LaCie Launches Thunderbolt SATA III SSD 'Little Big Disk' with Up to 635MB/s Read

[MacRumors]

LaCie has announced a new addition to its Little Big Disk line with a pair of RAID'd SATA III solid state drives in either 512GB or 1TB total capacity. The company positions the drives towards "the creative pro on the go", supporting either RAID 1 for security, or RAID 0 for extra speed.

Today, LaCie announced that the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series, design by Neil Poulton, now features SATA III SSDs (6Gb/s interface). With read speeds up to 635MB/s, the LaCie Little Big Disk is the fastest portable Thunderbolt solution on the market. It can transfer a 50GB project in less than two minutes or edit six uncompressed 422 streams at the same time. A game changer for content creators and professional users - the LaCie Little Big Disk delivers fibre channel rackmount speeds in a portable solution.

The SSD models include one Thunderbolt cable and are priced at $699 for the 512GB model, and $999 for the 1TB model.

Article Link: LaCie Launches Thunderbolt SATA III SSD 'Little Big Disk' with Up to 635MB/s Read

[appleguy123]

So expensive... I really just want something to plug into Thunderbolt that I don't have to pay upwards of $1000 for.

[kas23]

Yeah, it's fast and full of awesome. Still prohibitively expensive. Let's give it another 2-3 years.

[desiPM]

After buying this for 1000$ I just need to save up for a mac with TB so I can finally use it…

[bedifferent]

With SSD prices on the decline, 512GB RAID SATA III with only TB at those prices is outrageous.

(never been a fan of LaCie "kwality")

[skystuntz]

I like to free up the USB 3's and use the TB ports without taking out a second mortgage. Thanks...

[guzhogi]

MacSales has a similar device, but with Firewire & USB ports instead of thunderbolt. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...W800_FW400_USB

A little more expensive, but bus powered, which is cool.

[Mike Oxard]

Pity you can't buy a Mac Pro with a thunderbolt port to plug this drive into.

[needfx]

so what LaCie is really telling us, is that what "creative pros on the go" really need, are power outlets & multi-sockets?

[olowott]

Fast
Expensive
Cute

[velocityg4]

The maximum speed seems fairly unimpressive considering I can get a single 512GB SATA III SSD that can do 560MB/s. In RAID 0 this should be able to get to 1GB/s. This is thunderbolt after all, which is rated for 10Gb/s or 1.25 GB/s.

Heck with my two year old old 128GB SSD drives rated at 260MB/s each in RAID 0 I've gone past 500MB/s.

[jclardy]

Originally Posted by bedifferent

With SSD prices on the decline, 512GB RAID SATA III with only TB at those prices is outrageous.

(never been a fan of LaCie "kwality")

Is it though? On newegg the cheapest 512GB SATA III SSD is $350 with a rebate, and it is OCZ's budget line. Other than that they range from $400-$600.

In the 1 TB drive you get two of them, plus the enclosure and a thunderbolt cable which doesn't seem to be out of line to me.

[needfx]

Originally Posted by jclardy

Is it though? On newegg the cheapest 512GB SATA III SSD is $350 with a rebate, and it is OCZ's budget line. Other than that they range from $400-$600.

In the 1 TB drive you get two of them, plus the enclosure and a thunderbolt cable which doesn't seem to be out of line to me.

not sure if it is a fair comparison.
and for the 999 pricepoint, they should have at least considered adding a usb 2 port-yes, slow.
so what use is this disk for any other machine in this universe without tb?

--edit

let's put it in context
say the "on the go pro' hits a snag with his/hers TB enriched machine.
Now, all the "on the go pro" files are in the designed for the "creative pro on the go"-not-so-portable HDD frame, and no one in a 4 sq mile radius and two zip codes has a TB machine for you to transfer your files; to a usb drive for instance, so you can resume working on that project deadline elsewhere.

yup, no, no thanks

[ZipZap]

Wouldn't the drobo mini be a better buy?

Mini Me

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by kas23

Yeah, it's fast and full of awesome. Still prohibitively expensive. Let's give it another 2-3 years.

This is targeted at people who are maybe editing video. So the 1TB version costs $1,000. My question is, "What did it cost you to shoot 1TB of footage?"

