The lacie little big disk arrived today test results

[Aygodriver]

Mountain Lion
Silverstone DS221 (don't know which controller is installed)
Lindy 2,5 Raid Esata (I think the controller here is the SiliconImage 5744)

 

[Toltepeceno]

thunderbolt does not work with windows

The fact that now Thunderbolt has gone multiplatform means that soon enough there will be more and more devices based on this standard. This starts a new era in which consumers of both platforms can equally enjoy the new standard. This doesn't mean, however, that Thunderbolt is significantly more affordable than it was a year ago. Thunderbolt storage devices for Windows still cost substantially more than similar devices that use USB 3.0. On top of that they still don't come with the much-needed Thunderbolt cable.

That said, if you can't wait to have a superfast storage device for your professional needs, Thunderbolt storage is worth the investment. Following are eight drives currently on the market, sorted by the review order. Apart from the Pegasus R4, which was preformatted for Windows, the rest are made for Mac out of the box. All of them will work with both Windows and Mac platforms, however, once you have changed the file system accordingly. Some of them might need to have the firmware updated to work with Windows.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57403566-1/thunderbolt-storage-roundup-its-a-pc-world-after-all/

 

[philipma1957]

Mountain Lion
Silverstone DS221 (don't know which controller is installed)
Lindy 2,5 Raid Esata (I think the controller here is the SiliconImage 5744)

the silverstone has jbod that won't work.

you need it to be only raid0 and raid1. not all three. same for the lindy it has 3 options raid0 raid1 and jbod.


the lacie has the same three options via mac software. raid0 raid1 and jbod. so they are not compatible.

I am not certain about the monoprice. but I am certain about these:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/AKiTio-Taur...ures_Docks&hash=item336f25fe56#ht_5119wt_1018



pm me for more info.

----------

the fact that now thunderbolt has gone multiplatform means that soon enough there will be more and more devices based on this standard. This starts a new era in which consumers of both platforms can equally enjoy the new standard. This doesn't mean, however, that thunderbolt is significantly more affordable than it was a year ago. Thunderbolt storage devices for windows still cost substantially more than similar devices that use usb 3.0. On top of that they still don't come with the much-needed thunderbolt cable.

That said, if you can't wait to have a superfast storage device for your professional needs, thunderbolt storage is worth the investment. Following are eight drives currently on the market, sorted by the review order. Apart from the pegasus r4, which was preformatted for windows, the rest are made for mac out of the box. All of them will work with both windows and mac platforms, however, once you have changed the file system accordingly. Some of them might need to have the firmware updated to work with windows.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57403566-1/thunderbolt-storage-roundup-its-a-pc-world-after-all/

i will update !!

 

[jeroen020]

Trim?

I'm planning to add an SSD to my 2011 iMac via Thunderbolt. I have my choices down to either the LaCie eSATA hub and connect via eSATA (a single 512GB or 2x256GB in RAID0) or the Little Big Disk 1TB and swap out the internal disks with 2x256GB in RAID0 as many have reported here. Disks will be Samsung 830s. I plan to use the SSD for boot, applications and libraries.

However my concern is about TRIM - can you enable this in any way in the Little Big Disk RAID0 set up described here?

 

[philipma1957]

I'm planning to add an SSD to my 2011 iMac via Thunderbolt. I have my choices down to either the LaCie eSATA hub and connect via eSATA (a single 512GB or 2x256GB in RAID0) or the Little Big Disk 1TB and swap out the internal disks with 2x256GB in RAID0 as many have reported here. Disks will be Samsung 830s. I plan to use the SSD for boot, applications and libraries.

However my concern is about TRIM - can you enable this in any way in the Little Big Disk RAID0 set up described here?

my guess is no. I think you need to run jbod. not raid to get it to work. If you have to have a 512gb ssd.

I would suggest putting in 1 samsung 512gb ssd leave the second slot empty. test to see if you get trim to run on the one 512gb ssd. You could run trim on a single drive . If this works down the road buy a second 512gb ssd.

I am not knocking your concern about running trim. I am curious as to what you do that would eat up a 512gb raid0 ssd. It is possible to need what you want. I just do not know if you want it or you need it.

If you are going to write and over write a lot you need trim. your work load mentioned does not suggest that. seems like you will read the disk far more then write on it.

 

[dyn]

However my concern is about TRIM - can you enable this in any way in the Little Big Disk RAID0 set up described here?

Overall TRIM is still unsupported when using RAID in just about any OS. Iirc there aren't any hardware RAID controllers that support it. Software RAID in Windows with a specific driver that you can only use when using a specific setup (I forgot what exactly) can support it. I think that's the only situation where TRIM with RAID is supported.

 

[jeroen020]

I decided not too worry about TRIM but ended up taking a slightly different route. I figured the LaCie Thunderbolt eSATA hub I already have would be the same to the Little Big Disk, but only with eSATA ports instead of acting as an enclosure.

