JBOD box for 2011 Macbook Pro

[jimtron]

I just got a 2011 MBP which I'd like to connect to my many internal 3.5" drives. Currently I have an aging Mac Pro which I'm selling. I've got drives inside that, as well as a bunch of 1TB and 3TB bare drives that I access via FW800 docks.

The MBP has Thunderbolt, USB 2, and FW800 ports. I understand that Tbolt is much, much faster than FW, but the Tbolt enclosures (4 bay or bigger) are very expensive. There are lots of eSATA enclosures out there that are much less expensive, and I understand eSATA is also much faster than FW. I found this Lacie Tbolt/eSATA hub, but it looks like it doesn't work with 4 bay JBOD enclosures.

Anyone know if there's an eSATA 4 or 8-bay JBOD enclosure that will work with the MBP, and utilizing the Tbolt port? I've been doing a lot of Googling and not finding the answer.

Thanks,

Jim

[jakobox]

Hey Jim,

It's a bit of a shame that things have been so quite around here. I came with more or less the same question. It seems that there are TONS of raid solutions out there. Not so many JBOD. Based on my read of the DAM book years ago, I have been working on JBODs for several years... but just the lack of available hardware is leading me to think that I might need to switch my approach

Having said that, I did find ONE solution. OWC makes a rack system that can be mounted JBOD with esata.

I don't find the rack system too appealing, but it is one option.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=819990&Q=&is=REG&A=details

[jimtron]

I've given up on Thunderbolt for now--there's not much out there yet, and what is available is expensive. I did find a good FW, 4 bay JBOD enclosure though: http://www.buy.com/prod/datatale-smart-raid-4-bay-firewire-800-esata-usb-enclosure/220268913.html?listingId=136650692  (might be able to find it cheaper on ebay). It works well, except when daisy-chained with other FW drives.