Design-wise, the Express Dock is made to blend in perfectly with Apple’s line of Mac machines. It rocks an aluminum unibody shell with black plastic panels on the sides and back, and just like a good mullet, there’s not a lot going on in the front, but there’s a party in the back — all the ports are situated on the rear of the dock. You’ll find an ethernet port, a FireWire 800 port, three USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports (which support daisy-chaining), and separate 3.5mm audio-out and audio-in jacks.

One of the two Thunderbolt ports is used to plug the dock into your Mac, but that’s all it takes to get access to all the other ports. Instead of having to plug all of your peripherals in one after another every time you dock your MacBook at your desk, all you have to do is plug everything into the Express Dock when setting it up, and then just simply plug in the dock into your Thunderbolt port. At that point, you’ll be all set to go. This fact alone I found really convenient as I didn’t have all these cables that I had to keep plugging and unplugging every time I wanted to undock my MacBook. It’s just one single cable and you’re good to go.

While the Express Dock will work for desktop Macs like the iMac and Mac Pro, it’s essentially meant for those with MacBooks, which don’t have a lot of options when it comes to ports, especially MacBook Air users. If you use a MacBook as your main machine and want more port options, the Express Dock is about the only convenient option out there. Simply plug in the dock into your Thunderbolt port and you’ll instantly have eight more ports at your perusal, which is pretty fantastic.

However, there are some caveats. The Express Dock doesn’t come with a Thunderbolt cable in the box, so you’ll want to make sure that you have one on hand in order to connect it to your Mac. Secondly, the Express Dock requires OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to take advantage of all its capabilities. The dock will at least work on older versions of OS X, and I was able to hook up a Thunderbolt display to the dock, but it wouldn’t recognize any of the USB 3.0 drives that I had on hand, nor would the audio ports work. However, once I connected it to a Mountain Lion machine, everything worked flawlessly.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the USB 3.0 ports on the Express Dock are limited to 2.5Gbps, which is almost half the speed of what it’s supposed to be at (4.8Gbps). We’re not exactly sure why this is, but it’s still much faster than USB 2.0, which Macs are still sadly stuck at (unless you have one of the newest models). I also noticed that the dock would get hot after a short while, including both ends of the Thunderbolt cable. Nothing exploded, thankfully, but it was always a bit of a concern after I had it plugged in for an hour or so and had tons of things plugged into it. It never got hot enough that I couldn’t touch it, but I was certainly surprised that it gets a bit warm.

Portability is another thing to consider, especially since the dock is catered towards MacBooks. The Express Dock is lightweight and can easily fit into a backpack to take with you. However, the power adapter that’s required to power the Express Dock makes the device not too portable-friendly. It’s about the same size as a typical laptop power adapter, which isn’t a bad thing, since they’re also made to be portable along with the laptop its charging, but if you were to take both your MacBook and the Express Dock with you on the road, you now have two bulky power adapters to deal with. The dock can certainly be portable, but it’s really up to the user whether or not lugging it along will be worth it.

In the end, Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock is the perfect companion to a MacBook power user. However, you’ll have to think long and hard about whether or not you truly need it, since it costs a whopping $300, so it isn’t just something that you can buy impulsively. There is a cheaper option available for $250, but that’s still a hard pill to swallow. Then again, if you’re like me and constantly find yourself docking and undocking your MacBook, dealing with a tangle of numerous wires at the same time, the Express Dock could be one of the best convenience products that you ever buy. Plus, if you’re rocking a MacBook Air and wish you had more ports at your disposal, the Express Dock is a good choice for that too.

That second Thunderbolt (the first hooking the dock up to your Mac or MacBook) means you can attach up to five more Thunderbolt devices to the same machine. As we’ve already seen, Thunderbolt’s hefty throughput – bidirectional 10Gbps, in fact – means you can have RAID arrays, Full HD displays, A/V interfaces, and more, all connected and operating simultaneously.

The dock also includes a single FireWire 800 port, handy if you’ve got legacy devices but a newer Mac which dropped the connection, and both audio-in and audio-out. In total, Belkin says, you can hook up eight devices with a single cable to your Mac.

It’s not exactly cheap for a dock, and we’re a little unimpressed that Belkin doesn’t even include the Thunderbolt cable you’ll need in order to use it. Still, if you want to make your MacBook Pro the hub of a desktop setup, it’s a straightforward way to do that without needing to hook up half a dozen cables every time you get home or into the office.

Intel says Falcon Ridge will include backwards compatibility with current-generation Thunderbolt devices, although anything using the current standard will be kept at those same speeds of 10Gbps. This means that Falcon Ridge is twice as fast as the current-generation of Thunderbolt, which is quite impressive and something that haven’t seen yet.

Intel demonstrated the new technology using top-of-the-line components that are available today and were able to achieve speeds of 1.2Gbps, which is a far cry from what the Falcon Ridge is capable of, but the most obvious bottleneck is the stage at which hardware components are at right now. If you were to use current-generation Thunderbolt, you’d have to get a solid state drive just to take advantage of the faster speeds.

Thunderbolt is over two years old now, and it’s becoming a mainstream feature in Apple’s products, but taking advantage of the file transfer protocol is costly, with Thunderbolt external hard drives costing much more than USB 3.0 or eSATA drives. It’s certainly an investment if you’re looking for faster transfer speeds, but it’s really worth it in the end.

[via Engadget]

Hardware

The Drobo lineage is clear in the Mini, though unlike its siblings it spreads its drives horizontally rather than vertically. At 7.3 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches it’s a squat square of matte and glossy black plastic, tipping the scales at 2.2 pounds without drives; that also doesn’t include the power brick, which is compact though still something to consider if you’re planning to make the Drobo Mini a mobile storage solution.

Up front there’s a magnetically-attached front cover, which hides four 2.5-inch drive bays. By switching from the more common 3.5-inch drives, as in the rest of the Drobo range, the company has been able to reduce size, noise, and power consumption (though since you provide the HDDs yourself, that will in part depend on which models you pick). However, it also places new limits on capacity, since 2.5-inch drives aren’t available in the same huge sizes as their bigger brethren.

In fact, 1TB is basically the maximum per drive, though since the Drobo Mini uses the company’s BeyondRAID data redundancy system, you won’t actually get 4TB of total storage even if you slot a full terabyte into each bay. Drobo has a useful calculator to figure out exactly what you’ll get, but if you stick to the 1TB maximum and expect complete data safety even if one of the drives dies, you’ll have 930GB to use with two HDDs installed, 1.81TB with three installed, and 2.72TB with all four occupied.

