It’s not quite fair to say if you’ve seen one LaCie external drive, you’ve seen them all. But the orange silicon bumper and silver internal aluminum shell of LaCie’s Rugged SSD4 looks to be the same chassis used in last year’s Rugged Mini SSD, and similar to the company’s earliest Rugged drives, dating back 20 years. But this latest Rugged drive sports a fast 40 Gbps interface, making it a competitor to one of the best external SSDs, Corsair’s USB4-based EX400U.

Perhaps because of the brand’s historical tendency toward Mac users, LaCie isn’t expressly calling this a USB4 drive, instead stating the drive has a “USB 40 Gbps port.” But I tested it on our Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero-based storage testbed over USB4 and spot-checked performance on an M4 MacBook Air with Thunderbolt 4; the Rugged SSD4 was similarly speedy on both machines. And that’s how LaCie seems to be marketing the drive, as one that supports all recent versions of Thunderbolt and USB, giving you fast performance on whatever system you plug the drive into. For the most part, it seems like LaCie has delivered on that front, making this drive more universally appealing than its Thunderbolt 5-based Rugged SSD Pro5 that launched earlier this year.

We’ll have to put the drive through our usual slate of benchmark testing to see if it earns its fairly high asking price – the 4 TB model we tested is expected to sell for $479. But first, here are the specs for the drive, direct from LaCie:

LaCie Rugged SSD4 specifications

LaCie Rugged SSD4 Design and accessories

The LaCie Rugged branding comes with the requisite IP54 rating for protection against dust and water splashes (so long as you have the silicon plug over the port). And LaCie says the drive is also built to withstand drops up to 3 meters as well as up to 2,000 pounds of pressure. The drive certainly feels rigid, with or without its orange silicon protection.

In the box, you get the drive and the removable orange silicon bumper, along with a USB-C-to-USB-C cable that’s just shy of a foot long. The cable is also orange, which is helpful if you’re swimming in a sea of cables, most of which don’t have the bandwidth for a drive this fast. The cable also has “40 Gbps 240W” embossed on each end, indicating its speed and charge rating. Given its length, though, it’s unlikely you’re going to want to charge a laptop or anything more power-hungry with this short cable.

Software

As with previous LaCie (and parent company, Seagate) devices, the three-year warranty also comes with the company’s Rescue Data Recovery service, should the drive physically fail during the warranty period. Two months of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Pro is also included, though LaCie stipulates this isn’t valid in all countries, so check before buying if the software trial appeals to you.

Comparison products

LaCie has never been a particularly value-focused brand. And the Rugged SSD4’s launch prices ($134 for the 1 TB version, $249 for the 2 TB model, and $479 for the top 4 TB capacity that we tested) certainly aren’t going to compete with budget or mainstream external drives. But the SSD4 is cheaper than the company’s Pro5 Thunderbolt 5 drive (currently selling for $524 for 4 TB). Corsair’s USB4 EX400U is significantly cheaper, though, at $109 for 1 TB, $179 for 2 TB, and $309 for 4 TB.

Whether or not the LaCie drive is worth the extra $25-$170 (depending on capacity) over the Corsair drive will depend on your performance needs. But as we’ll soon see in testing, the LaCie drive is significantly faster than the Corsair in many of our benchmarks.

The LaCie Rugged SSD4 is also smaller than the company’s hard drive days, at 105 x 67 x 18 mm and 109 grams. But that is still larger and heavier than most of its external storage competition. It’s about twice the size of Corsair’s EX400U, and Crucial’s 20 Gbps X10 drive is less than a quarter the size of the LaCie. The Corsair drive has an embedded metal ring for easily snapping on the back of an iPhone and a few Android phones, if that’s important to you.

Still, the LaCie drive is small enough to fit in most pants or backpack pockets, so it’s only bulky in comparison to smaller modern alternatives. I do wish the company could find a better solution than the untethered silicon USB-C plug, though, because I’d probably lose that within weeks of using the drive – if not days.

Storage testbed update

In early 2025, we updated our external storage testbed to an AMD Ryzen 7600X-based PC with an Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard, installed in Lian Li’s Lancool 217 case. This was done in part because we needed a system with native USB4 support for upcoming drives (like this one).

All the drives in the charts below have been re-tested on the new X870E system, with the exception of the final Iometer sustained sequential test, which is less about top speed and more about how long a drive can write before depleting any fast cache. We also updated to CrystalDiskMark 8, rather than the older (and non-comparable) version 7 we used on the previous testbed.

Trace Testing - PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and everyday tasks to measure the performance of storage devices.

In this first test, the LaCie SSD4 was easily beaten by its slightly older, pricier, Thunderbolt 5-based sibling. But with a score of 1862, the SSD4 beat everything else here, including the USB4-based Corsair EX400U.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

In this real-world file transfer test, the SSD4 drive looked even better, outpacing the LaCie TB5 drive in our Windows 11-based testing, and again beating everything else, including Corsair’s EX400U USB4 drive. In fact, the drive was so fast here (and elsewhere) that I had to adjust the axes of a few of our charts.

Synthetic Testing CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark (CDM) is a free and easy-to-run storage benchmarking tool that SSD companies commonly use to assign product performance specifications. It gives us insight into how each device handles different file sizes. We run this test at its default settings.

Once again, the LaCie Rugged SSD4 lands on top when it comes to reads, though just barely, and the Corsair USB4 drive managed to edge out a win on writes. But both tests are close enough that this benchmark is essentially a tie between the two USB4 drives.

Because we have seen Mac-focused drives perform much slower on PCs and vice versa, I also spot-checked the performance of the Rugged SSD4 on an M4 Macbook Air via its Thunderbolt 4 port, using AmorphousDiskMark (CrystalDiskMark doesn’t run on Macs), and got slower but still very fast sequential performance of 3,440 MBps reads and 3,093.57 MBps writes.

Small file performance racks up another win for LaCie’s Rugged SSD4. It again sticks close to the Corsair drive on reads. But when it comes to writes, it’s in its own league.

Sustained Write Performance

A drive's rated write specifications are only a piece of the performance picture. Most external SSDs (just like their internal counterparts) implement a write cache, or a fast area of flash, programmed to perform like faster SLC, that absorbs incoming data.

Sustained write speeds often suffer tremendously when the workload saturates the cache and slips into the "native" TLC or QLC flash. We use Iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated.

On the one hand, the LaCie Rugged SSD4 lasted just shy of a minute writing at its top speed, above 3,600 MB/s, but that’s enough time to move about 200 gigabytes of data. And after that, while the drive did slow its sustained write speed, it kept writing between 1,600 and 1,800 MB/s for the 15-minute duration of our test data, and actually for a full 30 minutes of our Iometer run without dropping any lower.