Yesterday I bought two 256GB Samsung 830s at a good price (the 512GB is over three times as much as the 256GB here) and put them in 2.5" eSATA enclosures and connected them to the eSATA hub. Used Disk Utility to set it up a a striped (RAID0) set of 512GB, cloned my boot disk over, configured it to start from the SSD's and everything works.

However when I benchmark it I get substantially lower results than I've seen in this thread for the Little Big Disk, both AJA and Black Magic report writes of 200-220 MB/s and read of 180-240 MB/s, well within SATA II levels.

So it looks like the eSATA hub may not be using the same architecture as the Little Big Disk. I'll delete the RAID and see how it performs as a single disk.

EDIT: when testing as single disks performance is only 110MB write, 120MB read. So it looks like my enclosures are the bottle neck, I figured they just pass through the SATA but this is more in line with SATA I performance.

 

[philipma1957]

I decided not too worry about TRIM but ended up taking a slightly different route. I figured the LaCie Thunderbolt eSATA hub I already have would be the same to the Little Big Disk, but only with eSATA ports instead of acting as an enclosure.

Yesterday I bought two 256GB Samsung 830s at a good price (the 512GB is over three times as much as the 256GB here) and put them in 2.5" eSATA enclosures and connected them to the eSATA hub. Used Disk Utility to set it up a a striped (RAID0) set of 512GB, cloned my boot disk over, configured it to start from the SSD's and everything works.

However when I benchmark it I get substantially lower results than I've seen in this thread for the Little Big Disk, both AJA and Black Magic report writes of 200-220 MB/s and read of 180-240 MB/s, well within SATA II levels.

So it looks like the eSATA hub may not be using the same architecture as the Little Big Disk. I'll delete the RAID and see how it performs as a single disk.

EDIT: when testing as single disks performance is only 110MB write, 120MB read. So it looks like my enclosures are the bottle neck, I figured they just pass through the SATA but this is more in line with SATA I performance.

I don't own your item but I have another thunderbolt adapter



http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresscard34thunderbolt.html


hot slow and no matter what express card you use the max speed is 220/180 even with a large enclosure filled with ssds. Still has a purpose


use with

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposataiii6gbec34.html


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132016


and you have an 8 drive storage setup for about 500.
you can have 8 single hdds
or 4x 2 drive raid0
or 2x 4 drive raid0 or 4 single drives a raid0 and a raid1 but speed is reduced any 1 drive is about 110/100 and the max speed is about 220/200 of any raid

 

[shortcut3d]

I had two LaCieThunderbolt Little Big Disks configured with SSDs and have since sold both (one returned to factory, sold modified). I intentionally used Samsung 830s and OCZ Vertex 3 with SF-2281 controller. The reason behind drive choice with the drives ability to clean up without Trim. Say what you want about SF-2281, they have amazing resiliency (as tested by Anandtech). This is also why I went with the Vertex line because it uses better synchronous NAND. The recently sold on eBay went for only $340 at auction and got 466/354 read/write in Black Magic Diskspeed Test. I posted ATTO scores under Windows earlier in this thread and saw performance the same as a single Vertex 3. Unfortunately, the LaCie LBD splits a SATA III channel thus reducing the performance and software RAID gives it some overhead as well.

Currently, I use 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS and 256GB Samsung 830 in Seagate 2.5" GoFlex enclosures connected to the Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt 2.5" adapter. I also use Elgato cables. I was able to get a single 512GB Samsung 830 stable in this setup using Elgato cables. This has been a problem since the device is bus powered. However, for fear of problems arising later in operation I swapped the 512GB Samsung 830 for a 256GB moving the 512GB internal. The advantage of the Seagate is performance equal to internal or LBD RAID 0 since the chipset is also a single channel SATA III. I use these ultra portable drives as OS boot drives one for Windows 7 and another for OSX.

As philipma stated, evaluate your storage needs. Your solution may evolve. Assess & Strategy (Requirements), Design (Logical), Implement (Physical).

 

[jeroen020]

I've been having some headaches with the enclosures, couldn't find one that would go beyond SATA I (despite what their specs/boxes said). I ended up connecting the Samsung 830s directly to the Lacie via eSATA - SATA cables and a SATA power supply. After configuring RAID0 I'm getting 357 MB/s write, 463 MB/s read.

In other words the eSATA hub looks it can be an alternative for the little big disk if you set out to use your own disks. Downside: more clutter (boxes, wires, power supplies). Upside: (slightly) cheaper, no fan issues, no unused disks to put on eBay and you can use it with 3.5" disks should you feel the need.

 

[shortcut3d]

I've been having some headaches with the enclosures, couldn't find one that would go beyond SATA I (despite what their specs/boxes said). I ended up connecting the Samsung 830s directly to the Lacie via eSATA - SATA cables and a SATA power supply. After configuring RAID0 I'm getting 357 MB/s write, 463 MB/s read.

