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LaCie begins shipping first sub-$1000 Thunderbolt hard drives - Page 2

post #41 of 71
9/20/11 at 8:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by S8ER01Z View Post

Pardon my ignorance here but do current SATA II drives max out their bandwidth yet? Just wondering if there is anything to gain here with this technology.

SATA II generally means the 3 Gbps flavor, right?

Thunderbolt is 10 Gbps. So no. Not even close.
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post #42 of 71
9/20/11 at 8:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post

They just market it as a large disk, and they've done this for a long time. Not everyone who buys them even understands/recognizes it as a raid enclosure. I don't really see this as a feature when the company who sells them doesn't even lay claim to it.

I'm sure not everyone knows they're RAID 0, but they do mention that they use a pre-configured RAID 0 setup. It's not like in a big giant burst, but it's certainly there!

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10549

Anyway, yeah, I know what RAID 0 is; I wasn't arguing that. I just don't quite understand what you think they're being misleading about.
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post #43 of 71
9/20/11 at 8:32pm
Its 2x the prices of current USB 3.0 drives and you have to buy the cable seperatly. Too much imo
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post #44 of 71
9/20/11 at 8:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post


Yes always expensive, but not necessarily produced or supported any better than other options. They just look pretty and somehow have a good marketing team. Pretty much every product they make is just OEMed from another manufacturer with little input on the Lacie end. Take their displays for example, samsung or NEC tech, oemed copy of coloreyes display, rebadged X-rite sensor, and display hood by whoever. I'd be fine with this if they actually did something to improve upon the combination and its usability as a whole. As it is they don't even have competent technical support. FYI I don't buy their products. I've merely had the unpleasant experience of using many of them owned by others.

I wouldn't say that their stuff is bad. I've had a number of their products over the years and haven't had any problems with them. My daughter has been using a LaCie drive for her Time machine back-up in college for almost two years without a problem. Next year I'll be replacing it. But I always do that with drive based products after three years, at the longest

Perhaps if you're using other people's used products, then you might expect to have more problems. I don't get used products from friends or elsewhere. At least, not products such as hard drives.
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post #45 of 71
9/20/11 at 9:02pm
I am certainly glad I have an eSATA card to use until TB goes mainstream.

The idea of external SSDs over TB is pretty exciting. The future looks fast. The price will get where we need it.
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post #46 of 71
9/20/11 at 9:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Scrip View Post

It's also RAID 0 and fast as hell.

It's not a consumer drive

Fast as hell? That's funny - my first thought was that it sounds pretty slow (the Lacie drive, not Thunderbolt). "boasting read speeds of up to 190 MB/s" Hmmm. just checked, I get 199 MB/sec on my Air. Oh yeah, that's consumer - an SSD, admittedly, but nonetheless. Now the 900 MB/sec raid SSD drives on Thunderbolt, those sound fast.
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post #47 of 71
9/20/11 at 9:11pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross View Post

I wouldn't say that their stuff is bad. I've had a number of their products over the years and haven't had any problems with them. My daughter has been using a LaCie drive for her Time machine back-up in college for almost two years without a problem. Next year I'll be replacing it. But I always do that with drive based products after three years, at the longest

Perhaps if you're using other people's used products, then you might expect to have more problems. I don't get used products from friends or elsewhere. At least, not products such as hard drives.

I think I've been misinterpreted slightly here. I'm not acquiring their secondhand items.

It's either I had to work on someone else's equipment for whatever reason or something crashed and they're calling to ask if I still have it, or if there's any way of retrieving it from their crashed drive. Lacie disks haven't responded well to heavy use (moving around GB worth of data for hours on end) in my experience and a lot of it is just thermal design. Users suggesting these as "performance drives" isn't something I agree with at all because they don't have the appropriate cooling for such a task. It's not as bad as a time machine backup, as that's a lighter task, but that's a totally different type of use from what I was responding to earlier.

I've seen some moderate issues with G-Raid too. I'm not sure what their controllers are like but disk thrashing has been pretty common with them.
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post #48 of 71
9/20/11 at 9:14pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmcalpin View Post

SATA II generally means the 3 Gbps flavor, right?

Thunderbolt is 10 Gbps. So no. Not even close.

He was asking if any devices hit 3 Gb/s yet. Some SSDs seem to be hitting it on paper according to spec sheets. You can also hit it easily with raided HDDs. It works out to around 350 MB/s or whatever so it's not that high a threshold.
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post #49 of 71
9/20/11 at 9:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrstep View Post


Fast as hell? That's funny - my first thought was that it sounds pretty slow (the Lacie drive, not Thunderbolt). "boasting read speeds of up to 190 MB/s" Hmmm. just checked, I get 199 MB/sec on my Air. Oh yeah, that's consumer - an SSD, admittedly, but nonetheless. Now the 900 MB/sec raid SSD drives on Thunderbolt, those sound fast.