It’s worth noting that you needn’t install four drives of the same size: you can mix and match, then take advantage of Drobo’s auto-rebuilding of the array by swapping out a smaller drive for a larger version. Another option is dual disk redundancy – where the Drobo Mini can handle up to two drives failing simultaneously with no data loss – but then, with four 1TB HDDs installed, you’ll only have 1.8TB to use.

Fitting the drives themselves is incredibly straightforward: no caddies, rails, or other attachments, simply push the HDD in port-first and, like clicking a pen, it slots into place. No tools required, and swapping out a drive is as simple as clicking it in and pulling it free; you can even do it with the Drobo Mini running, and rebuilding the array begins automatically. Four green LED strips around the corners of the fascia correspond to the status of each drive, while status lights and a useful capacity gauge run along the bottom, showing you roughly how much space you have left.

However, there’s also a fifth bay, on the underside of the Drobo Mini, which takes an mSATA solid-state drive. These flash drives, having gained in popularity thanks to ultrabooks, basically offer a chunk of speedy storage in a small footprint, and work with what Drobo calls “data-aware tiering technology”; offered until now only on the company’s enterprise-spec B1200i, that uses an SSD cache to speed up file access by storing frequently accessed data (such as thumbnails) in a dedicated area of faster capacity. Drobo offers a $169 60GB mSATA, though you can shop around for a better deal, and using the bay is optional.

The Drobo Mini’s other surprise is a battery. Non-removable (but expected to last the lifetime of the unit, Drobo says) it works as an emergency power supply rather than as a true mobility provision: basically, if you lose AC power, the Drobo Mini is designed to have sufficient internal power to make sure all the data in use is stored safely before the drive switches off.

Ports are all on the back, sandwiched between two non-user-removable variable speed fans, which spin with a noticeable hum. As well as a single USB 3.0 port there are two Thunderbolt ports, the second Thunderbolt intended for daisy-chaining drives and other peripherals. The obvious omission – as with most of Drobo’s earlier products – is a network port, with the Mini really intended for use with a single machine at any one time.

Performance

We fitted the Drobo Mini with four 750GB Seagate Momentus drives, as well as a 32GB mSATA flash drive in the Drobo Accelerator Bay on the underside. Drobo’s Dashboard app – available for Windows and Mac – automatically builds the BeyondRAID array and uses the mSATA for caching.

Hooked up via Thunderbolt to a 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina display, itself with a 256GB Apple-fit flash drive, we saw transfer rates from the computer to the Drobo Mini of 98.12 MB/s when dealing with 5GB files. In the opposite direction, from Drobo Mini to Mac, that increases slightly to 101.1 MB/s.

Drobo includes USB 3.0, of course, for broader compatibility, though you’ll pay a penalty in speed: almost half of the rates, in fact. Transferring to the same MacBook Pro with Retina display over USB 3.0, we saw 62.71 MB/s, and then 53.1 MB/s sending 5GB files back from the Mini to the Mac.

Pricing and Value

Drobo has never been the cheap option for data storage, and the Drobo Mini doesn’t break with tradition. At $649 with no drives, it’s clearly on the expensive side for a portable storage caddy (though you do get both a USB 3.0 and a Thunderbolt cable included in the box). Factor in four 1TB HDDs at $80 apiece, and you’re looking at $969 and still having an empty accelerator bay. A quick look online turns up 64GB mSATA drives for around $70 (you can find slightly cheaper, lower capacity alternatives, as we did, but then you’ll see less benefit from the data-aware tiering technology), bringing the fully-loaded price to $1,039.

Count on another $49 if you want the official carrying case, and expect to spend a small fortune if you want to use SSDs rather than HDDs. With solid-state drives currently sitting at the $180 point for around 240GB, you’re looking at $1,679 for roughly 680GB of space, albeit blisteringly-fast space.

There are cheaper ways to use 2.5-inch drives. We’re fans of Synology’s DiskStation DS411slim, which is $300 empty. You don’t get an mSATA bay or the backup battery, and it uses gigabit ethernet rather than USB or Thunderbolt (there’s an eSATA port and two USB 2.0 ports, but they’re for adding extra capacity not directly hooking up to a computer), so data transfers are inevitably slower, and making it more suited to backup than for storing files you’re working on currently.

If Thunderbolt is a must-have, then there’s LaCie’s Little Big Disk, which uses the high-speed port and two preinstalled drives (either HDD or SSD depending on the model). The good-looking external drive isn’t inexpensive, however. The HDD-based model has a street price of roughly $319 for 1TB, though that’s combining two 500GB drives with no data redundancy; opt for single drive redundancy, and you’ll only have 500GB with no room for expansion. The SSD version comes in 512GB or 1TB capacities (street price from around $665), though again you’re looking at half that space if you want single-drive redundancy. There’s also no other connectivity, unlike the Drobo Mini’s USB 3.0, which makes accessing data tricky if you’re using one of the (many) computers that lacks Thunderbolt.

Wrap-Up

The Drobo Mini is wasted on backup. There are far cheaper ways to keep a safe copy of your digital life, and far more convenient methods than taking a single Drobo unit around every computer in your home or office and backing them up one at a time. If we’ve learned anything about backup, it’s that even the slightest hurdle to the process and users simply won’t do it; a set-and-forget NAS handles such duties far more readily.

Where the Drobo Mini succeeds, then, is in day-to-day use: solid data access rates, and the flexibility and convenience of the BeyondRAID system. As we’ve found with Thunderbolt drives before, the Drobo Mini is sufficiently swift that you can effectively treat it as another internal drive, keeping project files – whether photo, music, or video editing, or something else – stored externally, rather than having to copy them onto your main drive and then archive them again afterwards.

That makes particular sense when you consider the shifts we’re seeing in computing, particularly from Apple (though arguably where the Mac goes, the PC tends to follow), with traditional HDDs phased out in favor of faster solid-state memory with generally smaller capacities. A $1k loaded Drobo Mini starts to look far more flexible in comparison to a factory-fit storage upgrade for a new Mac, and the external drive is sufficiently portable that you could drop it into your laptop bag alongside your MacBook Pro and set up a powerful studio wherever there’s an AC socket spare. That balance of performance, flexibility, and data security puts the Drobo Mini into a category of its own, and while not the cheapest external storage, you do get plenty for your money.

