Fantom Drives eXtreme Thunderbolt 3 Portable NVMe SSD is the latest innovation in the data storage market using cutting-edge Thunderbolt 3 technology by Intel. EXtreme is a licensed and certified Thunderbolt 3 product that is capable of handling large data transfers at rapid speed. Fantom Drives eXtreme Thunderbolt 3 Portable NVMe SSD is the latest innovation in the data storage market using cutting-edge Thunderbolt 3 technology by Intel. EXtreme is a licensed and certified Thunderbolt 3.
Jul 24, 2020 If you want to make use of your Mac's Thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for Macs. It provides twice the speeds of standard USB 3.0 drives. Mac mini (M1, 2020). LaCie 1TB Rugged SSD Pro External Drive with Thunderbolt 3 - Previous Gallery Image. LaCie 48TB 6big RAID Thunderbolt 3 Hard Drive Storage. Clothes and jewelleryoutlander lists & timelines.
External SSD Thunderbolt Backup Drives
Shopping for a ultra-fast PC or Mac compatible Thunderbolt SSD storage solution? Never before has a personal computer interface offered the insanely fast data transfer speeds of the original 10Gbps Thunderbolt, 2nd-generation 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 drives, and 3rd-generation 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 storage.Minimally TWENTY times faster than the popular USB 2.0 spec, and double that of the competing 5Gbps USB 3.0 SuperSpeed standard, Thunderbolt outstrips the bandwidth requirements of nearly any single personal computer peripheral available today. Conventional hard drives can't fill a fraction of Thunderbolt's data pipeline. So, solid-state flash memory disk drives are the most logical pairing of the two technologies. A PC or Mac compatible Thunderbolt SSD external backup drive can really leverage the potential bandwidth available for the fastest data backups and file transfers you'll ever experience.
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| Akitio Thunderbolt Drive | Monster Thunderbolt Drive |
|---|---|
| Akitio SSD Neutrino Drive 120GB Thunderbolt SSD | Monster Digital SSD 256GB-512GB-1TB |
| G-Technology Thunderbolt Drive | Oyen Digital Thunderbolt Drive |
|---|---|
| GTech TBolt SSD 1TB SSD Combo Interface | Oyen SSD Mini Pro 256GB Solid-State Portable |
| Transcend Solid-State Drive | Silicon Solid-State Drive |
|---|---|
| Transcend Combo SSD Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 | Smallest Thunderbolt SSD Ever Silicon Power Mini Drive |
Shopping For TunderBolt External SSD Drives
In the 2020's we now have 3 generations of Thunderbolt: The original 10Gbps TBolt and 2nd generation 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 using the mini DisplayPort interface. The new 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 spec has adopted the smaller and more widely used Type-C USB 3.1 connector. In fact, Thunderbolt 3 incorporates SuperSpeed+ USB 3.1 10Gbps protocols so that either Thunderbolt or USB-C peripherals can be used on a modern Windows or Mac computer's Thunderbolt 3 port.Who Manufactures Thunderbolt Backup Peripherals?
Major brands include Akitio, G-Technology, SiliconPower, Monster Digital, OWC and LaCie external Thunderbolt SSD backup drive offerings shown above. These laptop-size affordable consumer drives have a single Thunderbolt port for use directly connected to your computer - or at the END of the device chain. To get dual, pass-through ports, you generally have to move up to the multi-drive RAID array type of Thunderbolt data storage products.Best External Hard Drive For Mac
One of the notably rising entrants into the external SSD drive market is Akitio who was recently acquired by OWC. They've long been a maker of USB, eSata, and FireWire drive enclosures for assembling DIY backup drives. Introducing a single-port Thunderbolt portable SSD drive like the Neutrino shown here (using an Intel OEM SSD) is the first step in recouping their investment, a 256Gb is available as well (using a SanDisk OEM SSD). Akitio has delivered a nice range of standalone Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 and 3 drive enclosures for homebuilt storage solutions using the SSD or HDD drives of your choice.DIY Thunderbolt SSD Storage
Alot of folks want to cobble their own Thunderbolt data backup drive together with the HDD or SSD drive of their choosing. Unfortunately, at least for single drives, there aren't many choices of standlalone Thunderbolt drive enclosures available. For multi-drive RAID arrays using 2 or more drives, the selection of Thunderbolt enclosures is better, but costlier.| G-Technology Thunderbolt Enclosure | Seagate Thunderbolt Drive Sled |
|---|---|
| 2.5' Thunderbolt SATA Case Ruggedized Thunderbolt Enclosure | Backup Plus Thunderbolt Drive Adapter For Laptop Size SSD or HDD |
Seagate's Thunderbolt drive sled has sadly been discontinued. It let anyone cobble thier own affordable Thunderbolt SSD solution by simply plugging a bare 2.5' laptop SATA SSD drive directly into the portable adapter's SATA connector. It should be noted the Thunderbolt drive converter only has a SINGLE Thunderbolt port like many of the more affordable Thunderbolt storage products for home consumers. It's not capable of daisy-chained with other Thunderbolt devices.
