LaCie Hub Now Shipping, Connects eSATA Drives via Thunderbolt - MacRumors
Skip to Content

LaCie Hub Now Shipping, Connects eSATA Drives via Thunderbolt

by

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 27 Next to iPhone

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: It's Out]

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by
Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event...
Read Full Article • 152 comments
iOS 27 Icon iPhone

iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
Read Full Article • 111 comments
Apple iCloud Plus expansion hero

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Curated Apple Music Stations in Over 100 Countries

Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries. In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....
Read Full Article • 108 comments

Top Rated Comments

B
barkomatic
189 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)
669532 Avatar
669532
189 months ago
Awesome (sarcastic)

changed you mind quickly on that one :)
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
Domalais
189 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)
S
scarred
189 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
gnasher729
189 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
Westside guy
189 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)
Read All Comments