The 5big Thunderbolt supports RAID 0, 1, and JBOD across its five hot-swappable bays; however, it’s also possible to mix and match those RAID setups, so for instance you could have a three-disk array in RAID 0 for performance, and then leave the remaining two disks in RAID 1 for backup redundancy.Two Thunderbolt ports are included, and up to six devices can be daisy-chained. LaCie reckons the 5big is good for up to 785MB/s when used with the five 7,200rpm/74MB cache drives in the standard RAID 0 configuration.

As for the 5big NAS Pro, that ditches Thunderbolt in favor of dual gigabit ethernet (with link aggregation support); LaCie also throws in a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a further pair of USB 3.0, and a VGA port for hooking up a display for management. Inside there’s a dualcore 2.13GHz Atom 64-bit processor and 4GB of RAM, plus a choice of RAID 5, 5+spare, 1, or 0 setup.

LaCie will offer the 5big NAS Pro in barebones, 10TB, and 20TB capacities, priced from $549. The 5big Thunderbolt is priced from $1,199 for 10TB, with a 20TB option.

Now this isn’t anything extremely exciting, and it won’t make your computers USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt port rock faster speeds than usual, but it has a few important things that make them stand out. Just like others from earlier this week, Corning and Optical Cables will be delivering Optical Cable thunderbolt options ranging from up to 100 feet and more.

Most Thunderbolt cables use copper, and that severely limits it in terms of distance and at longer range can cause speed to suffer. As a result Corning and Optical Cables is here to offer a solution. Their cables convert the signal into Optical and their lightweight and extremely durable cables then transfer your files and more with ease to those long distances many need. It’s also extremely durable and can bend, fold, kink, get knots and more without a problem. Transfer speeds will never suffer. Check it out.

Corning has added their durable technology and development into these new cables, and should provide extreme durability and longevity to all Optical Cables. If Thunderbolt ports aren’t your thing at the moment, don’t worry because Corning also has full USB 3.0 options available as well. Corning and Optical Cables states Thunderbolt will be available in lengths of 12ft, 18ft, 10m, 30m, 50m and 100m (last is longest available) while USB 3.0 will come in 5.5m, 10m, 15m and 30m. As fart as pricing is concerned, we aren’t sure at the moment. Corning stated that they’ll be releasing further pricing details soon, as well as their respective retail partners.

The announcement from Sumitomo Electric Industries notes that they’ll be able to keep the full 10 Gbps speeds that the metal cables have shown. They also mention that even if the cables they’re producing are “tangled or pinched” up to 180 degrees, they’ll retain their signal fully. These cables have been assured to be as thin as the current standard metal-carrying Thunderbolt cables while their heads will be ever-so-slightly modified.

Each new Sumitomo Electric Industries optical Thunderbolt cable will have a 38mm connection head rather than the original metal cable’s 28mm. This and the fact that these new optical cables will not be able to power devices such as hard drives may be a hinderance for many hoping to continue their Thunderbolt access across their home, but for those already using separate power supplies, the game is on.

The Sumitomo Electric Industries team has made it clear that all Apple computers and devices shipped with standard Thunderbolt cable compatibility on the market thus far will be working with their new cords. They’ve not yet announced pricing or availability, but you can bet you’ll be seeing these cords before 2013 is ended (especially since they started shipping sample products back in April of 2012.)

[via Sumitomo Electric]

This machine now works with speeds up to 180MB/s and has the ability to transfer a 10GB project in less than a minute. This comes with a fan-free aluminum heat sink design with a sleek silvery aesthetic and a lovely blue eye. This industrial design creates 60 percent more surface area than flat designs, this allowing heat to efficiently divert and dissipate like a champ. You’ll be able to stack these drives up if you wish, or just keep one to the side of your computer upright on its own simple stand.

You’ve got 256-bit AES encryption for security and the knowledge that you’re working with a company that’s been in business making drives like these for almost a decade. With USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces you’ll be able to work with new Apple products such as the MacBook Pro and Ultrabooks of many kinds. You’ve got backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 as well and you get both a USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt cable in the box.

The LaCie d2 was designed by Neil Poulton and remains as iconic as it was the day it was originally revealed. This new edition will be available with a full backup software suite in two sizes, one of them with 3TB of space, the other with 4TB. You’ll be able to grab this lovely drive immediately if not soon from your favorite LaCie retailer or reseller.

mLogic’s listing has no problem at all touting the transfer speeds with the mLink Thunderbolt. According to the site, the mLink Thunderbolt can transfer data at up 10Gbps, and since it comes with two Thunderbolt ports, it can support daisy-chain of up to six Thunderbolt devices. The listing also says that the mLink Thunderbolt is compatible with “just about any half-length PCIe card.”

The mLink Thunderbolt is also relatively small, standing 5.86-inches tall, 2.75-inches wide, and 8.1-inches tall. It sounds like a handy little product, but if you want one, be prepared to hand over some cash. The mLink Thunderbolt costs a hefty $400, though we’re sure that there are some media creators and high-performance lovers who will find value in the device despite its price tag.

At the moment, the mLink Thunderbolt is only available for pre-order. The listing says that orders will begin shipping out in 3-4 weeks, though we don’t have an exact date from mLogic just yet. We’ll be keeping out for a solid will release and will update you if we hear anything new, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more info!

[via mLogic]

In fact, LaCie claims that the turn of speed the new SATA III drives bring means users will be able to transfer 50GB from their Thunderbolt-equipped PC or Mac to the drive in under two minutes. Alternatively, they’ll be able to edit six uncompressed video streams simultaneously.

As with its predecessor, there are twin Thunderbolt ports so that different peripherals – up to six at once – can be daisy-chained. However, now LaCie includes a Thunderbolt cable in the box, something we dinged them for not doing first time around.

The two SSDs can be set up as a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array, depending on whether you’re prioritizing capacity or redundancy. The 512GB model is priced from £589 ($943), while there’s also a more expensive 1TB version.

When showed to Laptop Mag, it would found that a combination of a prototype Thunderbolt graphics card from Lucid produced amicable results. With a combination of Intel’s integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip on a standard Ivy Bridge motherboard, they showed 3DMark06 benchmark bringing up 28 frames-per-second – that’s without this new solution. With the Lucid external graphic card plugged in through the test system’s Thunderbolt port, great things happened.

