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Is it worth it for me to get a thunderbolt drive over a usb3?

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nuclearrabbit17

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May 12, 2015
So I'm looking into getting an external lacie drive for my laptop that I need to back up badly. I have been doing some research, but can't find a clear answer behind all the marketing.

Ok, the straight facts of the situation. Thunderbolt costs more than usb 3 (Probably obvious).

thunderbolt transfer speed - 10gbps
Usb3 transfer speed - 5 gbps
5400 RPM HDD transfer speed through SATA - 3gbps.

So is there even a point in paying extra for the thunderbolt, when I wouldn't necessarily get faster performance? Or am I mistaken? I'll pay extra if it is actually faster.

This is the drive.
http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-...=1431456804&sr=8-1&keywords=lacie+thunderbolt
 
I want to say that device is a USB3 device using a USB3->Thunderbolt adapter cable. You won't get any additional speed out of it.

I doubt you would notice any speed difference going from USB3 -> Thunderbolt anyway unless you were using multiple SSDs (as most SSDs max out at about 6gbps right now with sequential throughput). I would just get a USB3 drive and call it a day.
 
nuclearrabbit17 said:
So I'm looking into getting an external lacie drive for my laptop that I need to back up badly. I have been doing some research, but can't find a clear answer behind all the marketing.

Ok, the straight facts of the situation. Thunderbolt costs more than usb 3 (Probably obvious).

thunderbolt transfer speed - 10gbps
Usb3 transfer speed - 5 gbps
5400 RPM HDD transfer speed through SATA - 3gbps.

So is there even a point in paying extra for the thunderbolt, when I wouldn't necessarily get faster performance? Or am I mistaken? I'll pay extra if it is actually faster.

This is the drive.
http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-...=1431456804&sr=8-1&keywords=lacie+thunderbolt
Click to expand...

Smoke and mirrors I call. It's overpriced like everything apple makes, and is probably overrated for what it can do.

USB3, therefore you can use it on any computer to recover you backup and transfer files with it.
No need for "thunderbolt"
 
If its a SSD Thunderbolt might be marginally quicker for overall large file transfer speeds, otherwise it should be identical.
 
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