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LaCie Thunderbolt-Enabled Little Big Disk Available from Apple

It's gotta be the chipsets

I've gotta think that the chipsets coming out of Intel are behind these outrageously high prices. It just doesn't make sense, otherwise, that one after another company would come out with such high-priced drives, with nothing cheaper in sight.

I guess we'll see over the next few months. Hopefully when Intel comes out with the next rev of Thunderbolt chipsets we'll start seeing more drives priced for daily use.
 
I just don't see the point of a RAID box that you can't easily swap out the disks on. Yes, you get increased speeds in RAID 0 mode, but if you want data protection, what good is it? Their 2Big Quadra line does have removable drives, but those are even more expensive, and not yet available with Thunderbolt interface.

EDIT: I've had 2 different RAID 0 setups go bad on me in the past (1 drive failed, all data lost), 1 external and 1 internal, so I'm very wary of using it. Unless you really don't need the data, RAID 1, 5, or 10 makes a lot more sense...as do swappable drives.
 
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lilo777 said:
It's not $100. Add $50 for a cable and the absurdity of TB peripherals at this point in time becomes obvious.
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Cables not being included with peripherals is definitely a money grab.

I remember that Firewire peripherals often didn't come with a cable when the technology was first released.

Printers that could be connected via USB didn't come with a cable at first as well.

This is only more exaggerated with TBolt due to cable requiring a more expensive built in controller.

Give it time. The technology will become cheaper and cables will begin to be included as manufacturers try to out do each other. Costs related to new technology always follows this pattern.
 
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HiRez said:
Well, you'll probably be waiting a long time for that, especially since SSD price:capacity ratio change seems to be leveling off a bit. Bare 240/256 GB SD drives are selling for around $400-$500 each, multiply that by 2 and add another $100+ for an enclosure and you're close to $1,000 (which is the price of the 4-drive 4 TB Promise Pegasus R4 by the way). 512 GB SSDs are over $800 each. Granted, the performance of such a setup is phenomenal, but you'll really pay a premium for it. Again, the Pegasus is a good idea here, because you can later on replace the drives with either higher capacity HDDs or with SSDs when the prices drop.
Click to expand...

Great comparison and suggestions. Although I don't wish to pay $1000 for this LaCie offering in 256GB x2 SSD RAID, its the ONLY solution currently that is portable ... that Pegasus R4 would barely fit in a knapsack and I would not trust it along with my Air :(
 
alms said:
I've gotta think that the chipsets coming out of Intel are behind these outrageously high prices. It just doesn't make sense, otherwise, that one after another company would come out with such high-priced drives, with nothing cheaper in sight.

I guess we'll see over the next few months. Hopefully when Intel comes out with the next rev of Thunderbolt chipsets we'll start seeing more drives priced for daily use.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Firewire argument which never came to fruition. Firewire devices are more expensive then USB2 and now USB3 drives!
 
mtbgtr said:
Sounds like the Firewire argument which never came to fruition. Firewire devices are more expensive then USB2 and now USB3 drives!
Click to expand...

Not by $350! I'd be happy to pay an extra $50 for Thunderbolt. $350? No thank you.
 
Looks like an early adopter thing.

High price, pedestrian performance in regards to what Thunderbolt can do (if the speeds posted in this thread are correct).

I'm curious what G-Tech will come out with. Never really went for La-Cie's external hard drives.
 
Can the disk even keep up with the full bit rate of the interface? You'd probably need a striping RAID to even come close.

I saw a 1TB western digital usb 3.0 drive the other day for $53.

7 times less expensive.

Thunderbolt drives will not be used by 95% of mac users. Just like firewire. Too expensive.
 
73CortinaV8 said:
Can the disk even keep up with the full bit rate of the interface? You'd probably need a striping RAID to even come close.

I saw a 1TB western digital usb 3.0 drive the other day for $53.

7 times less expensive.

Thunderbolt drives will not be used by 95% of mac users. Just like firewire. Too expensive.
Click to expand...

I use FireWire drives exclusively. They are more expensive, but not that more expensive.

I think where Thunderbolt will really shine is when SSDs have come down in price.

Like with many new interfaces, Thunderbolt is a bit ahead of the hardware.

Asus has shown interest in Thunderbolt, and other companies, too. I think Thunderbolt has great promise.

But, of course, these LaCie discs are, price-wise, out of the question.
 
73CortinaV8 said:
Can the disk even keep up with the full bit rate of the interface? You'd probably need a striping RAID to even come close.
Click to expand...

Is this what you mean?

Preconfigured RAID0 strip set (RAID 1 and JBOD capable)
Click to expand...

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7150

73CortinaV8 said:
Thunderbolt drives will not be used by 95% of mac users. Just like firewire. Too expensive.
Click to expand...

I can't image anyone but professionals and a few spec junkies using TBolt.
 
mhuk01 said:
did anyone get a screenshot of the applestore page? the link is now dead and it doesn't seem to be listed on the store anymore, only the ssd models.
Click to expand...

The SSD's are now listed. It seems as though they prematurely released the hard disk versions as they were never even pre announced.

Apple Store Link for LaCie 256GB Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt $899 - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7115ZM/A
Apple Store Link for LaCie 512GB Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt $1499 - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7151ZM/A
 
Oh, gross. $400-$500? I'm looking at a MacWorld from 2003 and even then they weren't that expensive (different size, of course).

Given that there are now external 3 GB and even 4 GB 7200 RPM HDDs... what on Earth is Apple's excuse for offering less than 6-8 GB of storage here..? I think an 8 GB (2x4 GB 7200 RPM) RAID enclosure would be worth $499. 1-2 TB is a joke. I got my external eSATA/USB 2.0 1 TB drive for $99... nearly a year ago.

----------
mike95 said:
The SSD's are now listed. It seems as though they prematurely released the hard disk versions as they were never even pre announced.

Apple Store Link for LaCie 256GB Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt $899 - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7115ZM/A
Apple Store Link for LaCie 512GB Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt $1499 - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7151ZM/A
Click to expand...

LOL! 256 GB for a mere $900. I like how they advertise 10 Gb/s speeds... then talk about Daisy Chaining up to 870 MB/s. 10 Gb/s, meet 3 Gb/s overhead.
 
The Killer product we're all waiting for is a Thunderbolt to multiple eSATA bridge.

This will allow full speed use of cheap external drives, with no driver issues.

Thunderbolt to USB3 would be fast, but for now we'd have to rely on non-Apple drivers (and who wants to trust their data to Belkin's programmers?).
 
mike95 said:
The SSD's are now listed. It seems as though they prematurely released the hard disk versions as they were never even pre announced.

Apple Store Link for LaCie 256GB Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt $899 - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7115ZM/A
Apple Store Link for LaCie 512GB Little Big Disk SSD Thunderbolt $1499 - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H7151ZM/A
Click to expand...

Well, this makes the 400 dollar version look good. :>

If I need portable storage like this, I'll spend $1499 on a new Macbook Pro and leave the Air at home.

So disappointed with this... First time I've felt a bit sad for buying my Macbook Air.
 
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