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Thunderbolt 3 in new Apple products

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Posted on December 28, 2016 at 01:27:18
Frihed89
Audiophile

Posts: 15703
Location: Copenhagen
Joined: March 21, 2005
The url i have posted points to some serious compatibility issues between Apple's Thunderbolt 3 ports and many peripheral devices that computer audio people may use, such as hard drives and CD/DVD drives.

Is this problem real for Mac users with brand new laptops?

 

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RE: Thunderbolt 3 in new Apple products, posted on December 28, 2016 at 16:58:00
AbeCollins
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Posts: 46200
Location: USA
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First, this problem appears to be specific to Thunderbolt 3 peripherals. If you have a Thunderbolt 2 device plugged into a Thunderbolt 3 port via an adapter, it seems to work fine. That limits the amount of hardware likely to be incompatible, since not that many Thunderbolt 3 peripherals have been built yet.

How many people are going to be harmed by this? Probably not very many. Thunderbolt 3 is new, the MacBook Pro is new, and new hardware variants will adopt the 983 chip.

So a few early Thunderbolt 3 peripherals appear to be affected. That's about it. How many audiophiles have early Thunderbolt 3 devices AND own a brand new MacBook Pro?



 

How many audiophiles have early Thunderbolt 3 devices AND own a brand new MacBook Pro?, posted on December 29, 2016 at 03:13:58
Frihed89
Audiophile

Posts: 15703
Location: Copenhagen
Joined: March 21, 2005
I'd like to know that, too, Abe. I at least need to be able copy CD's to Itunes, plus an external hard drive for backups. The only ports on the newest MBPro are Thunderbolt 3 (USB C).

 

RE: How many audiophiles have early Thunderbolt 3 devices AND own a brand new MacBook Pro?, posted on December 29, 2016 at 14:39:57
AbeCollins
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Posts: 46200
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
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February 2, 2002
The sky is not falling. Yes, Apple chose to use the latest gen TPS65983 Thunderbolt 3 chip while others are on the previous gen TPS65982. The others will soon adopt the new chip.

First, this problem appears to be specific to [early pre-983 chip] Thunderbolt 3 peripherals.

Do you own any early Thunderbolt 3 peripherals?

I at least need to be able copy CD's to Itunes, plus an external hard drive for backups. The only ports on the newest MBPro are Thunderbolt 3 (USB C).

I assume your concern is not with early Thunderbolt 3 peripherals but USB peripherals.

USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 to USB Adapter works with external USB CD/DVD drive, USB HDD, etc. $9.00 USD

And as stated in the article you linked to:

How many people are going to be harmed by this? Probably not very many.


 

Got a new iMac a couple of weeks ago, posted on December 28, 2016 at 09:03:00
Posts: 26351
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February 6, 2012
It has two Thunderbolt 2 ports, one of which I use with an OWC Thunderbolt 2 dock. I hooked up an old hard drive to the hub via Firewire - strangely, it seems to lose connectivity after about half an hour or so. I don't know whether the problem is with the drive or the port or what. The USB ports on the hub have worked just fine.



I was mad that Apple hadn't refreshed the iMacs for over a year (the next iMacs should of course have Thunderbolt 3), but from what you say, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing!

 

Got my kid a (almost) new MacBook Pro for school, posted on December 28, 2016 at 07:24:11
G Squared
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He is a CS major and chose a new the last generation version for just this reason. He guessed at potential compatibility issues and did not want to have to buy/manage a bunch of dongles.
Gsquared

 

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