With the Thunderbolt-connected Lucid-made system, here a AMD Radeon 6700 chip, 3DMark06 brought up a much more fabulous 89 fps. This system works extremely simply, with a plug in to the system resulting in a moment of black screen then the system appearing under Windows Device Manager under Display adapters. If you’re in the mood to disconnect the system again, you’ll simply be force-quit out of whatever application your in and the original Windows desktop will be up and ready to continue to rock without it.

This external video card solution makes it so the future of laptop-based gaming (or desktop-based gaming, for that matter) will bring upgrades with as simple as a cord plug. No more screwdriver action for you if you don’t want! Prices and release dates have not yet been revealed – stay tuned for more Lucid action!

[via Laptop Mag]

Apple announced the Thunderbolt Display more than a year ago, back in July 2011, and since then the desktop monitor has gone technically unchanged. The company did push out a new SKU in July this year, though the only change was the inclusion of a new power adapter so that the Thunderbolt Display’s pass-through power cable could be used with the redesigned MagSafe 2 connection.

While supplies direct from Apple’s own webstore remain prompt, several UK retailers are showing no online stock availability. Amazon UK, for instance, says the Thunderbolt Display is backordered until September 20 (though independent Marketplace sellers still have stock); fellow UK retailers Dixons, PC World, Currys, John Lewis and Comet are also out of stock.

Currently, the Thunderbolt Display runs at 2560 x 1440 resolution and measures in at 27-inches, as per the larger iMac. Opinions on whether the all-in-one will get a Retina boost have been mixed, with some expecting a significant step up in resolution, while others say Apple will skip such a – likely expensive – change for this generation.

Those same factors count for the Thunderbolt Display, though there are still areas in which Apple could tweak the monitor. On the back, for instance, is a hub of ports which includes gigabit ethernet, a pass-through Thunderbolt, three USB 2.0, and a FireWire 800; Apple might opt to update that to USB 3.0, as with the ports on the 2012 MacBook Pro, and add another Thunderbolt pass-through.

The first-gen Thunderbolt Display arrived without fanfare as a simple press release, so it’s possible that a new version might make a similarly low-key debut. Amazon’s September 20 supply estimate could be an indication of when the new model is due, a week after Apple’s iPhone 5 launch.

This new MyBook from Western Digital uses two blazing fast 1TB 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor drives in a RAID configuration to bring you some top notch speeds, and tons of storage. I want one already! Toss in the new Thunderbolt standard to help you achieve top read/write and in/out speeds and you’ll be cruising along in no time.

The new WD storage device offers speeds topping 400MB/sec and both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. That is near SSD performance only you’re getting 2TB of space instead of say 512GB. What is the price your wondering? This impressive new MyBook isn’t cheap with those speeds and performance. It will run you a pretty penny of about $900. All that precious HD video now has a fast, safe, and easy to access storage option.

WD details that the new VelociRapter Duo comes with dual Thunderbolt ports so you can daisy chain should you have a spare $1800 to pick up two. Then as you see above the device is user-serviceable and accessible should the unlikely event of a drive failure. You can easily pop her open and replace a drive. You can even boot your Mac right from this external storage drive. If you’ve got the cash to spend or the need for speed head to WD.com to get started today.

[via ZDNet]

This Ultrabook has a lovely all-metal design with edge-to-edge glass across its display as well as Beats Audio inside so it looks good and sounds good as well. You’ve also got a soft-touch base for grip and comfort as well as a glass touchpad for so many controls that you’ll never be without!

HP brings this device to the market with its first ever implementation of Intel Thunderbolt technology for ultra-quick media transfer speeds. You’ll be able to transfer music, movies, and data of all sorts to external devices in a blink of an eye. With HP USB Boost technology you’ll also be able to charge devices with your USB ports even if the SpectreXP TouchSmart is powered off.

This device will be coming to the market with the latest Intel Core processors as well as Intel Smart Connect technology. Also included is Intel Identity Protection Technology as well as Intel Anti-Theft Technology and Intel Smart Response as well. All this comes on an mSATA solid-state drive, and you’ve got a large array of ports as well including HDMI out, USB 3.0, and Gigabit Ethernet as well.

HP has added HP CoolSense to this device for a “noticeably cooler PC”, their own HP Imagepad for ultra-precise gesture and multifinger navigation, and both HP Connected Photo and HP Connected Music for easy access and syncing of photos, music, and other media across multiple devices. You’ll be working with HP TrueVision HD Webcam technology as well as HP ProtectSmart – this for added hard-drive protection from the forces of evil.

This device comes with 90 days of HP SmartFriend Setup Service for easy setup and access to functions of all kinds for those who are new to the system. This device also comes with one year of Absolute Data Protect, two years of Norton Internet Security, and Intel Anti-Theft for good measure.

Right out of the box you’ll also have full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Adobe Premiere Elements 10. These applications will bring you fabulous photo- and video-editing capabilities that you’ll want never to be without!

The HP SpectreXT TouchSmart Ultrabook will have a starting price of $1,399.99 USD and is expected to be arriving in the United States in December of this year. We’ll see it by the holidays, we hope!

Those standards include DisplayPort v1.1a and DisplayPort v1.2 Redriver, a version which supports strengthening of signals over longer stretches of cable. However, it had been hoped that Intel might coax more raw data speed out of the new Thunderbolt version.

That won’t happen until 2014, the sources say. Codenamed “Falcon Ridge” the new chips will be boosted to 20 Gbps through two channels, making the interconnect even more suitable for daisy-chaining multiple high speed devices such as RAID arrays, high-quality audio and video interfaces, and monitors.

Redwood Ridge Thunderbolt will arrive alongside Intel’s Haswell “Shark Bay” processors, themselves expected sometime in the first half of 2013. Currently Thunderbolt is still seeing only minor adoption, usually in high-end desktops and notebooks, with Apple them most enthusiastic having replaced its Mini DisplayPort connections on all MacBooks with at least one Thunderbolt port.

On the back there are two Thunderbolt ports, the second for daisy-chaining devices together, along with a USB 3.0 port, making the Drobo Mini the ideal partner to the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air line-up. Drobo even throws in the necessary cables, and the usual BeyondRAID drive redundancy and auto-repopulation is onboard.

As for the Drobo 5D, that has five 3.5-inch hard-drive bays, two Thunderbolt ports (again, the second for daisy-chaining) and a USB 3.0 port, and comes with all the necessary cables. It too gets an mSATA SSD bay for boosting performance, and Drobo says the unit runs quieter than the previous-gen version.

