Plugable Thunderbolt 3 drive offers 480GB of NVMe SSD external storage with fast data tran...
Dock and accessory producer Plugable introduced the Thunderbolt 3 480GB NVMe Solid State Drive at CES, an external storage device that takes advantage of the high bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 connections to offer fast transfers in a highly portable form factor.
Plugable's Thunderbolt 3 drive uses NVMe to allow for a direct interface with PCI3 controllers without an intermediary chipset, instead of relying on usual connectivity methods that are limited by a SATA III interface. With this change, it is claimed that the drive is capable of being five times faster than a SATA III equivalent connected over USB 3.1 Gen 2.
The drive is capable of sequential speeds of more than 2,400 megabytes per second for reading, and over 1,200 megabytes per second for writing. Actual transfer speeds will ultimately depend on the host system it is connected to, as well as the workload, and however much of the 40 gigabit per second bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 itself is used by other devices when daisy chained.
This high transfer speed is said by the manufacturer to be ideal for those requiring a "no-compromise performance solution" that demands "maximum disk performance." Example use cases include fast backups, as well as accessing and storing the large files used in video editing projects.
Produced in an aluminum casing with a single integrated Thunderbolt 3 cable, the drive does not require an additional power source, using the same Thunderbolt 3 connection for both power and data transfers. The drive itself is compatible with Mac systems with a Thunderbolt 3 connection running macOS Sierra or later, as well as similarly-equipped PCs running Windows 7 or later.
The Plugable 480GB Thunderbolt 3 Drive is expected to ship in the first quarter of 2018, though pricing has yet to be revealed.
Plugable's Thunderbolt 3 drive uses NVMe to allow for a direct interface with PCI3 controllers without an intermediary chipset, instead of relying on usual connectivity methods that are limited by a SATA III interface. With this change, it is claimed that the drive is capable of being five times faster than a SATA III equivalent connected over USB 3.1 Gen 2.
The drive is capable of sequential speeds of more than 2,400 megabytes per second for reading, and over 1,200 megabytes per second for writing. Actual transfer speeds will ultimately depend on the host system it is connected to, as well as the workload, and however much of the 40 gigabit per second bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 itself is used by other devices when daisy chained.
This high transfer speed is said by the manufacturer to be ideal for those requiring a "no-compromise performance solution" that demands "maximum disk performance." Example use cases include fast backups, as well as accessing and storing the large files used in video editing projects.
Produced in an aluminum casing with a single integrated Thunderbolt 3 cable, the drive does not require an additional power source, using the same Thunderbolt 3 connection for both power and data transfers. The drive itself is compatible with Mac systems with a Thunderbolt 3 connection running macOS Sierra or later, as well as similarly-equipped PCs running Windows 7 or later.
The Plugable 480GB Thunderbolt 3 Drive is expected to ship in the first quarter of 2018, though pricing has yet to be revealed.
Comments
Heck I would use it as a boot drive. However the biggest problem I have with thunderbolt external drives is they can’t be bought as a case only (I did buy a Chinese No name case once, it was rubbish). You have to buy one with the smallest drive at the cheapest price, open it up and put a bigger or higher performing drive in it, voiding warranty.
Hence this one has the problems of too small a drive and a higher price than necessary.
And, as others have said, if you just need bulk storage, there are TONS of other options... likely for a fraction of the cost.
The main issues I've had with external storage, though, are that HD-based solutions 'sleep' which creates a problem for Spotlight or open/save menus in many apps, etc. You get a several second pause each time you try to search or do a file operation. (I wonder if that's finally fixed in High Sierra?)
The other issue is that cloud storage like Dropbox want to live on the internal drive (or would be a problem unless you always had the external plugged in), so that super-tiny internal SSD causes issues.
And most of these 2/4T cheap external drives are just that— cheap, and not inexpensive. Often there's no internal SATA interface so if the connector goes the drive can't be salvaged and is useless. But at $99, it's a cheap disposable peripheral, I suppose.
do you even use any Thunderbolt devices? I do. Drives like these would make great boot drives, ultra-fast storage, etc... If you're comparing a $99 SATA drive vs. a solid state NVM drive then you missing the point entirely.
Does anyone know if these portable Thunderbolt-3 drives will fall back to USBc if connected to a non-Thunderbolt USBc port?
After 3 generations of thunderbolt we still don’t have any choices on buying a bare drive enclosure.
For future reference, if something we write says USB-C it will work with USB 3.1 type C or Thunderbolt 3. If something we write says Thunderbolt 3, then it will only work with Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports.
https://www.akitio.com/portable-storage/thunder2-storage-av
https://www.akitio.com/desktop-storage/thunder3-duo-pro
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fusiontb3pcieflashdrive.html
While there are lots of cheap retail SATA SSDs, the PCIe ones are a bit more expensive. This limits the potential market. It's better to just sell the old one and buy one with more capacity. For most uses, USB3/USB-C speeds (~500MB/s) will suffice and it's easier to get affordable USB3 enclosures and SATA drives:
https://www.amazon.com/Nekteck-Enclosure-Interface-Optimized-Tool-Free/dp/B01C3OP6KY
https://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-USB-C-External-Aluminum-Enclosure/dp/B01N52Z26D
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OJ3UJ2S/
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-Internal-Frustration-Free-Packaging/dp/B077SF8KMG/
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-NAND-1TB-SSD-WDS100T2B0A/dp/B073SBQMCX
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E1T0B-AM/dp/B00OBRFFAS
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX300-Internal-Solid-State/dp/B01IAGSDUE
The cheapest out of those would make a 1TB SSD for $272. But if you went with a more expensive sealed unit e.g $370:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H552FJ
you just sell it on when a 2TB model is $370 for e.g $150. If you sell that on again for $150, TCO is $440. Do the same for the enclosure but you'd get $100 for the bare drive so TCO is ~$330. You save money with the enclosure but $100 over ~3-4 years isn't worth the hassle.