So now you have 1TB drive filled with video. Even if the drive cost $1,000 that is "nothing" compared to the cost of the data on the drive. So it is affordable to people who have a real use for this. It is not meant to be used by people for web surfing and email.

[Supa_Fly]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Wouldn't the drobo mini be a better buy?

Mini Me

EXCELLENT FIND Sir!!

[kas23]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

This is targeted at people who are maybe editing video. So the 1TB version costs $1,000. My question is, "What did it cost you to shoot 1TB of footage?"

So now you have 1TB drive filled with video. Even if the drive cost $1,000 that is "nothing" compared to the cost of the data on the drive. So it is affordable to people who have a real use for this. It is not meant to be used by people for web surfing and email.

Do you know what percentage of the consumer population makes up what you describe above? These drives can't just be targeting the population you describe. I'm sure there are a handful of customers who would drop a grand for one of these. It would make no financial sense for Lacie to target such a restricted population. This is why Apple's slowly getting out of the Mac Pro business and already killed off the 17-inch MBP and Mac Server.

Nevertheless, these are still too expensive for the even above-average consumer, which Lacie and most drive makers make the majority of their revenue from.

[needfx]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Wouldn't the drobo mini be a better buy?

Mini Me

still no usb on the mini

[OriginalMacRat]

Originally Posted by appleguy123

So expensive... I really just want something to plug into Thunderbolt that I don't have to pay upwards of $1000 for.

We'll just have to wait until Other World Computing comes out with their branded thunderbolt enclosures. They are really good about quality and value pricing.

[Fandongo]

Originally Posted by bedifferent

With SSD prices on the decline, 512GB RAID SATA III with only TB at those prices is outrageous.

(never been a fan of LaCie "kwality")

True, I'd much rather have a cheap 2x Thunderbolt 2x 2.5" shell.
Curious why they can't push 900+MB/s read/writes.

"Only TB" shouldn't be an issue.

You would think a Thunderbolt-->USB Cables would have been the first thing in existence. You know, instead of all these stupid exorbitantly expensive docks--coming September 2011. Whenever that is.

----------

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Wouldn't the drobo mini be a better buy?

Mini Me

This is an exciting step in the right direction, good work drobo.
Still, the cost...

[jayducharme]

Originally Posted by needfx

still no usb on the mini

Did you miss this?

with cutting-edge Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity and innovative use of solid state drives (SSDs)

[manu chao]

Originally Posted by skystuntz

I like to free up the USB 3's and use the TB ports without taking out a second mortgage. Thanks...

Just keep using your FW HDDs, all daisy-chained to one single port (on the rMBP or the MBA add the TB to FW adaptor). I have to say daisy-chaining alone has made the FW surcharge been worthwhile for me, plus I got better speeds for the last ten years than USB had to offer (my oldest still in use FW disk is a 20 GB drive I bought in 2002 I think).

----------

Originally Posted by guzhogi

MacSales has a similar device, but with Firewire & USB ports instead of thunderbolt. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...W800_FW400_USB

A little more expensive, but bus powered, which is cool.

The price is actually quite similar, the smaller one is cheaper than the LaCie and larger one is more expensive. Not sure if bus-powering of two 2.5" drives and a RAID controller is possible over anything but FW.

[needfx]

Originally Posted by jayducharme

Did you miss this?

evidently I did

I even looked at the photo and ignored the blue port on the back too

[HMI]

Would it really be that difficult to add usb3 to any of these TB drives? This is pissing me off. I don't want to choose between usb3 and TB. I want both.

I really don't see any reason why all of these drives offer TB only. That's assuming everyone has a new Mac already, along with the extra cash to buy all these expensive drives. Adding USB3 means that anyone with an older computer can actually connect this thing now, rather than needing to buy a new computer first. It seems this fact alone means that adding USB3 to these TB drives is in their best interest. Leaving these with TB alone is too limiting for connectivity issues at this time.

[g4cube]

Drobo mini:
+ 2 x Thunderbolt + 1 x USB 3.0
+ accepts 4 x 2.5" HDD or SSD

- $649
- does not include any drives

So the $699 512GB seems like a better buy, unless you can find 2 x 256GB SSD for $50

Since the Drobo website doesn't list any performance benchmarks, anyone have a clue of the performance to expect with the Drobo?