Drobo isn’t talking release dates or confirming pricing at this stage, promising exact details  in July. However the Drobo Mini will be under $650 and the Drobo 5D under $850.

The creator of this lovely setup, OWC Mike, has connected his Retina MacBook Pro to two Apple Thunderbolt displays (in the form of iMacs, as it were), as well as a third display hooked up via an HDMI converter. In all it is said that this suddenly legendary setup works with 15,680,000 pixels without much of a problem at all. Hear what Mike has to say:

“Moving images and media didn’t create any lag and we were able to play video on all four displays simultaneously.” – Mike

Touching words, Mike! His setup is as follows, as he lists it:

• Retina on laptop @ “best for Retina”
• iMac used as a display @ 2560 x 1440 via Thunderbolt
• iMac used as a display @ 2560 x 1440 via Thunderbolt/DisplayPort
• LG monitor @ 1920 x 1200 via HDMI

Apple does indeed include a note about the possibility for this setup in their official knowledge base for the device, saying, “MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) can support an HDMI-compatible device on its HDMI port while also using two Thunderbolt displays.” And that’s the reason why Christmas can’t come fast enough.

Have a peek at our full review of the Retina MacBook Pro as well as our timeline of said notebook below to get up to date on this next-generation beast.

[via Mac Rumors]

“We are, of course, working on much faster, “next-gen” Drobos that take into consideration all of the customer feedback we’ve gotten since day 1,” Buiocchi wrote, “and we’ve been debating the 1-year vs. longer standard warranty period as part of these soon-to-be announced new products.”

The Drobo CEO had been forced to respond to complaints about the storage array and its lifespan, after photographer Scott Kelby revealed he had decided to abandon the platform after a fourth hardware failure. Because Drobo uses its own data-spanning and redundancy system, known as BeyondRAID, which is proprietary to the company’s hardware, it’s impossible to recover any data stored on drives used with the system on anything other than another Drobo.

“When my photo assistant Brad called their tech support for me, they told him my dead drobo is out of warranty. To get my photos back, I would have to pay nearly $300 for drobocare (an extended warranty program). So basically, while my drobo is supposed to protect my photo archive, what it has actually done is hold my photo archive hostage for almost $300 … When Brad told drobo how supremely unhappy we were with that $300 hostage-situation, they eventually emailed back and lowered the price to $100. We passed on the ‘deal’” Scott Kelby

The exact timescale for the new Drobo hardware is unclear, though it’s worth noting that it’s been some months since the company released a new consumer-centric array. However, it did preview a Thunderbolt-connected Drobo at Computex 2012 earlier this month, with the promise of up to 20x the speed of USB 2.0 and up to 12x that of FireWire 800 as well as compatibility with SSDs.

This device is 10Gbps transfer speed that you’ll be able to work daisy-chaining to all the devices you want with this dock. You’ve also got a Mini DisplayPort which you can convert to HDMI with the converter this device has included in the box – finally! This whole setup allows you to make use of that Thunderbolt port on your MacBook Pro that for so long you thought you’d purchased just to sit and look at and admire, finally it can be made useful at long last.

This device will be released sometime this summer, with a select few retailers grabbing it in July. Across the earth you’ll be waiting a couple more months unless Belkin does indeed increase shipping from their own site on this product outside the states. Meanwhile you’ll want to head below to see every other Belkin product in the near future and past – Belkin is going ahead full steam!

You’ve got the ability to work on a full-size DVI or HDMI display from your notebook, you can hook in to Gigabit Ethernet, and you’ve got the power of USB 3.0 at your fingertips now even with your Mac. This will allow you to work with data transfer speeds that are 10 times faster than standard USB 2.0, and you get two USB 2.0 ports besides!

This device also has a headphone jack and microphone jack, and is powered through a single standard power port – and yes, you do have to have it plugged in for it to work. This unit will cost you a cool $250 USD when its released later this year. Have a peek in the timeline below to keep up to date on all things Thunderbolt in the past few weeks.

ASUS and Intel both worked closely on the new motherboard. Not only that, but ASUS partnered with several external hard drive manufacturers such as Elgato, LaCie, and and PROMISE to ensure compatibility with their Thunderbolt solutions under Windows. There’s only one Thunderbolt port on the motherboard, but the ability to daisy chain multiple devices over a single connection mean there shouldn’t be any issues.

Thunderbolt isn’t the only tech that this new motherboard is packing: it sits near the top of ASUS’ line, and looks mighty capable in its own right. Support for Ivy Bridge processors is on board, as well as overclocked DDR3 RAM at 2800Mhz. There are four PCI-e 3.0 sockets, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual-band WiFi b/g/n plus Bluetooth 4.0, six SATA 6Gbit/s ports, two eSATA 6Gbit/s ports, and six USB 3.0 ports. A 32GB mSATA SSD is also included to enable fast boot-up and resume times.

First, 9to5Mac say that the new 15-inch model will be slimmer than current offerings due to the removal of the optical drive. It won’t be as thin as the MacBook Airs, nor will it have a tapered design in order to avoid hinge issues at the larger size. The power button will be removed, instead located on the keyboard as is the case with the current MacBook Airs. The design will otherwise remain the same, and feature the typical MagSafe port, ThunderBolt ports, and SD card reader.

Apple will also reportedly introduce a Retina display with the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, as has been rumored for a while. Cupertino has been adding high-resolution graphics into Lion and Mountain Lion in preparation, with insiders saying that the new display is “jaw-dropping” and “definitely the most important Mac innovation in years.” The sharpness and clarity of the display is said to be on par with the Retina displays found on the iPhone 4/4S and new iPad.

In an interesting twist, USB 3.0 will apparently make it into the new MacBook Pro but won’t replace Thunderbolt, instead running happily side by side. Software strings that have appeared in Mountain Lion back up this info, with references pointing to 5Gbit/s transfer speeds (the maximum USB3.0 supports) and two specific mentions of USB 3.0. 9to5Mac say that Apple has been testing the technology for a while, but the new MacBook Pro will be the first time it hits a shipping Apple product thanks to native Ivy Bridge support.

Finally, while it hasn’t been confirmed what GPU will make its way into the new MacBook Pro, references to the NVIDIA GT 650M have been found in Mountain Lion. It would mark a departure away from AMD, who have provided mobile GPUs for the last few generations of MacBook Pros and iMacs. Ivy Bridge chips will primarily be quad-core i7 offerings, as well as some with improved power efficiency. Sources didn’t indicate when to expect to the new MacBook Pros, or how much they’ll cost, but all signs are pointing to a June reveal.

