Promise Technology ships 'world's first' 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 drives

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Promise Technology on Wednesday announced its new Pegasus2 RAID arrays are now shipping, bringing one of the first Thunderbolt 2-equipped storage solutions to market for high-powered computers like the upcoming Mac Pro.

Pegasus2


The new direct attached storage enclosures offer speeds up to 20Gbps thanks to the Thunderbolt 2 transfer standard, which is being included on Apple's latest Mac desktops and laptops. Promise first unveiled the Pegasus2 in October.

With the high-speed Thunderbolt 2, Promise says Pegasus2 can handle high-bandwidth 3D and 4K video files and other data-intensive applications like CAD engineering, CAE Auto Design and professional IT workgroups, among others.

In addition to 20Gbps speeds with current Macs, the Pegasus2 accelerates throughput when attached to the Mac Pro, which should be released before December is out.

Pegasus2 comes in 4-bay, 6-bay and 8-bay RAID enclosure configurations with maximum capacities of 8TB, 12TB, 18TB, 24TB and 32TB. Retail prices start at $1,499 and go to $4,599, but a couple of Apple Authorized Resellers listed in AppleInsider's Storage Price Guide are offering discounts on the new RAIDs, with the added benefit of B&H only charging sales tax on orders to NY and MacMall only on orders to CA, NY, IL, WI, MN, CO, TN, NC and GA:
  • Pegasus2 8TB R4 (4-bay) - $1,454 (B&H Photo -- Pre Order), $1,454 (MacMall -- In Stock)
  • Pegasus2 12TB R6 (6-bay) - $2,230 (B&H Photo -- Pre Order), $2,230 (MacMall -- In Stock)
  • Pegasus2 18TB R6 (6-bay) - $2,909 (B&H Photo -- Pre Order), $2,909 (MacMall -- In Stock)
  • Pegasus2 24TB R8 (8-bay) - $3,491 (B&H Photo -- Pre Order), $3,491 (MacMall -- In Stock)
  • Pegasus2 32TB R8 (8-bay) - $4,461 (B&H Photo -- Pre Order), $4,461 (MacMall -- In Stock)
Thunderbolt 2 doubles the throughput of its predecessor by using a new controller that combines the first-gen's two 10Gbps uni-directional channels into a single 20Gbps bi-directional channel. The new standard is backwards compatible and supports DisplayPort 1.2, enabling video streaming to one 4K monitor, or dual QHD displays.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24

    Make it red and cylindrical and I'll take it for $977,000

     

    TF

  • Reply 2 of 24
    Thunderbolt....dead end technology.
  • Reply 3 of 24
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post



    Thunderbolt....dead end technology.

    actually it's not dead end, you can keep daisy chaining equipment

  • Reply 4 of 24
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Thunderbolt....dead end technology.

    I hope that's sarcasm.
  • Reply 5 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I hope that's sarcasm.

    That's how I took it but you never know

  • Reply 6 of 24
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member

    The Apple Store is listing these as well. The Pegasus2 R4 8TB is selling for $1499 but they also are selling a diskless version for $699, the idea being you take the 4 disks from your old Mac Pro and put them into this box. I emailed Promise to see if 2T disks are the max this unit can hold. I also asked which manufacturer disks they use. You can get decent 2T drives under $200 making the final price less than a fully loaded one from a Promise distributor.

  • Reply 7 of 24
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    rob53 wrote: »
    I emailed Promise to see if 2T disks are the max this unit can hold.

    I would hope expect that's not the case with any new RAID, especially one using this tech. Even if this came out before 4TB were available I'd expect in this day and age for them to still support 4TB drives, and 6TB drives in a year or two when they are available.
  • Reply 8 of 24
    Quote:


    The new direct attached storage enclosures offer speeds up to 20Gbps thanks to the Thunderbolt 2 transfer standard, which is being included on Apple's latest Mac desktops and laptops. 


     

    Not the 2013 iMac's, however, which was a weird choice all around. I guess Apple decided they only wanted Mac Pro/Macbook Pro Retina owners to have access to high end storage tech. Whatever. USB 3 is fast enough for my needs, and TB tech is still ridiculously overpriced so  I can't say it's a feature I'll miss in my new desktop.