Best SSD For Thunderbolt?
Several factors determine which SSD is the best match for Thunderbolt drives. A Solid-State drive in general relies on several components that determine a SSD's performance: Whether it's a SATA I/II or III 6G drive interface chipset, and which controller chip: Marvell, Indilinx, SandForce, etc. are the brains of the operation. Other factors in the solid-state drive market involve how fast the onboard NAND Flash Memory is, and the clock speed controlling it. Look to Samsung, WD, Crucial and Sandisk for the fastest off-the shelf SSD's shipping this year.It's important to note that LARGER capacity SSD's 480GB and up offer BETTER performance than the smaller models: More banks of chips inside a higher-capacity SSD drive allow more simultaneous reads and writes across the banks of flash memory. As such you'll often see spec sheets quoting different maximum data transfer rates depending on the size of the drive. With solid-state storage, bigger is better - and faster.
Thunderbolt RAID SSD - Power Pair
Want to fill as much of Thunderbolt's pipeline as possible? Think Striped RAID 0 SSD drive setups for peak performance. By striping Reads and Writes across multiple solid-state drives or modules, the highest level of drive transfer speeds become possible. Some may opt for premium top-performance PCIe NVMe SSD's, others may wish to leverage more economical drives paired to get the Thunderbolt drive capacity they need and still fit their budget.The direct 10Gbps pipeline that Thunderbolt taps into via the PCI-Express system bus offers mind blowing backup and data copy speeds compared to USB 3.0 or FireWire provided it's matched with equally fast solid-state SSD storage technologies. A growing range of enterprise, professional and consumer PC and Mac SSD Thunderbolt backup solutions are now shipping.
A Thunderbolt SSD flash memory drive is the best technological match for the insanely high bandwidth that a Thunderbolt inferface provides. With no moving parts, high reliability, zero latency and near-zero access times, they're a perfect match for this cutting-edge computer peripheral interface from Apple and Intel.
Currently, a few of the best choices in solid-state backup are LaCie 512GB Thunderbolt SSD dual-drive array which also now offers a 1 Terabyte version for demanding, Pro users. These LaCie high-end models combine dual 256GB/512GB SATA III Solid-State drives for mirrored or striped RAID 0 performance that delivers mind-blowing transfer speeds - at a price. Their Little Big Disk SSD drives also have TWO TBolt ports on the back for daisy-chaining with other devices.
For more affordable consumer options, the single-drive LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt SSD has high-speed combo interfaces for both USB 3.0/2.0 or Thunderbolt connectivity. The Thunderbolt Rugged series uses a single SSD drive for respectable performance - and the added value of flexibility to use it with older and non-TBolt equipped USB port Macs or PCs. The latest revision of the solid-state Rugged portable drive now includes a short, integrated Thunderbolt cable for quick connectivity, and still allows optional connection to a USB port if needed.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD Drive has been shipping for quite some time. ElGato also uses a single SSD drive module for more modest but still very snappy performance in either 120GB or 240GB capacities - but it's pricing hasn't dropped to be truly competitive with LaCie or other new arrivals in the marketplace. A new 512GB and 1TB SSD drive with combo Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 interface recently shipped, but the price is high.
Please visit the other pages of this site to explore the diverse market of PC and Mac compatible external SSD Thunderbolt drive options for budgets large and small.
Multiple generations of Apple ThunderBolt backup drive solutions are on the market. We're seeing far more affordable ThunderBolt Hard Drives with prices starting around $150 and up.
