Digital Trends

LaCie 2big Triple (2TB) October 18th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

Setting up the 2big Triple drive is fairly easy, though it'll take some forethought to select the proper RAID setting. As for the physical drive setup, remove the Triple from the packaging, plug the power supply into the drive enclosure and an available outlet and connect the drive to your computer by USB 2.0, FireWire 400 or FireWire 800. For absolute speed, go with FireWire 800, It just can't be beat.

If you want, install the included software on your system. If you have another preferred backup program, then you can use it instead of the included software. To take advantage of the LaCie one-touch button, you'll need to install the utility from the CD. The LaCie "Shortcut Button" utility allows you to customize what the blue button on the front of the 2big Triple drive does. The button can be assigned any number of actions - opening programs, websites or performing a backup. This works with Windows Vista, XP and 2000, as well as with any Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher.

Once the 2big Triple is powered up and connected to your computer, your computer should instantly (or somewhat quickly) recognize the drive and assign a drive letter or name. The rest is up to you and the backup software.

The drives are hot-swappable on the LaCie 2big Triple RAID

Transfer Speeds

We tested the LaCie 2big Triple RAID drive several times to see how quickly we could back up and retrieve some files. Average transfer speeds are 40MB/s when using FireWire 800 on a 2.4GHz MacBook Pro. These speeds increase to an average of 51MB/s when using FireWire 800 on a dual Xeon 2.66GHz Mac Pro desktop. FireWire 400 averages 28MB/s to 32MB/s depending on what's transferred - a single huge file or a folder with thousands of smaller files. Not surprisingly, USB 2.0 is the slowest means for transferring data to and from the LaCie Triple. Average speeds for USB 2.0 range between 15MB/s and 19MB/s. 

Because each computer system is different and environmental factors can have effects on transfer speeds, these test results may vary from what you experience.

On a personal note, I love the SAFE 100 (RAID 1) mode. It provides such a warm, fuzzy feeling of total data protection. Using this mode, I swear I can feel my stress level drop. 

Noise Factor

The LaCie 2big Triple RAID drive is a substantial piece of hardware. It has two 1TB Hitachi drives spinning at 7200rpm and it has an internal fan that occasionally winds up to cool the drives. With all this activity happening, one would expect the Triple to be a loud drive. On the contrary - it is surprisingly quiet, though certainly not silent. 

Conclusion

The LaCie 2big Triple 2TB RAID hard drive is a very solid, very advanced (but completely easy to use) hard drive for professionals and non-professionals - anyone who wants their data to be safe and properly backed up. The user-configurable RAID options are nothing short of awesome. The swappable drives make for even higher levels of data protection. Sure, the price is high when compared to generic and consumer level external drives, but no other low- or mid-grade drive solution offers quite what the Triple does. We at DigitalTrends give the 2big Triple a huge thumbs up.

Pros:

• Four user-selectable RAID options
• Massive storage
• Fast data transfers with USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800
• Cools with internal fan and heat-sync body
• Quiet & energy efficient

Cons:

• High $939 USD retail price
• Rotating RAID dial is a little cumbersome