External screen/projector and harddrive at same thunderbolt

[perik]

Hi!

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011) whith one thunderbolt. Im using it/am about to use it a lot to video to stream as VJ in 1080 and are going to buy a new external hardrive. I wounder if its possible to connect both the beamer and a thunderbolt harddrive from the one and only thunderbolt jack on my computer. Daisy chaining them? Or am I better off buying a FW800 harddrive or even a USB harddrive? I only got USB 2.0 though.

Best pick would be to daisy chain a thunderbolt together with external monitor I guess. If its possible?

[Case]

Yes it is possible by daisy chaining.
(Have a look at the Elgato Thunderbolt 2 Dock for extra ports if you need that, including HDMI.)
The big external harddrives (not the small ‘pocket’ ones) with thunderbolt often come with two thunderbolt ports - for the very reason of daisy chaining: one in, one out.

As for other connection protocols, consider this comparison:
Thunderbolt: 10 Gbps of bandwidth, bi-directional.
FireWire 800: 800 Mbps
USB 2.0: 480 Mbps (although really closer to 240 Mbps)
10 Gbps sounds like a lot, but the “second monitor” video out stream is gobbling up about 4.5 Gbps at 1080p/60Hz. That still leaves more than the other ports combined!