Thunderbolt was once limited to just a handful of device manufacturers, but in 2018, that number has grown a bit. AppleInsider talks about Nekteck’s Thunderbolt 3 SSD after using it daily for about six months now.
Nearly everything on Apple’s currently shipping Mac line has a Thunderbolt 3 port. While these ports can be used for USB 3.1 type C drives, if you’ve got the opportunity to attach faster storage, it can be worth it.
Before we delve too deeply into the performance, the Nekteck 480GB Thunderbolt 3 SSD that we’re testing is a 480GB model, with a permanently attached Thunderbolt 3 cord that retails for $299. On the product page for the drive, manufacturer Nekteck claims that it provides up to 2300 megabytes per second read speed, and 1400 megabytes per second write speed. More on that in a bit, though.
The enclosure is designed to prevent casual removal of the media. To Disk Utility, it identifies as PCI-E storage. Nekteck is properly identified as the vendor in the macOS System Report.
Read more at AppleInsider.com