Lacie 2big 16tb 2-bay Thunderbolt 2 Raid Array (2 X 8tb) Review

Aimed squarely at professionals like videographers, photographers, and musicians who produce mountains of data daily, the LaCie 2big RAID external hard bulldoze earns kudos for design excellence in both looks and features. The handsome greyness and black instance houses two spinning-platter drives—4TB each in the 8TB version ($469) we tested. Y'all can configure the 2big so your estimator sees it equally two separate 4TB drives, as a single 8TB drive with faster performance, or every bit a 4TB drive that'southward automatically mirrored or backed upwardly to the 2nd. In a particularly dainty bear on (that you lot may never demand but will appreciate if you do), y'all can hot-bandy drives, easily sliding an old one out and a new ane in with no tools, without turning the LaCie unit off.

Desktop RAID or Not

The 2big RAID is part of the LaCie family of 2big Professional dual-bay RAID drives, forth with the 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3. Of the two, it'south less expensive for matching capacities, because it focuses strictly on two-bay RAID storage rather than doubling as a desktop docking station with other extras.

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In addition to the 8TB version we tested, the 2big RAID is as well available in capacities of 4TB ($369) and 16TB ($679). All three models share the aforementioned size case, which looks like an artfully stylized fat brick at three.five by 4.vi by 8.5 inches (HWD). The example is by and large dark grayness, with two small-scale blackness panels covering the two bays up front. The covers are hinged on the left side and swing partly open up to release the drives in each bay.

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Also on the front is a big blue status light. The ability connector, power switch, and USB 3.1 Type-A port are on the dorsum. Weight varies with the drives within; my 8TB examination unit weighed 6.2 pounds. Inside each instance is a matched pair of 7,200rpm Seagate IronWolf Pro enterprise-class drives.

You can simply connect the drive to your computer and start using it, simply a downloadable LaCie app lets you prepare it for whatsoever of three modes. The setting as shipped is RAID 0, or stripe mode, which makes the dual drives look like a single drive to your computer and gives a performance boost compared with using either bulldoze by itself. When writing to disk in stripe mode, for example, the 2big RAID tin can write data across both drives instead of writing to ane and having to wait every so often until the bulldoze is set for more data.

Gear up the drive to RAID i, or mirror way, and your computer will run across it equally a unmarried drive with half as much storage. Yous'll likewise see slower performance, since your computer will write to only one drive. Only your information will be safer, since the 2nd drive volition automatically mirror the first. This has particular appeal to creative pros like videographers or musicians who regularly capture moments that tin never exist precisely recreated. The 3rd choice is JBOD (Just a Agglomeration of Disks) mode. Choose this i, and your PC volition see the 2big every bit two individual, independent drives.

The 2big RAID ships using exFAT formatting, so information technology will work with both PCs and Macs. Nevertheless, unless you program to move it between dissimilar kinds of computers, you should consider formatting information technology in your operating arrangement's native format—NTFS for Windows or HFS+ for Macs, well-nigh likely—for potentially amend performance. Of class, don't reformat without copying any files on the bulldoze to some other storage device start, so y'all can re-create them back when you're washed.

The drive comes with a power cake with interchangeable plug modules for a variety of power outlets and ii USB cables, ane with a USB Type-A connector at the computer terminate and one with a USB Type-C plug. Too included are the downloadable LaCie RAID Manager and LaCie Toolkit utilities, a one-calendar month trial of Adobe's Creative Cloud All Apps plan, 5 years of Rescue Data recovery services, and a 5-year warranty—1 of the benefits that comes from using enterprise-form drives.

The RAID Manager app makes it piece of cake to switch between RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD modes. If yous plan to change the setting, continue in listen that the process involves reformatting, then hither over again y'all'll need to re-create any files on the deejay elsewhere so you won't lose them. As with the equivalent feature in the LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle, the app works difficult to keep you from accidentally losing your files, beginning warning you that they'll be deleted and and then forcing you to press the power button before it does anything. If yous don't printing the push button within xxx seconds, it cancels the reformat, so you tin't accidentally first information technology later when you really mean to plough the power off.

The Toolkit software offers most of the same utilities for the 2big RAID as LaCie offers for the Rugged RAID Shuttle. The Mirror pick lets permit yous create folders on the LaCie drive and your computer's drive that are automatically synchronized when you move files to or delete them from either 1. The Backup and Restore tools, bachelor for Windows only, let you define full or partial backups to run continuously, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or one fourth dimension merely.