  • Reply 9 of 24
    feynmanfeynman Posts: 1,087member
    cash907 wrote: »
    Not the 2013 iMac's, however, which was a weird choice all around. I guess Apple decided they only wanted Mac Pro/Macbook Pro Retina owners to have access to high end storage tech. Whatever. USB 3 is fast enough for my needs, and TB tech is still ridiculously overpriced so  I can't say it's a feature I'll miss in my new desktop.

    Though I expect it to be backwards compatible and work with TB 1 speeds on Macs that do not have TB 2. Is this not the case?
  • Reply 10 of 24
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    cash907 wrote: »
    Not the 2013 iMac's, however, which was a weird choice all around. I guess Apple decided they only wanted Mac Pro/Macbook Pro Retina owners to have access to high end storage tech. Whatever. USB 3 is fast enough for my needs, and TB tech is still ridiculously overpriced so  I can't say it's a feature I'll miss in my new desktop.

    What a minute. Weren't you bitching and whining that Apple hadn't yet released the MBPs back around the time the iMacs were released? And I seem to recall you were informed that's it's probably been held off due to TB2 chip availability which you retorted that it didn't matter about TB2 when the other vendors had already released their new laptops with the latest Intel CPUs. So now you're bitching and whining the other way? :no:
  • Reply 11 of 24
    Perfect companion for the Mac Pro.
  • Reply 12 of 24
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member

    MacSales sells 4-bay USB3 RAID boxes empty for under $300. Promise sells their empty 4-bay TB2 RAID for $699. Has anyone actually tried a USB3 RAID? What happens when you use slower devices on this bus?

  • Reply 13 of 24
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    rob53 wrote: »
    Has anyone actually tried a USB3 RAID? What happens when you use slower devices on this bus?

    The speed is as fast as its slowest component. Even with RAID 0 or 1+0 I think that even USB 2.0 is faster than any HDD-based RAID.


    edit: This link indicates that I grossly underestimated the read and write performance of 7200RPM 3.5" HDDs.

  • Reply 14 of 24
    Imagine how much 4k porn you could transfer with that thing...
  • Reply 15 of 24
    solipsismx wrote: »
    I hope that's sarcasm.

    Of course it is. Spec worshippers love tech with the most specs. Except when they think it's Apple tech. Then it's "dead end."
  • Reply 16 of 24
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    Of course it is. Spec worshippers love tech with the most specs. Except when they think it's Apple tech. Then it's "dead end."

     

    The problem is that Intel is finally embracing their own jointly developed standard and they seem to overlook that aspect.

  • Reply 17 of 24
    aussiepaul wrote: »
    Imagine how much 4k porn you could transfer with that thing...

    I know porn has been at the bleeding edge of most new tech since VHS and pay-per-spew, but some things (Jenna Jameson's well-worn 'I/O ports' spring to mind) should stay low-resolution.
  • Reply 18 of 24
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I would hope expect that's not the case with any new RAID, especially one using this tech. Even if this came out before 4TB were available I'd expect in this day and age for them to still support 4TB drives, and 6TB drives in a year or two when they are available.

     

    I actually got a response from Promise:

     


    P2R4HD0US is the part, and just search "Pegasus" at the Apple store. 


     


    The diskless version of the Pegasus2 is sold for data migration purpose only and support is very limited.


    There is a compatibility list for Pegasus:




    We offer 2, 3 and 4TB spare drives. See price book, attached (rob53--didn't try attaching price list). We typically use Hitachi Deskstar.




    thanks

     





    Best Regards, Brian Reynolds Inside Sales 408-228-1400 www.promise.com

  • Reply 19 of 24
    Promise Technology's enclosures are obnoxiously loud and their embedded software has some serious bugs. I would definitely holdout for a different brand.
  • Reply 20 of 24
    rhyderhyde Posts: 294member
    Now, if only Apple would accelerate the release of a Mac Mini that connects to these guys (and fully supports TB2 speeds). Would make a heck of a video server. My old Mac Mini connected to FW800 raid still stutters all the time.
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