And that ‘slower’ write speed the SSD4 delivered is after its cache depletion is actually as fast or faster than most other drives’ peak write speed. So while it would be nice to see LaCie’s drive write longer at its apex, it’s hard to complain much when even the competing USB4 Corsair drive started off writing at just under 1,800 MB/s and quickly dropped into the 1,600-1,700 range.

Bottom line

LaCie’s Rugged SSD4 drive sits in an interesting spot. For Windows (and presumably Android) users with USB4, Corsair’s EX400U is nearly as fast in many of our tests, while costing as much as $170 less in the 4 TB model we tested on the LaCie side. And for Mac purists who have the latest hardware, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro5 is significantly faster if you have machines with a Thunderbolt 5 port.

That said, for creators and enthusiasts with production workflows or portable file needs that span multiple platforms, the LaCie Rugged SSD4 delivers the fastest performance we’ve seen. Add in the three years of included data recovery,(which you won’t get from Corsair), and the Rugged SSD4 is easy to recommend for those who need speed and peace of mind while working in Windows, macOS, and maybe Android and iOS as well (though we didn’t test the drive on the latter two platforms). While other drives perhaps make more sense for one OS or another, the SSD Pro4 is the best drive we’ve tested for those who want speed without having to think about what platform they’re plugging into.

The Raspberry Pi is a flexible system with use cases ranging from retro gaming platforms to industrial use cases for factories and more. Today we’re sharing one research team's foray into science with the help of our favorite SBC and looking at how well it compares to modern, more expensive tools. Liam Taylor, Duncan Quincy, and Mark Smith recently deployed a set of Raspberry Pis to help monitor glacier calving in both Iceland and Peru.

According to the team, monitoring calving fronts is critical as extreme changes can result in environmental impacts for local residents. For example, things like tsunamis, floods, and the collapse of icebergs can cause serious damage, and monitoring these changes can help those living nearby respond before the problems worsen. Part of their research was to test the performance of a Raspberry Pi in monitoring these changes against more conventional tools they usually use, in this case, an unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV).

To test the Pi against the UAV monitoring system, the team traveled to Fjallsjökull, Iceland. Here they could survey glaciers both from the shore and from a boat. The area also had a great variety of calving margin heights that made it easier to test the accuracy of the Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pis were tested using both a Camera Module V2 and an HQ Camera Module using a 16mm telephoto lens. The Camera Module V2 proved too inadequate for their measurements, so the team opted to stick with the HQ Camera Module. The UAV chosen to compare against the Pi was a DJI Mavic 2 Pro UAV. The Raspberry Pis were then attached to a tripod with critical components like batteries stored inside a weatherproofed box.

The team mounted some of the Pis to a boat as they passed by while the UAV moved overhead. Recording the glaciers simultaneously allowed the team to get an accurate comparison of the charting ability of both devices. Using the pictures taken by the Pi, the team created a 3D render of the glaciers using photogrammetry.

Overall, the Pi provided an adequate substitute with a more affordable price point. Once the testing was complete, they left for Peru, where they used the Raspberry Pi kits to monitor glacier calving in the chilly south American region. You can read more about the exciting expedition in the team’s official report.

Update 28th November 2022: We've updated this article with new testing for the 2TB SanDisk Pro-G40 SSD on page 2.

Original Review published 17th November 2022:

The SanDisk Pro-G40 is a resilient and fast portable SSD with a USB-C interface for both Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 transfer modes. This gives it some flexibility, as it will work with a large number of devices with a high maximum speed. The metal core is surrounded by a silicon bumper edge to protect the drive from drops and other accidents while also keeping the internal M.2 SSD cool. The USB-C port is reinforced with metal for added protection, and SanDisk specs the full SSD with an IP68 water resistance rating. The drive comes with a Type-C to Type-C cable, an ample warranty, and solid support.

This drive is priced for professionals, and the combination of sustained performance and toughness is something we last recommended in the Samsung T7 Shield. The SSD technology in the Pro-G40 is a little bit older, but it has the advantage of DRAM and a Thunderbolt mode over the T7 Shield. Western Digital’s PCIe 3.0 drives, like the Red SN700, are known for their superb sustained write performance and overall consistency. This is also true of the Pro-G40, making it unrivaled if you need to transfer data quickly in the field.

Specifications

The SanDisk Pro-G40 is rated for up to 2,700/1,900 MBps for sequential reads and writes, respectively, in Thunderbolt 3 mode. It has a separate rating of up to 1,050/1,000 MBps in USB mode. The former is using a 40 Gbps connection, with the latter being 10 Gbps. This is valid for both available capacities.

The unit is fairly portable, weighing in around 120 grams with a 4.36 x 2.28 x 0.47 inch footprint. It’s also designed to be a bit rugged with an IP68 rating, meaning it is dust- and water-resistant. SanDisk also states it can survive a three meter fall with up to 4000 pounds of crush resistance. The company backs this up with a 5-year warranty.

Software and Accessories

The SanDisk Pro-G40 comes with a relatively short 20cm (or about 8”) USB Type-C to Type-C cable. Western Digital has a variety of downloads available for its drives, and SanDisk also provides its own SSD Dashboard software. This should cover any basic needs.

A Closer Look

The SanDisk Pro-G40 is a pleasant drive to behold. The aluminum core is rugged and also helps with heat dissipation. The USB-C port is reinforced with metal for added durability. The drive is also protected from drops with its rubberized edges. The design is simple but effective.

We do not recommend opening the casing as it does require some finesse. The case has ample thermal padding to ensure efficient heat transfer. Inside we see the PCB with the SSD, the Thunderbolt controller, the bridge chip, and a USB-C port.

The drive is in the standard M.2 2280 form factor with a controller, two NAND packages, and DRAM. The Thunderbolt 3 controller is a Titan Ridge JHL7440 and the USB bridge chip is the 10 Gbps ASMedia ASM2362. This bridge is commonly used in retail portable SSDs. As the drive has DRAM there is no need to worry about the slower Host Memory Buffer tech we see in slower devices, although this would be passed over Thunderbolt 3 (TB3).

This controller is familiar as it’s the same one we saw on the WD Red SN700 and is also present on the WD Black SN730s used with the WD Black AN1500. Older, but reliable. The drive itself is the SN750E, much as the SN550E is in other WD/SanDisk portables. There’s been reports that these external-only controller revisions have reduced sustained performance when shucked and used as a standard drive in a PC. It doesn’t make much sense to shuck this drive, though.

1GB of SK hynix DDR4 is matched with 1TB of 96-layer BiCS4 TLC, the latter arranged in two 512GB packages. This makes this drive closer to the Red SN700 or Black SN730 than the Black SN750. This has the potential to be extremely consistent with sustained writes which should enable it to match or exceed the Samsung T7 Shield. This is older hardware: 112-layer BiCS5 TLC is becoming more commonplace, as in the WD Black SN770, however it is more than ample for portable use.