We've also seen the emergence of combo interface hard drives for Mac that incorporate BOTH USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt ports on the drive. Combo interfaces give alot of flexibility for transferring data among Macs or PC's, old or new. Additionaly, ThunderBolt and USB 3.1 SSD drive solutions are getting much cheaper as solid-state SSD drive prices have steadily plummeted over time.
It isn't just Pro Video Editors, Music Studios or DVD and Photo Archive Companies that benefit from Mac backups and auxillary storage over ThunderBolt. Anyone who has large sets of data to move from point A to B will appreciate the lighting speed ThunderBolt ports can provide.
If there's one 'gotcha' to reading from - or backing up to - a ThunderBolt harddrive, it's limitations in the current speed of conventional mechanical hard drives. Even Solid-State SSD backup drives for Mac and Windows need 2 or more drives for truly impressive ThunderBolt performance. (Remember, ThunderBolt is a cross-platform technology that will benefit both Apple and PC users.) While 2 to 4 times faster than mechanical hard drives, even the fastest single SATA SSD made can't fill even half of ThunderBolt's amazing data pipeline.
Supports BOTH USB 3.1 Gen2 and TB3 Connectivity
250, 500, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Other World Computing - OWC is our top recommendation for a solid-state Thunderbolt 3 backup drive for Mac or PC users. It's more affordable Envoy EX and higher-end Thunderblade series offers a wide range of price points and performance levels for nearly any computer user's budget.
500GB, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Noted for their top-performing SSD drives and blades, Samsung is bringing it's 860 Evo PCIe NVMe technology into it's portable Thunderbolt 3 offering at very competitive pricing. Like many competing TB3 drives in this space, there's only a SINGLE Thunderbolt 3 connector. As such, it lacks a 2nd pass-thru port for daisy chaining so it needs to be directly plugged into your Mac or PC, or as the last device in a chain.
Sustained Transfer Rates Up To 2800MB/s
GTech recently joined the solid-state drive space with it's G-Drive Mobile Pro native Thunderbolt3 interface SSD.
Glyph Atom USB-C SSD RAID
Dual SATA SSD Drive Modules
Candidly, a 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection is going to be fast enough for many PC and Mac user's expectations. It's really only far more demanding Pro users and enterprise environments that need and / or can afford full-blown 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 storage and ultra 4K and 5K displays to take advange of all that bandwidth.
Akitio Thunder3 PCIe SSD Drive
1.2TB Intel 750 Series PCIe Card Inside
For more affordable consumer options, the single-drive LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt SSD has high-speed combo interfaces for both USB 3.0/2.0 or Thunderbolt connectivity. The Thunderbolt Rugged series uses a single SSD drive for respectable performance - and the added value of flexibility to use it with older and non-TBolt equipped USB port Macs or PCs. The latest revision of the solid-state Rugged portable drive now includes a short, integrated Thunderbolt cable for quick connectivity, and still allows optional connection to a USB port if needed.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD Drive has been shipping for quite some time. ElGato also uses a single SSD drive module for more modest but still very snappy performance in either 120GB or 240GB capacities - but it's pricing hasn't dropped to be truly competitive with LaCie or other new arrivals in the marketplace. A new 512GB and 1TB SSD drive with combo Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 interface recently shipped, but the price is high.
Please visit the other pages of this site to explore the diverse market of PC and Mac compatible external SSD Thunderbolt drive options for budgets large and small.
Thunderbolt Mac Backup Drives
Shopping for the fastest Apple ThunderBolt backup drive? The emergence of ThunderBolt 3 is radically shifting the Macintosh compatible data storage peripheral market as the interface of 10Gbps and 20Gbps ThunderBolt changes from the Mini DisplayPort style to a smaller, reversible Type-C connector that's also used by modern USB-C devices.Multiple generations of Apple ThunderBolt backup drive solutions are on the market. We're seeing far more affordable ThunderBolt Hard Drives with prices starting around $150 and up.
We've also seen the emergence of combo interface hard drives for Mac that incorporate BOTH USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt ports on the drive. Combo interfaces give alot of flexibility for transferring data among Macs or PC's, old or new. Additionaly, ThunderBolt and USB 3.1 SSD drive solutions are getting much cheaper as solid-state SSD drive prices have steadily plummeted over time.