Ane choice in the Rugged RAID Shuttle Toolkit that'due south missing here is Seagate Secure, because it requires a self-encrypting drive, a feature the 2big RAID lacks. Likewise in the category of security, while a Kensington lock slot lets you tie the 2big RAID down with a cable, that merely secures the case. Anyone can hands slide out the drives and walk away with all your data. For obvious reasons, this argues against using the 2big RAID in any location where you're concerned about potential theft.

Very much on the plus side is the quiet cooling fan, which adjusts speed based on the device'south internal temperature. It may non have hit its top speed in my tests, but with the drive sitting by my left elbow on a desk extension, it was low enough for me not to hear it in a quiet room.

Testing: Solid Functioning With No Surprises

Finding the correct drives for a performance comparison was a bit of a challenge, since "two-drive desktop RAID assortment" is a notably narrow category. I wound upwardly broadening the search (and reaching into the PCMag archives) to include the LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle, which is a ruggedized drive meant for use in the field; the Akitio Thunder3 RAID Station, which we tested with a pair of 256GB SanDisk U100 solid-land drives installed; and the Mac-formatted version of the Promise Pegasus3 R4, a 4-bulldoze array tested at its default RAID 5 setting—a version of RAID that distributes data across all four drives in a style that leaves all your information accessible even if ane bulldoze fails. All the other drives were set for RAID 0, which is the default in each case and gives the fastest performance.

Our benchmark tests simulate typical operations on both PCs and Macs. For PC tests, nosotros used our standard Intel X299-based storage testbed, which is equipped with a motherboard-hosted USB 3.ane Gen 2 Type-C port. For Mac tests, nosotros used a 2016 MacBook Pro and tested the drive over one of the combined Thunderbolt three/USB-C ports using the arranged USB-C cable.

The comparison results were fully predictable . The Thunder3 RAID Station with its speedy SSDs outran the rest of the field; the Pegasus3 R4 with its array of 4 7,200rpm drives under RAID 5 came in at a potent second; the LaCie 2big RAID, also with vii,200rpm drives, came in tertiary; and the LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle, with its 5,400rpm drives, trailed in every test. Ultimately, the 2big RAID delivered appropriately fast operation, with no surprises.

PCMark 7 Secondary Storage Test

The PCMark 7 Secondary Storage subtest uses a mix of faux workloads that include a Windows Defender browse, video editing tasks, and application launches to make it at a proprietary score.

The Pegasus3 R4 couldn't run this Windows criterion since it was formatted for a Mac. The other drives performed equally expected, with the SSD-based Thunder3 RAID Station delivering the best performance past far and the 2big RAID edging the Rugged RAID Shuttle.

PCMag Folder Transfer Test

Nosotros run our elevate-and-drop Folder Transfer Test on our MacBook Pro laptop. The test consists of copying a standard one.2GB binder from testbed to drive.

The difference between the fastest and slowest drives in this test was just six seconds, which is simply enough to detect if you lot're paying attention. The Pegasus3 R4 tied the Thunder3 RAID Station, with the 2big RAID landing in third place and the Rugged RAID Shuttle last.

BlackMagic iii.1 Deejay Speed Exam

The BlackMagic benchmark utility measures a drive'south throughput for playback of various video formats.

On the Disk Read tests, the functioning for all four drives followed the same predicable pattern every bit before, with the SSD-based Thunder3 RAID Station style out in front followed by the Pegasus3 R4, 2big RAID, and Rugged RAID Shuttle. Still, the Deejay Write test broke the pattern just a fleck, with the Pegasus3 R4 performing better than the Thunder3 RAID Station by more than 100MB per second.

A High-Chapters, Flexible, Solid Performer

The LaCie 2big RAID delivers exactly what it promises. The enterprise-form drives both promise reliability and deliver the performance benefit you lot'd expect from 7,200rpm platters, magnified past the default RAID 0 setting, while the optional RAID 1 setting is available if you want data redundancy. The JBOD mode is available if you don't want to use RAID, but that seems the least probable choice to me.

If you desire faster performance, you tin can opt for a solid-state solution similar the Akitio Thunder3 RAID Station, though for any given capacity yous'll be paying a lot more. Keep in listen, too, that some RAID devices—including the Thunder3 RAID Station and LaCie's 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3—add card slots and USB ports then they tin can function as docking stations. The 2big Dock too lets yous daisy-concatenation additional RAID arrays if you lot demand more than storage. That said, if you don't demand the faster speed or extra features, the LaCie 2big RAID does everything it should and adds a few flourishes—similar the easily removable, hot-swappable drives—that brand it stand out.

LaCie 2big RAID

The Bottom Line

Designed for videographers and other artistic pros who regularly handle tons of data, the LaCie 2big RAID combines two hot-swappable, high-chapters drives with a variety of settings for maximum flexibility and data protection.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/lacie-2big-raid

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