I was able to get the same performance from two OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs in Black Magic Disk Speed Test using the LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk. I also removed the fan and had no heat issues. I've also reached SATA III speeds with the Seagate Thunderbolt GoFlex 2.5" adapter. I'm getting better speeds with the Seagate Thunderbolt GoFlex 2.5" adapter than RAID 0 LaCie Thunderbolt Little Big Disks with dual SSDs of either Samsung 830 or OCZ Vertex 3. The only obvious limitation is storage space of the Seagate Thunderbolt GoFlex 2.5" adapter with a single 256GB being the ceiling (base on many reports; personally the El Gato Thunderbolt Cable and 512GB Samsung 830 passed stability tests).

 

[jeroen020]

Yeah I was thinking about the Seagate route too. Just cloned my boot HD to the SSD's, let's see how stable it is. Loving the speed. I could get the eSATA hub + 2x 256GB 830 for the same price as a single 512GB 830 so I think I'll be OK for now.

When a Thunderbolt SSD enclosure with proper power & full speed SATA III support for a 512GB SSD arrives I'll probably switch, sell my 256 GB 830s and hook the eSATA hub to external HD's.

 

[dany74m]

I can't answer as I do not have a display to test it with. I can tell you this I super duper cloned a 65 gb osx to it and it only pulled 6 watts to the lacie unit. but that was with samsung ssd's inside of it. I believe that if you clone your mini's internal to it once a week you will be fine for over heating your mini will not suffer as it is reading its internal and the lacie would be fine.

Seems to me this is a good piece of gear if you void the warranty and drop in samsung 470 series ssds or samsung series 830 ssds.

Now for an acid test I just pulled the fan out so it is dead silent. It pulls 4 watts on idle and is not warm. this is with a pair of samsung series 470 256gb ssds inside in a raid0. I am going to clone the internal to it and see what it pulls watt wise.

well I wrote zeros over it 270gb out of 512gb so far it is not hot just warm. I am very pleased with results so far.

In fact I purchased a second unit and ordered a samsung 830 512gb ssd's this will give me a 1.1tb ssd for about 1.1k.

I have a used intel 600gb ssd on hand.

this unit allows mixed drives.

while expensive if I can run it with no fan a big plus and if i can use the fw800 bus to power it win win.

I am going to put a 12v reg in the fw800 cable.



I will post a few photos later.

1st photo shows the small fan pulled

2nd photo shows the power deep into a zero over write

screen shot shows the overwrite


now mind you pulling the fan voids warranty.

putting in ssds voids the warranty.



IF YOU DO THIS DON'T DAISY CHAIN ANYTHING!!!


I AM going to test booting and a few other things but dead quiet 450 read 375 write is ***** great.

Oh and with the fan pulled and a pair of samsung series 470 ssds 256gb total 512gb idle is 4 watts!!!


I got it to boot!

so it is dead quiet

it boots it is 512gb

it pulls 4 to 7 watts.

i built this for just under 1k

a pair of 256gb samsung series 470 on ebay for about 600 and a discounted 1tb little big disk for about 370 = 970 total.


add in a t bolt cable for 45 grand total was 1015 but I have a pair of 500gb hdds may get 150 for them on ebay.


so lets say 865 for this unit.


Don't know about a daisy chain

don't know about monitors .


fast quiet will get back on stable.

Do you think its safe to remove the fan with mechanical hd (2x 1tb 5400 rpm)? I use them as scratch disk for premiere, Im a professional so its very important for me that it will be reliable.
Thank you.

 

[philipma1957]

Do you think its safe to remove the fan with mechanical hd (2x 1tb 5400 rpm)? I use them as scratch disk for premiere, Im a professional so its very important for me that it will be reliable.
Thank you.

not sure I have tested no fan with ssds.

I have tested 1 hdd with 1 ssd no fans.

I have not run 2 1tb hdds without the fan.

I have run no fans with ssds since feb in raid0 with NO problems.

 

[living745]

I´m planning to do the same as others here to install 2x SSD into the LBD.
Which SSD should I choose when I disconnect the fan as well?

Was looking into the SanDisk Extreme.
But would go for everything what would give the max amount of speed
and is in the same price class.

Thanks

 

[philipma1957]

I´m planning to do the same as others here to install 2x SSD into the LBD.
Which SSD should I choose when I disconnect the fan as well?

Was looking into the SanDisk Extreme.
But would go for everything what would give the max amount of speed
and is in the same price class.

Thanks

i have used samsung 810/470 sata II

toshiba sata II and crucial m4 in the older lacies all in raid0 setups for max speed. all ran cool right now my toshbias the 512gb models run at 95 f plenty cool. I ran kingston 's and they ran hot. I ran corsairs and they ran hot.