ThunderBolt Backup Drives For Mac
Thunderbolt 3 External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
| Combo USB3 + ThunderBolt Drive | LaCie ThunderBolt 2 Drive |
|---|---|
| Cheap COMBO Drive USB3.0 + ThunderBolt | ThunderBolt2 HDD Combo USB 3 + TBolt 2 |
It isn't just Pro Video Editors, Music Studios or DVD and Photo Archive Companies that benefit from Mac backups and auxillary storage over ThunderBolt. Anyone who has large sets of data to move from point A to B will appreciate the lighting speed ThunderBolt ports can provide.
If there's one 'gotcha' to reading from - or backing up to - a ThunderBolt harddrive, it's limitations in the current speed of conventional mechanical hard drives. Even Solid-State SSD backup drives for Mac and Windows need 2 or more drives for truly impressive ThunderBolt performance. (Remember, ThunderBolt is a cross-platform technology that will benefit both Apple and PC users.) While 2 to 4 times faster than mechanical hard drives, even the fastest single SATA SSD made can't fill even half of ThunderBolt's amazing data pipeline.
ThunderBolt SSD Drives For Mac
| LaCie Combo USB3 + ThunderBolt | Solid-State TBolt Drives |
|---|---|
| LaCie Rugged SSD Drive Combo USB 3.0 and TBolt Interfaces | Akitio Portable SSD 120GB/240GB SSD Storage |
Thunderbolt 3 External Hard Drive For Mac
The only technology that can truly leverage 10GBps TBolt and provide best Mac backup speeds is in multi-drive platter arrays or pairs of flash-memory based SSD drive ThunderBolt hardware. The most demanding, data-intensive commercial users will want multiple-drive ThunderBolt RAID HDD storage systems - or those using 2 or more SSD's for peak throughput. However, benchmarks have shown that conventional drives in RAID units of 4 or more are highly efficient spanning reads and writes across mechanical drives and deliver suprisingly fast reads and writes at a musch lower cost per Gigabyte than SSD solutions.Thunderbolt 3 External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro
ThunderBolt 3 Solid-State Drives And Accessories
With the latest versions of it's MacBook Pro laptops and the Mac mini, Pro and iMac desktops, Apple has shipped untold millions of ThunderBolt 3 enabled computers. The demand for ultra high speed SSD ThunderBolt 3 backup drives and other computing peripherals using the 40Gbps interface is exploding to meet demand.LaCie Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
Apple Compatible LaCie Thunderbolt3 SSDSupports BOTH USB 3.1 Gen2 and TB3 Connectivity
OWC Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
OWC ThunderBlade PCIEe External SSD250, 500, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Other World Computing - OWC is our top recommendation for a solid-state Thunderbolt 3 backup drive for Mac or PC users. It's more affordable Envoy EX and higher-end Thunderblade series offers a wide range of price points and performance levels for nearly any computer user's budget.
Samsung Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
Thunderbolt 3 Samsung External SSD500GB, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Noted for their top-performing SSD drives and blades, Samsung is bringing it's 860 Evo PCIe NVMe technology into it's portable Thunderbolt 3 offering at very competitive pricing. Like many competing TB3 drives in this space, there's only a SINGLE Thunderbolt 3 connector. As such, it lacks a 2nd pass-thru port for daisy chaining so it needs to be directly plugged into your Mac or PC, or as the last device in a chain.
G-Technology Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
Portable G-Tech Thunderbolt3 SSDSustained Transfer Rates Up To 2800MB/s
GTech recently joined the solid-state drive space with it's G-Drive Mobile Pro native Thunderbolt3 interface SSD.
ThunderBolt 3 'Compatible' USB-C Drives
Because a computer's Type-C ThunderBolt3 ports also speak USB protocols, some drive and device manufacturers are marketing Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2 peripherals as 'ThunderBolt 3 Compatible' -- which they are. For many consumers, the distinction won't matter much. They'll just plug the drive into their Type-C port and it'll work. Glyph is one USB-C SSD drive maker pushing that 'Compatible' angle to ThunderBolt buyers.Glyph Atom USB-C SSD RAID
Dual SATA SSD Drive Modules
Candidly, a 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection is going to be fast enough for many PC and Mac user's expectations. It's really only far more demanding Pro users and enterprise environments that need and / or can afford full-blown 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 storage and ultra 4K and 5K displays to take advange of all that bandwidth.
