Thunderbolt 3

CES hasn’t officially begun yet, but we already have some big news coming out of the Mac hardware sector. OWC, the company that’s well-known for its focus on Mac-centric storage, connectivity, software and expansion solutions, has acquired Akitio, known for innovative Thunderbolt 3 products.

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In a previous video, I showcased a 2018 Mac mini gaming setup using an AMD RX Vega 64 eGPU running Windows 10 via Boot Camp. Would a similar setup work for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU from EVGA? Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for the answer.
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The G-Drive Mobile Pro SSD from G-Technology is a Thunderbolt 3 drive, featuring an impressive maximum read speed rating of 2800 MB/s. This puts it in direct competition with the Samsung X5 SSD, providing external storage that’s more comparable to your Mac’s internal storage from a speed perspective. Is G-Technology’s external SSD worth considering if you’re in need of high-speed external storage? Watch our video walkthrough for the details.

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On the same day as the new Mac mini and MacBook Air were unveiled last month, Blackmagic Design announced a new eGPU Pro destined for release in November. Apple today, however, has updated its webpage for the product to indicate the release has been pushed to December.

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With near perfect timing in relation to Apple’s big MacBook Air and Mac mini refresh, the LG UltraWide 34WK95U display (on sale for $1399 at B&H) landed in the office last week. Should you consider this highly anticipated end-of-year hardware release? Watch our LG 5K UltraWide review for the details.
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Apple recently ushered in its long-awaited refreshes to two product lines that haven’t received a lot of love lately: the 2018 MacBook Air and the 2018 Mac mini (review). Both machines have been updated with new processors, Apple’s T2 chip, modernized I/O, and several other enhancements.

The MacBook Air, though, is by far the more popular machine, and will demand the majority of the public’s attention between the two. This is the portable Mac that lots of people have been waiting for, but does it live up to its namesake? Watch our video review for the details.
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The Mac mini is back for 2018, regaining its rightful place as the most versatile Mac in Apple’s entire computer lineup. The long-rumored update, which was announced during the midway portion of last week’s iPad Pro event, is exciting for a number of reasons.

For starters, the Mac mini 2018 gets brand-new, highly-capable 8th-generation Intel CPUs. The CPU lineup starts with a rather anemic, but still way faster than the last Mac mini, quad-core 3.6GHz Core i3. The mid-tier CPU option is a 3.0GHz 6-core Core i5 with 4.1GHz turbo boost, while the highest configuration adds a 3.2GHz 6-core Core i7 that turbos up to 4.6GHz.

While the CPU upgrades were much needed, the chip enhancements are arguably not even the most exciting thing about the new Mac mini. That award goes to the four Thunderbolt 3 ports on the machine’s rear. This opens up Apple’s smallest Mac to an ever-growing world of expandability, making it seem as if anything’s possible for what was once Apple’s forgotten Mac.

Watch our hands-on video walkthrough as I explain why the Mac mini 2018 is the most versatile and adaptable Mac ever.
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After months of delays, LG’s 5K UltraWide 34WK95U display is now available for purchase. The availability lines up perfectly with the release of Apple’s new Mac mini and MacBook Air hardware.
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Alongside the brand new Mac mini and MacBook Air, Blackmagic Design has launched a new external graphics chassis with a faster Radeon RX Vega 64 inside. The Blackmagic eGPU Pro provides a significantly faster GPU than its non-‘pro’ predecessor, along with the addition of DisplayPort connectivity.
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The iMac Pro comes with 10 Gigabit Ethernet out of the box, which is great for connecting to high speed networks and devices like NAS boxes. But what if you have a regular iMac or MacBook Pro? You can use Akitio’s Thunder3 Dock Pro (review), which provides 10 Gigabit Thunderbolt 3 Ethernet, but that may be overkill if you just need to upgrade your network connection.

If that describes your situation, you’ll be happy to know that the prolific Thunderbolt 3 hardware manufacturer has the T3-10G, a much smaller bus-powered 10 Gigabit Thunderbolt 3 Ethernet adapter. Watch our hands-on video review for the details.
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A couple of days ago Apple published a support document outlining Final Cut Pro X support for external graphics. The document notes a variety of ways that Final Cut Pro X users can gain benefits from an eGPU setup.
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I’ve reviewed several Thunderbolt 3 SSDs over the last year or so, and the Akitio Node Lite with Intel Optane SSD is the best performer of them all. Advertising speeds up to 2600 MB/s read, it’s the only external SSD that I’ve tried thus far that skirts close to such a speed rating without being affected by noticeable thermal throttling.

