Which Hard Disk To Buy With Mac : Using Firewire 800 Hard Disks with USB-C Thunderbolt 3 Macs

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parambyte
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Which Hard Disk To Buy With Mac : Using Firewire 800 Hard Disks with USB-C Thunderbolt 3 Macs

Post by parambyte »


With all the new MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs and iMacs coming with the USB-C compatible Thunderbolt 3  Port, considering which hard disk to buy has become a cause for concern. USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 port look the same and have many compatibilities but Thunderbolt 3 is better for video.

(See Thunderbolt 3 vs USB-C difference here and why Thunderbolt 3 is so much better)

Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C Hard drives are more expensive to buy. Even now, if you were to buy a Firewire 800 external La Cie or Western Digital or Seagate hard disk it will be far cheaper than a USB-C 4TB Drive. And with camera sensors touching 12k now, huge data requirements have become a norm.

So which hard disk to buy?

I would suggest go for an external 7200RPM or faster (very essential for video) hard disk with a FireWire 800 Port (only because it is so much cheaper). You can buy any hard disk with those specs and format it for Mac using Apple's Disk Utility Tool.

Unfortunately Apple doesn't seem to have a Thunderbolt 3 to Firewire 800 Adaptor. SO the only option for me was to buy the expensive OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock. It has many ports which kind of makes ups for the lack of ports on a Mac. I couldn't find another device which reliably supported the older Firewire 800 Port.

 

OWC-01.jpg

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock, though expensive has many ports. On its front side are an SD Card Slot, a Head Phone Slot and a USB 3 slot.

 

 

OWC-2.jpg

On the other side of the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Adaptor are 4 X USB3 Ports, SPDF for Digital Audio port, an Ethernet Port, 2  X Thunderbolt 3 Ports, an Apple Mini Display Port (this was also welcome since I have an Apple Cinema Display) and the power port.

It must be noted that the Mini Display Port, though it looks like a Thunderbolt 2 Port, unfortunately does not support Thunderbolt 2 hard disks.

So if you have to buy hard disks for your Mac, I would recommend Firewire 800 based 7200 RPM drives, and connect via OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock. It is a pity that it seems OWC has stopped adding the Firewire 800 Port in the newer versions of the Thunderbolt 3 Dock.

So the other option is to buy :

1) Apple Thunderbolt 2 To Firewire 800 Adaptor

2) Apple USB-C to  Thunderbolt 2 Adaptor.


 

If you happen to buy a Thunderbolt 2 Based hard drive the best option is to buy Apple's USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) to Thunderbolt 2 Adaptor.

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