Thunderbolt External Hard Drive
ThunderBolt 3 SSD Drives
The insanely high bandwidth of a 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 port will have a huge impact on solid-state storage solutions. With the latest generation of PCIe NVME SSD modules we're seeing external solid-state RAID storage products unprecedented data read and write speeds exceeding 2000 MBps leaving previous generation Serial ATA - SATA SSD drives in the dust.Akitio Thunder3 PCIe SSD Drive
1.2TB Intel 750 Series PCIe Card Inside
Currently, a few of the best choices in solid-state backup are LaCie 512GB Thunderbolt SSD dual-drive array which also now offers a 1 Terabyte version for demanding, Pro users. These LaCie high-end models combine dual 256GB/512GB SATA III Solid-State drives for mirrored or striped RAID 0 performance that delivers mind-blowing transfer speeds - at a price. Their Little Big Disk SSD drives also have TWO TBolt ports on the back for daisy-chaining with other devices.
For more affordable consumer options, the single-drive LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt SSD has high-speed combo interfaces for both USB 3.0/2.0 or Thunderbolt connectivity. The Thunderbolt Rugged series uses a single SSD drive for respectable performance - and the added value of flexibility to use it with older and non-TBolt equipped USB port Macs or PCs. The latest revision of the solid-state Rugged portable drive now includes a short, integrated Thunderbolt cable for quick connectivity, and still allows optional connection to a USB port if needed.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD Drive has been shipping for quite some time. ElGato also uses a single SSD drive module for more modest but still very snappy performance in either 120GB or 240GB capacities - but it's pricing hasn't dropped to be truly competitive with LaCie or other new arrivals in the marketplace. A new 512GB and 1TB SSD drive with combo Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 interface recently shipped, but the price is high.
Please visit the other pages of this site to explore the diverse market of PC and Mac compatible external SSD Thunderbolt drive options for budgets large and small.
Multiple generations of Apple ThunderBolt backup drive solutions are on the market. We're seeing far more affordable ThunderBolt Hard Drives with prices starting around $150 and up.
We've also seen the emergence of combo interface hard drives for Mac that incorporate BOTH USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt ports on the drive. Combo interfaces give alot of flexibility for transferring data among Macs or PC's, old or new. Additionaly, ThunderBolt and USB 3.1 SSD drive solutions are getting much cheaper as solid-state SSD drive prices have steadily plummeted over time.
It isn't just Pro Video Editors, Music Studios or DVD and Photo Archive Companies that benefit from Mac backups and auxillary storage over ThunderBolt. Anyone who has large sets of data to move from point A to B will appreciate the lighting speed ThunderBolt ports can provide.
If there's one 'gotcha' to reading from - or backing up to - a ThunderBolt harddrive, it's limitations in the current speed of conventional mechanical hard drives. Even Solid-State SSD backup drives for Mac and Windows need 2 or more drives for truly impressive ThunderBolt performance. (Remember, ThunderBolt is a cross-platform technology that will benefit both Apple and PC users.) While 2 to 4 times faster than mechanical hard drives, even the fastest single SATA SSD made can't fill even half of ThunderBolt's amazing data pipeline.
Supports BOTH USB 3.1 Gen2 and TB3 Connectivity
250, 500, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Other World Computing - OWC is our top recommendation for a solid-state Thunderbolt 3 backup drive for Mac or PC users. It's more affordable Envoy EX and higher-end Thunderblade series offers a wide range of price points and performance levels for nearly any computer user's budget.
500GB, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Noted for their top-performing SSD drives and blades, Samsung is bringing it's 860 Evo PCIe NVMe technology into it's portable Thunderbolt 3 offering at very competitive pricing. Like many competing TB3 drives in this space, there's only a SINGLE Thunderbolt 3 connector. As such, it lacks a 2nd pass-thru port for daisy chaining so it needs to be directly plugged into your Mac or PC, or as the last device in a chain.
Sustained Transfer Rates Up To 2800MB/s
GTech recently joined the solid-state drive space with it's G-Drive Mobile Pro native Thunderbolt3 interface SSD.
Glyph Atom USB-C SSD RAID
Dual SATA SSD Drive Modules
Candidly, a 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection is going to be fast enough for many PC and Mac user's expectations. It's really only far more demanding Pro users and enterprise environments that need and / or can afford full-blown 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 storage and ultra 4K and 5K displays to take advange of all that bandwidth.
