Promise Pegasus R4 review: Promise Pegasus R4

Promise Technology's Pegasus R4 is the first Thunderbolt storage device that works with the Windows platform right out of the box. But it wasn't always that way.

7.6

Promise Pegasus R4

The Good

The <b>Promise Pegasus R4</b> offers very fast performance and works with both Windows PCs and Macs. The drive supports many different RAID configurations.

The Bad

The Pegasus R4 is expensive and relatively noisy, doesn't share its power status with the host machine, and doesn't come with a Thunderbolt cable. It has no other peripheral connections such as USB or FireWire, and performs noticeably more slowly than its big brother, the Pegasus R6.

The Bottom Line

The Pegasus R4 would be a very good investment for those who have a Thunderbolt-enabled computer, be it Windows PC or Mac.

The drive was actually first released together with the Pegasus R6 more than a year ago, when Thunderbolt first came out for Macs exclusively. Now the Thunderbolt standard is available and works virtually the same for both Windows and Mac platforms. From my trial with Intel's first Thunderbolt-certified motherboard, the switch of file system from HFS+ to NTFS (which can be easily done) is the only major thing you need to do to make any previously Mac-only Thunderbolt storage device work with Windows.

And you don't have to do that with the new Pegasus R4, since it also now comes preformatted for Windows. Effectively, it marks the end of an era in which Thunderbolt storage was exclusively for Mac.

Just because Thunderbolt is now available for Windows doesn't mean it's noticeably cheaper. The Pegasus R4 still costs about $1,000 for 4TB or $1,500 for the 8TB version, and you still need to buy the Thunderbolt cable separately. My guess is that the price of the technology as a whole will come down quickly since the Thunderbolt ecosystem has become a lot more popular, with more and more vendors joining.

That said, you're looking for a superfast storage device for use with your brand-new Thunderbolt-enabled computer, such as one that's powered by Intel's new DZ77RE-75K motherboard, the R4 will make a great investment. If you want more options in terms of storage space and other features, also check out the R6 and other Thunderbolt drives I've reviewed.