Bus-Powered LaCie Rugged External SSD Gets It Done With USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt

by Joshua Gulick — Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 02:30 PM EDT

With its orange bumper and snow-white housing, the LaCie Rugged looks downright dainty. But LaCie says that the portable SSD can handle 4-foot drops and is meant to withstand the rigors of frequent shipping. Toughness aside, what makes the device really interesting is its dual USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports and support for bus power.

According to LaCie, the Rugged offers up to 380MB/s bus-powered speeds. You’ll need to use electrical Thunderbolt cables (as opposed to faster optical Thunderbolt cables) to bus power the device. The box includes an electrical Thunderbolt cable and a USB 3.0 cable, so you’re good to go.

LaCie is releasing the Rugged in 120GB ($199.99) and 256GB ($349.99) SSD models. It also has a 1TB HDD model ($249.99) with claimed transfer speeds of up to 110MB/s. You can check out the promotional video to see the Rugged in action.

Tags: SSD, Rugged, LaCie, USB 3.0, Thunderbolt

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.