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Miss that Magsafe adapter from your older MacBook? The Magrig Adapter not only restores Magsafe functionality to USB-C computers, it also works perfectly with USB 3-1 gen 3, aka Thunderbolt-3. In case you don't know, Thunderbolt-3 is screaming fast, as demonstrated herein with a Samsung X5 SSD. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ demonstrates what makes the Magrig a really cool update for your high-speed setup.
You can find Magrig on Indiegogo.com
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0:00
A MagSafe adapter that supports Thunderbolt 3? Let's check this out
0:12
Dave Taylor here, and you know, there's a lot I really like about all the generational
0:16
updates to the MacBook line and two other devices that are now using USB-C
0:21
but the thing I really miss is that MagSafe connector that typified and characterized
0:28
all Apple laptops until they switched to USB-C. Now, I don't know what it is about USB-C that
0:35
meant they couldn't do MagSafe, but it's more dangerous now. So, third parties are coming out
0:41
with MagSafe adapters, and you can use them for power, sure, that's pretty easy, but can you use
0:48
it as a Thunderbolt 3 connection? Well, one of these companies can do that. That's this. This
0:55
is the MagRig adapter, and it's easiest to show you that the tip comes off. It's a magnet, so
1:02
you can see that, right? So, obviously, I can plug it in. It's USB-C on one side and USB-C on the
1:10
other, so I can power my computer with this. That's not very interesting, and of course
1:15
if someone trips on the wire, the whole thing just comes off super easy. That's really handy
1:20
but what makes the MagRig adapter so cool is that it actually does support Thunderbolt 3
1:27
and they're the only company that does that. Thunderbolt 3, you might not even be using it
1:32
but you should. So, here's what I have. I have this glorious Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 SSD drive
1:41
and it is screaming fast. It is just ridiculously fast. In fact, I just reviewed it, so go and check
1:47
out that video, too. Now, the question is, can I use this with their adapter? Now, they say yes
1:55
but let's actually give it a test. So, first off, let's open up my computer, and it's handy. They
2:01
gave me two of them. So, there's a gray one and there's a silver one, so we can use both in this
2:07
test, right? So, I'm powered up. That's great, and I have this adapter, but before I do that
2:12
I'm just going to plug it in, and I'm going to run a speed test. There's a Blackmagic
2:18
disk speed test, and you can see here the results, and it is pretty darn fast. If you ran this for
2:25
your drive, even your internal drive, you might not get numbers this fast. Now, what MagRig says
2:31
is that these work for any USB-C device. They'll work with USB 3.1 Generation 1, which offers 5
2:39
gigabits a second, USB 3.1 Generation 2, which is known as Thunderbolt 2, and that's at 10
2:46
gigabits a second, but then the glorious one is USB 3.1 Generation 3, known much more commonly
2:54
as Thunderbolt 3, and that gives you 40 gigabits per second. It's a tricky one to say. That's
3:02
really fast, but what makes Thunderbolt 3 super interesting is that you can daisy chain up to
3:07
six devices, so you could have a display and a hard drive and another Thunderbolt 3 device all
3:14
hooked up off of one. You can also power two 4K or one 5K display off of a Thunderbolt 3 wire
3:23
Now, you need special wire. You need a wire that identifies itself as being Thunderbolt 3. If it
3:30
doesn't say that, it probably doesn't support it. These are not inexpensive wires, but you need it
3:36
because it's just vast amounts of data pushing through. It can also deliver up to 100 watts of
3:41
power, so again, that Thunderbolt 3 can do all sorts of magic stuff. It's actually a pretty sweet
3:47
system, but wouldn't it be nice to have MagSafe with it? Well, enter the MagRig, and what's nice
3:55
is the MagRig actually has the company logo on one side, but on the other side, there's a subtle
4:00
little LED indicator that tells you if it's powered on. So, if I take this and I turn it upside
4:07
down, you can see in this close-up, the little LED just lights up, and it's actually really handy to
4:13
see that. Again, not only did we lose that MagSafe ability to not worry if someone trips on your cord
4:20
but we also lost that visual indicator that things were charging, and ideally were fully
4:25
charged. Why did we lose all that, Apple? I really miss that. It's really nice, but back to this
4:31
Thunderbolt 3, right? So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to plug in the MagRig, and I can put this
4:37
on either end. This is really handy, so I can say, let's plug it into the drive, and then I will have
4:44
the, you know, plugged hard into the computer, or we can do it the other way, and I kind of prefer