The first ‘board to offer the port, MSI’s Z77A-GD80, there are a few compromises to be made in order to accommodate Thunderbolt. For instance, since it uses half of the available PCIe channels, some of the other connections – such as FireWire and SATA ports 7/8 – can’t be used in parallel, though that’s unlikely to be a deal-breaker since Thunderbolt can essentially replicate their functionality.

Some of the other compromises should be short-lived. AnandTech discovered that there was no hot-plugging support under Windows 7 – meaning only those Thunderbolt peripherals connected at boot would be recognized – but Intel says new drivers should address that. Some existing devices also lack Windows drivers, but again that should be fixed sooner rather than later.

Speeds of around 7Gbps were achieved, once each device had been coaxed into action. Under OS X, a similar setup managed 8Gbps, though the Windows system’s performance is certain to change once final software is ready.

Thunderbolt won’t be present on all Windows PCs, because of the extra cost of the chips involved in adding the technology. However, it’s likely to show up on ultrabooks by virtue of its potential to increase connectivity while cutting down on physical ports, and Acer has already revealed its Aspire S5 which supports it.

The shipping of these new Thunderbolt controllers seems to be in line with updated MacBook Pro notebooks expected be announced in late May. According to reports, Intel was late getting the new controllers actually shipped to manufacturers, which is resulted in the delay of a few computer motherboards. There are two versions of the new Thunderbolt controller including a DSL3510 and a DSL3310.

The two controllers share the same 12 x 12 mm square, 1.35 mm height. The difference comes in I/O and the TDP of the controllers. The 3510 has four TBT lanes, to DP sink, two DP (DisplayPort) source, and four PCIe lanes with the TDP of 3.4 W or 2.8 W. The 3510 controller will be used for PCs and daisy chainable devices. The 3310 has a pair of TBT lanes, one DP sink, and two PCIe lanes with a TDP of 2.1 W and will only be used in PCs.

[via VR-Zone]

Intel’s Haswell ”Shark Bay” platform is on track for offering 20x lower standby power consumption, Intel’s Kirk Skaugen reiterated, echoing earlier promises about the new chips coming in 2013. Before then, though, Intel’s third-gen Core processors – based on Ivy Bridge - will arrive with a 70-percent increase in graphics performance from the onboard HD Graphics 2500/4000 GPU. They’ll also be able to drive three screens simultaneously, and support OpenGL 3.1.

Connectivity will also get a boost, with Thunderbolt finally coming of age. Intel expects approximately 100 peripherals to launch in 2012 with the high-speed port, the company’s Nick Knupffer reports, with “hundreds” of products to follow on from 2013.

That’ll be particularly useful for those doing video editing, along with Quick Sync 2.0 that promises a 70-percent boost in media transcoding on top of the first-gen technology.

The first third-generation ultrabooks will drop this spring, Skaugen confirmed, with “many touch-enabled systems expected” too. 32nm Clovertrail-based Atom tablets will arrive this year, with the 22nm tablet processor due in 2013. Ultrabooks are expected to hit 178m shipments by 2016.

You’ve seen these eSATA drives popping up all of last year, they’re the LaCie silver drives with the blue light that looks like HAL – Lacie’s also been using this look for all of their ThunderBolt-ready peripherals for some time now. What this hub is able to do is bring your eSATA drives in on one box, here “unleashing” their full potential with the 10GB/s speeds of Thunderbolt.

In the back of this device you’ll find dual 10Gb/s Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining, dual eSATA 3GB/s ports, a Kensington Lockm, and a power port – all of this on an enclosure which sits on a removable stand. You can daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt technology compatible devices at once – LaCie brand suggested, but not required. YOu can also connect up to two eSATA drives (per hub.)

The real value proposal here is getting the “full potential” out of your eSATA drives. They’ve got the potential to move at 3GB/s, but because the ExpressCard/34 maximum bus speed is 2.5GB/s, you’re still going slow. This device brings that extra .5 out to be free. This device will be available starting today for $199.00 at LaCie’s online store. Grab a few!

Whichever mode you decide to use, Western Digital say that full Thunderbolt speeds of 10Gbit/s are supported. You’ll be limited to the speed of the hard drives inside the casing, of course, although there will still be a speed boost over the standard USB 2.0 models, especially if you’re using the RAID 0 mode.

Western Digital have also included two Thunderbolt ports on the Duo so that you can daisy chain up to six products together, handy if you’re amassing a large amount of storage for archival purposes. Good news for Mac users too: the Thunderbolt Duo is Time Machine compatible.

The Thunderbolt Duo will come in two flavours, 4TB and 6TB, although all that storage and speed comes at a price. The 4TB version will set you back $599.99, while the 6TB model will cost $699.99. Still interested? Head on over to the Western Digital online store to order them.

Aesthetically Elgato hasn’t strayed far from the external enclosure norm: the Thunderbolt SSD is a black metal box, on the large side for a portable drive, with only one port at the end. 120GB and 240GB versions are available.

While Thunderbolt supports daisy-chaining of drives and other devices – up to six at once – the Elgato box’s single port means it needs to sit at the end of a chain. That’s a deliberate decision, the company tells us, as otherwise the Thunderbolt SSD would have to share the bus-power with whatever comes next in line. It does, though, mean you can only have one plugged in at any one time: you’ll need two available Thunderbolt ports if you have two Elgatos.

Still, speed is the Elgato’s purpose, and on that front it delivers. A 9GB file transferred from Thunderbolt SSD to an SSD-based MacBook Air in under a minute, while QuickBench 4.0 testing saw rates near 272Mb/sec read and write speeds lagging not far behind. Compared to USB 3.0 or eSATA – neither which is available on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, remember – that’s a considerable improvement.

Whether that improvement is worth the hefty premium you pay for Thunderbolt depends on what, exactly, you plan to do with all your speedy storage. The 120GB drive is €399.95 ($523) while the 240GB version is €649.95 ($852). That’s cheaper than LaCie’s SSD-based Little Big Disk – and portable, too – though neither is going to be an impulse purchase. Still, if you’re a mobile photographer or videographer, being able to edit source files directly from removable storage may well be worth it.

According to PCWorld, Intel have already begun implementing PCI Express 3.0 support on the chipset level in its upcoming Ivy Bridge release. PCI Express 3.0 will have speeds of up to 8GT/s, compared to 5GT/s found with PCI Express 2.0.

