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LaCie unveiled three new and updated Thunderbolt 2 storage solutions at the annual NAB trade show this weekend, with the 8big Rack, 5big and 2big geared towards 4K video editing and other professional media uses.

lacie_8big.jpg
The LaCie 8big Rack is the company’s first Thunderbolt 2 rackmount storage solution, featuring up to eight 6TB 7200RPM hard drives and delivering speeds of up to 1330 MB/s. The 8big Rack also features easy access to components and tool-free maintenance of the included power supplies units, fans, and disks, all while offering a cooling system with three fans that conducts heat away from vital components. The 8big Rack will be offered in 4-disk (12TB) or 8-disk (24TB and 48TB) configurations.

lacie_5big.jpg
Meanwhile, the new LaCie 5big is up to two times faster than the previous version, featuring multiple 6TB 7200RPM hard disks with speeds of up to 1050 MB/s by way of Thunderbolt 2. Three separate LaCie 5bigs can be connected to a Mac Pro to create a single high-storage workstation, with every device featuring two Thunderbolt ports to daisy chain up to six Thunderbolt devices. An innovative cooling system that composes of a heat-dissipating aluminum enclosure, heat exhausts and a Noctua cooling fan is also included, as the new 5big will be offered in 10, 20, or 30TB capacities.

lacie_2big.jpg
Finally, LaCie has also refreshed its 2big, with the device sporting a new design, speeds of up to 420 MB/s with the included Thunderbolt 2 technology, and fast performance with USB 3.0 support. The device also offers the ability to hot-swap disks through an easy access panel on the front, while status LEDs on the side allow users to track disk health and RAID build status. The LaCie 2big will be offered in 6, 8, or 12TB capacities.

According to LaCie, all three storage devices are expected to be available this quarter through the LaCie online store and the company’s resellers, with pricing yet to be determined. The company announced its Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 external hard drive this past January at CES, which is available in a 1TB SSD capacity.

Article Link: LaCie Unveils Three New Thunderbolt 2 Storage Solutions for 4K Video Editing
 

Lone Deranger

macrumors 68000
Apr 23, 2006
1,894
2,133
Tokyo, Japan
Good to see Thunderbolt getting more and more support.

Still wary of LaCie products though. Too many bad experiences with them in the past. :(
 

haravikk

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2005
1,499
21
If the external boxes still require separate power supplies then it's no deal.

I'm also wary of the cost though; are they really only offering 6tb disks, or will you be able to buy them diskless and supply your own? I mean, part of the whole point of RAID is that you can use much more affordable disks to form a high capacity volume with redundancy; I know they're gearing it towards 4k video editing, but it seems strange to limit themselves to that market only when there are plenty of people who just want a decent Thunderbolt enclosure they can pop disks into.


Lastly; who's idea was it to stick such an obnoxious LED on the front? I absolutely hate having LEDs on all my devices, especially big distracting ones; while a discreet LED for checking if a device is on makes sense, anything else turns me away from a product very quickly. I've made the mistake of not looking at LEDs in the past, and now go out of my way to buy products either without them, or with sensible ones.
 

ouimetnick

macrumors 68040
Aug 28, 2008
3,552
6,341
Beverly, Massachusetts
Why do they have that ugly blue button on the front? They make nice looking drives except they ruin it with the ugly blue button. G-Tech makes better looking drives.. Although I suppose no one cares about the looks of a drive.. just as long as they do what they are suppose to do. :)
 

Vidivici

macrumors member
Oct 10, 2012
32
0
Europe
If the external boxes still require separate power supplies then it's no deal.

Why should you ? For a reputation they had 7 years ago ? Yes , I know they had some problems with some of their power suplies. But I've noticed that they use all new & better ones for quite some years now. These psu problems are a thing of the past.
 

sputnikv

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2009
506
3,184
If the external boxes still require separate power supplies then it's no deal.

I'm also wary of the cost though; are they really only offering 6tb disks, or will you be able to buy them diskless and supply your own? I mean, part of the whole point of RAID is that you can use much more affordable disks to form a high capacity volume with redundancy; I know they're gearing it towards 4k video editing, but it seems strange to limit themselves to that market only when there are plenty of people who just want a decent Thunderbolt enclosure they can pop disks into.


Lastly; who's idea was it to stick such an obnoxious LED on the front? I absolutely hate having LEDs on all my devices, especially big distracting ones; while a discreet LED for checking if a device is on makes sense, anything else turns me away from a product very quickly. I've made the mistake of not looking at LEDs in the past, and now go out of my way to buy products either without them, or with sensible ones.

no professional wants a storage solution that doesn't have its own power supply, much less a potentially volatile RAID array. your gripes about the LED tells me that you're not the professional these products are intended for
 

iBug2

macrumors 601
Jun 12, 2005
4,530
851
no professional wants a storage solution that doesn't have its own power supply, much less a potentially volatile RAID array. your gripes about the LED tells me that you're not the professional these products are intended for

Define professional.
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
10,741
5,171
192.168.1.1
If the external boxes still require separate power supplies then it's no deal.

Wait, what? You think you're going to bus power multiple desktop-class drives off Thunderbolt? Nope. Perhaps you should re-review the spec. Or am I misreading your statement?
 

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,428
2,499
Wait, what? You think you're going to bus power multiple desktop-class drives off Thunderbolt? Nope. Perhaps you should re-review the spec. Or am I misreading your statement?

