Hasta La Gadget!

After a lengthy delay, there will finally be a Thunderbolt expansion dock ready for actual purchase tomorrow, according to MacRumors. The Matrox DS1, first unveiled back in June and then updated in September, will be a real shipping device beginning tomorrow, with a $249 price tag.

The DS1 will provide your Mac with a Gigabit Ethernet port, two additional USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0/2.0 port, dedication audio in and out 3.5mm jacks, and either an HDMI or DVI out, depending on which model you choose. It’s the first time we’ve seen anyone deliver USB 3.0 over a Thunderbolt connection, so that’s interesting in itself. The other elements are stuff you can get via other alternatives, like a Thunderbolt Cinema Display, but those will cost you a lot more than $250.

Speaking to MacRumors, Matrox product manager Charles Amyot said there were a number of engineering challenges involved in getting the DS1 docking station to market, owing to the relative youth of Thunderbolt tech. Macs have boasted Thunderbolt ports since 2011, but they’ve seen precious little uptake in the consumer accessory market, with the exception of external hard drives, where they appear generally on more expensive, SSD-toting models. A bevy of added ports is a much more useful addition to most notebook setups, especially for a home or office docking situation, than simple storage that is available much cheaper in USB 2/3 incarnations, which serve the needs of most.

Big name accessory maker Belkin still also has a Thunderbolt expansion dock in the works, one that offers a second Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining, a FireWire 800 port and three USB 3.0 ports in addition to the other things the DS1 brings to the table (though it lacks dedicated display options). That was originally supposed to launch in Summer 2012 for $299, but it has since been pushed back to Q1 2013.

I believe that Dospara is the first company in Japan to offer Intel’s NUC or Next Unit of Computing Mini PC, behold the Diginnos Mini NUC-TB. In just 116.6x112x39mm and for 510g you Intel’s NUC comes with 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, a Core i3-3217U at 1.80GHz, Thunderbolt, HDMI, USB 2.0, WiFi and even WiDi! The perfect little companion for those who are looking for a powerful yet compact HTPC or Linux Box, the Diginnos Mini NUC-TB, is now available at around 60,000 Yen

If you’re still wondering how to make use of that Thunderbolt port on your computer, here’s a new option. mLogic, a fairly new company that shares the same founder as G-Technology (now under HGST), is now taking orders for the $399 mLink Thunderbolt expansion chassis and will start shipping it this month. What this little box offers is the ability to connect almost any half-length PCIe card to Thunderbolt-enabled computers, so the possibility is endless — be it for RAID storage, high-speed networking or 2K video acquisition. We noticed that the mLink was meant to launch this time last year, but mLogic explained to us that this massive delay was due to the unexpectedly lengthy Thunderbolt qualification process, on top of the company’s further extensive thermal and EMI testing on the product, so it’s confident that it now has a rock solid product.

In addition to this model, mLogic is also working on a variant dubbed mLink R, which is tailored for Red’s Rocket video transcode accelerator. It’s currently listed for a much higher $699, but having seen the much larger Rocket chassis offered by other companies, we’re certain that the better-off production crews will be happy to pay the premium in exchange for portability. Stay tuned for news on its availability.

Filed under: Peripherals

mLogic’s mLink Thunderbolt chassis shipping this month, Red Rocket board version to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Many of us may have liked the prospect of Western Digital’s My Book Thunderbolt Duo, but there’s no doubt some of us who discovered that even 6TB just wouldn’t cut it. If that digital pack rat mentality describes you, the solution is here: the company has taken advantage of larger 4TB hard disks to stuff a total 8TB of storage into the Duo’s enclosure. The extra capacity hikes the price to $850, although the company notes that it’s including the often expensive Thunderbolt cable to avoid any surprise trips to the store. Those without the ports or budget for the Duo can still reap some of the benefits through an updated, 4TB version of the regular My Book that hums along on USB 3.0 at a more reasonable $250 price. Either of the new drives should be lurking in stores if you’re hurting for space as we write this.

Filed under: Storage

Western Digital bumps My Book Thunderbolt Duo to 8TB, consoles regular My Book buyers with 4TB originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LaCie has updated its Little Big Disk Thunderbolt drive, boosting speed by up to a third over the already-whippet-like first-gen model. Now including a pair of SATA III SSDs, with read speeds up to 635MB/s, the new Little Big Disk is still clad in a distinctive aluminum chassis but delivers, LaCie claims, the fastest Thunderbolt rates around.

In fact, LaCie claims that the turn of speed the new SATA III drives bring means users will be able to transfer 50GB from their Thunderbolt-equipped PC or Mac to the drive in under two minutes. Alternatively, they’ll be able to edit six uncompressed video streams simultaneously.

As with its predecessor, there are twin Thunderbolt ports so that different peripherals – up to six at once – can be daisy-chained. However, now LaCie includes a Thunderbolt cable in the box, something we dinged them for not doing first time around.

The two SSDs can be set up as a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array, depending on whether you’re prioritizing capacity or redundancy. The 512GB model is priced from £589 ($943), while there’s also a more expensive 1TB version.

LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt v2 packs SATA III SSDs for 635MB/s is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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