LaCie has revealed a new addition to its Rugged line of external hard drives that features a Thunderbolt connection in addition to USB 3.0. With these connections on an SSD and a sturdy design, LaCie's Rugged USB 3 is designed to survive almost anything you might put it through during a busy day and still provide record-breaking transfer speeds.
The most prominent feature of LaCie's new drive is the shock-resistant case that's built to military grade standards. An outer aluminum shell and rubber sleeve protect it from scratches, rain, dust, and even being run over with a car, while several internal bumpers keep it in place for much stronger shocks. LaCie says that the Rugged USB 3 can survive drops up to 1.2 meters (4 feet) and aside from physical protection, security software using an AES 256-bit encryption is included to make sure any stored info is safe.
A sturdy design is certainly important for an external drive, but the Rugged USB 3 also adds lightning-fast transfer speeds over a USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt connection. The SSD version can reach transfer rates up to 380MB/s through either connection, making it the fastest bus-powered drive on the market. The HDD version isn't quite that fast, but can still muster a respectable 110MB/s. Since USB 3.0 is backwards compatible, it can also link to any computer with a standard USB connection.
The bus-powered Rugged USB 3 is available as a 1TB HDD (US$250), 120GB SSD ($200), or 256GB SSD ($350).
Source: LaCie