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SanDisk Pro-G40 SSD 2TB

Comparison Products

The 2TB SanDisk Pro-G40 was tested in both the Thunderbolt and USB modes. It’s up against the Samsung T7 Shield, the Samsung X5, the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro, the SanDisk G-Drive Pro (previously G-Technology G-Drive), the Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q, and the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2. Only the final two are also at 2TB; the rest were tested at 1TB. In most cases, 1TB of TLC should be sufficient to reach high performance with a portable drive.

Trace Testing - 3DMark Storage Benchmark

Built for gamers, 3DMark’s Storage Benchmark focuses on real-world gaming performance. Each round in this benchmark stresses storage based on gaming activities including loading games, saving progress, installing game files, and recording gameplay video streams.

The 2TB SanDisk Pro-G40 is the top performer in this test in Thunderbolt mode. It even beats the Samsung T7 Shield in USB mode, so this drive is perfectly adequate for gaming.

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and everyday tasks to measure the performance of storage devices.

The Pro-G40 is a bit weaker in PCMark, but still puts up good numbers in both modes. It also beats Samsung’s portable drives, which is certainly a checkmark in its favor.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

We use the DiskBench storage benchmarking tool to test file transfer performance with a custom, 50GB dataset. We copy 31,227 files of various types, such as pictures, PDFs, and videos to a new folder and then follow up with a reading test of a newly-written 6.5GB zip file.

The Pro-G40 is best-in-class in DiskBench, although the Thunderbolt-capable drives are all pretty close. In USB mode, it also edges out the T7 Shield. This drive is simply excellent for file transfers.

Synthetic Testing - ATTO / CrystalDiskMark

ATTO and CrystalDiskMark (CDM) are free and easy-to-use storage benchmarking tools that SSD vendors commonly use to assign performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how each device handles different file sizes.

We also see excellent sequential performance, as we did with the 1TB model. The performance in 4K random work is also reasonably good. Once again, the Pro-G40 beats the T7 Shield in USB mode. There are limits for these interfaces, but the Pro-G40’s hardware is ample to get the most out of them.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature

Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of (usually) pseudo-SLC programmed flash that absorbs incoming data.  Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC or QLC flash. We use Iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.

Temperatures are gauged at both idle and load states via sensor and an infrared thermometer. The typical ambient temperature is at 24C. The load state involves sustained writes at maximum speed with measurement ensuing if and until throttling is demonstrated to discover the equilibrium temperature.

As with the 1TB, the 2TB Pro-G40 has excellent sustained write performance. The larger capacity means the pSLC cache can be larger, theoretically twice the capacity, but it’s still static. This larger capacity is still an improvement — particularly for smaller batches of writes. The cache can also still recover quickly.

TLC performance is about the same, although this is to be expected; it’s likely that the flash is twice as dense and therefore has the same amount of dies. Larger dies within the same generation may be a bit slower, for example with low queue depth 4K random read latency, but in practice this difference is small. The 2TB model is cheaper per GB, so is therefore ideal if you need the capacity, but it doesn’t bring better performance.

The drive performs very close to the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2, which is to be expected as the hardware is the same. Even the 20 Gbps ASMedia ASM2364 bridge chip on the Extreme Pro v2 is fast enough for the TLC flash. However, the Pro-G40 is more rugged and there are performance advantages to Thunderbolt versus USB, as demonstrated in other benchmarks above. The Pro-G40 is particularly attractive if you need the full package.

Unsurprisingly, the 2TB drive had the same thermal characteristics of the 1TB. It idled at 45C and hit a maximum temperature of 61C. This is a cool-running drive at any capacity.

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SanDisk Pro-G40 SSD 1TB

RATING: ★★★★ ½ (4.5 Stars)

PROS

+ Excellent all-around performance
+ Class-leading sustained write performance
+ Rugged, aesthetically-pleasing design

CONS

- Price

OUR VERDICT
The 1TB SanDisk Pro-G40 is the best portable SSD we’ve tested, getting strong marks in every performance category. It’s fast and rugged. If you can take advantage of the Thunderbolt capability and overlook the price, it’s hard to beat.

Comparison Products

We are testing the 1TB SanDisk Pro-G40 in both TB3 and USB modes. It’s up against the Samsung T7 Shield, the WD Black P50, the Samsung X5, the Kingston XS2000, the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro, and the SanDisk G-Drive Pro (previously G-Technology G-Drive).

Trace Testing - 3DMark Storage Benchmark

3DMark’s Storage Benchmark focuses on real-world gaming performance. Each round in this benchmark stresses storage based on gaming activities including loading games, saving progress, installing game files, and recording gameplay video streams.

The Pro-G40 takes the crown in 3DMark when run in TB3 mode, but performance in USB mode is less impressive. Still, you should be buying this drive for its Thunderbolt functionality, with USB fallback being a bonus. In any case, this drive is serviceable for gaming.

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and everyday tasks to measure the performance of storage devices.

The Pro-G40 scores well in both modes in PCMark 10. It falls behind the LaCie which uses the same Thunderbolt controller and similar flash, but a different SSD controller. This might just be a quirk of the test. The Pro-G40’s latency is better in Thunderbolt mode, as expected, which is nice.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

We use the DiskBench storage benchmarking tool to test file transfer performance with a custom, 50GB dataset. We copy 31,227 files of various types, such as pictures, PDFs, and videos to a new folder and then follow-up with a reading test of a newly-written 6.5GB zip file.

DiskBench is bandwidth-limited so we expect the Thunderbolt-capable drives to perform better, and they do. The Pro-G40 pushes the limits of what is possible with this interface. It’s not as performant in USB mode, but it manages to beat the Samsung T7 Shield, which is a cheaper competitor for that mode.

Synthetic Testing - ATTO / CrystalDiskMark

ATTO and CrystalDiskMark (CDM) are free and easy-to-use storage benchmarking tools that SSD vendors commonly use to assign performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how each device handles different file sizes.

The Pro-G40 has exceptional sequential performance in Thunderbolt mode, seen both in the ATTO and sequential CDM results. In USB mode it matches or beats the T7 Shield. The 4K low queue depth and latency performance happen to be limited by the interface for respective drives, but the Pro-G40 is still among the best.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, & Temperature

Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of (usually) pseudo-SLC programmed flash that absorbs incoming data.  Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC or QLC flash. We use Iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.

Temperatures are gauged at both idle and load states via sensor and an infrared thermometer. The typical ambient temperature is at 24C. The load state involves sustained writes at maximum speed with measurement ensuing if and until throttling is demonstrated to discover the equilibrium temperature.

The 1TB SanDisk Pro-G40 does not disappoint during the sustained write benchmarks. It has a small pSLC cache, as also found on the Red SN700 and Black SN750, followed by consistently high TLC performance. The pSLC cache on this drive is static, which can improve endurance and performance consistency. For example, by caching smaller random writes and demonstrating stronger full-drive performance, respectively. This cache can recover quickly to absorb random writes, if necessary.

