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Nifty Thunder Rocket - Thunderbolt 2 SSD 1250MB/s read/write
  • jmcjmc

    I just came across this from a company called Nifty. It's a Thunderbolt 2 SSD drive with similar read/write speeds to Lacie's LBD, but much smaller, fanless, bus powered and lower priced. It's aimed at 4K raw editing and ships in November but strangely there seems to be little or no info about it other than on the website: http://thunderrocket.bynifty.com/

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    I always wondered why there was a lack of Thunderbolt SSDs/enclosures on the market - I assumed it was to do with licensing to certain manufacturers, but that was just a hunch. I know there are a few around now from Lacie and the like, but all seem to be very expensive still and most aren't Thunderbolt 2 yet. This seems to be a step in the right direction, and I like the fact that it's PCIe rather than 2.5", but can anyone actually vouch for the company? And how likely it will live up to its read/write speed claims?

    ThunderRocket.jpg
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  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • jmcjmc

    Also a warning for anyone wanting to pre-order - it seems they take payment immediately rather than at time of shipping.

  • eatstoomuchjameatstoomuchjam

    512GB for $500 is pretty expensive for an SSD these days and the extra speed, while it sounds great, doesn't seem necessary.

    For $430, you can get a 1TB USB 3 from Samsung which can transfer at 450MB/s (3.6Gb/s) which is more than enough for 4K raw in just about any format that you're likely to be using in the near future judging by this chart (unless you're using a Phantom Flex, then you might have some problems).

    Even better, the Samsung drive comes from a reputable manufacturer and if you're in an Amazon-friendly area it will be shipped to your door in 2 days for free with Prime.

  • jmcjmc

    I agree for most this will be superfluous, however there is still a pro market for this kind of speed and throughput. Look at Lacie's little big disk which costs $1200 for 1TB. Different uses; different target market.

    It's not beyond reason to see this shipped in the future as a 1tb version for a similar price (it uses Samsung disks btw) so for its advantages in size and portability it could be quite attractive for pros on the move.

    That being said, I'd hesitate to invest in something that seems to have appeared overnight. Guess I'll have to wait and see...

  • andyharrisandyharris

    512GB is not a lot of storage for editing 4K. A few takes on a BM Production Camera in RAW would fill it up. Let alone the render files etc.

    @eatstoomuchjam 450MB/s is not quite enough for smooth 4K RAW. 510MB/s seems to be minimum based on my experience of SSDs, importing and grading of 4K RAW.

    Disk specs often seem to lie about sustained transfer rates, even reputable manufacturers. I've had to send back drives rated at 530MB/s because they wouldn't work in camera.

    The Samsung EVO840 works for me (in camera).

  • NiftyNifty

    Hey guys - Piers from Nifty here.

    Drive is now available and shipping: http://thunderrocket.bynifty.com/

    At this stage, only the 256GB version is available, which as @andyharris points out (WRT 512GB), is not very much at all for 4K video (reason for that is power consumption and Bus power specs for TBT1 and TBT2). This will be addressed in TBT3, but for now 256GB is the biggest portable (i.e. bus powered) drive that we can make at these specs.

    The constant throughput speed is 1.2GB/s read and 1.1GB/s write or better on TBT2 and 850MB/s R/W on TBT1 - Black Magic Speed Test (5GB load).

    The underlying disk is PCIe rather than SATA, which is why we are able to get the much higher throughputs; and we stress test each drive before we send them out to make sure they can perform according to the advertised read/write speeds (we hate the words "up to" when quoting performance specs).

    At 256GB, most of our video production users are using the drive as scratch space/cache space to supplement RAM, and provide fast caching for preview operations. Ideally, to get the full use of the drive, you would also be putting the RAW files onto the Thunder Rocket, but right now, there isn't a lot of space.

    Right now, the 256GB is $589 - which, we know is pricey; we currently only make them in super small batches due to the difficulty of making the actual board/circuit that allows the speed - but as the technology matures, we hope to bring the price down and capacity up to continue to deliver the super high performance needed.

    If anyone is interested in getting one, please PM me and I'll sort you out with a 10% discount.

    Many thanks to @jmc for posting it in the first place!

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