In our series of hard drive tests, the Thunderbolt SSD performed well, with an average write time of 257.9 MBps, and an average read time of 268.6 MBps in the AJA System Test. When writing a 10GB file, the drive averaged 125.9 MBps, and read the same file at 187.4 MBps. Furthermore, for a 10GB folder, the Elgato drive averaged write and read speeds of 124.2 MBps and 139.1 MBps respectively.

In comparison to other Thunderbolt SSD drives, such as LaCie's Little Big Disk SSD, the Elgato didn't put up the fastest transfer speeds, but it is still a competent, high-performance drive.

While the combination of a SSD and Thunderbolt can be beneficial in a variety of applications, there's no doubt that Elgato has targeted this product at photographers and video producers. After all, Elgato is most widely known for its products for Mac, and the fast data throughput offered by this drive is definitely advantageous for users who are transferring large video files and photos.

When Elgato the Thunderbolt SSD, the company claimed to be the first manufacturer to produce a bus-powered, portable SSD with Thunderbolt connectivity. However, Seagate offers a that can turn an existing ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) drive into a Thunderbolt bus-powered device. Other drives, such as LaCie's ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ), have a built-in Thunderbolt interface, but unlike the Elgato drive, it requires an external power connection.

The overall design of the Thunderbolt SSD is very simple; it's quite literally the embodiment of "the bare necessities." Since it's bus-powered and designed specifically for Thunderbolt, it has just a single Thunderbolt port at the top of the drive, and that's it. There's no power adapter, no USB or FireWire ports--there isn't even an activity light to notify you that the drive is connected.