This also means this drive can out-write anything on the market when in Thunderbolt mode. Even in USB mode it beats the T7 Shield, a drive specifically designed for sustained performance. The Pro-G40 would be excellent for professionals who do a lot of file transfers and need guaranteed performance, particularly in less salubrious environments.

The drive idled at 45C and only hit 60C after a full drive of writes. While the design may be insulative when idle, good thermal contact with a metal case helps the drive stay far away from any throttling state. The case itself remained below 50C and safe to touch.

Test Bench and Testing Notes

We use an Alder Lake platform with most background applications such as indexing, windows updates, and anti-virus disabled in the OS to reduce run-to-run variability. Each SSD is prefilled to 50% capacity and tested as a secondary device. Unless noted, we use active cooling for all SSDs. Portable SSDs are tested with write caching explicitly enabled for the device within Windows.

Conclusion

The SanDisk Pro-G40 is a truly exceptional portable SSD that checks all the right boxes. Its performance is excellent in almost every test and its ability to sustain high write speeds puts it a cut above drives like the Samsung T7 Shield. It is also rugged without looking ridiculous or taking up a lot of space. 

The metal core and reinforced port help make it dust- and water-resistant, but the tight thermal interface also helps the drive dissipate heat under sustained loads. The ability to operate in both Thunderbolt and USB modes also makes it more flexible or faster than drives that only use one or the other.

There is some room for improvement, though. It’s possible to get 20 Gbps out of USB, as with the WD Black P50, although this implementation is usually disregarded in order to jump up to Thunderbolt 3 or newer technology. SanDisk could have also offered a longer cable or a separate Type-C to Type-A cable to improve compatibility, but a small, single cable enhances portability. The Pro-G40 could also have instituted newer hardware for the internal drive, but this would not have appreciably improved its performance. With all these design considerations in mind, the only real drawback to this SSD is its price.

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Data security is of the utmost importance to many professionals, especially those governed by regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, GDPR, GLBA, PCI-DSS, CCPA, etc. Those users must meet strict handling requirements and leverage encryption technologies to keep data away from unauthorized access. This is especially important with the precipitous rise in ransomware attacks.

Cigent is a data security company whose primary intent is to keep your data safe, and it has a portable SSD for those who not only need to securely store their data for compliance, but who also desire responsive access for a smooth and speedy workflow. Thanks to an enterprise-grade SSD controller and paired with Kioxia's BiCS4 TLC flash, the K2 offers complying performance, exceeding 1 GBps read/write in our testing.

On the security front, Cigent’s K2 Secure SSD offers a zero-trust and continuous authentication approach to defend against ransomware, placing protections as close to your data as possible. The K2 comes with special firmware and hardware-accelerated AES 256-bit encryption that works in conjunction with the company’s D3E software. Together, these technologies keep your data secure from ransomware without a detrimental impact on performance

Specifications

The K2 Secure SSD is available in capacities of 480GB, 1TB, and 2TB, carrying sequential performance ratings of up to 1,000 MBps read/write. Cigent opted to overprovision the K2 a little more from the factory than most competing solutions for reliability and performance consistency, but the company only backs the hardware with a very short one-year warranty. This is even more difficult tot ake given the extremely high price per GB. Our 1TB sample sells at $600, roughly double the cost of Samsung’s much faster, Thunderbolt 3-powered X5. To be fair though, the Samsung X5 is nowhere near as secure. 

Software and Accessories

The main selling point of this SSD is its encryption support and software management. Currently, Cigent focuses on the Windows ecosystem, securing data with what the company calls its Dynamic Data Defense Engine (D3E), but the company is also working on macOS and Linux support.

Essentially, if the software detects any foul play or the PC is power cycled, it will kick K2 and the data offline until you log back into it. It can also capture data access logs for incident response. And the drive features TrueErase, which verifies all data previously stored has been erased after a wipe attempt, if you purchase and unlock D3E premium, too.

To take advantage of the encryption, the K2’s software requires you to configure a PIN as well as a password. Also, it forces you to create a backup key, which can be vital in case you forget your password. Using the default PIN authentication method is a bit cumbersome as it won’t accept keyboard input, only via mouse clicks. Alternative authentication methods like fingerprint and facial recognition are much less of an inconvenience.

Additionally, if for whatever reason you need to open the K2, it comes with a T8 Torx screwdriver and an extra screw, just in case you strip or lose one.

A Closer Look

The hardware of the K2 drive was put together by Sabrent, which is evident in the case design and markings, as well as the company’s branding on the included cable. The cable is very long, too, measuring roughly 28 inches. It also comes with a USB Type-A to Type-C adapter.

The design is rather bland, with a low-quality printed brand label stuck on top, but is solid aluminum and has a sand-blasted finish that matches the aesthetic of most Apple computers. There is a power/activity light next to the USB Type-C port and the base features two rubber feet to keep the drive from slipping and sliding on most surfaces.

Internally, the K2 leverages an M.2 2280 double-sided form factor SSD based on Phison’s PS5012-E12DC NVMe SSD controller, and a JMicron JMS583 USB 3.2 Gen 2 to NVMe SSD bridge chip for communication with the host. The E12DC is closely related to the normal E12 that has made its way into many consumer SSDs, with a quad-core, 8-channel design operating at clock speeds of 666MHz, but differs in that it was developed for enterprise and data center applications.

Additionally, our sample interfaces with two 4Gb DRAM ICs (1GB total) at 1,600 MHz and comes packed with Kioxia’s BiCS4 96L TLC flash. These flash dies utilize a two-plane architecture and interface with the controller at speeds of 666 MTps. With a very consistent latency profile and robust AES 256-bit encryption support, the controller pairs well for this portable SSD.

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Comparison Products

We compare Cigent’s K2 Secure SSD against some of the best and most secure portable SSDs available. The list includes the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2, the WD_Black P50, LaCie’s Rugged SSD, G-Technology’s ArmorLock, and Samsung’s X5. We also included the Samsung T7 and a WD My Passport SSD for good measure.

Game Scene Loading - Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers is a free real-world game benchmark that easily and accurately compares game load times without the inaccuracy of using a stopwatch.

With a total load time of 18.46 seconds, the K2 Secure SSD finds itself smack-dab in the middle of the pack on this test. It delivers competitive game load performance that isn’t too far behind that of Samsung’s much higher bandwidth X5, and nearly on par with USB 20 Gbps competitors.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

In terms of writing your files, the K2 edges ahead of its USB 10 Gbps competition, offering up some very fast performance results. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2 and WD_Black P50 both outpace it, but only because of their higher bandwidth interface and awesome sustained write speed.c

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

Cigent’s K2 delivers impressive PCMark 10 scores, ranking first place in the test pool. It not only outperformed its USB 10Gbps competition, but also the USB 20Gbps and Thunderbolt 3 competitors by a significant margin.