It’s great that Intel are keen on squeezing as much speed out of the tech as possible, but it doesn’t really matter without readily available accessories to take advantage of that. Right now USB 3.0 has a much larger edge in terms of installed devices, as well as affordable external hard drives and flash drives that you can buy right this very minute.

Thunderbolt has a maximum theoretical speed of 10Gbit/s for both the upstream and downstream, while USB 3.0 maxes out at 5Gbit/s. While Thunderbolt has support for DisplayPort, USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and has a much larger presence right now.

This external hard drive will deliver your data to and from it as fast as 2 Gbps (250 MBps), this not quite as speedy as the Thunderbolt technology allows, but certainly as fast as WD’s hard drive technology allows. At that speed though, you’ll still be able to sent a full HD movie to your hard drive in 30 seconds or less. You can’t even get a Jimmy Johns sandwich that fast!

This drive will easily pull the wings off any USB 2.0 drive out there today, and will certainly sit well with video professionals whose job it is to move files back, and forth, and back, and forth all day long. You’ll be able to pick up this still slightly unrevealed beast up in 4TB and 6TB capacities relatively soon – price and release date have still not been released, nor has a press image of the device itself. Instead what you’re seeing is the My Book Live Duo, a device that will certainly look similar to this newest device when it eventually pops up.

Industry sources claim that the three firms are all set to build machines based on the Intel Ivy Bridge platform and that platform brings with it support for Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt has been on MacBooks for a while now and Apple was the first of the tech firms to use the port. Gigabyte is said to be bringing mainboards to market that support Thunderbolt as well.

It’s interesting to note that Ivy Bridge will also support USB 3.0 natively. USB 3.0 has required a third party controller to function on mainboards. Supporting USB 3.0 is said to add in the area $20 to the cost of the machine. USB 3.0 is expected to come on mid-range and high-end ultrabooks with Thunderbolt reserved for mostly high-end offerings. The Acer Aspire S5 ultrabook we played with at CES already has Thunderbolt.

[via DigiTimes]

The dock has various ports that allow simultaneous connection to multiple devices. It has has three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one HDMI port, one 3.5mm audio port, one gigabit Ethernet port, and two Thunderbolt ports that support daisy-chaining. Users can connect multiple USB devices, watch movies in Full HD 1080p, and transfer copious data in seconds.

And given the use of Thunderbolt technology, the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock offers data transfer rates of up to 10Gbps bi-directionally. It is expected to ship in September at select retailers worldwide as well as on Belkin.com. The device is priced at $299.

The 2big Thunderbolt Series features speeds up to three times faster than FireWire 800, RAID security, disks that can be hot-swapped, and the ability to daisy chain multiple units, which can even increase performance overall. With up to 8TB of storage capacity and a transfer rate of up to 311MB/s, the 2big series is perfect for videographers or other professionals having to backup frequently and stream multiple HD videos.

The eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series allows two existing eSATA drives to connect to a new Mac via the Thunderbolt port. The hub itself also features a Thunderbolt port that allows users to connect other Thunderbolt peripherals even while two eSATA drives are hooked up. Users can also daisy chain up to 6 hubs, meaning up to 12 eSATA drives can be connected to a Mac via a single Thunderbolt port. Both series will be available in the first quarter of 2012.

Capacities are expected to range in size from 128GB, through 256GB and 512GB, topping out at a full terabyte for those with high speed expectations and bulging wallets. According to OCZ, Thunderbolt’s low latency and accurate time synchronization make for a drive that can be used for pro-level A/V editing, working with source files saved directly on the external storage.

From our time with the LaCie Little Big Disk SSD we know that’s a realistic prospect, but the Lightfoot has the benefit of being more pocket-sized and suited for mobile users. No word on how much it will cost when it launches, but OCZ expects it to go on sale later this year.

[via PC Perspective]

An Intel Core processor lurks inside, paired with an SSD, while a “MagicFlip I/O port panel” hides behind the screen hinge and – when pressed – pops open to reveal the HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt connectivity. There’s also Dolby Home Theater v4 sound and a PowerSmart battery, which Acer says has a 3x longer battery cycle life than rival power packs.

Chicklet keys and an Onyx Black “delicately curved” chassis, along with a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest keep things looking slick in your bag or on your desk. No word on pricing at this stage, but the Acer Aspire S5 will begin shipping in Q2 2012.

Update: Image added and live images here.

The key in the whole massive body of texts in this set of patent applications comes in a bit of a shroud. When you get past all the information about the Thunderbolt cords and ports we already know, you find a sentence that refers to a portable media player. While that could mean essentially anything, you know and I know that they’re talking about mobile devices such as the iPad and the iPhone. Read it aloud right here, straight from the application:

“the present invention, connection may also be a new type of connection. … a connection may be provided between a portable media player and a display, a computer and a portable media player, or between other types of devices.” – Thunderbolt patent via Patently Apple

This may very well mean that Apple will be reengineering the known Thunderbolt port to be small enough to interact with the famously thin mobile devices they’ve got on the market now. The transfer of data, the streaming of media, and the charging of devices could be improved by this technology. There are three patents in this set, one having been filed one day before Apple introduced the Thunderbolt port, the other two about three weeks before the first Apple Thunderbolt display was shown to the public. Exciting stuff!

[via Patently Apple]

A report from Digitimes stated that the cost of the Thunderbolt technology is expected to experience a decrease in the second half of 2012, allowing for more widespread adoption in the consumer market. Though, at the moment, Apple does offer Thunderbolt across most of the Mac line, the very first Thunderbolt products have been primarily limited to relatively high end electronics. More widespread adoption should facilitate the drive in adoption by accessory makers that will be advantageous to both Mac and PC users that utilize Thunderbolt as a future medium.

Intel has affirmed that they envision both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt as complementary I/O technologies, planning to support both in their 2012 products. SlashGear readers, what do you make of the whole thing? Feel free to leave your thought in the comment section below.

[via MacRumors]

Intel would need to get the notebook makers onboard for this. You can already dock notebooks using USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports. If you are an Ultrabook fan, this might sound like a good idea to you. The catch is if you buy this docking station specifically for Ultrabooks the dock isn’t likely to work on your next computer.

