#HOW TO CONNECT A HDD TO A MACBOOK PRO THUNDERBOLT PORT MAC#

But with a little thought and consideration for the 2013 Mac Pro’s Thunderbolt layout, most users will be able to make the transition easily and enjoy the high level of performance demanded by their workflows.These Mac models have Thunderbolt 3 ports: The 2013 Mac Pro is a marvel of engineering, but its drastically redesigned chassis means that many pro users, especially those upgrading from the old Mac Pro tower, will have a bevy of external accessories with which to deal.

Note, however, that the Mac Pro’s USB configuration comes with its own set of caveats, and users should avoid relying on it for ultra-high-performance devices. If you’re running short on Thunderbolt busses, therefore, consider attaching the drive to one of the Mac Pro’s four USB 3.0 ports. The Buffalo MiniStation, for example, includes support for both technologies and, as a single hard drive-based device, would work great on either Thunderbolt or USB. But not everything needs to be connected via Thunderbolt, and many devices include connectivity for both Thunderbolt and USB. Thunderbolt is the “latest and greatest,” and so early adopters are keen to take maximum advantage of the technology. Consider grouping and chaining memory card readers, single-drive HDD-based enclosures, and low-resolution displays together on one of the three busses.

Similar to above, you can help reserve a Thunderbolt bus for your high performance devices by grouping and daisy-chaining your less important and lower performing devices into a single bus. Group Low-Performing Devices on the Same Bus For example, if the above-mentioned SSD RAID array is the key storage device for your Mac Pro workstation, you might plug it into Thunderbolt Port 1 and all of your other displays and devices into every remaining port except for port 3, which is on the same Thunderbolt bus as port 1. While virtually no current devices can saturate the theoretical maximum bandwidth allocated to each bus, if you have a limited number of devices, try giving your most important device its own bus to avoid any potential bandwidth conflicts. Dedicate a Single Bus to Your Most Important Thunderbolt Device Therefore, be sure to keep your high performance storage arrays, such as an SSD RAID array, on separate Thunderbolt busses. Don’t Mix Displays and Storage on the Same Thunderbolt Busĭisplays, especially high resolution options like the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display or the 28-inch Dell P2815Q 4K Monitor, will consume a significant chunk of the bandwidth allotted to each Thunderbolt bus. While most common Mac Pro setups will work just fine with a random connection of ports and devices, users should take note of the following recommendations to make sure that their expensive peripherals operate at maximum speed. The bandwidth of one bus can be completely saturated without affecting the bandwidth of the other busses.Īpple conveys this reality to users in the above-mentioned Knowledge Base article by limiting the number of displays per Thunderbolt bus to two, as the bandwidth required by more than two displays may exceed the allotment provided to that bus, not to mention the requirements of any other devices connected to the Thunderbolt chain.īut the same limitations that affect displays also affect high performance Thunderbolt peripherals such as RAID arrays, hubs, and PCIe expansion chassis.

Each of these three busses has a dedicated allotment of bandwidth from the system’s PCIe controller, which equates to an estimated 5 gigabytes per second each (note the distinction between giga bytes (GB) and giga bits (Gb) one gigabyte equals 8 gigabits).

How to connect a hdd to a macbook pro thunderbolt port