it loses out price wise. I have a house full of macs and pcs.


it works great with the macs. spectacular portable booter.

I can walk from mini to mini and use the same lacie little big disk as a booter.

the problem with windows is the os is locked to one machine in most cases.

so a movable booter has a great deal of potential for many users.

it also is a big time security risk. for my closed system I love the ability to shift the os from machine to machine. but think of all the theft this could cause in an office.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It is far better then USB3 performance wise. But a Porsche is better then a buick. so it loses out price wise. I have a house full of macs and pcs.

TB wins hands down in speed. No contest. But TB's extremely expensive cables is kind of hard to swallow...

Where I live (Denmark) a 1m TB cable cost ~350DKK (~$60), a 1m USB3 cable is ~35DKK (~$6)... :\

it works great with the macs. spectacular portable booter.

I can walk from mini to mini and use the same lacie little big disk as a booter.

the problem with windows is the os is locked to one machine in most cases.

so a movable booter has a great deal of potential for many users.

it also is a big time security risk. for my closed system I love the ability to shift the os from machine to machine. but think of all the theft this could cause in an office.

Win8 can already do that, it has a Windows-on-the-go mode. But its only available in the Enterprise edition...

 

[piasabird]

There are so many things that Microsoft has locked out just to protect against piracy and Music rights people. I wont put much stock in it. Of course other cables like HDMI were expensive when they came out. I gueess if it is a high speed cable, then maybe it might have more quality issues for cables. It seems like Apple is always a step ahead sometimes.

 

[ViRGE]

There are so many things that Microsoft has locked out just to protect against piracy and Music rights people. I wont put much stock in it. Of course other cables like HDMI were expensive when they came out. I gueess if it is a high speed cable, then maybe it might have more quality issues for cables. It seems like Apple is always a step ahead sometimes.

Uhh, I'm not sure I see what Thunderbolt has to do with DRM? It's just an external PCIe connection; it supports all the relevant endpoint DRM standards.

 

[biostud]

It might be faster than USB 3.0 but how many of the end users has the need, compared to the need for backwards compatibility?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It might be faster than USB 3.0 but how many of the end users has the need, compared to the need for backwards compatibility?

My point exactly... :thumbsup:

 

[red454]

Wasn't IEEE 1394 Firewire a big deal at one point? Did it ever catch on?

My Corsair 500R case has a front firewire port. I've been using computers since the '80's and not once have I used a firewire port. Additional USB ports would be far more useful to me.

I am getting a Maximus V Foumula motherboard in a week or so, and it has a Thunderbolt header on it, but no port. I suppose the header is for some future expansion card perhaps. But when making the decision on a motherboard, I see that there are several out there now that have Thunderbolt ports. I'll bet it will be 2 or 3 years before TB is close to the current USB price point.