Digital Trends

LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ (2TB) September 2nd, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Speed Tests

We tested the LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 2TB several times to see how quickly we could back up some files. While we weren't expecting stellar performance with USB 2.0, the FireWire options probably should have been better. However, the write speeds absolutely beat the snot out of other recently examined external hard drives.

WRITE Speeds (using 2.4GHz MacBook Pro)
USB 2.0 Transfer TO LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 74 seconds = 14.1MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 80 seconds = 17.5MB/s

FireWire 400 Transfer TO LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 43 seconds = 24.3MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 68 seconds = 20.6MB/s

FireWire 800 Transfer TO LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 53 seconds = 19.7MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 42 seconds = 33.4MB/s


READ Speeds (using 2.4GHz MacBook Pro)
USB 2.0 Transfer FROM LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 77 seconds = 13.6MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 75 seconds = 18.7MB/s

FireWire 400 Transfer FROM LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 50 seconds = 20.9MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 61 seconds = 22.9MB/s

FireWire 800 Transfer FROM LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 48 seconds = 21.8MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 61 seconds = 22.9MB/s


WRITE Speeds (using dual Xeon 2.66GHz Mac Pro)
USB 2.0 Transfer TO LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 74 seconds = 14.1MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 78 seconds = 17.9MB/s

FireWire 400 Transfer TO LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 30 seconds = 34.8MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 43 seconds = 32.6MB/s

FireWire 800 Transfer TO LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 21 seconds = 49.7MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 38 seconds = 36.9MB/s


READ Speeds (using dual Xeon 2.66GHz Mac Pro)
USB 2.0 Transfer FROM LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 67 seconds = 15.5MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 72 seconds = 19.4MB/s

FireWire 400 Transfer FROM LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 31 seconds = 33.6MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 65 seconds = 21.5MB/s

FireWire 800 Transfer FROM LaCie 2TB
1.02 GB Word documents (3,641 files) – 24 seconds = 43.5MB/s
1.37 GB MP4 movie (1 file) – 39 seconds = 35.9MB/s 

Transfers to/from differently configured computers will produce varying results. No matter your setup, you'll find that USB 2.0 is just painfully slow compared to FireWire.