Akitio Thunder3 PCIe SSD Drive
1.2TB Intel 750 Series PCIe Card Inside
LaCie ThunderBolt 3 HDD RAID Array
Dual Drives + USB3 Hub + Card Reader
Apple ThunderBolt 3 Adapter
Type-C To ThunderBolt 2 Dongle
We're certainly seeing that in the USB 3.1 Type-C computer peripheral space. Though they'll look physically similar and use the same reversible Type-C connectors, the ThunderBolt 3 products will need to incorporate more expensive, certified and sophisticated Intel ThunderBolt chipsets to assure reliable performance for peripherals up to 40Gbps.
Audio + Video + Data : With TBolt3 Pass Through Ports
OWC is shipping it's 2nd generation PC and Mac compatible ThunderBolt 3 docking station with 14 total ports incorporating nearly every type of storage and computing device both old and new that you'd want to plug into it. Other major tech players like CalDigit, Belkin and others have revised their docking stations to support ThunderBolt3 connections as well.
Type-C Connector Rated 40Gbps Speeds
Very high-quality certified and lab tested ThunderBolt 3 cabling is needed in demanding, high-bandwidth configurations. When shopping for cabling you'll see both 20Gbps and 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 cables listed. Depending on your computing environment, you'll need to insure the cables are capable of reliably sustaining both the 4K and 5K Ultra-HD video streams AND the other HDD or SSD storage and accessories you may have connected.
High-quality certified TBolt 3 cables have onboard circuitry to assure data integrity and error checking / correction. Expect to pay a premium price over lesser 10Gbps Type-C cabling for slower USB-C devices.
Important! Apple is using 2nd generation ThunderBolt 3 chipsets in it's new MacBooks and iMacs. There are some incompatibility issues with early products that already reached the market using the 1st generation TB3 chipset! Until Apple releases a possible patch to MacOS Sierra - or perhaps until manufacturers update their hardware to newer chipsets there are problems using some 1st revision storage and dock products! Fortunately, Amazon is noting 'For Windows ONLY' in some of the products titles to warn of Apple compatibility issues.
For more affordable consumer options, the single-drive LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt SSD has high-speed combo interfaces for both USB 3.0/2.0 or Thunderbolt connectivity. The Thunderbolt Rugged series uses a single SSD drive for respectable performance - and the added value of flexibility to use it with older and non-TBolt equipped USB port Macs or PCs. The latest revision of the solid-state Rugged portable drive now includes a short, integrated Thunderbolt cable for quick connectivity, and still allows optional connection to a USB port if needed.
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD Drive has been shipping for quite some time. ElGato also uses a single SSD drive module for more modest but still very snappy performance in either 120GB or 240GB capacities - but it's pricing hasn't dropped to be truly competitive with LaCie or other new arrivals in the marketplace. A new 512GB and 1TB SSD drive with combo Thunderbolt + USB 3.0 interface recently shipped, but the price is high.
Please visit the other pages of this site to explore the diverse market of PC and Mac compatible external SSD Thunderbolt drive options for budgets large and small.
Thunderbolt Mac Backup Drives
Shopping for the fastest Apple ThunderBolt backup drive? The emergence of ThunderBolt 3 is radically shifting the Macintosh compatible data storage peripheral market as the interface of 10Gbps and 20Gbps ThunderBolt changes from the Mini DisplayPort style to a smaller, reversible Type-C connector that's also used by modern USB-C devices.Multiple generations of Apple ThunderBolt backup drive solutions are on the market. We're seeing far more affordable ThunderBolt Hard Drives with prices starting around $150 and up.
We've also seen the emergence of combo interface hard drives for Mac that incorporate BOTH USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt ports on the drive. Combo interfaces give alot of flexibility for transferring data among Macs or PC's, old or new. Additionaly, ThunderBolt and USB 3.1 SSD drive solutions are getting much cheaper as solid-state SSD drive prices have steadily plummeted over time.
