You’ll be able to in any case purchase a Thunderbolt 5 SSD

Following the coming of the first Thunderbolt 5 cables final July and the first Thunderbolt 5 dock final September, it will in any case be time to start out upgrading your exterior garage to benefit from the larger efficiency. It’s been a gradual rollout for Thunderbolt 5 {hardware} following its official reveal in September 2023, however corporations like Seagate, OWC, and Sabrent in any case have SSDs en course supporting the brand new same old.

Like earlier LaCie rugged drives, the brand new SSD is available in a rubber enclosure in blue, black, and orange colour choices, serving to it live on drops from heights of as much as 3 meters. It’s additionally water-proof with an IP68 score, so it may live on a whole dunking to depths of 1 meter.

There are a couple of different alternatives which have been introduced, too, although with various ranges of availability. Sabrent, for instance, used to be in reality some of the first corporations to announce a Thunderbolt 5 SSD final August, however the SSD isn’t out but. The Rocket XTRM 5 is available in a silicone sleeve for added coverage from falls, and the corporate says it may succeed in learn and write speeds of 6,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s, respectively. It’s anticipated to be to be had in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities however remains to be indexed as most effective being to be had for preorder via Sabrent’s web site.

OWC announced its Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD final September. The corporate says the exterior force is waterproof, dust-resistant, and crushproof, and gives learn speeds of over 6,000MB/s. When it used to be introduced, OWC mentioned the Envoy Extremely could be to be had in a 2TB model for $399.99 and a 4TB model for $599.99, with transport beginning in overdue October. The primary shipments of the drives offered out, nevertheless it’s nonetheless available for preorder through OWC’s website with an anticipated send date of mid-January 2025.

On the other hand, regardless of the promised efficiency enhancements, and the yearlong stay up for {hardware} to in any case materialize, upgrading your setup to Thunderbolt 5 would possibly nonetheless have a couple of velocity bumps. That’s what Mark Hachman, the senior editor of PCWorld, discovered when seeking to get a Maingear ML-17 computer, Kensington’s Thunderbolt 5 dock, OWC’s Envoy Extremely SSD, and Acer’s Nitro XV5 presentations to play great. The setup used to be plagued through laggy efficiency and gradual switch speeds.

All of it nonetheless felt now not fairly able for primetime, Hachman discovered. “Whilst you purchase (or check) bleeding-edge {hardware}, every now and then you’re the one who finally ends up with the cuts,” Hachman mentioned.