I inferred that he's wanting an internal power supply, rather than an external brick. I can understand that, all the bricks get to be a bit of a hassle in cable management.
 

puckhead193

macrumors G3
May 25, 2004
9,570
852
NY
no professional wants a storage solution that doesn't have its own power supply, much less a potentially volatile RAID array. your gripes about the LED tells me that you're not the professional these products are intended for

Why do they have that ugly blue button on the front? They make nice looking drives except they ruin it with the ugly blue button. G-Tech makes better looking drives.. Although I suppose no one cares about the looks of a drive.. just as long as they do what they are suppose to do. :)

Nothing is more annoying then the G-tech drives. The white LED is annoying. I understand that it should be lit when it's on. But the flashing drives me nuts! I have to tape something over it.

So these will cost only an arm and part of a leg? :confused:
 

The Skipper

macrumors newbie
Apr 7, 2014
3
2
Style

Seams to me that these LaCie devices easily out style the new Sonnet computer rack mounts. I don't like bright LEDs at night when its sleep time. But the big blue dot surrounded by its case is more stylish than the boring white apple on the front of the MacBook Pro. Speaking of boring, see white Apple sticker, boring. Any one dare agree that the white apple is a bore? Steve Jobs must have thought it great.

As for a professional definition. I have worked one day projects for Oprah, C-Span, Bloomberg News, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, etc. I have had some short videos play in 40 film festivals. I was also the videographer at the United States Postal Service for a few years. I consider someone who works at video 40 hours a week a professional and some one who dabbles and dreams about video a amateur. I started as an amateur, it became my full-time profession, and now it is part of my artistic repertoire.
 

iVoid

macrumors 65816
Jan 9, 2007
1,145
190
Sure... since there was no announcement for something like this at MacWorld, I went ahead and bought an older 8TB 2Big thunderbolt. Guess I shouldn't have assumed anything since Lacie wasn't at MacWorld. :)
 

mvmanolov

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2013
858
5
Nothing is more annoying then the G-tech drives. The white LED is annoying. I understand that it should be lit when it's on. But the flashing drives me nuts! I have to tape something over it.

So these will cost only an arm and part of a leg? :confused:

i think most of the leg actually. And if you want decent space, probably an ear or two as well...

----------

and i'd still buy one of these rack mount boxes if i had the $$$ for it :D
 

onemoreguitar

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2010
9
1
Well as someone who works in post, this could be the difference between being able to consolidate an Ep and grade it at home as opposed to having to work in-house. Right now the turnaround times are too tight to waste the transfer times. I'm thinking a couple 8Bigs in shock racks that I can swap out.

Also, think what you want about LaCie, but pro video people trust them for the most part. I'm yet to work on any major show or at any company that doesn't rely on lots of LaCie drives. If a pro sees that blue light or orange rubber surrounds, they know you're not skimping on quality and just using some prosumer WD drive. Similar to someone saying they use a Wacom and then pulling out a Bamboo. The look can be important in an industry where reputation is a big part of what gets you gigs. I personally love the look they have going. It'll look great mounted in my suite.
 

g4cube

macrumors 6502a
Apr 22, 2003
760
13
If the external boxes still require separate power supplies then it's no deal.

I'm also wary of the cost though; are they really only offering 6tb disks, or will you be able to buy them diskless and supply your own? I mean, part of the whole point of RAID is that you can use much more affordable disks to form a high capacity volume with redundancy; I know they're gearing it towards 4k video editing, but it seems strange to limit themselves to that market only when there are plenty of people who just want a decent Thunderbolt enclosure they can pop disks into.


Lastly; who's idea was it to stick such an obnoxious LED on the front? I absolutely hate having LEDs on all my devices, especially big distracting ones; while a discreet LED for checking if a device is on makes sense, anything else turns me away from a product very quickly. I've made the mistake of not looking at LEDs in the past, and now go out of my way to buy products either without them, or with sensible ones.

At least with an external supply you can get spares at low cost. Built in supplies are more costly as a replaceable component provided they're available.

The 8big has modular, replaceable fans and internal power supplies from the pictures I've seen. 1u, 8 drives, rack mount. All a first for Thunderbolt 1 or 2. Wish I could get to NAB to see things up close.

Anyone at NAB?

As for that bright blue dot, duct tape does a fine job, as does a red filter. You can call me HAL. :)

The LaCie seem to care a bit more about design looks. Even the 8big shares some of the elements.
 

juanm

macrumors 68000
May 1, 2006
1,624
3,053
Fury 161
Raid 5 in the 5Big... Now we're talking, that makes four models to choose from, with the Promise, Caldigit and Areca... Good. :)
 
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macs4nw

macrumors 601
I inferred that he's wanting an internal power supply, rather than an external brick. I can understand that, all the bricks get to be a bit of a hassle in cable management.

True, it's not the most elegant solution, but these larger units --unlike those Little Big Disks for field use-- don't get moved around all that much, so once set up, the hassle is minimal, however the advantages of a separate power supply are real, and desirable for the best possible performance and reliability.

Even with shielding, those power supplies emit EMI interference as well as heat, which even with fans, would compound the heat that's generated by the drives themselves.
 

bzero

macrumors member
Apr 1, 2014
42
0
But do pro video editors really trust their data on Seagate hard drives? LaCie is owned by Seagate. I've never seen a Seagate hard drive live for more than 3 years, and the one LaCie-branded external hard drive I bought died early too; always avoiding them.
 
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