ThunderBolt Backup Drives For Mac
Thunderbolt 3 External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
| Combo USB3 + ThunderBolt Drive | LaCie ThunderBolt 2 Drive |
|---|---|
| Cheap COMBO Drive USB3.0 + ThunderBolt | ThunderBolt2 HDD Combo USB 3 + TBolt 2 |
It isn't just Pro Video Editors, Music Studios or DVD and Photo Archive Companies that benefit from Mac backups and auxillary storage over ThunderBolt. Anyone who has large sets of data to move from point A to B will appreciate the lighting speed ThunderBolt ports can provide.
If there's one 'gotcha' to reading from - or backing up to - a ThunderBolt harddrive, it's limitations in the current speed of conventional mechanical hard drives. Even Solid-State SSD backup drives for Mac and Windows need 2 or more drives for truly impressive ThunderBolt performance. (Remember, ThunderBolt is a cross-platform technology that will benefit both Apple and PC users.) While 2 to 4 times faster than mechanical hard drives, even the fastest single SATA SSD made can't fill even half of ThunderBolt's amazing data pipeline.
ThunderBolt SSD Drives For Mac
| LaCie Combo USB3 + ThunderBolt | Solid-State TBolt Drives |
|---|---|
| LaCie Rugged SSD Drive Combo USB 3.0 and TBolt Interfaces | Akitio Portable SSD 120GB/240GB SSD Storage |
Thunderbolt 3 External Hard Drive For Mac
The only technology that can truly leverage 10GBps TBolt and provide best Mac backup speeds is in multi-drive platter arrays or pairs of flash-memory based SSD drive ThunderBolt hardware. The most demanding, data-intensive commercial users will want multiple-drive ThunderBolt RAID HDD storage systems - or those using 2 or more SSD's for peak throughput. However, benchmarks have shown that conventional drives in RAID units of 4 or more are highly efficient spanning reads and writes across mechanical drives and deliver suprisingly fast reads and writes at a musch lower cost per Gigabyte than SSD solutions.Thunderbolt 3 External Hard Drive For Macbook Pro
ThunderBolt 3 Solid-State Drives And Accessories
With the latest versions of it's MacBook Pro laptops and the Mac mini, Pro and iMac desktops, Apple has shipped untold millions of ThunderBolt 3 enabled computers. The demand for ultra high speed SSD ThunderBolt 3 backup drives and other computing peripherals using the 40Gbps interface is exploding to meet demand.LaCie Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
Apple Compatible LaCie Thunderbolt3 SSDSupports BOTH USB 3.1 Gen2 and TB3 Connectivity
OWC Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
OWC ThunderBlade PCIEe External SSD250, 500, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Other World Computing - OWC is our top recommendation for a solid-state Thunderbolt 3 backup drive for Mac or PC users. It's more affordable Envoy EX and higher-end Thunderblade series offers a wide range of price points and performance levels for nearly any computer user's budget.
Samsung Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
Thunderbolt 3 Samsung External SSD500GB, 1TB and 2TB Storage Capacities
Noted for their top-performing SSD drives and blades, Samsung is bringing it's 860 Evo PCIe NVMe technology into it's portable Thunderbolt 3 offering at very competitive pricing. Like many competing TB3 drives in this space, there's only a SINGLE Thunderbolt 3 connector. As such, it lacks a 2nd pass-thru port for daisy chaining so it needs to be directly plugged into your Mac or PC, or as the last device in a chain.
G-Technology Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive
Portable G-Tech Thunderbolt3 SSDSustained Transfer Rates Up To 2800MB/s
GTech recently joined the solid-state drive space with it's G-Drive Mobile Pro native Thunderbolt3 interface SSD.
ThunderBolt 3 'Compatible' USB-C Drives
Because a computer's Type-C ThunderBolt3 ports also speak USB protocols, some drive and device manufacturers are marketing Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2 peripherals as 'ThunderBolt 3 Compatible' -- which they are. For many consumers, the distinction won't matter much. They'll just plug the drive into their Type-C port and it'll work. Glyph is one USB-C SSD drive maker pushing that 'Compatible' angle to ThunderBolt buyers.Glyph Atom USB-C SSD RAID
Dual SATA SSD Drive Modules
Candidly, a 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection is going to be fast enough for many PC and Mac user's expectations. It's really only far more demanding Pro users and enterprise environments that need and / or can afford full-blown 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 storage and ultra 4K and 5K displays to take advange of all that bandwidth.
