Best Thunderbolt External Storage Drives

Is your computer’s storage space full? or are you looking for some external hard drives to back up your sensitive data? Or you are a content creator who needs large storage capacity all the time?

For any of the above-mentioned reasons, an external hard drive is the most suitable option to go with and along with a thunderbolt port, you’ll get amazingly fast transfer speeds. However, selecting an external drive is not that easy instead you have to look at your requirements and choose the best external hard drive. So before making any decision, it’s better to dig deep into the different characteristics of external hard drives and then pick the right thunderbolt hard drive for your needs and budget.

What is a Thunderbolt Hard drive?

A Thunderbolt HDD is a hard drive with a Thunderbolt port, it’s the latest technology created by Intel and Apple together. This standard combines both PCI Express data transfer and DisplayPort technology, to transmit data and visual information simultaneously.

As a result, Thunderbolt HDDs are more efficient than USB-C hard drives, the maximum data transmission speed of a Thunderbolt 3 is 40 gigabytes per second, which is 4X the speed of a USB-C cable.

Thunderbolt External Hard Drive Buying Guide

Storage Space

The drive capacity is the most crucial aspect to take into account, and depending on your demands, it can significantly raise or decrease the cost. The more the storage capacity, the more you’ll be charged.

So it’s good to analyze your storage requirements if you are getting an external hard drive for personal use like office documents or family photos then 1TB to 2TB is good and if you are a content creator or vlogger then you should at least get 5TB of storage. And if you want to get a hard drive for office use then get at least 14TB to 20TB.

The general guideline is to buy a hard drive that is two times as large as what you now require; this should provide for future demands, especially when you consider that updating an storage device is more difficult than upgrading a desktop PC.

Physical Size of External Drive

The size of the hard drive is the second most influential factor, if you are looking for a portable drive then make sure it is hand-held and does not weigh too much, in these cases Solid state drives are more recommended as they are light but are a little costly.

But if you want to update computers then the desktop drive is more suitable, it gives more gigabytes of storage at less price.

Durability

If you are a travel vlogger or generally travel a lot or have naughty kids at home, then durability should not be ignored at any cost. LaCie has a specialty in making such hard drives, their hard drives come with a rubber which is a shock absorber.

Best External Hard Drives with Thunderbolt Ports

G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE

G-Drive is a robust hard drive designed especially for intensive workloads like video editing and development. It has a straightforward design, a metallic rectangle with muted branding, and straightforward styling. The drive’s face is a grate with a lit-up “G” in the middle that flashes and flickers when it is turned on. With a weight of half a pound or around 90 grams, it is pretty easy to carry anywhere.

G-Drive has a Thunderbolt port but it also functions with a conventional USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A connection. And there is not much difference in write speeds while working on any of these ports.

It has a read speed of 2025 Mb/s and a write speed of 987 Mb/s. Moreover, it also offers daisy chaining which means you can connect different devices together with the help of multiple wires.

In short, it is a good enterprise to use a hard drive with 7200 RPM, you won’t experience any lag.

Seagate Firecuda Gaming Dock 4TB HDD

The Seagate Firecuda Gaming Dock is specially built to entertain your tones of storage needs, it comes with a number of additional ports and an NVMe expansion option for PCs. This premium hard drive is introduced for gamers but for those who work from a dedicated laptop and want to store large files on an external device that can also provide additional ports for everything from displays to additional Thunderbolt accessories, this is a truly great option.

This gaming dock has high transfer speeds with 1,105.1MB/s and 1,990Mb/s of read and write speeds respectively.

It has an eye-catching design and a distinctive grill cover on one end. The NVMe connection, which has RGB lights that work with Razer Synapse, is located at this cap. The Seagate Toolkit program for PC or Mac is responsible for controlling the lighting styles. The Razer Synapse software will immediately identify as soon it is connected, synchronizing the illumination with all Chroma devices.

Seagate Firecuda is a sturdy hard drive with a rubbery texture for a strong grip with special slots for ventilation at the bottom of the dock. The HDD measures (51 x 270 x 135)mm and has a weight of 2.67kgs which makes it quite difficult to move around.

With this hard drive, you won’t experience slowing down of PS4 and play high-resolution games like GTA, COD, and RDD. you can utilize this by leaving it hooked into PlayStation 4, which means that whenever the console is switched on, the external storage device is operational.

The number of ports:

• Thunderbolt 3 port
• DisplayPort, USB 3. 0
• RJ45 Ethernet network port
• 3. 5mm audio-in/mic port
• a 3. 5mm audio-out port

Fantom Drives Extreme 2TB External SSD

Fantom is relatively a recent brand of hard drives, bringing innovative portable drives with cutting-edge Thunderbolt 3 technology which is Intel certified. This Portable NVMe is intended for Mac fans and production-level creative professionals who appreciate quality, and performance.

It can move enormous amounts of data quickly with read speeds of up to 2,800MB/s and write rates of up to 2,300MB/s. The HDD has a minimalist design with high-quality aluminum and is robust and long-lasting for daily usage. With this, it has ribbed on the opposite sides to serve as straightforward heat sinks.