Synthetic Testing - ATTO / iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool while ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

Cigent’s K2 Secure SSD offers solid sequential performance across all block sizes, only limited by what its interface allows. It outperforms most of the SSDs in its class, not only delivering fast sequential speeds, but also rapid random access times.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and interrelated metrics for external devices. Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of (usually) pseudo-SLC programmed flash that absorbs incoming data. Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC or QLC flash.

We use iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds as well as the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data and an IR thermometer to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance.

While very small, there seems to be an SLC cache on the K2. The Cogent K2 wrote at a rate of 1,089 MBps for the first 50GB, before degrading to an average write speed of 1,049 MBps for the remainder of the test. Overall, these are solid results, offering high performance that shouldn’t slow down even after being bombarded with writes. After filling the K2 Secure SSD to roughly 50%, the SSD’s surface temperature measured no more than 44 degrees Celsius and no thermal throttling slowed it down.

Conclusion

Cigent’s K2 Secure SSD is a top-performing portable SSD that is as fast as it is secure. Powered by the enterprise-grade Phison E12DC controller, it outpaced the majority of the competition in today’s testing. It is a powerhouse that not only delivers responsive file access but also very consistent write performance when hammered. Without the alliance with Phison, it would be hard for Cigent to break into the secure SSD space as it has with this new drive.  

Cigent is primarily a software company though, and it shows. The K2 is expensive, with premium unlocks that ask for more money, exploiting a niche use to leverage its hefty MSRPs while only backing the hardware with a very short warranty. While we normally see portable SSDs backed by three-year or five-year warranties, the K2 comes backed by a measly one year of coverage. This is not indicative of a prosumer product. Not to mention, it took multiple back and forth emails to the company to attain something as simple as official performance ratings...something that should be at the forefront of a hardware vendor’s marketing.

But, while these little nuances perplexed us, the fact that this SSD comes with such robust security, capable of defense against ransomware and other data compromising threats at any given moment, is quite impressive. Cigent’s K2 Secure SSD is most definitely one of the most secure portable SSDs we’ve had our hands-on, though not always the most convenient. While it costs quite a bit up front, its high cost may be worth it for many large companies, compared to losing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars due to poor security practices.

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By leveraging your phone’s biometrics, such as touch or FaceID, G-Technology's ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD makes passwords a thing of the past in an attempt to remove the most common inconvenience when it comes to data security — entering a password. The ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is a secure portable storage solution with fast, consistent performance of up to 1 GBps of sequential read/write throughput that keeps your data safe with always-on 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption. Plus, it carries robust abuse ratings that ensure it will maintain reliability in the toughest conditions, perfect for those adventurous types.

Data security is becoming more important for a large swath of users, from creators in the media and entertainment industry to professionals in finance, government, healthcare, IT enterprise, and legal fields. Password protection backed by AES 256-bit encryption is the norm for those who need to ensure the data they have remains locked down and secure. Ranging from a simple password manager launching within the host OS to alphanumeric keypads with PIN protection and even fingerprint scanners, we have seen quite a few ways of unlocking password-protected storage devices over the years. Unlocking your secure storage with only a phone app seems convenient; let’s put it to the test.

Specifications

G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is available in just one 2TB model priced at $400. The SSD delivers up to 1,000 MBps of sequential throughput. Unlike most consumer-grade SSDs, the ArmorLock NVMe SSD’s write performance won’t significantly degrade below its rated performance under high abuse. Of course, that is assuming that it is connected to a compliant USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. The company backs it with a long five-year warranty for peace of mind, too.

Software & Accessories

G-Technology includes two twelve-inch USB cables, one Type-C, and one Type-A to Type-C, with the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD.

ArmorLock App

You configure and manage the device through the company’s ArmorLock app, available on both the App Store and Google Play Store. Not only does the app enable firmware updates, formatting, and even secure erasing the device, but it can also track the last known location of the SSD and simplifies multi-user and multi-drive management. You cannot unlock the ArmorLock drive by connecting it directly to a PC — you have to use the app. As such, at installation, the app creates a recovery key that you store separately. This key allows you to install the app onto another phone if you lose your phone or uninstall the application, thus enabling you to unlock your storage device.

A Closer Look

G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD features a fairly rugged design and an activity indicator light. It carries an IP67 dust and water resistance rating and can handle a three-meter drop, and the company states that it boasts 1000-pound crush resistance. Its thick finned aluminum core aids with heat dissipation, but it comes at the expense of size.

While the device is pocketable, it is very large at 134 x 82 x 19 mm, and the plastic casing gives it a clunky and toy-like feel in the hand. We were even able to twist the casing, which ironically helped during our disassembly process. It is also fairly heavy, weighing roughly 200 grams, which is two to three times heavier than many portable SSDs.

G-Technology’s ArmorLock uses a Bluetooth low energy module by Raytac that’s based on a Nordic nRF52840 SoC solution that allows communication between your drive and the app. When plugged in, the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD’s LED indicator light will show it is locked until you unlock the device with the app.

The ArmorLock uses 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption, which provides stronger data protection by taking advantage of two AES keys instead of just one, and NIST P-256 elliptic curve-based key management to eliminate side-channel attacks, ensuring data stored on the devices remains secure.   

An ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 GBps to PCIe 3.0 x2 bridge chip manages host-to-SSD communication. G-Technology outfitted the ArmorLock with WD SN730 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.3-compliant SSD. This SSD is similar to the SN750 but comes as a client solution that uses BiCS4 96-Layer TLC flash. It features a multi-core, DRAM-based architecture and offers plenty of speed to saturate the bridge chip’s capability.

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Comparison Products

Today, we put the 2TB G-Technology ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD up against the Best portable SSDs on the market. We included the Thunderbolt 3-powered Samsung X5, LaCie Rugged SSD Pro, and G-technology G-Drive mobile Pro. We also threw in some USB-based competition, including the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2, LaCie Rugged SSD, Samsung T7, and WD MyPassport SSD.  

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test a storage device’s transfer or copy performance with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then, we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Game load performance doesn’t vary much between most of these fast portable NVMe SSDs, but the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD lags the competition and lands in last place. 

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

Like the previous benchmark, G-Technology's ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD isn’t particularly responsive to PCMark 10’s Data Drive Benchmark. It scores second to the last place in this test, just ahead of Samsung’s DRAM-less T7.

Synthetic Testing - ATTO / iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool while ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

The ArmorLock’s performance scaling lags a few of its USB competitors at smaller file sizes, especially with reads from 16KB to 512KB. Peak sequential performance hits 975/1008 MBps read/write when using 128KB blocks and scaling up to a queue depth (QD) of 32. The ArmorLock’s random read and write performance is similar or better than most of the other USB 10 Gbps SSDs in the comparison pool.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of (usually) pseudo-SLC programmed flash that absorbs incoming data. Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside the cache and into the "native" TLC or QLC flash.