Thunderbolt External Hard Drive
ThunderBolt 3 SSD Drives
The insanely high bandwidth of a 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 port will have a huge impact on solid-state storage solutions. With the latest generation of PCIe NVME SSD modules we're seeing external solid-state RAID storage products unprecedented data read and write speeds exceeding 2000 MBps leaving previous generation Serial ATA - SATA SSD drives in the dust.Akitio Thunder3 PCIe SSD Drive
1.2TB Intel 750 Series PCIe Card Inside
ThunderBolt 3 SSD Enclosures And Cases
We're already seeing the first multi-drive ThunderBolt 3 drive enclosures reaching the market. Companies like OWC and Akitio are delivering 2 or 4 drive enclosures that supports either dual 3.5' HDD or 2.5' SSD SATA drives with dual pass-through Type-C ThunderBolt 3 ports on the rear.ThunderBolt 3 Hard Disk Drives
HDD drives will still have their place in the world of ThunderBolt 3 interfaces. Indeed, when hard disk drives are coupled in a multi-drive striped RAID 0 storage array, insanely high capacity and very high speed data rates are possible even when using mechanical spinning-platter drives. High RPM spindle speeds and large onboard caches help.LaCie ThunderBolt 3 HDD RAID Array
Dual Drives + USB3 Hub + Card Reader
ThunderBolt 3 Dongles And Adapters
To ease the transition from ThunderBolt and ThunderBolt 2, and from USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0 to 10Gbps USB-C 3.1, a large variety of ThunderBolt 3 adapters and dongles are going to be needed. Apple was quick to offer a Type-C to mini DisplayPort style dongle to help Mac users leverage their existing 1st and 2nd generation Thunderbolt devices.Apple ThunderBolt 3 Adapter
Type-C To ThunderBolt 2 Dongle
Thunderbolt 3 External Solid State Drive Adapter
We're certainly seeing that in the USB 3.1 Type-C computer peripheral space. Though they'll look physically similar and use the same reversible Type-C connectors, the ThunderBolt 3 products will need to incorporate more expensive, certified and sophisticated Intel ThunderBolt chipsets to assure reliable performance for peripherals up to 40Gbps.
ThunderBolt 3 Hubs And Docks
Rather than a mumble-jumble of dongles and adapters, many Windows and MacOS users will likely want to consolidate them into multi-port ThunderBolt 3 docks or adapters that can bridge multiple types of legacy interfaces for video, audio and peripheral data into one tidy unit.External Thunderbolt Drive
OWC's Multiport ThunderBolt3 DockAudio + Video + Data : With TBolt3 Pass Through Ports
OWC is shipping it's 2nd generation PC and Mac compatible ThunderBolt 3 docking station with 14 total ports incorporating nearly every type of storage and computing device both old and new that you'd want to plug into it. Other major tech players like CalDigit, Belkin and others have revised their docking stations to support ThunderBolt3 connections as well.
ThunderBolt 3 Cables
40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 CablingType-C Connector Rated 40Gbps Speeds
Very high-quality certified and lab tested ThunderBolt 3 cabling is needed in demanding, high-bandwidth configurations. When shopping for cabling you'll see both 20Gbps and 40Gbps ThunderBolt 3 cables listed. Depending on your computing environment, you'll need to insure the cables are capable of reliably sustaining both the 4K and 5K Ultra-HD video streams AND the other HDD or SSD storage and accessories you may have connected.
High-quality certified TBolt 3 cables have onboard circuitry to assure data integrity and error checking / correction. Expect to pay a premium price over lesser 10Gbps Type-C cabling for slower USB-C devices.
Type-C Confusion : Identifying TB3 vs USB-C Connections
To help minimize consumer confusion between deceptively identical USBC and TBolt3 type cables and ports, ThunderBolt 3 cables and ports will be marked with a Lightning Bolt symbol with the number '3', while USB devices and cables should have an SS+ - SuperSpeed+ USB symbol to help proper identification.Important! Apple is using 2nd generation ThunderBolt 3 chipsets in it's new MacBooks and iMacs. There are some incompatibility issues with early products that already reached the market using the 1st generation TB3 chipset! Until Apple releases a possible patch to MacOS Sierra - or perhaps until manufacturers update their hardware to newer chipsets there are problems using some 1st revision storage and dock products! Fortunately, Amazon is noting 'For Windows ONLY' in some of the products titles to warn of Apple compatibility issues.