You're right.... RAID SSDs are faster than RAID magnetic spinning disks.

I guess this Lacie drive is just a good ol' average 190MB/s drive...
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post #50 of 71
9/20/11 at 10:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazda 3s View Post

[Stewie Griffin] "Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" {/Stewie Griffin]

I got a Western Digital 1TB (2.5" external) 5400RPM USB 3.0 (backwards compatible to USB 2.0) Passport Essential drive for $58.70 including tax from Staples in late August.

Works great with my 13" MacBook Air (2011)

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3253919

Finding a forum post on SlickDeals doesn't prove anything. You might as well find an authorized seller on eBay.
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post #51 of 71
9/20/11 at 10:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post

This is just misleading. Lacie has done this little big disk thing for years. They use a cheap controller, minimal cooling, and are not serviceable. If one of the two drives died on previous models the thing was dead...

This has been my experience with dual-disk Lacie drives.
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post #52 of 71
9/20/11 at 10:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

Finding a forum post on SlickDeals doesn't prove anything. You might as well find an authorized seller on eBay.

How do you figure? Sale price from Staples was $80 (it's regularly on sale at that price). Staples coupon took it to $55.

The point is, if regular consumers can get a retail package EXTERNAL 5400rpm 1TB 5400rpm drive for $80 (or even $55 pre-tax), someone like LaCie sure as he'll isnt paying anywhere close to $120 to $140 for a single BARE drive -- especially since they buy in large lots.
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post #53 of 71
9/20/11 at 10:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazda 3s View Post

How do you figure? Sale price from Staples was $80 (it's regularly on sale at that price). Staples coupon took it to $55.

The point is, if regular consumers can get a retail package EXTERNAL 5400rpm 1TB 5400rpm drive for $80 (or even $55 pre-tax), someone like LaCie sure as he'll isnt paying anywhere close to $120 to $140 for a single BARE drive -- especially since they buy in large lots.

You comment makes no sense for several reasons.

1) You implication that all 2.5" HDDs are the same as 3.5" HDDs for the same capacity is silly.

2) If you go to that Staples link the drive is $129.

3) It appears the drive in question isn't the new 2.5" 1TB @ 5400RPM HDD with a 9.5mm thicknes, but the older drives @ 5200RPM with a 12.5mm thickness.

4) You can't just take the same capacity drive and pretty much the same disc speed and call them the same. The market doesn't work like that.
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post #54 of 71
9/21/11 at 2:17am
I have always avoided these "little big" drives from lacie, simply because they have double the chance of breakdown compared to a single drive enclosure. I'm just waiting for simple single-drive enclosures, or perhaps SSD ones...I really want to move to Thunderbolt for the speed.

I just wanted to say, not about Lacie specifically, but in general: I'm really disappointed by the speed to market of these Thunderbolt drives. I wonder what the huge technical hurdle is with testing or whatever? I expected that by now we'd have many thunderbolt options to choose from, but there are only a couple.
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post #55 of 71
9/21/11 at 3:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aplnub View Post

Affordable is relative and when you consider the first announced TB drives were over $1,000, these are affordable.

That's like an affordable $100,000 Ferrari.
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post #56 of 71
9/21/11 at 3:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post

Isn't $999.99 also "sub-$1000"?

Are there any AI employees who are competent writers?

Better would be if they said the first sub-$500 Thunderbolt drive.
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post #57 of 71
9/21/11 at 3:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmcalpin View Post

There's no reason to post insulting, baseless comments like this.

They're not my definition of "affordable," either, but they're RAID drives.

If you aren't in the market for that, wait for OWC or someone else to ship theirs, but there's no call for attacking AI over covering a news item.

It's basically a lie to say he "attacked" AI.
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post #58 of 71
9/21/11 at 3:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm View Post

In my experience they have buggy controllers, and the terrible cooling sucks. If you want any kind of longevity from the device it's the kind of thing you turn on, use, turn off immediately as they don't have enough airflow to run the device for hours at a time.

Exactly what I do lol.
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post #59 of 71
9/21/11 at 3:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven N. View Post

I paid $800 for my first 10MB HardCard back in 1985 or 86 or so.

Your point?
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post #60 of 71
9/21/11 at 4:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickwalker View Post

Well, you have to buy a $50 TB cable unless you managed to get one for free...

