Promise Pegasus R6 & Mac Thunderbolt Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 8, 2011 2:01 AM ESTFinal Words
There are really two things that need concluding in this article. We'll start with the Promise Pegasus R6. Without a doubt this is the highest performing external enclosure you can get for your 2011 MacBook Pro or iMac. Even using lowly mechanical hard drives you can get absolutely amazing sequential performance out of the R6. In its beefiest configuration you get 10TB of storage that you can readily access at over 600MB/s. For a MacBook Pro or iMac user that does a lot of HD video work, this amount of high speed storage is just unheard of. The big tower guys have always been able to piece together beefy RAID arrays, but now you're able to get that sort of an experience in a more compact computing device.
I'd love to see Promise offer a version of the Pegasus with SSDs instead of mechanical drives. If Promise didn't want to retool the Pegasus' design it could come in the same chassis, but it'd be really nice to see an even smaller form factor chassis designed exclusively around the 2.5" form factor. I've already shown what four high speed SSDs can do in the R6's chassis. You obviously don't get the capacity but I suspect there's a class of users out there that needs more than what a MacBook Pro can offer with its internal drive bays, but doesn't quite need 10TB of storage.
The Promise Utility that comes with the Pegasus is nice but I found it slightly temperamental at times. I almost feel like we're another couple of software/firmware revisions away from a more polished solution, although admittedly I didn't encounter any issues when I was just using the device as configured.
The biggest drawback to the Pegasus is its price. At $1999 fully loaded, or $999 for an entry level 4TB R4 it's just a very difficult device to justify. I suspect if your work depends on it then you'll have no problems spending the money, but it is a very niche product as a result. I would like to see Promise or someone else offer a barebones Thunderbolt chassis for those users who need this sort of performance but at a better price point. I can understand the price premium for Thunderbolt, but at these prices the technology is simply out of the reach of too many who could honestly use it.
Which brings me to the next topic of discussion: Thunderbolt. The interface is fast, there's no doubt about that. With the right drive configuration I had no problems pushing 8Gbps over the PCIe channel while sending another ~7Gbps over the DisplayPort channel to a 27-inch monitor. It's clear that Thunderbolt has what it takes to really enable more users to migrate from big desktops to high powered quad-core notebooks. The interface effectively solves the high speed local storage issue.
I'd love to see Apple get really aggressive here and offer a Cinema Display with two Thunderbolt ports, more USB ports, Ethernet and audio out. Then MacBook Pro users would only have to run a single Thunderbolt cable + power to their notebooks when they're docked at a desk. I'd also like to see full-speed performance when used in Target Disk Mode. Thunderbolt could become the new defacto way to quickly migrate data between Macs.
I am concerned that we may run into bandwidth limitations in the not too distant future. If we can already push 5 - 8Gbps of data on a single channel, what happens when you run Gigabit Ethernet and USB over Thunderbolt as well. For high end users, I see a definite need for faster signaling or multiple Thunderbolt ports.
I also have concerns about cable costs and widespread adoption. For Thunderbolt to really take off we need to see tons of products that support it. Intel's Thunderbolt controller IC can't be cheap, so I am curious to find out if more companies will give Thunderbolt a try. I believe cable costs can be prohibitive, but today device costs are the bigger concern.
Intel already announced that we'd see Thunderbolt support in Ivy Bridge designs next year so it may be at least one more year before we see just how much market potential Thunderbolt has. While I'm happy that Apple is championing the standard, Thunderbolt really needs widespread industry support to make an impact.
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takumsawsherman - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link
You mean like booting from a CD or USB flash drive and copying files to a very small, hideable storage container?Perfectly possible, and in fact I find myself doing this frequently (though copying the data in the other direction typically) when disinfecting PCs. I do this multiple times per week, removing data stealing trojans and rootkits.
Compare with Thunderbolt, where you will "sneak in with only a laptop and a cable and reboot and press T, and ZOMG yor datas are hax0red! Ha HA ha stupid Apple!!!111oneonewonwon"
Leaves obvious traces? Exactly what traces did the Boot CD leave?
Penti - Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - link
As you can password protect (which can be bypassed with physical access any way) the firmware it doesn't matter if it is Firewire/Thunderbolt-target or USB-stick/HDD that access and or copies the files or simply a CD that changes your password so you can just log in an access everything without any effort at all. If you don't have limits on the firmware/bios any way you can just set up whatever, and access anything without any effort, less so then using slow target disk mode, even through network boot is possible which might be on in a corporate/university environment any way.Just disable the good damn features you don't like, it don't make your computer safe but I'm sure it will quit you whining for nothing.
You will just access everything by running the system rescue tools on the install CD for OS X any how. Windows computers are essentially unprotected any way. So I really don't see how it's any worse then plugging in a USB stick to access everything or change the password (SAM) to blank/whateveryoulike. Screaming about a ten year old feature is just dumb. Just set up a firmware password and it stops people from simply booting a CD, USB-drive, HDD-drive, using target disk mode and network boot any way. It's simply not more vulnerable then PCs any way. It's quite easy to restore the firmware-password thus bypassing it on say an iMac any way, I could easily do it on older macs without taking the entire computer apart. And on a PC of course resetting CMOS password is often troubleless and manufacturers often has master passwords you get by calling the support any way. Later macs has got better protection from resetting the firmware password though. So just set the damn password.
Penti - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
They are not driving the screen with a separate control-board. That's why target display is so awkward. You can expect third party stuff (and older macs) will work when Atlona has designed and released an Thunderbolt-compatible adapter/switch/converter/scaler though. It a integrated solution not a screen and a computer separate. The screen is when used normally connected directly to the ATi/AMD 6000M GPU. That's why you can't adjust the screen in Bootcamp/Windows without their software tool too.HW_mee - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
That makes sense, not much you can do to separate the two things if the screen is "merged" with the computer. I expected the computer part and screen part was seperate and the display input could be used in the same way as with most multiple input screens.If that was the case, a simple power circuit could control the screen and computer separately.
youngjimmy - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
'Failing to do so will give you this all-*to*-familiar error' (bottom, The Pegasus: Software)Kimbie - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
You made mention about connecting up a monitor to the last port on the chain, by plugging in a thunderbolt cable into the imac and used it as a second screen.Does this still work if you use a mini-display port to DVI adaptor and into a bog standard DVI monitor?
Kimbie
Focher - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link
Just to clarify, the last connection in the chain to a mini DisplayPort monitor does not require a Thunderbolt cable. You would just use a mini DP cable.André - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
Does it support JBOD?Would be really great for us using ZFS+ arrays, although I would have preferred at least 8 bays.
Exodite - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
The performance is impressive, though nothing like what you'd get transfering a large number of smaller files obviously.That said, for 2000 USD why wouldn't I simply build a high-end desktop /with/ 12TB of storage?
It'd still be cheaper and I could put the remainder towards a gilded sticker for the case saying 'cheap-ass NAS'.
André - Friday, July 8, 2011 - link
It would appear that is the solution for you, building your own NAS.This enclosure is, however, not a NAS.
It enable users that need high disk performance to get easy access to precisely that in a mobile package you can take on the road with you and edit in the field.
Think large Final Cut Pro (or any other NLE), Logic Studio and Photoshop projects.