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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Redmag SSD Reader USB 3.0 version with new USB 3.0 capable macs?

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Dan Kanes

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Has anyone tested this combo and what kind of speeds were you getting with the USB 3.0 bus on the new macs? Just curious if anyone can confirm compatiblity and worthwhile speeds.

Thanks!
 
I've tested the RedMag USB 2.0 Reader on the Retina MacBook Pro (35MB/s) and had no problems mounting external USB 3.0 drives (100 (MB/s).

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...on-Retina-MacBook-Pro-and-external-Elgato-SSD

Just ordered a bunch of USB 3.0 drives for backups and will buy a TB-FW adapter for the RedMag Reader. I wonder if the RedMag USB 3.0 version is faster than 100MB/s and bus-powered otherwise I'll wait for the thunderbolt version.
 
I use the new USB 3.0 mini RED Station on my PC laptop on shoots, and I can get around 120/MB sustained to the internal SSD, or even another USB3 spinning disk. It's as fast as eSATA on the older Station, in my experience.
 
Nick Timmons said:
I use the new USB 3.0 mini RED Station on my PC laptop on shoots, and I can get around 120/MB sustained to the internal SSD, or even another USB3 spinning disk. It's as fast as eSATA on the older Station, in my experience.
Click to expand...

I can download at about 170-180MB/s using the eSATA RED STATION REDMAG 1.8" (MINI), so 120MB/s sounds a bit disappointing.
 
Not all USB3 hosts are equal. The one in the new Apple systems is the USB3 header integrated into the new Intel chipsets. So will essentially be the same on all the new Ivy Bridge based PC notebooks hitting the market.

My retina MBP is en-route, I think I get it Thursday. Can't comment about USB3 RED Station though... Not now, not when I get the system. I don't own one. I need to order a couple, but I keep forgetting and they're out of stock.

RED SSD readers connected via eSATA to a good host like an ATTO H680 or CalDigit 6GU3 can read SSDs at 250MB/s+ if you have fast enough storage to copy to. I have an H680 in a Sonnet Thunderbolt expander and I can get about 250MB/s from the SSD onto an internal SSD in my 2011 MBP systems or to another SATA device that's fast enough with that setup. The SSD's appear to be based on 3Gbps SATA interface, so we're pretty much hitting the limit there.

I'm hoping the USB3 reader can get close to that... But USB3 is kinda bloated and laggy, some devices don't always play 100% nice with each other or properly negotiate the SuperSpeed mode.
 
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I just got my Caldigit 6G3U as they have been on backorder forever and are now back in stock.

I haven't had a chance to do extensive testing as it just showed up yesterday, but the 6G3U is an interesting test bed as it allows the same card to directly compare an esata RED station connected to a 6G sata card with a USB 3 RED station on the same card, same slot, same machine.

I installed it in the machine on a DIT cart which has a 2008 MacPro tower in it.

Preliminary results are pretty much what you'd expect.

Just under to just over 200MBs speeds with the esata interface beating out the USB3 by about 10%

If I had to summarize at this point I'd say if you are looking to move to USB 3.0 from esata for a major speed bump, you should save your money.

That said the USB 3 connector is much more robust, particularly in the field and can provide bus power. When you marry this with the smaller form factor of the mini the USB 3.0 reader is a great fit for a mobile solution and is certainly going to be faster that firewire.

On some high end laptops that have both connections on a separate bus if you put your reader on USB 3 and your drive an esata you could see some practical benefit.

Given my mobile solution is the Promise R12 and a firmtek reader which is about in the same speed range as above, I'm not going to see a major performance benefit when I move to another 6G3U mounted in the second slot of the Sonnet Pro TB enclosure for my rocket, but the connection will be far less temperamental than an express card esata solution with two rather iffy connection points.

Horses for courses as per usual :-)
 
The SATA interface was never meant to be external. Reason enough to move to USB3 if possible. Personally, I hold my breath anytime I have to use eSATA for anything.
 
I've always found the Mac implementation of USB 2.0 to be slow and crappy.I always use Sata and Esata for all data buses.Was thinking I could use one THunderB for a rocket and one to handle esata drives for offload, and if I'm lucky USB 3.0 for ingest.I guess time will tell whether I should stay Customac or try to go Retina on 'em.Certainly the new retina mbp seems to have enough throughput for alternative camera workflows.
 
Remember most consumer single volume drives are still 3Gb/s and won't write faster than 115-120 MB/s, but some of the newer single volume enterprise and consumer drives are 6Gb/s and you'll get 180+ MB/s with 6Gb eSATA or USB3 connections. But you should probably backup to at least a raid5 tower/unit of some kind, which should be well over 200 MB/s anyway.
 
Can anyone with the USB3 mini confirm if it can use the USB3 connection for power or does it need the external power supply. I need to offload out on locations where power is not always available.
 
Reading from Red Station Mini USB 3.0 to the internal SSD of my Retina MBP 2.7GHz using Finder copy runs at over 200 MB/s.
The external power supply is not needed, neither is the second USB to power cable.
 
I have been running 2 WD usb 3.0 drives off Retina MBP without issue
 
just to second what some of the above have mentioned...

on Monday I received both Retina MBP and the USB 3 RED mag download station, and life couldn't be better. Used it Tuesday/ Wednesday on a shoot. I'm now able to triplicate directly through the MBP using a combination of USB 3 and TB readers and hard drives. At the moment, using only Seagate GoFlex drives with TB adapter. Not cheap to get started, but worth it if only to be able to fit entire DIT kit into a laptop-sized Pelican! No external power needed for drives or card reader, and between two full days of shooting, I only had to recharge the MBP twice.

Using R3D data manager with the medium-level CheckSum setting on, I've been able to download and copy to 2 drives simultaneously at a rate of about 30 minutes/ 64GB. Good stuff.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9nokpuuyhfsl4g8/IMG_0422.JPG
 
Cool thx for confirming @Alex

gonna have to pick up a USB 3.0 reader for my new mac. Been running 3.0 on a HTPC since 2010 but never really had a need to use professionally until now. Pretty nifty makes downloads/editing externally much easier.
 
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