LaCie Releases Thunderbolt 3 Version of Rugged External Hard Drive

LaCie has updated its existing line of drop-resistant external hard drives with a version with Thunderbolt 3 support. The new variant can be supplied with a maximum of 5TB of storage capacity.

The LaCie Rugged is available with a 1TB, 2TB, 4TB or 5TB hard drive. The company uses Seagate Barracuda drives for this. There is also an SSD variant available, with a 500GB or 1TB capacity. According to LaCie, those speeds can reach up to 510MB/s. It is not known which model SSD is used for this.

In addition to a new version of the Rugged drive, LaCie has also equipped the d2 desktop drive with a thunderbolt 3 connection. It comes in variants of 6, 8 or 10TB and uses Seagate Barracuda Pro drives that spin at 7200 rpm and can deliver speeds of up to 240MB/s. Because the drive is equipped with an additional Thunderbolt 3 connection, daisy-chaining is supported, so that multiple drives or, for example, monitors can be connected to a computer via a single Thunderbolt 3 connection.

The new drives will be available sometime in the first quarter of 2017. The Rugged discs have a suggested retail price from $ 249.99, which is converted and with VAT about 290 euros. The d2 drives start at $429.99, or about $500.