Thunderbolt 3.0

Schnozz

Hi All,

Please can some IT savvy forum members explain to me what Thunderbolt 3.0 is? And how important is it to have?

I 'think' it's a USB port that supports more input for smaller laptops...But it's on desktops as well, so I have no idea.

Please advise! Thank you

RaymondLin

Depends if you have any Thunderbolt 3.0 stuff?

It's fast and it can daisy chain.

sweepy

RaymondLin said:

Depends if you have any Thunderbolt 3.0 stuff?

It's fast and it can daisy chain.

And eye-wateringly expensive

starwarsnosebleed

My Recording interface is laggy through a normal usb port. In the 3.0 usb port its perfect.

Sporky

I think in simple terms, Thunderbolt 3 comprises:

USB 3
High power capacity (ie you can charge a laptop through the connector)
Displayport ++
PCI-E

My laptops both have it - with an HDMI or DisplayPort adaptor it gets higher frame rates than the onboard HDMI... The docks are the interesting bit though - with just one cable you get power, connections to displays and mouse and keyboard.

DefaultM

Its like USB 3 but faster. The issue is that any equipment that can use it is ridiculously expensive. Look at external harddrives as an example.

I've got it on my macbook but never used it because of price. A 4tb drive is about £300, whereas I got a USB 3 one for £110. Not worth it to me for the extra speed.

Schnozz

Hmm...So it doesn't look like it will be essential in the next 5-7 years?

The other thing I got asked about was 16GB of RAM or 32GB

I'm not very up to date with IT, so I appreciate the help!

beed84

To add what others have said, it consolidates charging, data transfer, and hooking up to external devices. Transfer rates are twice the speed of the its predecessor coming in 40gbps. It's also capable of coping with 4K monitors, e.g. a MacBook Pro 15" can power up to two 4K monitors via Thunderbolt 3/USB-C, which is pretty impressive.

As for 16GB or 32GB, more is better if you're using power demanding applications, such as design and music software. Having said that, not a great deal will use more than 8GB of memory anyway.

RaymondLin

I put in 32G back in 2012.  Was like £100.
job done, forget and I know I won't need more.

ThePrettyDamned

Ram is cheap. 

Unless you're buying an apple, in which case it's practically double the price it actually should retail for - an upgrade from 8gb to 32gb will cost a good couple of hundred quid in an imac... 

Luckily, for some macs at least, you can upgrade the ram yourself by buying the correct ram at retail for half the cost. 

ThePrettyDamned

Wow, actually worse than I thought. 

Two 16gb ram sticks are about £240 at retail.

Upgrade an imac to 32gb ram is an extra £540... So they charge over double the current going rate of ram. 

Schnozz

Thank you - Avoiding Apple! 32GB sounds worth it, but probably not the Thunderbolt 3, as I was wondering if it was needed to be future proof.

Sporky

You can't be future proof.

USB-C is very neat, especially for laptops, but I don't think you "need" it. Most places still let you plug in via VGA, after all...

ThePrettyDamned

Sporky said:

You can't be future proof.

USB-C is very neat, especially for laptops, but I don't think you "need" it. Most places still let you plug in via VGA, after all...

I wish usb-c was being taken up faster, it'd be great on dslr's, too.