We use iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds and the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data and an IR thermometer to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance.

G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD absorbs roughly 36GB of data at 1,062 MBps before the SLC cache ran out. Beyond the SLC cache, the SSD wrote at an average rate of 911 MBps until full. The SLC cache fully recovers after just 30 seconds of idle time, too.

With the large aluminum core, the SSD maintains stable operating temperatures under heavy use. However, the SSD is very warm at idle, measuring 41 degrees Celsius in a 23 degrees Celsius room. ArmorLock’s hottest surface temperature measured just 44 degrees Celsius after writing over 500GB of data. Strangely, the SSD did not report its S.M.A.R.T. data to any of the tools we normally use.

Conclusion

G-Technology ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is a very secure, rugged, and waterproof portable SSD that keeps cool under even the heaviest abuse. In terms of performance, the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD offers up consistent sequential speeds but isn’t the most responsive 10 Gbps portable SSD we’ve tested. It is one of the most secure devices to cross our labs in recent times, however. For those looking for more speed, Samsung’s X5, SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2, or possibly LaCie’s Rugged SSD may be of greater interest to you, although they don’t offer such robust security.

With data security of utmost importance, the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD excels tremendously. Not only is its AES-XTS encryption method better than your run-of-the-mill AES encryption, but when sharing sensitive data, ArmorLock Encrypted SSD is a simple to use and robust solution. The ArmorLock app streamlines device management and is especially useful when managing multiple devices with multiple users.

G-Technology ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is a unique portable SSD built for professionals who need secure storage, and its $400 price tag definitely reflects that. The average gamer, student, amateur videographer, or editor can save a few bucks by opting for something a bit cheaper, like SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 or Extreme v2, at less than half the cost. But, while this innovative SSD is costly compared to many standard 10 Gbps SSDs, its capabilities are worth it to those who need a robust storage device to meet the demands of their content collaboration or compliance standards.

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Tired of using slow portable drives or even worse, USB keys, to store your games and work data? Portable SSDs such as those in our list of the best external SSDs enable responsive performance over their archaic HDD counterparts, but a standard SATA-based portable SSD just isn’t going to cut it for those looking for the best performance now that NVMe is all the rage. And while USB USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) based devices are fast, if you have a fancy new USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) port like on ASRock’s Z490 Taichi or Asus’s Z490 ROG Maximus XII Extreme motherboards, then you definitely want to make use of that high-bandwidth port.

That’s where WD’s Black P50 Game Drive portable SSD comes into play. Utilizing ASMedia’s ASM2364 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 to NVMe bridge controller and a WD Black SN750 PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD, the Black P50 Game Drive is a beast. The company markets this portable SSD as “purpose built for gamers,” but we think that’s just overzealous marketing talking.

In fact, since the faster USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port is so rarely implemented on motherboards, there is very little reason for PC gamers to buy this SSD solely for the task of loading up their favorite games. While the WD Black P50 is compatible with next-gen consoles, it won’t take advantage of that faster interface speed because their USB Type-A ports are limited to just 10 Gbps. With 20 Gbps on tap, the P50 Game Drive is a much better match for avid content creators, who are more likely to have that faster port in the first place. And at a starting price of $121, the WD drive can deliver twice the bandwidth as that of its more restricted competition for not much more in cost.

WD Black P50 Game Drive Specifications

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive is available in capacities of 500GB 1TB, 2TB, with the 1TB model we are reviewing today priced at $200, roughly $0.20 per GB. The 500GB entry-level capacity currently goes for $121 while the 2TB model is $350.  Like most portable SSDs, WD’s Black P50 Game Drive lacks an endurance rating, but the company backs the SSD with a suiting five-year warranty.

WD rates the Black P50 to deliver upwards of 2 GBps read/write over its USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface. This performance is based on the speed of the SLC cache, however, and will degrade under large transfers. The WD Black P50 doesn’t feature a dynamic SLC cache like most SSDs these days. Instead, it leverages a small static SLC cache and a fast cache recovery policy for responsive and consistent performance.

The portable SSD comes pre-formatted as exFAT for cross-platform compatibility. Whether you use it on a Mac, PC, PlayStation, or Xbox, compatibility is plug n’ play. If you want Trim support, though, the P50 Game Drive will need to be formatted, as NTFS as we did before testing.

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive lacks software support but comes with two foot-long USB cables; one USB-Type-C and the other USB Type-C to Type-A.

A Closer Look at WD Black P50 Game Drive

The design of the WD P50 Black Game drive is military-tough inspired, with rigid support structures as a key element across the company’s product line. Weighing in at 115 grams and measuring 118 x 62 x 14 mm, it’s a bit on the larger side and while it doesn’t have any impact-absorbing silicone coating it like the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2, the metal casing definitely feels like it can take some abuse. Plus, it comes with a white activity indicator/power light next to the USB Type-C port on both sides of the device.

WD’s Black P50 is powered by an ASMedia ASM2364 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 to NVMe bridge controller along with an M.2 2280 form factor NVMe SSD on the inside, the WD Black SN750. While the SSD’s controller is capable of leveraging active state power management, as a WD Black product, the company optimized it for speed and disabled the feature. The P50 Game Drive operates in active state 0, always ready for your requests. While this helps the device’s responsiveness, it causes excess power draw and heat output at idle. That said, the device features more than adequate cooling for its performance profile.

Capable of delivering roughly 3.5 GBps, the WD Black P50 easily exceeds the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 limits, but WD’s Black SN750, the drive that powers it, isn’t the most responsive of SSDs. The flash operates at Toggle DDR 2.0 speeds of up to 533 MTps, which is less than half the speed of the latest 1,200 MTps flash. But while it lacks the fastest read performance, it has a very consistent write dominant performance profile. The SSDs feature a 1GB DRAM buffer for the FTL mapping table on our 1TB sample, and a tri-core architecture. There are just two NAND packages with sixteen 256Gb WD 64-layer TLC NAND dies in each for optimal interleaving.

With a cost-focused design, the BiCS3 flash features just two-planes (half the planes of Micron’s flash) and charge trap technology to scale rather than a more enduring floating gate cell technology. WD pulled off some magic with the firmware though, as the write speed on the SN750 after the cache fills is immense and similar to Samsung’s 970 EVO Plus. With hardware DSP, soft decode, XOR, and a multi-gear hardware LDPC engine, WD’s Black P50 Game Drive ensures reliable reading even when challenged with high bit-error pages, too.

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Comparison Products

We pitted the WD Black P50 Game Drive against some of the best external SSDs, including the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2, Samsung X5, Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q, LaCie Rugged Pro, as well as some cheaper options including the SanDisk Extreme Pro, LaCie Rugged SSD, Samsung T7, and Crucial X8.

