The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is magic! Video
The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is magic! Video Transcript
Hello. My name is Dong Ngo for CNET.com and today I will show something that could change your life again. The Thunderbolt SSD Portable Drive from Elgato. Now, this is just a normal portable drive with very nice housing made of aluminum and it doesn't attract fingerprints which is great. On the bottom here, you can find two rubber feet, long rubber feet right here to put on any surface. Now, take a look at this side here. You see only one Thunderbolt port and that means something very special. This is the first drive that doesn't require a separate power adapter. What are you talking about? I've been using this bad boy for years. First... First one. Hey. All right. Mr. Know-It-all, I'm gonna tell you something. That is true. In the Windows world, you have USB bus-powered drive for many, many years but you see, this is the first Apple-only portable bus-powered product. It's magic. Just for the record though, the drive doesn't come with the cable. The cable, we have to buy from Apple by yourself for another $50 buy hey, $50, who cares? And this is the cable, the Thunderbolt cable and I've been wondering why Apple make this cable so long. It's very long. It's 6.6 foot long and it's pretty long. It's actually longer than me and with the Elgato here, I understand why. Now, first of all this is a portable drive. It means you use it when you are travelling. Now when you are travelling, it's hard to find a jean sometime and this can come in handy as a jumping rope for a quick work-out. Viola. Now, stop wondering why I look so good. Now, secondly, seeing this cable is really long and it's almost impossibly to put this drive right here next to a laptop without cable running over the place but you actually can do this. And this way, you can lift up your laptop and walk around. That is a true meaning of mobile. It just makes so much sense. And now the question is how much you have to pay for the magic? This drive right here is 240 gig and it cost around $700. There's another version that has 120 gig and cost $450. Now, that is a lot of money for not so much storage space but hey, magic is magic or in my testing, the drive is also one of the fastest bus power portable drive I have ever seen. It also is very easy to use. You just plug and play. There is no set-up or software to play around with. The drive will also work with other Thunderbolt devices in a daisy-chain set-up but it has to be at the end of the chain since it has only one port. And that's it. Once again, my name is Donggo and this has been the First Look at the very first bus-powered Thunderbolt Portable Drive from Elgato and now I'll go take a shower.
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Elgato Thunderbolt SSD (120GB) Review
The good: The compact and sturdy Elgato Thunderbolt SSD is the first bus-powered (no power adapter needed) Thunderbolt storage device. It offers very good performance.
The bad: The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD doesn't come with a Thunderbolt cable of its own and has just one Thunderbolt port. The drive is very expensive and caps at just 240GB.
The bottom line: The Elgato Thunderbolt SSD offers speed and convenience for a very high premium. With limited storage and a very high price tag, the drive is only suitable for Thunderbolt-enabled Mac owners with deep pocket and a dire need for a high-speed storage device.
Elgato Thunderbolt SSD (120GB) Specs
Manufacturer: Elgato Systems, LLC
Part number: 1TD108801001
- Product Specifications
Elgato Thunderbolt SSD (120GB) Prices
Online stores
| Store | Certified rating | Inventory | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  Rate this store See store profile | In stock | $329.99 |
 | Rate this store See store profile | In stock | $329.99 |
| UnbeatableSale, Inc. |  Rate this store See store profile | In stock | $378.00 |
| UnbeatableSale, Inc. | Rate this store See store profile | In stock | $378.00 |
| UnbeatableSale, Inc. | Rate this store See store profile | In stock | $378.00 |
