Author: Albert Filice

If you’re a user of the new Mac Pro, chances are the machine is going to spend the majority of its time in one spot. However, if you need to move it from place to place on occasion—or even regularly—you’re going to want to do so in a way that doesn’t expose your Mac Pro to unnecessary risk. Sure, you can use the box it came in, but the Mac Pro Go Case from WaterField Designs is a more permanent and elegant solution.

Michael Homnick

What’s striking about Western Digital’s My Passport Pro portable hard drive is its size and weight. The 4TB version I tested weighs 1.58 pounds, which is light when compared to your average five-pound clay brick. The weight is due in part to the My Passport Pro’s pair of 2.5-inch 5400-rpm drives, preconfigured in a RAID 0 for the greatest capacity and speed. You can, of course, use Disk Utility to configure the drive as a RAID 0, 1, or as independent disks.

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Multi-bay storage enclosures are versatile; you can reconfigure them for speed or redundancy depending on your needs. The ThunderBay IV from OWC has four drives that can be swapped easily with the aid of a screwdriver. You can configure the disks independently or as a RAID with the help of Disk Utility. The ThunderBay IV’s simple design and consistent performance make it an attractive desktop storage device.

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The Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 is the latest in desktop storage from LaCie. Inside the sleek black enclosure are two “blade” style PCIe SSDs that LaCie configures in a software RAID 0 to maximize the drive’s speed and storage capacity. Past Little Big Disk models featured 2.5-inch laptop drives, but these newer SSD modules connected to the PCIe bus allows speeds faster than SATA III.

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At first glance, LaCie’s new Rugged Thunderbolt drive doesn’t look much different from it’s predecessor the Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series, but the company has made some improvements to this iconic drive. The two biggest differences are the addition of a captive Thunderbolt cable and a new removable cap that conceals the cable and covers the USB 3.0 port.

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The G-Drive Pro with Thunderbolt by G-Technology is not very big, especially for being a four drive RAID; it’s only a half-inch taller than the company’s G-Drive. Does weight and size really matter when it comes to desktop drives?

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If you’re serious about your arts and crafts, you probably have a variety of cutting tools at your disposal—scissors and shears, exacto knives, paper cutters, and more. But when you need to make complicated, intricate cuts that you want to look clean, you need to turn to a cutting machine like the Cricut Explore. It cuts with degree of precision and automation that is hard to find elsewhere.

The Cricut Explore essentially does three things: cut, write, and score. It can work two tools at once, a blade and a pen or scoring tool. This means you can cut something out of a material and score some folding lines at the same time. Or you could, for example, draw up a label with the pen, and then cut it.

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There are plenty of Thunderbolt SSD options available, but few get as small as Silicon Power’s T11. Small size generally comes at a cost, and we found that the drive got unusually hot when used copiously. The T11 is available in both 128GB and 256GB capacities; this review is based on the 128GB version.

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Ergotron’s WorkFit-A Sit-Stand Workstation for Apple is quite a nice package as a whole, but in the end I ran into one issue that affected the overall performance of the product.

What’s attactive about the WorkFit-A is the ability to affix itself to an existing desk. If you use the WorkFit-A, you won’t have to replace your desk or modify it with motorized legs, unless your desk is monstrously thick. The WorkFit-A I looked at is designed specifically for Apples current iMac, Thunderbolt Display, and Cinema Displays. It works with many of Apple’s older iMacs and displays as well, but not all of them. Ergotron has a compatibility guide on its website.

While it’s technically possible to use non-Apple displays with the WorkFit-A, it’s tricky to determine whether they will fit or not. The position for the display to rest is designed specifically for newer Apple iMacs and Cinema Displays. Some of the older models either have a footprint that’s too big or too thick. However, if you have a display with a footprint similar enough to Apple’s, you could pull it off, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Assembly required

To set up the WorkFit-A, your desk or surface can’t extend beyond 31.5 inches, and the desktop can’t be thicker than 2.56 inches. The WorkFit-A fit the table I use quite easily, but if your desk has a back to it you might not find a spot to mount it. You can set up the WorkFit-A in a grommet hole as well, if you desk has one or you want to cut one. Ergotron’s instructions are very clear and concise, and the company even includes some of the tools you might not have but need to set up the desk, including a ratchet and 8mm socket bit.

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