Game Scene Loading - Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers is a free real-world game benchmark that easily and accurately compares game load times without the inaccuracy of using a stopwatch.

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive delivered responsive game load times in its Final Fantasy XIV benchmark run, outperforming both Sabrent’s Rocket XTRM-Q and LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro as well as the majority of USB 10Gbps devices. It was, however, outperformed by SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2, as well as the Samsung X5 and Crucial’s X8. All those drives boast slightly faster small file read access speeds.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive transfers files quickly, delivering competitive performance that even exceeded some of the Thunderbolt 3 competition under a few of the transfers. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2 performed better than the P50 Game Drive, but it is also a 2TB model with a larger SLC cache. At 1TB, the P50 easily outperforms all of its 10 Gbps competition.  

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

Although the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 interface affords WD’s Black P50 Game Drive high bandwidth, that benefit is not always apparent in average use. For applications, the flash’s ability to respond to a request quickly at low latency is just as important.

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive outperforms Samsung’s T7 Touch and SanDisk’s Extreme Pro, but scores low on PCMark 10’s Data Drive Benchmark charts. It essentially matches the Crucial X8 and LaCie Rugged SSDs’ quickness, but can’t come near the SSDs that thrive off of their low-latency Thunderbolt 3 interface.

Synthetic Testing - ATTO / iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly-configurable storage benchmarking tool while ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive’s sequential performance lies in-between the 10 Gbps SSDs and the faster TB3 SSDs across smaller file sizes. When tested with a 128KB block size, the P50 Game Drive delivered strong performance that nearly doubled its 10 Gbps competition, but wasn’t quite as responsive as the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 nor the TB3 SSDs at lower QDs. Peak random performance showed slightly faster results from the P50 Black Game Drive, however. 

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, & Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of (usually) pseudo-SLC programmed flash that absorbs incoming data. Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC or QLC flash.

We use iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  We also monitor the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data and an IR thermometer to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance.

WD’s Black P50 Game Drive sustained roughly 12GB of writes at 2 GBps before its SLC cache filled. Due to its small static nature, it not only maintains solid after-cache performance that averages 1,475 MBps, but it also recovers very quickly. After resting idle for 30 seconds, the P50 Game Drive recovered its full cache capacity. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro with its WD SN730 powering it, however, maintains faster after-cache speed, averaging 1,585 MBps once degraded. Overall, the WD Black P50 is one of the fastest-writing portable NVMe SSDs we have tested.

While it runs fast, the WD Black P50 Game Drive doesn’t get too hot. After sustaining a few 100GB transfers, the surface temps of the P50 Game Drive were warm, but well within reason. The S.M.A.R.T. data reported peak temperatures of 64 degrees Celsius while the surface measured only 42 degrees Celsius.

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WD’s Black P50 Game Drive is one of the first USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 portable SSDs to hit the market -- and it's fast. It is designed and built for gamers looking for the best USB performance they can attain. But while gamers will seek WD’s Black P50 Game Drive for its sleek looks and speed, we feel its performance is much better suited to prosumer use cases rather than just gaming, especially considering that next-gen consoles won’t even support such fast USB capability, most gaming PCs don’t support 20 Gbps USB  either and, even under the best circumstances, games would load a lot faster off of an internal NVMe drive.

Content creators in search of a new work drive who don’t have the funds to spend on the more expensive SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 will find the WD Black P50 Games drive to be very compelling. Leveraging the company’s Black SN750, the P50 Games Drive excels in reading and writing large files and is one of the fastest and most consistent writing SSDs we’ve tested. 

With all that speed though, the device runs fairly warm and draws a good amount of power, even when idle. As well, it lacks AES 256-bit full-disk encryption support, a feature that is becoming more common on many SSDs these days. And, unlike the SanDisk Extreme Pro and LaCie Rugged SSDs, it lacks an IP rating for dust and water resistance. 

Still, WD’s Black P50 Game Drive is a solid choice for those who are looking for a drive that's faster than 10 Gbps. And for the price, it’s much more affordable than Thunderbolt 3 alternatives. The 1TB capacity is half the price of Samsung’s $400 X5 Portable SSD and at just $10-40 more than most 10 Gbps alternatives. WD’s Black SN750 is a no-brainer for those who can take advantage of the fast Gen2 2x2 interface.

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SanDisk's new Extreme Pro v2 is a fast, secure, and durable portable SSD that is best of breed. With a USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 interface, the new SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 delivers up to 2 GBps of sequential throughput. If you need the extra speed while still maintaining compatibility with as many devices as possible when you're on the move, this SSD might just be what you're looking for.

That speed comes at a hefty cost, though. At almost twice the price of a portable USB 10Gbps SSD and just a few dollars shy of higher-performing Thunderbolt 3 SSDs, the Extreme Pro v2 is only worth the cash for those who can fully leverage its capabilities.

When we reviewed SanDisk's last Extreme Pro (v1), we were impressed with both its design and performance. With a forged aluminum chassis cast in impact-absorbing silicon, SanDisk's Extreme Pro made for a very durable portable SSD. As it has been so well received, it comes as no surprise that the Extreme Pro v2 would maintain the same design when the company refreshed its portable lineup.

Specifications 

SanDisk gave the product line a slight nip and tuck, though, by cutting out the 500GB model. The new Extreme Pro v2 comes in capacities of 1TB and 2TB, but only the 2TB model is available at launch. The 1TB model will soon follow. At $300 for the 1TB model and $500 for the 2TB, the drives launch at premium prices but come backed with lengthy five-year warranties.

SanDisk rates the Extreme Pro to deliver up to 2,000MBps in both read and write workloads when used with a 20 Gbps host device. These performance figures are finite, however. The Extreme Pro features an SLC write cache that absorbs most inbound write data, but the cache will fill, and performance will degrade during long transfers. This is common for a high-performance SSD, and the Extreme Pro's performance doesn't degrade too much.

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro offers better password protection over its predecessor, guaranteeing fast and secure access to your private data on both macOS and Windows. While the SanDisk SSDs have shipped with rather underwhelming software-based AES 128-bit encrypted password protection in the past, that changes with the new Extreme Pro. No longer will you need to fiddle around with inefficient software encryption for your data security - the new model features AES 256-bit hardware encrypted password protection. One password unlocks your data in one go without a performance penalty or hogging up system resources.

Software and Accessories 

SanDisk includes both a USB Type-C cable and USB Type-C to Type-A cable with the drive, both measuring roughly one foot in length. SanDisk also provides simple to use security management software for both macOS and Windows. 

A Closer Look 

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro is faster than the previous-gen model but retains the greyish-blue hue and orange carabiner loop integrated into the forged aluminum construction, just like its predecessor. Like the previous-gen model, it still lacks a power light indicator.

