Lacie Rugged Drive

Welshy74

Senior Member
I've been looking at the rugged drives to go with my new mac but there seems to be quite a few options. Thunderbolt, USB- C etc. Which one should I be looking at as I've no idea what the difference/performance is

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Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Thunderbolt 3 is really fast, transmitting at a whopping max transfer rate of 40Gbps. That makes it four times faster than USB 3.1, eight times faster than USB 3.0, and twice as fast as Thunderbolt 2.

Above is the basic answer to you question. You can google for "comparisons between Thunderbolt and USB-C" if you want in depth analysis...
 

Welshy74

Senior Member
Thanks. Was just wondering which one to get. Looking at one to use with time machine and another as a secondary backup. I think!!
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Does your computer support USB-C or thunderbolt? That would be the first question.

My latest MacBook Pro (work provided) has the USB-C ports, so I need to find either Thunderbolt-3 drives or drives that have the USB-C port on them. Of course, I can also use a USB-C to USB converter and make any drive work.

My Mac Pro and older MacBook Pros support Thunderbolt-2 as well as USB.

With thunderbolt drives typically being more expensive than their USB counterparts, I typically use Thunderbolt for drives that will be staying at my desk, and opt for USB drives that need to be portable.
 
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