Good point.
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post #61 of 71
9/21/11 at 4:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross View Post

I wouldn't say that their stuff is bad. I've had a number of their products over the years and haven't had any problems with them. My daughter has been using a LaCie drive for her Time machine back-up in college for almost two years without a problem.

I've only ever owned two LaCie drives and one failed in less than a year. My LBD is several years old, but I never leave it plugged in.
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post #62 of 71
9/21/11 at 4:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzerain View Post

I just wanted to say, not about Lacie specifically, but in general: I'm really disappointed by the speed to market of these Thunderbolt drives. I wonder what the huge technical hurdle is with testing or whatever? I expected that by now we'd have many thunderbolt options to choose from, but there are only a couple.

No competition yet.
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post #63 of 71
9/21/11 at 4:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrstep View Post

Fast as hell? That's funny - my first thought was that it sounds pretty slow (the Lacie drive, not Thunderbolt). "boasting read speeds of up to 190 MB/s" Hmmm. just checked, I get 199 MB/sec on my Air. Oh yeah, that's consumer - an SSD, admittedly, but nonetheless. Now the 900 MB/sec raid SSD drives on Thunderbolt, those sound fast.

That's a silly argument. You're comparing conventional hard drives to SSD. Being able to get SSD performance from conventional drives IS impressive. How much would a 1 TB SSD cost you?

Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

3) It appears the drive in question isn't the new 2.5" 1TB @ 5400RPM HDD with a 9.5mm thicknes, but the older drives @ 5200RPM with a 12.5mm thickness.

I'm wondering about the entire 2.5" drive choice. They're using a substantially slower and more expensive drive in order to save a small amount of space? it would be one thing if it were inside a laptop, but it's an external device. Seems to me that the logical choice would be to use 3.5" 7200 rpm drives across the board and have a completely separate device for SSDs. Better yet, use a hybrid hard disk for additional performance gains.
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post #64 of 71
9/21/11 at 5:28am
if you wanted a setup for RAID 1 on this device then the pegasus is a better deal. the pegasus has 4 1 terabyte drives. if you do a RAID 5 then you get 3 terabyte usable space. if you do RAID 1 on the lacie you get 1 terabyte usable space.
500 dollars for 1 terabyte.
1,000 gets 3 terabyte.

so unless you are only interested in RAID 0 i wouldn't waste my money on the lacie.
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post #65 of 71
9/21/11 at 6:01am
What a total rip off. The cost of the parts is no where near this retail price. It is pure supply and demand gouging. I expect to see this price halved soon as more companies hit the market.
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post #66 of 71
9/21/11 at 7:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post

What a total rip off. The cost of the parts is no where near this retail price. It is pure supply and demand gouging. I expect to see this price halved soon as more companies hit the market.

Then don't buy one.

It is, however, foolish to value something on the basis of the cost of the components. Are you aware the the value of the chemicals in the human body is less than $5? Is that the way YOU want to be valued?
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post #67 of 71
9/21/11 at 7:51am
This drive is bus powered right?? Don't need to used the included power brick?
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post #68 of 71
9/21/11 at 9:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

It's basically a lie to say he "attacked" AI.

How is insinuating that a company or writer is taking kick-backs to promote someone's product in a supposed news item which is highly unethical behavior NOT an attack?
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post #69 of 71
9/21/11 at 10:10am
I guess that's fine, although a hefty price tag. Great if yyou need the storage space and speed for professionals (its like having an extra hard drive inside the computer without any speed lost).

For anyone who does not need an extra 4TB worth of memory, you can get a single 120GB SSD at 500+MB Read/Write for under $200! That's without raid.
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post #70 of 71
9/21/11 at 12:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross View Post

I wouldn't say that their stuff is bad. I've had a number of their products over the years and haven't had any problems with them. My daughter has been using a LaCie drive for her Time machine back-up in college for almost two years without a problem. Next year I'll be replacing it. But I always do that with drive based products after three years, at the longest

Perhaps if you're using other people's used products, then you might expect to have more problems. I don't get used products from friends or elsewhere. At least, not products such as hard drives.

I had a LaCie big disk drive fail just out of warranty. Called their tech support - I was SOL. LaCie can go to and take their cheap-ass drives with them.
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post #71 of 71
9/22/11 at 4:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by inslider View Post

I had a LaCie big disk drive fail just out of warranty. Called their tech support - I was SOL. LaCie can go to and take their cheap-ass drives with them.

I can speak for my own experience. Others can speak for theirs.

If their products were as bad as some people here were saying, they'd have been out of business years ago.
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