Stepping up to PT10 (from OS9)- a few questions...

[Silent Sentinel]

Hi -
I've done some poking around here, but still have a few questions.

After 10 years of solid service, I'm finally ditching my old PT system (Vs.5 on a Digi 001, Mac G4 running OS9).

Just purchased (which has not shipped yet):
15.4" MacBook Pro quad-core Intel Core i7 2.3GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB Solid State Internal System Drive, Intel HD Graphics 4000, Mac OS X Mountain Lion
(Ports include: 2xUSB 3.0, 1xFW800, 1xThunderbolt, 1xGigabit Ethernet, and an SDXC card slot)

Audio Interface purchased (which also has not shipped yet):
Universal Audio Apollo Quad (oh boy, am I looking forward to this thing)

Bought ProTools 10 (which came with the Eleven Rack)

Now, my first question is - what's the best thing to do about my dedicated audio drive, which I have yet to purchase? Consider: I'm going to use the FW800 port for the Apollo, and one of the USB 3.0 ports for the iLok. Also consider, that I'd LIKE to use an external monitor at some point.

That leaves one USB 3.0 and the TB port. Now, any external Thunderbolt drive that has 2 Thunderbolt ports on it is out of my price range and comes in sizes that are way more than I'd need, but probably the best way to chain a monitor after it, I assume, if I were to attempt a Thunderbolt to VGA adaptor in order to keep using my present monitor as a second monitor in my new setup. Which leaves the last USB 3.0 port. Stupid question, but, I can't use USB 3.0 external drives for my audio, can I?

Should I just forego the 2nd monitor for now and get a cheaper Thunderbolt external drive (w/ only one TB port on it) for the audio? I really don't need more than 1Tb of space...probably could even get away w/ 500 Gb if I had to.

OR (and I've heard some mention of this, but haven't had the time to research deeply yet), should I just swap out the optical drive when my new Macbook Pro arrives and put in a 7200 rpm drive just for the audio?

If external hd is the way to go, can they be bus powered, or no?

Any other potential snags (with this new setup) to look out for would also be greatly appreciated. Or just point me to a link, if you don't have the time to expound on it.
Sorry for the long post...
Thanks in advance for the help!

~ Mark

[Silent Sentinel]

I guess I should also mention that I don't normally RECORD more than one or two stereo pairs at any given time...if that info helps at all.

[Chief Technician]

I use a bus-powered FireWire 800 drive on my own MacBook Pro.

Based upon your post, I would recommend using a Thunderbolt drive for audio.

[necjamc]

I don't have a MB Pro, but I've seen tons of topics on the DUC regarding swapping out the optical drive. That to me is the best option. You can purchase a USB optical for necessity and have dual drives for in the go work. I think it's OWC listed here for the kit. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

That to me sounds like the most useful option IMO.

[dr_daw]

Silent,

I had the same hopes as you when I purchased my MBP with using the Thunderbolt port for an additional monitor. I went with a FW 800 glyph drive and can absolutely NOT get that drive and my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 to play nice when daisy chained. More then likely because of the bottleneck caused by the the Saffire being FW400. This resulted in HAVING to use a Thunderbolt to FW 800 adaptor, which has now completely eliminated the chance of running an extra monitor. Bit of a let down, so keep that in mind if you have having troubles with your FW daisy chain.

Knowing what I know now I would've gone with an OWC elite drive which comes with FW 800 and USB 3( http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3QH7500GB/ ). From my understanding USB 3 is faster than FW 800 and will work. Problem being of course now you are out of USB ports, and if you have an Eleven Rack you'll probably want to plug that in too. If you have no use for it, I'll gladly take it off your hands

I stayed away from Thunderbolt drives as most that I found that were 'affordable' were only 5400rpm or Solid State and not big enough for an audio drive.

As for bus powered drives, I'm not positive but I'd say you'd want to steer clear of that. But most external drives from OWC and Glyph have power supplies.

If you can get your Apollo to play nice in a daisy chain that would be ideal, but without having someone with a working setup, it'll be a gamble.

Remember to do all your system optimizations when everything arrives, and install all the latest drivers. Enjoy your new toy and have fun!

[sunburst79]

I'm not going to argue with Chief Technician post at all.

I will say that I've used the optical in my MBP so little in the last few years that I'm contemplating the drive bay adapter myself. My 2008 MBP is mostly for recreation these days and with PT no longer needing hardware that would make for a simple compact package I could use to edit or whatever. The main reason I mention this is that the optical drive is a bit of an extra appendage these days and some times it makes more sense to ditch that. I'd rather carry a USB optical in the bag and never use it than be connecting a External HDD all the time just to use PT.

[nst7]

A couple other options to switch around what you need to hook up. Consider getting a powered USB hub for everything but the Eleven Rack and USB 3 audio drive.

Also, consider getting the Thunderbolt card option for the Apollo.

Also, Belkin is going to finally release their Thunderbolt Dock that has a bunch of connections on it (firewire, USB 3, etc.) in the next month or two. They dropped the Esata connection and lowered the price to $299.

[Silent Sentinel]

Thanks for all of the thoughtful and helpful replies so far.

That Belkin Thunderbolt dock looks very tempting, but one question:
does that mean you still have access to the ports directly out of the laptop at the same time? I would assume so, right? That might solve my problems right there.

http://www.macgasm.net/2013/01/07/be...-express-dock/

[nst7]

Yes. The other ports on the laptop are still operational, if that's what you mean.

The one Thunderbolt port has enough bandwidth to carry all those connections.

[dr_daw]

Silent - you would for sure still have access to the ports on the MBP as they are a seperate beast then Thunderbolt.

That Thunderbolt dock looks pretty neat, I'd heard about something from Belkin and was hoping it was going to be a Thunderbolt Hub. So here's the real question; How will it perform when it's splitting bandwidth between a FW800 audio interface, USB 3 drives, and a Thunderbolt display adapter? Thunderbolt claims 6 devices can be daisy chained ( I have not doubt in that claim). I mean 2 channels of 10 Gbit/s up/downstream is a heck of alot. I can't seem to find any information on how Thunderbolt will perform with this kind of breakout box that will have different ports that run at different bandwidths? Will you be able to daisy chain off that FW800 port? How is this all going to play with Pro Tools? Any thoughts?