Boot Windows off thunderbolt.

[Viddiecent]

Hey guys,

So I've been thinking I have a z77X-UP4TH I got it for like $200 nz (pretty cheap for here imo) and I was wanting to use the thunderbolt ports. Is it possible to get a NAS and fill it with SSD's and boot off it into Windows through thunderbolt? I'm gonna get a NAS with thunderbolt regardless so I thought I might try this to see what happens but before I did I thought I'd ask if anyone has tried?

Ty for comments in advance!

[Viddiecent]

Ok well that sounds promising! I guess I need to find a NAS that will support it now I guess?

[Captain_WD]

Hey guys,

So I've been thinking I have a z77X-UP4TH I got it for like $200 nz (pretty cheap for here imo) and I was wanting to use the thunderbolt ports. Is it possible to get a NAS and fill it with SSD's and boot off it into Windows through thunderbolt? I'm gonna get a NAS with thunderbolt regardless so I thought I might try this to see what happens but before I did I thought I'd ask if anyone has tried?

Ty for comments in advance!

 

Hey there Viddiecent,

 

That MOBO with the BIOS does support thunderbolt booting so you won't be having issues with that.

You can always get an empty enclosure with a thunderbolt interface and use a 2.5 to 3.5 mounting bracket to fit those SSDs.

You could also check My Book Thunderbolt Duo and WD My Book Velociraptor Duo which, I believe, would work pretty fast for you. You will always have the option to swap the drives with SSDs in the future. Here are a couple of links to check them out:

WD My Book VelociRaptor Duo: www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=860

WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630

 

Hope this comes in handy

 

Captain_WD.

[Viddiecent]

It did dude sorry about the late reply the duo looks great aesthetically it should work with my setup plan I just wish it wasn't only a dual drive because I was planning on making my storage completely separate from my PC as i'm looking at building 2 rigs, a LAN rig and Huge ass rig filled with water cooling hence the idea of keeping my array of HDD's separate.

also,

There will be a build log once I've finished saving for it. (Probably mid next year.)

 

basically my plan.

 

Main Rig:

 

5930K 

X99-E WS+thunderbolt 2 card if not included or the Asrock Extreme 6 because im going with a blue/black theme with both PC's

Corsair Dominator platinums 4x4GB's-2133mhz

Dual 980's in SLI

Silverstone 1000W Gold of some discription

looking at a 800D but might change my mind i'm still looking for around.

and also looking at some rigid tubing with mahems UV blue and all EKWB gear

 

Secondry rig (Most will be re-used from my current rig)

 

3770K

GA-UD4-TH

GTX 770

Corsair HX620 620W

not sure of case yet. maybe h440 blue?

same W/C gear but with tube res and pump combo

 

and then I was hoping for a "Raid Box" and boot off that and use that as the OS and install drivers from both. this will mean all my data is in one area and software raid will mean SSD's are not going to be damaged as they could in Raid 0 because of software or hybrid raid, well that's my thinking anyway? as well as a mirrored drive for redundancy and a 2TB for movies music storage etc.

 

anyway any suggustions welcome

[Captain_WD]

It did dude sorry about the late reply the duo looks great aesthetically it should work with my setup plan I just wish it wasn't only a dual drive because I was planning on making my storage completely separate from my PC as i'm looking at building 2 rigs, a LAN rig and Huge ass rig filled with water cooling hence the idea of keeping my array of HDD's separate.

also,

There will be a build log once I've finished saving for it. (Probably mid next year.)

 

basically my plan.

 

Main Rig:

 

5930K 

X99-E WS+thunderbolt 2 card if not included or the Asrock Extreme 6 because im going with a blue/black theme with both PC's

Corsair Dominator platinums 4x4GB's-2133mhz

Dual 980's in SLI

Silverstone 1000W Gold of some discription

looking at a 800D but might change my mind i'm still looking for around.

and also looking at some rigid tubing with mahems UV blue and all EKWB gear

 

Secondry rig (Most will be re-used from my current rig)

 

3770K

GA-UD4-TH

GTX 770

Corsair HX620 620W

not sure of case yet. maybe h440 blue?

same W/C gear but with tube res and pump combo

 

and then I was hoping for a "Raid Box" and boot off that and use that as the OS and install drivers from both. this will mean all my data is in one area and software raid will mean SSD's are not going to be damaged as they could in Raid 0 because of software or hybrid raid, well that's my thinking anyway? as well as a mirrored drive for redundancy and a 2TB for movies music storage etc.

 

anyway any suggustions welcome

 

 

Great to hear that!

 

I will check both configurations and some probable alternatives and will come back tomorrow with some advice

 

I'm glad you liked the Duo. Hope it does the job for you.

 

Captain_WD.

[Captain_WD]

It did dude sorry about the late reply the duo looks great aesthetically it should work with my setup plan I just wish it wasn't only a dual drive because I was planning on making my storage completely separate from my PC as i'm looking at building 2 rigs, a LAN rig and Huge ass rig filled with water cooling hence the idea of keeping my array of HDD's separate.

also,

There will be a build log once I've finished saving for it. (Probably mid next year.)

 

basically my plan.

 

Main Rig:

 

5930K 

X99-E WS+thunderbolt 2 card if not included or the Asrock Extreme 6 because im going with a blue/black theme with both PC's

Corsair Dominator platinums 4x4GB's-2133mhz

Dual 980's in SLI

Silverstone 1000W Gold of some discription

looking at a 800D but might change my mind i'm still looking for around.

and also looking at some rigid tubing with mahems UV blue and all EKWB gear

 

Secondry rig (Most will be re-used from my current rig)

 

3770K

GA-UD4-TH

GTX 770

Corsair HX620 620W

not sure of case yet. maybe h440 blue?

same W/C gear but with tube res and pump combo

 

and then I was hoping for a "Raid Box" and boot off that and use that as the OS and install drivers from both. this will mean all my data is in one area and software raid will mean SSD's are not going to be damaged as they could in Raid 0 because of software or hybrid raid, well that's my thinking anyway? as well as a mirrored drive for redundancy and a 2TB for movies music storage etc.

 

anyway any suggustions welcome

 

 

I checked the both build and I must say they look great. You are obviously going all in for the first one - I would like to see the results as it looks like a true beast. Just don't forget to cool properly that 5930k once you start OCing.

 

Make sure to post some pics once all this is done, I would really like to see all that put together.

 

Regarding the RAID box, OS does not benefit from RAID and sometimes even boots slower compared to a single drive boot. I've seen people cold-booting from 2x250GB SSDs in RAID0 5 to 10 seconds slower compared to a single 500GB from the same manufacturer and series.

 

Captain_WD.