4:49
the other way. So, we have our Thunderbolt 3 drive, and then we have the wire, and that is
4:55
via the MagRig. I'm going to just plug that into the side of my, this is a 2019 MacBook Pro, and it
5:04
supports Thunderbolt 3 on all four of its USB-C ports, and the drive is up, the display is, you
5:12
know, everything's working, and so the question is, what if we run that speed test? So, I'm going to
5:19
run that Blackmagic speed test again, and you'll see it actually gives me not only the same results
5:25
it's actually a smidge faster. So, running this test a lot, I've seen that it varies a little bit up and
5:31
down, so don't get hung up on exact numbers, but just look at that throughput. We're definitely
5:37
not seeing any performance penalty by using this, and if someone says, hey, can I borrow your drive
5:42
and they do this, you're like, but you didn't break anything, right? There's nothing broken and stuck
5:48
in the USB port or anything. Now, you know, from the perspective of disk caches and stuff, what I just
5:54
did is not really recommended. It's not really how you want to deal with external drives, but hopefully
6:00
especially if you're just doing it for reads, because you're reading data, then it's not going
6:05
to really affect you much, but generally speaking, you should eject your drive. I just test things
6:10
right? But what's important to notice is it works. It actually offers a bridge that gives me MagSafe
6:18
in the Thunderbolt 3 world, and that is pretty darn cool. Now, here's the thing, is that these guys are
6:24
actually busy, and they're up on Indiegogo, and they're offering a really good deal. So, let me
6:30
close this, and let's unplug these. Oh, one thing I should tell you is that the package comes with
6:37
this funky little plastic pliers or tongs or something, right? You will need this. You will
6:43
not want to lose this, because when I do this, now I have to get this out, right? If I do this
6:49
I can definitely unplug this, and I have this piece, but I now have that stuck on either side
6:55
right? So, use these little mini wrench or whatever you want to call it, and it just makes it super
7:02
easy to get the tip out, which you can then just drop in. Now, check out this close-up. There are a lot
7:08
of pins on that connector. This is not just power and ground or something like that. This is a very
7:14
complicated piece of electronics. So, you know, you definitely want to treat it with care, and you want
7:21
to be able to get this thing out. There we go. There's the other one, and I'll just put that on here
7:27
and take this off. So, here they are, and gray, silver, and let's talk about the price. But before we get
7:35
to the price, and I tell you about the whole Indiegogo thing, let me ask if you can subscribe to my
7:39
channel. Super helpful. I get access to tons of gear, even stuff that's not even out yet, and I am
7:45
really honest with my reviews and really straightforward. So, please subscribe to my channel
7:51
and we'll be able to stay in touch. How handy is that? Great. So, these little tiny guys are the
7:58
MagRig adapters. They are Thunderbolt 3 MagSafe, basically, and they're really cool. Their retail
8:05
price will be $89 for a set of two, but on Indiegogo, they're $55 if you want to back them now
8:12
and that might sound kind of spendy, but remember, this isn't about MagSafe for power. This is about
8:19
MagSafe for Thunderbolt 3, and that's kind of a different world and much more complicated
8:24
and way more useful if you're actually working in that Thunderbolt 3 universe, and you should be
8:30
because it's totally worth it. Or, if you really want to go hardcore, you can get four MagRig
8:36
adapters, which will retail for $179, but you can get four of them for $108. You do the math, that's
8:43
pretty darn inexpensive for something with this much technological expertise and, I don't know
8:49
evolution, right? So, I like these. I like MagSafe. I wish I didn't have to get a third-party adapter
8:56
for this sort of stuff, but that's how it goes. So, at least we have a good solution, and this does
9:02
give you Thunderbolt 3, and you really want to use it if you can. So, go to Indiegogo, search for MagRig
9:08
You can find all about what they're doing, and once their campaign is over, I'm sure that will link to
9:13
their official website. Definitely worth checking out if you're working with these high-speed devices
9:19
This is a really nice add-on. It's going to really save your butt. Just that one time that someone
9:24
knocks something over, or someone pulls out a wire without realizing, and it doesn't damage anything
9:30
That will be making this very well worth the investment. So, with that, I'm going to plug things
9:36
back in. I'm going to run some more speed tests, because it's just fun to see how fast it is
9:41
and that means I'll catch you in my next video. Bye
#Consumer Electronics