Granted, the combo package of Akitio Node Lite + Intel Optane SSD should be a great performer, after all its price is $1500 for a 960GB SSD. That’s a lot of money to pay for storage when you can buy a 1TB version of Samsung’s bus-powered Thunderbolt 3 SSD for less than half the cost.

But if you’re in the market for an SSD that delivers workstation-class performance and endurance, then the Akitio Node Lite with Intel Optane SSD is worthy of consideration. Not only does it have a high performance ceiling, but it can sustain that performance while under load. Watch our hands-on video for more details.
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The OWC Express 4M2 is a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that can accommodate up to four M.2 NVMe SSDs simultaneously for up to 8TB of storage. It features a compact design and dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for daisy chain setups along with DisplayPort for connecting to an external display.

OWC says that speeds for the 4M2 can reach up to 2800 MB/s read. To reach those speeds, you’ll need four fast drives configured with RAID 0 using the included SoftRAID software.

The 4M2, with its massive 8TB capacity and fast speeds is particularly apt for video editing workflows. But the enclosure, which costs $349 without any drives inside, requires a considerable investment to get the most out of it. Should you consider OWC’s chassis if you need the throughput speed and storage space? Watch our video walkthrough inside for the details.
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Elgato, the now Corsair-owned company famous for its gaming products, has produced its second Thunderbolt 3-enabled dock, aptly named the Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock.

Just as its name states, the Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock, available in stores on September 13 for $150, is designed to be small and portable. It even features a built-in Thunderbolt 3 cable that hides away when not in use.

Although it features such I/O options as USB-A and Ethernet, the main purpose of the Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock is for connecting up to two 4K displays at 60 Hz. Watch our hands-on video for the details.
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Last year I reviewed the Sonnet Fusion Thunderbolt 3 SSD, and at the time it was the fastest bus-powered external SSD that I had ever tried. But there’s now an external drive that eclipses the performance of the Fusion SSD, and it’s made by Samsung, a company with a long reputation of producing fast, reliable SSD storage.

The precursors to the X5 — Samsung’s T3 and T5 portable SSD — are still extremely popular products for those looking for a reliable and fast external storage solution, but thanks to the prevalence of Thunderbolt 3, the X5 is turning up the speed rating significantly with up to a whopping 2,800 MB/s read speeds and 2300 MB/s write.

Is the Samsung X5 Portable SSD, with its supercar-inspired looks, worth its rather hefty price of admission? Watch our hands-on unboxing and review for the answer.
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When you think of Thunderbolt 3 accessories, there are only a handful of companies as prolific as Akitio. The California-based company has released numerous Thunderbolt 3-centric products aimed at Mac users, and recently sent us its latest offering — a dock headlined by its 10GbE connectivity.

In addition to the 10GbE connectivity, the dock also features a speedy UHS-II-enabled SD Card 4.0 reader, and a rare CFast 2.0 slot. Where does the Akitio Thunder3 Dock Pro fit into a Mac user’s workflow? Watch our video review for our hands-on synopsis.
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Piggybacking off the success of its wildly popular T3 and T5 series of portable SSDs, Samsung today officially announced a new portable X-series NVMe SSD featuring Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The Samsung Portable SSD X5, the company’s first portable NVMe external SSD with Thunderbolt 3, promises eyebrow-raising read speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s, 5.2 times faster than SSDs based on SATA III.
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Whenever I complain about how companies tend to ship 0.5-meter cables with their Thunderbolt 3-enabled products, I sometimes encounter pushback reminding me that longer cables noticeably hinder performance. But is that really the case?
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In theory, all USB-C cables should be the same: that’s the whole point of having a standard. In practice, there are different versions of the standard. More worryingly, many cables being sold as USB-C don’t fully conform to that standard – and that can be seriously bad news …

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The CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock is a dock made specifically for connecting to two 4K displays simultaneously. Available in HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2 versions, this bus-powered dock makes it easy to connect your MacBook Pro to a 4K monitor. Watch our hands-on video for more details.
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