The docking interface puts a wide dock connector that looks in the photos like the old parallel printer ports to me, right next to a mini Display port connector. The setup would run signals for multiple devices through one cable. I think Intel should just stick to USB 3.0 rather than trying to set up a new standard on their Ultrabooks that looks to be proprietary. Intel has been teasing Thunderbolt for Windows PCs for a while.

[via VR-Zone]

Hardware

LaCie’s design language hasn’t changed much over the years: looks-wise, the Little Big Disk is basically a squatter version of the Ethernet Disk NAS we reviewed back in 2007. That’s no bad thing when you’re talking about sturdy aluminum and a big blue LED, however, and at 5.5 x 3.3 x 1.6 inches it has a reasonably small footprint on your desk (LaCie includes a detachable stand, though it’s capable of standing on its own without it). At 1.4 pounds, however, it’s not light, and the wall-wart PSU is comparatively bulky, so those planning to travel with the Little Big Disk should expect some heft in their bag.

Physical controls are limited to the blue LED “eye” which doubles as a power button: hold it down for a few seconds and the drive shuts down. On the back there are two Thunderbolt ports, a power socket and a Kensington lock hole; we’d like to have seen a legacy connection, like USB, considering how few computers have Thunderbolt so far. That way colleagues still idling in the slow-lane could still grab files in a pinch. There’s also a small fan, which adjusts speed based on temperature, though the whole chassis is intended to function as a hefty heat-sink.

Thunderbolt is the launch name for Intel’s Light Peak, a super-fast next-generation interconnectivity standard that supports – in this first iteration – up to 10 Gb/s independent uplink and downlink of data and video channels. Apple has been the first to adopt the standard, adding Thunderbolt to its MacBook Pro notebooks and Mac mini and iMac desktops. Up to six Thunderbolt peripherals can be daisy-chained off a single port – hence the LaCie sporting a pair of them – and since it’s backward compatible with DisplayLink you can connect a monitor, too.

All that speed needs equally fast drives to make the most of it, and while LaCie already has a Little Big Disk on the market with traditional HDD storage, our review unit is the faster 240GB SSD version. Inside there’s a pair of 120GB Intel 320 Series third-gen (SSDSA2CW120G3) solid-state drives, set up as a RAID 0 “striped” volume. While many associate home RAID setups as a way of protecting data with drive redundancy, RAID 0 is all about speed: the two SSDs combine for 239.38GB of indecently fast storage, though of course if one drive fails then the entire volume is lost. It’s possible to reformat the Little Big Disk for data mirroring instead, though in that case you only get 120GB of capacity.

Performance

We tested the Little Big Disk with an early 2011 MacBook Pro, running Snow Leopard with the latest patches and fitted with 4GB of RAM, a 2GHz Core i7 processor and an aftermarket 240GB OCX Vertex2 SSD. Installation was straightforward: plug in the LaCie and it’s automatically mounted as an external drive.

Benchmarking kicked off with a basic speed test, using OS X app Blackmagic. The Little Big Disk managed 487.9 MB/s read rates and 257.7 MB/s write rates, a frankly eye-watering pace that even slightly exceeds LaCie’s own estimates. That’s still well short on what Thunderbolt can carry, mind.

We then turned to some file transfer tests, to see whether real-world performance lived up too. First, we copied a range of files from the Mac to the LaCie: a 1GB file took 5.34 seconds to transfer, while a 5GB file took 19.01 seconds. A folder amounting to 5GB of separate files took 26.65 seconds. In the opposite direction, a 1GB file copied from the Little Big Disk to the Mac took 13.25 second, while a 5GB single file took 21.53 seconds. It was clear that the bottleneck for Little Big Disk performance was our own test Mac, with the OCZ SSD unable to keep up with the RAID 0 array’s potential.

One of Apple and LaCie’s boasts is the flexibility for multitasking inherent in Thunderbolt: you can do multiple things across the same connection simultaneously. We started up iMovie, encoding a Full HD video straight to the Little Big Disk using 1080p source files stored on the drive itself, and then tried transferring a separate 5GB file across to the LaCie too. That file took just 19.86 seconds to copy. LaCie says you’ll get even faster performance if you daisy-chain multiple units together – four will just about reach Thunderbolt’s potential, the company reckons – though we couldn’t test that out.

The Little Big Disk never got more than mildly warm during heavy use – another benefit of the solid-state storage – but LaCie’s tiny fan did its best to make itself heard. It’s not so much loud as it is shrill, at full speed, though the combination of SSDs and heat-sink styling meant the enclosure quickly reached a point where the fan could slow down again.

Pricing

No shortage of performance, then, but none of that comes cheap. The SSD-based Little Big Disk will launch at $899/€849/£749, working out to a hefty $3.75 per gigabyte. In contrast, LaCie offers a 1TB version of the Little Big Disk using 7,200 rpm traditional hard-drives for $399.95, though with “only” up to 190 MB/s transfer rates. Somewhat galling is the fact that you still have to pay $49 for Apple’s Thunderbolt cable.

Wrap-Up

Most on the SlashGear team agree that swapping from HDD to SSD has the biggest everyday impact on computing smoothness, compared to RAM or even processor. Until now, though, external storage – even external SSDs – has been hampered by connectivity.

What makes the LaCie Little Big Disk SSD so special is that, for high-bitrate multimedia editing, it’s just as fast for apps to use as internal storage, if not faster. No lag while iMovie accesses your removable drive, just 240GB of extra space which you can treat just as you do your regular disk. Sure, you could use it for backup if you wanted (it’s natively Time Machine compatible) or to store your MP3 collection, but that would be hugely wasteful of its talents.

For most, the huge sticker price will be a turn-off; capacity-junkies will sniff at the relatively paltry 240GB. Those who take their music and video editing seriously, though, and who want more storage without a speed compromise, need to have the LaCie Little Big Disk on their desk.

The Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt will be available in both SSD and HDD versions. The SSD version will feature a 240GB SSD RAID option and has been demonstrated to peak at read speeds of 634MBps, reaching up to 870MBps when daisy chained to a second drive.

The HDD version will feature two 2.5-inch drives with RAID option in either 1TB or 2TB configurations. The 1TB version will feature 7200RPM drives whereas the 2TB version will have 5400RPM drives, which can get up to 190MBps read speeds and can reach up to 782MBps when four drives are connected.

For more images and a video of the LaCie Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt, make sure to check out our hands-on with the device. The HDD version is available now online at the Apple Store, with the 1TB version priced at $400 and the 2TB version at $500. The SSD version will arrive sometime in October, but pricing for it is not confirmed yet.