Lacie Big Disk Extreme: comments?

[VJ]

Hello,

I'm considering the purchase of this drive:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10491

The only thing I'm a bit worried about is the heat... (and consequently: the reliability).

Does anyone have experience with this type of drive?


Thanks!


Jörg

[Rakido]

there's a review here http://www.creativecow.net/articles/...lacie_bigdisk/ sound quite positive

[VJ]

Yes, but that is the only review I could find...
The review is indeed positive, but it doesn't mention temperatures reliability... (could be of course that this is because there is no issue)


Jörg

[Helevitia]

Why not get two 250GB drives instead?

What would it be used for?

[VJ]

Keeping my datafiles (photographs) while working on them and video capture.

One problem is that I currently have an all SCSI system, and adding IDE drives will most certainly mess up the boot order and drive letter assignments. Also, the system has an older IDE interface (and no SATA), but it does have a very performant Firewire800 controller.

Hence my idea of going firewire...


Jörg

[Rakido]

Originally posted by VJ
Yes, but that is the only review I could find...
The review is indeed positive, but it doesn't mention temperatures reliability... (could be of course that this is because there is no issue)


Jörg

http://www.mymac.com/nemo/bigdisk_7.4.03.shtml

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...764549-5780664

[VJ]

The unit has no internal fan, and it did not run hot during testing.

Interesting comment from the first review...

There are some negative comments in the second, but judging by the nature of their comments (and the problems they experience), I am tempted to attribute it to user 'incompatibility' .

Well, I have ordered the drive, so I'll see how it goes...


Jörg

[PAugustin]

Let us know

[Claymonkey]

mmmm 800GB.... drool

[VJ]

Euhm, the big disk Extreme only goes up to 500 GB...

The "bigger disk" goes up to 1.6 TB, the "biggest disk" up to 2 TB...
I wonder what they will call the next one...


Jörg

[Claymonkey]

hrm how did I misread THAT? It must have been the 800 in the firewire *sheepish grin*

[High_Jumbllama]

Originally posted by VJ
Euhm, the big disk Extreme only goes up to 500 GB...

The "bigger disk" goes up to 1.6 TB, the "biggest disk" up to 2 TB...
I wonder what they will call the next one...


Jörg

Maybe Champion, Ultimate and Mega?

[VJ]

Ok, just got the disk and installed it.
Very straight forward: connect the firewire, partition, and start formatting (it took ages).

The casing is much more solid than I had anticipated: it feels like a solid block of metal (heavier and much sturdier than I thought it would be). I have mounted it on its side using the supplied foot to do so (it is very stable).

Performance is spectacular: the virtualdub benchmark (with the option 'disable windows buffers' checked) shows a read speed of over 80 MB/s, and a write speed of over 60 MB/s (on FireWire 800). It doesn't blow away my SCSI drives though, but considering the much lower pricepoint of this Lacie, performance is wonderful. I've just tried some video captures, and have experienced no problems.
The drive powers on and off with the PC.

As for the heat issue: the entire casing is apparently one large heatsink, and it does heat up. After some hours of operation, the casing is 'comfortably warm'.
I'm still not sure about it, but I don't think I'd recommended for a system running 24/7.


Jörg

[UtwigMU]

Aren't those LaCie enclosures just vanilla desktop drives in RAID0 seen as one large disk?

IE no redundancy and if one drive goes all of your data goes?

[VJ]

Most likely, yes... The USB Porsche Design has a Maxtor harddisk inside (we 'disected' one at work). The big disk series indeed has 2 harddisks in RAID0 : it is the only way to get those sizes and transfer speeds.

So I guess you are right in the fact that if one drive goes, everything goes... But in my workflow I have a decent backup system, so for working with large files (i.e. captured video, photos, ...) it does suit me.


Jörg