 

[living745]

i have used samsung 810/470 sata II

toshiba sata II and crucial m4 in the older lacies all in raid0 setups for max speed. all ran cool right now my toshbias the 512gb models run at 95 f plenty cool. I ran kingston 's and they ran hot. I ran corsairs and they ran hot.

Could you let me know the speed of the M4 and the 810?
Have to look it up which one is cheaper right now.
So no new 6Gbit drive would work as good as the older 3Gbit ones?

 

[philipma1957]

Could you let me know the speed of the M4 and the 810?
Have to look it up which one is cheaper right now.
So no new 6Gbit drive would work as good as the older 3Gbit ones?

well the 810's ran 240/220 or 220/240 as raid1 and as jbod.

they ran about 450 /375 or 375/ 450 as raid0.

the older lacie lbd runs 2 sata II slots and if you raid0 you get about 2x the speed. right now I have the 512gb toshiba ssd 's in the lacie the temps are under 100 f see snap shot. I am booting with the toshiba ssd mountain in jbod on the lacie lbd


and I get 195 read 205 write but I do not care


look at the xbench results the stock oem internal hdd vs the external Toshiba sata II ssd.


the world for me comes down to these numbers ;


external ssd via lbd t-bolt random write 4k = 41.69 MB

internal hdd via mac mini random write 4k = 1.60 MB 26 times faster


External ssd via lbd t-bolt random read 4k = 16.63 MB

Internal hdd via mac mini random read 4k = 0.52 MB 32 times faster


I could sit and talk for hours about why those two numbers are ffff'ing amazing and this improvement is blah blah blah blah.

this is with a medium speed sata II ssd in a t-bolt that for one drive can only do sata II .


but I got my lacies on discount they take 2 ssds and they allow daisychaining. but those 32x and 26x numbers for my use are great.

yeah if you do large 1080 p video shooting of big 32gb files you want more then the 195 write 205 read of one drive but in raid0 you will 2x that.


the small files will not get faster. now that I got the 2 big 512gb ssd I do not raid it I jbod...

 

[living745]

Thanks for your help!
But I still don't know what to choose.
A good deal is right now a Sandisk Extreme which is a SATA III drive.
Would this make a difference?

Just like to get 2x 240GB as a RAID0 for a good price that give me the max speed from the LBD.

 

[philipma1957]

Thanks for your help!
But I still don't know what to choose.
A good deal is right now a Sandisk Extreme which is a SATA III drive.
Would this make a difference?

Just like to get 2x 240GB as a RAID0 for a good price that give me the max speed from the LBD.

Well it will run well ie fast .

I don't know how cool.



RThe sandisk are fast we had a few guys use some ocz's... Same controller they were fast.

So if the price is good you can try them without the fan.

if the case is real hot you can attach the fan

(really nasty sounding fan like a big whiny mosquito ).


if they run hot and you really hate the fan you can buy this,



http://www.amazon.com/Antec-Notebook-Cooler-USB-Powered/dp/B0000BVYTV/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

put both the mini and the lbd on it and solve a lot of cooling issues.


Basically I only would be concerned about heat issue since I did not test your pick.

 

[living745]

Ok, thanks. I would run it without the fan - its a pain!
Maybe I should choose the Samsung 830 instead to get no heat issues?

Any recommendations on SSD's like these for the same price?
Don't like to run into heat issues.

 

[living745]

Well it will run well ie fast .

I don't know how cool.



RThe sandisk are fast we had a few guys use some ocz's... Same controller they were fast.

So if the price is good you can try them without the fan.

if the case is real hot you can attach the fan

(really nasty sounding fan like a big whiny mosquito ).


if they run hot and you really hate the fan you can buy this,



http://www.amazon.com/Antec-Notebook-Cooler-USB-Powered/dp/B0000BVYTV/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

put both the mini and the lbd on it and solve a lot of cooling issues.


Basically I only would be concerned about heat issue since I did not test your pick.

Just read to your old posts. You are saying the Samsung 470 is the best for this setup - speeds up to 480 / 375. Did you have results for the Samsung 830?
Due to the heat concerns I would go with a Samsung but don't know if I should choose the 470 or 830....?

 

[philipma1957]

Just read to your old posts. You are saying the Samsung 470 is the best for this setup - speeds up to 480 / 375. Did you have results for the Samsung 830?
Due to the heat concerns I would go with a Samsung but don't know if I should choose the 470 or 830....?

I tested 830's they were cool. so if you get a good price on them use them

 

[living745]

Ok, will do. I guess performance is the same as the 470's?

 

[shortcut3d]

Just to chime in. I sold my Lacie Thunderbolt Little Big Disk a couple months back. It was modded with dual 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS and no fan. I never had heat issues during my usage. I believe the Thunderbolt controller generates the more heat than any current SSD.