G-Tech 8TB G-RAID Thunderbolt Hard Drive

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Can this be used as a file server with my MacMini?

I have two MacMinis at home that I would like to network, along with the MacBook Pro I am about to purchase. I would like to be able to use the G-Tech as a file server as well as for streaming video files.

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    Yes, but you'll have to have it plugged into a computer that has a Thunderbolt port, this G-RAID has no USB or Firewire interface so check if your Mac Minis are new enough and that they do have a Thunderbolt port. (look for the little lightning bolt symbol).

    In my honest opinion though, if your going to connect this to your wireless network, you might be better off getting a far cheaper USB or Firewire G-RAID. The main reason you'd buy a Thunderbolt hard drive is for the speed, which is killed as soon as you put it on wireless network as current wireless speeds max out at about 300Mbps, over 30 times slower than Thunderbolt. Whereas USB 2.0 has a max speed of 480Mbps. Your looking at roughly £100 difference between the Thunderbolt G-RAID and the USB/Firewire one, so its worth considering.

    Back to your original question though, yes a G-RAID would be fine for file STORAGE but in order to serve those files to a network it needs to be connected to a computer thats connected to your Wi-Fi network.

    I'm personally buying a G-RAID to do my backups to as Thunderbolt is the fastest way to restore files and copy vast amounts of data.

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