Why are Thunderbolt drives so expensive?

The first reason comes down to length, as cables like these tend to get much more expensive the longer they are but still promising support for the maximum 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 rate. … The 2 meter cable is also braided, which means that it’s more durable and less likely to tangle, so that increases the price further.

Thereof, Should I get a Thunderbolt hard drive?

Thunderbolt is being built onto more and more computers, but it’s still a niche interface. You’ll pay a lot more for a Thunderbolt-equipped drive than you will for a USB 3-equipped drive, but the performance can be worth it, depending on what you’re doing. Your mileage, as in all things, may vary.

Accordingly, Why are Thunderbolt cables so short?

For starters, active cables are more expensive, which is probably one of the reasons why companies tend to bundle shorter, passive cables with their Thunderbolt 3 products. Another issue with active cables is that they lack backwards compatibility with USB 3.

Is USB 4 the same as Thunderbolt? Thunderbolt 4 is based on the same underlying protocol as USB 4 – the two are tightly connected, with all Thunderbolt 4 devices supporting USB 4. If someone has a USB 4 laptop, they can use a TBT4 device, and the other way around. In fact, Thunderbolt 4 is USB 4 with all the trimmings.

Also know Why is Apple Luxury cable so expensive?

Part of the justification for such an expensive cable is that in order to maintain the high bandwidth in the cable, Apple has needed to implement active electronics to stabilize and condition the signal.

Is Thunderbolt the fastest? Thunderbolt 3 is the fastest port on the market today. It supports high transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps and can receive data 8x faster, doubling the bandwidth of the previous standard Thunderbolt 2 at 20Gbps.

What is the most reliable brand of external hard drive?


Let us explore the most reliable external hard drive below.

  • #1) WD Elements Portable Drive.
  • #2) Seagate Portable Drive.
  • #3) Maxone 500GB Ultra Slim Drive.
  • #4) Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable Drive.
  • #5) Silicon Power Portable Drive.
  • #6) LaCie Rugged Mini Drive.
  • #7) SanDisk Extreme Portable External SSD.

Is Thunderbolt as fast as SATA?

1 is faster (1000MB/s) and Thunderbolt 3 is a lot faster (5000MB/s). When dealing with SSDs the story is a little different. Most SATA SSDs will run around 520MB/s. … 1 (1000MB/s) you will be once again limited by the drive speed, even though its a fast, solid state drive.

What is the longest Thunderbolt cable?

5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Cable Matters®, an industry-leading supplier of connectivity solutions, today launched the first 40 Gbps Thunderbolt™ 4 cable in a 2-meter/6.6-foot length – the longest Thunderbolt 4 cable length available on the market.

How long do Thunderbolt cables last?

Optical Thunderbolt 3 Cables Begin Rolling Out in Lengths Up to 50 Meters. The Thunderbolt 3 standard has been available for roughly four years now, but cable lengths have so far generally been limited to a couple of meters due to signal degradation over long distances of copper wiring.

How can I tell which version of Thunderbolt I have?

Open the Apple menu on the top left corner of your screen; select About This Mac; and then select the More Info button. There, you should see a Thunderbolt entry on the left sidebar.

Can I plug a USB into a Thunderbolt 4 port?

Versatile connectivity.

Thunderbolt 4 ports are compatible with many connection standards, including previous versions of Thunderbolt™, USB, DisplayPort, and PCle. The ports fit standard USB-C type connectors.

What does a Thunderbolt port look like?

What does a Thunderbolt port look like? A Thunderbolt 3 port looks like a standard USB-C port on any laptop or desktop computer, but can be distinguished by a lightning bolt icon printed next to it. If the USB-C port doesn’t have the icon, it probably does not support the expanded capabilities of a Thunderbolt cable.

Can I plug USB-C into Thunderbolt?

Indeed, Thunderbolt 3 is a superset of USB-C; you can plug a USB-C-only device into a Thunderbolt 3 port on a computer, and it’ll work just fine. Thunderbolt 3 lets you transfer data at up to 40Gbps.

Can I convert Thunderbolt to USB?

Yes, Thunderbolt 3 ports are fully compatible with USB devices and cables.

What is a Thunderbolt cable?

The Apple Thunderbolt Cable lets you connect a Thunderbolt-equipped system to a Thunderbolt device. Connect a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac in target disk mode to another Mac for fast data access or system migration, or network two Thunderbolt-equipped computers.

Which port listed is the fastest?


To summarize the above data, the connection types would result in the following, from fastest to slowest.

  • Thunderbolt (up to 40 Gbps)
  • USB 3.1 (10 Gbps), then USB 3.0 (5 Gbps)
  • eSATA (6 Gbps)
  • Firewire (6 Gbps)
  • Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps)
  • USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)
  • Ethernet (100 Mbps)

Is Thunderbolt faster than PCIe?

According to Intel, Thunderbolt 3 has a theoretical max bandwidth of 40Gbps. However, farther down the spec sheets it goes on to say that it only has 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0. As far as I can tell, PCIe 3.0 has a max theoretical bandwidth of ~16Gbps on 16x.

What is the maximum allowable length for a Thunderbolt copper cable?

Thunderbolt (interface)

Production history
Length Maximums:

3 meters (10 feet) (copper)


60 meters (200 feet)

(optical)
Width 7.4 mm male (8.3 mm female)
Height 4.5 mm male (5.4 mm female)
Hot pluggable Yes

How many years do external hard drives last?

The simplest answer is that they can run smoothly for three to five years. This means any HDD, whether it’s external or inside of a system. Asking about the longevity of an external enclosure—a metal or plastic housing designed to cover and protect a disk drive from damage—is a different question altogether.

Which external hard drives last the longest?

SSD external drives don’t have any kind of moveable mechanical parts which makes them most reliable external hard drives for long term data storage. SSD drives has more lifespan as compared to HDD. If use this drive once a week and do just one read/write cycle, the drive can survive for up to 30 years.

Are larger hard drives more prone to failure?

For one, HDD failures as a whole have gone up. At the same time, the reports shows that larger capacity HDDs in the range of 8TB to 14TB are no more prone to failure than smaller capacity drives. That’s encouraging news if you want to trust your data to a single, big capacity HDD.

What is the lifespan of an SSD?

Current estimates put the age limit for SSDs around 10 years, though the average SSD lifespan is shorter. In fact, a joint study between Google and the University of Toronto tested SSDs over a multi-year period. During that study, they found the age of an SSD was the primary determinant of when it stopped working.

What is the fastest connection for an external hard drive?

Solution: The fastest connection arrangement used by the external storage devices or external hard drives is Thunderbolt 3 . The maximum speed of Thunderbolt 3 for data transfer is 40 Gbps (Gigabytes per second).

What is the fastest SSD available?


List Of The Fastest SSD Drives

  • Kingston 240GB A400 SATA 32.5”
  • Western Digital 500GB.
  • WD_Black 500GB SN750 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD.
  • SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB Internal SSD.
  • Samsung T5 Portable SSD 1TB.
  • SK hynix Gold S31 SATA Gen3 2.5 Inch.
  • Samsung 870 QVO SATA III 2.5 Inch.
  • SK hynix Gold P31 PCIe NVMe Gen3.

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