Best possible setup for the future
Used mac desktops up until now. Primarily storage reasons. I am sending my daughter off to college this fall and decided to get our first laptop, nice zippy macpro 15". I have to say I'm very happy stealing this laptop from my daughter. I thought I would not want to do so much picture processing on such a limited screen, as I'm used to two landscape monitors.
The database for Aperture right now is almost 400 gigs. I used managed files. I initially thought about upgrading my old desktops to a new super powerful desktop in the next year of so, as I'm still using powermac PCs.
I wasn't going to consider a laptop as a serious contender for primarily the storage issue.
Enter thunderbolt.
Now I'm scratching my head and wondering about the potential to utilize this seemingly potential I/O as a game changer to the deal.
#1 - I'm not in a hurry. Time is on my side.
#2 - in the past, desktop Vs laptop was a no brainer to me. That gap has narrow now. The primary issue was screen space and storage, mostly storage/speed really.
#3 - speed gap from laptop to desktop is nominal at best from what I can tell, am I correct in seeing this now as not as clear an advantage of a desktop?
#4 - if I'm understanding thunderbolt right (and since time is on my side), I could potentially have a laptop with some lug around peripherals that would nearly make this like a desktop on the go. Sit down and plug into multiple monitors in a flash with RAID extensions, who knows what. Maybe then grab a raid cube and run with it to a place and essentially take my "desktop" environment with me. Am I thinking straight here or being a bit to idealistic? Seems like that it where Apple/intel is headed with this
#5 - managed Vs referenced. I've read a little about this debate and approach. I've only gone with managed and probably will do so, but in light of what I've said above, any comments?
#6 - backup. Always the biggie for me. backup. I love redundancy. I have time machine this and that thrown around in duplicity, copy over mirror drives here and there, and even put an extra drive or two in a neighbor's closet x2 a year just as an offsite backup in case of catastrophic loss like fire/theft. I'm not crazy over such a fragmented multiple approach, but haven't found what I consider a good alternative just yet to something simple, straightforward, and trustworthy. I'm hoping thunderbolt might lend a whole new ability to move quicker through backup scenarios. Thoughts? What are your approaches when you have a life's work of digital pics and videos and just can't stand the thought of ever ever losing them?
#7 - I would love to have an offsite online backup option for everything, seems that would solve so much of my backup stuff. But as a home user that is seriously into digital whatever, I haven't seem to run across something good as I've been limited to slow upload speeds. Until now. Enter FiOs. I can now(supposedly) do 32 up and down on the Fios, the fastest I think I will be able to get without going to a major business type connection. Does anyone have any knowledge of anything that would be a solid online backup option for 2TB or more of data on a revolving basis? I want to overshoot a bit as I seem to be picking up memory usage quickly with shooting in all RAW now and using higher density HD video. Opinions?
Having said all that, I hope what is coming across is that I'm looking at basically going from a guy who had an old powermac and found he is good at video, photos, and all things fun like that. Expanding into business sides of it slowly, seeming to have good luck, sending a daughter off to college introduced a surprising element to me of a powerful laptop, and now I'm grappling with onsite and offisite storage. Future expansion. thunderbolt potential.
I would appreciate some of you who have much more seasoned interactions with higher end equipment and can appreciate some of the details, if you could give some insight into what might work, might not, how to posture myself the best for future expansion and capabilities, etc. I'm not too worried about price. Obviously I'm a home user, so I don't have a corporate account. But dropping 10 - 20 grand in the next 2 or so years wouldn't be unreasonable if it were to posture me for the best potential use for many years.
Thanks,
Robert
PowerMac G5 2.0 dual, Mac OS X (10.5.4), 12 GB ram