Fantom Extreme is compatible with both new and latest technology, with HFS+ preformatted eXtreme Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD is plug and play compatible with Macs, along with this it has USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB Type-C port for old PCs and laptops.

With a measurement of (0.5 x 2.5 x 4.25) inches and a weight of 255 grams, it is not difficult to carry around, making it a good portable SSD. Moreover, it does not require any external power adapter and comes with an Intel warranty of five years.

Plugable 2TB Thunderbolt 3 External SSD

The Plugable Thunderbolt 3 2TB NVMe is the best external SSD that comes with plug-and-play functionality with amazing data transfer speeds, it has read speeds of 2400Mb/s and writes speeds of 1800 Mb/s far better than internal hard drives.

With dimensions of (108 x 65 x 14.5)mm and a weight of 6.2 oz, you can keep this portable SSD, in a pocket or in a little pouch.

The solid-state drive has a metal casing that is intended to safeguard your data while also keeping the SSD cool. And to prevent scratches on the anodized aluminum finish, it contains a carrying pouch.

Utilizing the NVMe and Thunderbolt 3 technology’s speed, this Plugable SSD is up to 5 times quicker than SATA SSD technology because of higher bandwidth, decreased latency, and enhanced IOPS. This SSD is the perfect storage augmentation for your Thunderbolt 3-equipped workstations and laptops thanks to its full-speed 40Gbps.

The Plugable external SSD is interchangeable and ready to use with any Thunderbolt 3-enabled Mac or Windows system straight out of the box thanks to its pre-formatted exFAT file system. After that, you may easily import material into your preferred editing programs and learn how to use external storage properly.

It is a must to have for content creators who work on the go, high-resolution of up to 4K content can easily be transferred and edited.

TEKQ Thunderbolt 3 External Portable SSD

TEKQ is one of the few external drives that is certified by Intel, Apple, and Microsoft, this external hard drive is at least 4 to 5 times faster than its market competitor, it has to write speeds of 1700 Mb/s and read speeds of 2400Mb/s.

With these fast data transfer speeds, Rapide is the greatest option for transferring movies, photographs, and large files, you can transfer Blu-ray movies in just one minute.

This external SSD by TEKQ is of almost debit card size (9.7×5.5) cm and is housed aluminum casing giving it a stylish appearance with robust protection, it also has fans for heat dissipation to keep the external hard drive at an optimized temperature. Because of its size, this external SSD is pretty pocket friendly and is very suitable for usage when traveling and in the office.

TEKQ Rapide is a bus-powered drive for Mac and Windows that plugs directly into Thunderbolt 3 devices without any additional power supply, making it simple to back up important data.

Sandisk Professional G Drive Pro

Sandisk professional g drive is the best external hard drive, from the fastest transfer rates to a strong and stylish build casing which gives drop protection up to 3 meters.

The external hard drive connected through Thunderbolt ports gives read and write speeds of up to 2800 Mb/s and 2400Mb/s respectively. So you can edit videos or high-definition photographs that are stored in solid state drive in real-time or transfer up to a terabyte of data in only seven minutes.

This one of the best external hard drives is prepared for Mac devices and comes in HFS+ format, if you want to use this solid state drive for a windows PC or laptop it needs to be reformatted in NTFS format.

To save data loss, the G-Drive Pro SSD offers shockproof storage, with h up to 3-meter drop protection, and Thousand of pounds of crush resistance, this is quite helpful during travel special adventure trips.

Additionally, it supports password-enabled 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption to protect your data in the event of theft or loss from prying eyes. The newest block cipher mode, called XTS, makes use of two AES keys for enhanced security in order to close any security gaps in existing block ciphers.

Best Thunderbolt External Hard Drive: Full Roundup

Frequently Asked Questions

Which external storage is best?

Everyone has a different definition of the best external hard drive, above mentioned all products are the best external hard drives in their own perspective, but if you are looking for daily usage then Fantom Drives Extreme 2TB is good and for gaming, Seagate Firecuda Gaming Dock is a good option to go with.

What is the most stable external hard drive?

Sandisk professional g drive is the most stable external hard drive, with its multiple data protection layers, from AES Encryption to shock resistance and drop protection.

Which external hard disk is best for Mac?

Almost all Thunderbolt external hard drives are best for mac and above mentioned all products are good external hard drives, these are:

• Fantom Drives Extreme 2TB External SSD
• Plugable 2TB Thunderbolt 3 External SSD
• TEKQ Thunderbolt 3 External Portable SSD
• Sandisk Professional G Drive Pro

Which is faster Thunderbolt or SSD?

Thunderbolt is a type of port, just like USB type c or USB 3.2 gen 2, whereas SSD is a type of storage device that flash technology to read and write data.

Thunderbolt connections give faster data transfer than USB 3.0 or USB-C port, so whether you use HDD or SSD you’ll get better results with Thunderbolt.

Conclusions

With ever-increasing in data requirements and in the world of portable devices, an external hard drive is a must to have and with Thunderbolt ports you get the fastest transmission. In the above article, I have tried to review some of the best external hard drives available in the market along with buying guide that helps you in decision making.

But if you need one product to do blind trust on, it’s a Seagate Firecuda Gaming Dock with 4TB storage, it’s a one-time investment to make.

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