If you have a Mac Pro ( which have yet to be updated with Thunderbolt ) and a USB 3.0 hard drive , you’re able to take vantage of USB 3.0 speeds by instal HighPoint ’s newRocketU Quad USB 3.0PCI - due east card . The RocketU feature four USB 3.0 ports , with each port rated at 5Gbps ( USB 2.0 is blackleg at 480Mbps ) . The RocketU can be used with USB 2.0 drive , but there is n’t any tally speed benefit .
you could connect four different laborious drives to each port of the RocketU , and each drive will appear on your desktop . But the RocketU also has a RAID accountant , and you could configure up to four devices as a maraud 0 , 1 , 5 , or 10 array . HighPoint includes entanglement - based RAID management software .
The RocketU is $ 125 .
Thunderbolt , the new connection technology that Applefirst follow through in the MacBook Proin February , promises fast data transfers . Thunderbolt hard drive , however , have been slow to market — six months later , we ’re stillwaiting for a flood of Thunderboltstorage devices . There are Promise’sPegasus R4 and R6RAID arrays , and the $ 49 AppleThunderbolt cable , and nothing else ( there ’s also Apple’sThunderbolt Displayif you consider non - storage devices ) . With USB 3.0 now standard equipment on hard drives and USB 2.0 being standard equipment on Macs , Thunderbolt is the only way to take advantage of USB 3.0 ’s speed , but there ’s not even a USB 3.0 - to - bombshell arranger usable .
owner of the 17 - column inch MacBook Pro can get a USB 3.0 ExpressCard , such as theone from LaCie . As for substance abuser of the iMac , Mac miniskirt , 13 - inch MacBook Pro , 15 - inch MacBook Pro , and MacBook Air who want to take advantage of USB 3.0 f number , the hold for adapters continue .
