LaCie Hub Now Shipping, Connects eSATA Drives via Thunderbolt

Announced at CES earlier this year, the LaCie's new Thunderbolt eSATA Hub is now shipping. The device allows external eSATA drives to be connected to Thunderbolt equipped Macs. The daisy-chainable hub includes two eSATA ports and retails for $199.

eSATA is a high performance drive connector used to connect external hard drives to your computer. eSATA has never been a standard option on Macs, but is a faster alternative to USB 2.0 and Firewire and is commonly found on high performance external drives and storage arrays.

esatahub
For those who are have existing eSATA drives or are waiting for Thunderbolt drives to drop in price, this could be a good interim solution. The Hub isn't yet available for order on LaCie's website. We spoke to someone at LaCie's sales center who told us the first batch had sold out, but that more were to arrive in a few days. Interested parties can contact LaCie sales directly to place an order for one of these backordered units, and it'll ship out when LaCie receives them.

Popular Stories

ios 19 messages app

Apple Sues Jon Prosser Over iOS 26 Leaks

Thursday July 17, 2025 8:40 pm PDT by
Earlier this year, YouTuber Jon Prosser shared multiple videos showing off what he claimed to be re-created renderings of what was then presumed to be called iOS 19 and which was eventually unveiled by Apple as iOS 26 at WWDC in June. In his first video back in January, Prosser showed off a Camera app redesign with a simpler set of buttons for moving between photo and video modes, and he...
iPhone 17 Colors

All 15 New iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Colors Revealed in Latest Leak

Wednesday July 16, 2025 6:50 am PDT by
We may finally have a definitive list of all color options for the iPhone 17 series, ahead of the devices launching in September. MacRumors concept In a report for Macworld today, Filipe Espósito said he obtained an "internal document" that allegedly reveals all of the color options for the upcoming iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. The report includes ...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Here's When to Expect the iOS 26 Public Beta

Tuesday July 15, 2025 11:07 am PDT by
Apple previously announced that a public beta of iOS 26 would be available in July, and now a more specific timeframe has surfaced. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Apple's public betas should be released on or around Wednesday, July 23. In other words, expect the public betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and more to be available at some point next week. Apple will be releasing...
iPhone 17 Pro Dark Blue and Orange

Ranked: The Best Features Rumored for the iPhone 17 Lineup

Wednesday July 16, 2025 4:17 pm PDT by
We have just under two months to go until the debut of Apple's iPhone 17 models, and rumors have been ramping up in recent weeks. We went through everything we know so far, pulling out the most exciting rumors and highlighting some other changes that aren't going to be so great. Top Tier Ultra Thin iPhone 17 Air - The iPhone 17 Air is 2025's most exciting iPhone rumor, because it's the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Foldable iPhone's Thickness and Price Range Detailed in New Reports

Wednesday July 16, 2025 11:31 am PDT by
Apple's long-rumored foldable iPhone will likely have a starting price between $1,800 and $2,000 in the U.S., analysts at investment banking firm UBS said this week. If so, the foldable iPhone would cost more than a MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,599. With a starting price of at least $1,800, the foldable iPhone would be the most expensive iPhone model ever released, topping the Pro Max at...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 16 New Features

Friday July 11, 2025 12:40 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are only two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:A redesigned Dynamic Island: It has been rumored that all iPhone 17 models will have a redesigned Dynamic Island interface — it might ...
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Complications

Apple Watch Ultra 3: What to Expect

Sunday July 13, 2025 10:30 am PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 is nearly over, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the Apple Watch Ultra 3:Satellite connectivity for sending and receiving text messages when Wi-Fi and cellular coverage is unavailable 5G support, up from LTE on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Likely a wide-angle OLED display that ...

Top Rated Comments

barkomatic Avatar
173 months ago
To think I waited and waited for thunderbolt to be introduced on the Macbook pro because I thought I could use all these fast new peripherals. Little did I know how stupidly expensive they'd be and that for the entire life of my computer I'd never once use that port.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlieegan3 Avatar
173 months ago
Awesome (sarcastic)

changed you mind quickly on that one :)
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Domalais Avatar
173 months ago
The pricing on this doesn't make sense.


Why would I pay that much to get ****ed by Apple? I can get ****ed for a lot less than $250.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scarred Avatar
173 months ago
Thunderbolt continues to be a big disappointment. That is the one feature on my MacBook air that is going to waste. Too bad.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gnasher729 Avatar
173 months ago
They talk about eSATA being faster than USB2, but isn't it slower than USB3? So the only advantage of doing it with Thunderbolt is daisy-chaining?
Every hard drive has a SATA connector.

USB2 hard drives have a USB2 adapter plugged into the SATA connector.
USB3 hard drives have a USB3 adapter plugged into the SATA connector.
Firewire hard drives have a Firewire adapter plugged into the SATA connector.

Each of those translates the data from the SATA connector to their own format.

eSata does not translate data, it is a direct connection between SATA connector in the computer and the hard drive.

So no connector could ever be faster than eSATA. If you have a 5 GBit USB3 adapter plugged into a 3 GBit SATA connector, you will never get more than 3 GBit out of it.

Now all that said, this box is just stupid. Every hard drive in the world has SATA. SATA is electrically the same as eSATA. So instead of $200 for a box with two eSATA ports, which forces me to use bloody expensive external eSATA drives (a quick look showed a 2 TB eSATA drive for £180, while a 2 TB USB drive is only £85), it would be much more effective to build a box with two SATA connectors and space for two internal SATA drives inside. That would save the customer £200 on the drives, so the box would be worth its money.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Westside guy Avatar
173 months ago
You can get a USB2 -> eSATA adapter for like $20.

Which pretty much defeats the purpose of using the SATA port...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)