The Verge - Thunderbolt devices of CES 2012: Lenovo, Acer, Belkin, Seagate and more

ioSafe puts Thunderbolt drive to lightning test (hands-on and video)

2012-01-13T15:23:01Z

External storage company ioSafe likes to put on a show at CES. Last year, it demonstrated its ultratough Rugged Portable hard drives by unleashing journalists with shotguns and assault rifles on them. This year, it decided to test its Thunderbolt-compatible prototype's shockproofing instead — by bringing in Tesla coil enthusiast Austin Richards, also known as Dr. MegaVolt.

After shocking the drive multiple times with Richards' million-volt coil, ioSafe plugged it in. A snap-on metal cover is supposed to protect the drive's inputs, but the Tesla coil has apparently still overloaded it in about a third of the demos; unfortunately, this was one of those times. The controller board had been fried, so we got a view of the dual RAID 1...

Western Digital previews My Book Thunderbolt Duo external drives

2012-01-12T06:10:24Z

We just left a Western Digital preview event where the company provided an early glimpse at its yet-to-be-officially-announced My Book Thunderbolt Duo pair of external hard drives. Two models will be available initially, offering either 4 or 6 terabytes of storage capacity. As the "Duo" in the product name implies, each device carries two 3.5-inch disks, meaning that the 4TB model contains 2 x 2TB drives; the larger 6TB version holds 2 x 3TB HDDs.

In case you were wondering just how fast these Thunderbolt-enabled drives are, project manager Julie Wiesen provided us with some figures — though emphasized the numbers as being conservative. An individual My Book Thunderbolt Duo reached speeds between 250 and 280MBps at WD's offices. Where...

OCZ Lightfoot Thunderbolt external SSD (hands-on)

2012-01-11T23:48:29Z

We've just found OCZ's Lightfoot external SSD at Intel's CES 2012 booth and brought some photos back for you. The drive is much smaller than your typical external hard drive, but, most importantly, it's got a Thunderbolt port. While that I/O is known for its proliferation on Apple laptops and desktops, this drive will also work with PCs as they get the high-speed port (the ThinkPad Edge S430 is the first and hopefully not the last).

The Lightfoot itself is light and has a rather attractive aluminum shell. The whole package is very light and it seems like the drive will stand up to the rigors of being tossed around in your backpack. Unfortunately, there's no pricing or availability info yet, though we have heard that there will be 128GB,...

MSI GUS II external GPU enclosure with Thunderbolt (hands-on)

2012-01-11T01:24:55Z

If you're an Apple user, you may have looked longingly at the VAIO Z and its external power media dock that connects via Light Peak. Today MSI may have made your dreams come true — it's just demoed its GUS II external GPU enclosure that connects over Thunderbolt. The device can take any AMD or Nvidia graphics card so long as it doesn't need more than 150W of power and, of course, it needs to fit within the casing. We were told that it will support 10 Gbps of throughput per channel.

Before you start dreaming of a MacBook Air that converts into a powerhouse machine, you need to know that this will require driver support from AMD, Nvidia and Apple. We find it unlikely that the latter will ever happen, but should AMD or Nvidia support the...

G-Technology G-Raid storage array with Thunderbolt I/O hands-on

2012-01-10T04:04:20Z

There's not a whole lot of Thunderbolt connectivity at CES 2012 so far, but there are plenty of drives using Intel's speedy cable, and if you need 8TB of storage, Hitachi's G-Technology brand has one new possibility. The newest G-Raid, announced in September, will bring that capacity in a two-drive, daisy-chainable array for $1,199, and below you can see what it looks like up close and personal and get a glimpse at the raw speed possible with four drives in total. It's heavy. Also, spot the company's wireless iPad storage solution.

Seagate unveils Thunderbolt adapters for GoFlex external hard drives

2012-01-10T03:27:06Z

Many of the current Thunderbolt-enabled hard drives on the market right now are what we'd call overkill for your average person. To make things a bit simpler, Seagate has just announced Thunderbolt adapters for its line of GoFlex external storage options. The adapters work with any of the company's desktop or portable drives, granting users the freedom of choosing the capacity right for them. The portable drive adapter will see release sometime in the first quarter for $99, while the larger desktop variety is due before the end of the first half of this year, priced at $189. The company will also be selling a Thunderbolt cable for $50.

Elgato announces portable Thunderbolt SSD for February

2012-01-09T18:59:57Z

Intel's Thunderbolt I/O is starting to show up on PCs and peripherals at CES, and now there's another external hard drive using the interface. Announced today, the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD runs on power from the Thunderbolt port, and will be available in 120GB and 240GB versions. That's smaller than the OCZ Lightfoot SSD, but the Elgato drive has both pricing information and a release date — it'll be out in February for €399.95 (around $508) and €649.95 (around $825) depending on the size. While that's far from cheap, Elgato promises speeds of 270 MB/s compared to 35 MB/s on standard USB 2.0 drives.

Belkin's Thunderbolt Express Dock finally goes on sale in September for $299

2012-01-09T13:37:34Z

Belkin's blowing the dust off its Thunderbolt Express Dock at CES and giving us a September 2012 release date for the US. You might recall that we first saw this dock — aka, the port replicator every MacBook Air owner has been waiting for — at IDF in September. Once again, we're looking at three USB 2.0 jacks, one Firewire 800, one HDMI, one Gigabit Ethernet, one 3.5-mm audio jack, and a pair of Thunderbolt ports: one for carrying 10Gbps bi-directional data to your Thunderbolt-equipped laptop and the other for daisy-chaining another Thunderbolt device. Sorry, no USB 3.0 this time. Price is high at $299, but at least it's cheaper than the $999 Thunderbolt dock sold by Apple.

Update: Belkin just sent us new images of a clearly...