The Extreme Pro is IP55 water and dust resistant and rated to withstand a two-meter drop, though we feel that is a very conservative rating. At 85 grams, the Extreme Pro has a solid and weighted feel to it. That, along with the smooth rounded silicone-coated edges, conveys an apple-esque quality.

The new SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 comes with some changes under the hood, too. A new ASMedia ASM2364 bridge controller communicates with the host at faster speeds because it has twice the PCIe lane count as the ASM2362, which means twice the throughput. Not only does it maintain a speedy 20 Gbps link while connected to a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD, but it also features link power management to reduce idle power consumption. The controller also supports Trim to keep performance predictable. 

The SanDisk Extreme Pro uses the PC SN730E for the internal SSD, not the WD Black SN750E (E for external firmware) that we expected. The SN730E client SSD features a robust, high-end eight-channel multi-core DRAM-based controller architecture.

The PC SN730 comes with an SSD controller that is similar to the WD Black SN750, but uses different flash. The SN730 also comes with TCG Opal AES 256-bit encryption, which is required to enable the password protection feature on the new portable SSD. The SN730 also has robust multi-gear LDPC ECC (error correction) with RAID-like XOR protection, including full multi-page recovery for higher endurance and faster performance. 

SanDisk outfitted the internal SSD with a DDR4 DRAM chip to hold the flash translation layer (FTL) mapping tables. This is an improvement over the SN750, and the SN730 also comes with WD’s 96L TLC NAND flash. Our 2TB sample features two NAND packages packed with sixteen 512Gb dies each, for 32 in total. All interface with the controller at Toggle DDR4 speeds of up to 800MTps, providing very bursty performance even with a dual-plane design. Due to its simplicity, this flash is not quite as complicated to manufacture as competing flash that comes with quad-plane designs and complex PUA, CUA, or COP designs. SanDisk says the simple BiCS4 architecture helps to drive down cost when scaling up the charge trap flash design. 

Comparison Products

We tested the Extreme Pro v2 against its predecessor, the Extreme Pro v1, as well as a few of the best portable SSDs available. We threw in Samsung’s X5, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro, and Sabrent’s Rocket XTRM-Q 8TB as high-end Thunderbolt 3 alternatives, as well as a WD Black P50, another USB 20 Gbps contender. We also added the LaCie Rugged SSD, Samsung T7, and Crucial X8 as cheaper 10Gbps competitors. 

Transfer Rates – DiskBench 

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of .jpg and 15GB of .RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then, we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2 delivers exceptional file copy and read performance. While the Thunderbolt 3 SSDs outperformed the Extreme Pro and the WD Black P50 in the large file transfer tests, they were outperformed during the 25GB documents transfer because the workload taxes them with writing small random files. 

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark 

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark. 

Scoring fourth place in PCMark 10’s data drive storage benchmark, SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2 again delivers exceptional responsiveness for a portable SSD. We noted a remarkable improvement over its predecessor. The v2 is nearly on par with the Samsung X5, which easily surpassed the performance of its 10 Gbps competition.

Synthetic Testing - ATTO / iometer 

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool, while ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how the device handles different file sizes. 

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2 displays very strong sequential read and write performance with notable gains at smaller file sizes compared to the older WD Black SN750-powered WD Black P50. The NVMe protocol aids the Thunderbolt 3 SSDs, so they tend to respond much faster across the board. 

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature 

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of (usually) pseudo-SLC programmed flash that absorbs incoming data. Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC or QLC flash. We use iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  

We also monitor the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data and an IR thermometer to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

Second only to the super-expensive 8TB Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q, SanDisk’s new 2TB Extreme Pro v2 boasts impressive write performance. The SSD wrote 32GB of data at a rate of roughly 2 GBps before degrading to a consistent direct-to-TLC performance of 1.6 GBps. After 30 seconds of idle time, the SanDisk Extreme Pro reclaimed the full capacity of its static SLC write cache.  

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro v2 idles a little warm, with the surface of the device measuring 40 degrees Celsius when simply connected to the system, or roughly 6-10 degrees Celsius hotter than most 10Gbps devices. (The S.M.A.R.T. data reports a device temperature of 44 degrees Celsius.)

The performance never slowed due to throttling, even after writing 600GB of data to the devices. While the drive runs warm, it will deliver exceptional performance most of the time thanks to the chassis acting as a heatsink. Maximum temperatures hit roughly 48 degrees Celsius on the surface (S.M.A.R.T. data reported 58 degrees Celsius.)

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SanDisk's new Extreme Pro v2 is the SSD you want if you have a 20 Gbps host system or two that you can use it with. It may not have a new look, but why fix what isn't broken? The previous chassis was a solid design that was more than capable for most content creators on the move, although it lacked a power indicator light and there weren't any other color options. By keeping the design the same, the company could focus more on working under the hood. And a lot is going on.

SanDisk's Extreme Pro has been tweaked, tuned, and refined to ensure it will perform to a professional standard. That includes leveraging the SN730E and a faster ASMedia ASM2364 bridge controller, not only for faster performance but also compatibility with more devices than most portable Thunderbolt 3 SSDs. The hardware can run warm, but the design and firmware work together to not only manage the heat very well during heavy read and write abuse but also to maintain optimal performance.

With the USB 20 Gbps link, the drive even outperformed the Thunderbolt 3 competition under various workloads, resulting in responsive application performance. We were very impressed with the performance too - especially the drive's sustained write capability. Aside from Sabrent's 8TB Rocket XTRM-Q, SanDisk's Extreme Pro delivered among the fastest write performance we have seen. This showing comes as excellent news for those who perform large file transfers often - even if limited to a 10Gbps link, the drive will be just as fast or faster than its predecessor.

While the SanDisk Extreme Pro's performance is enviable, I'm most excited about the improved security features. Secure and easy-to-use AES 256-bit hardware-based full disk encryption ensures your data will be stored securely away from prying eyes when the device is out of your presence. When you need to retrieve or write a file, unlocking the entire SSD works quickly on both macOS and Windows.

However, with a price tag of $500 for our 2TB sample, the SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 is not the most economical option for casual users; instead, it is better suited for those with a professional workflow. Samsung's T7 or Sabrent's Rocket XTRM-Q may be a better value for those on a more limited budget. You'll just have to accept the trade-off of slower and less consistent performance. SanDisk's Extreme Pro undercuts many top-performing Thunderbolt 3 SSDs by quite a bit, but the WD Black P50 is roughly $150 cheaper at the 2TB capacity point and offers similar performance during basic file transfers. 

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LaCie’s external drives have been popular for over a decade for their ability to keep up with professional workflows and endure a life of constant battery. But these days, one drive rules them all: LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro. With a Thunderbolt 3 interface, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro can deliver up to 2.8 GBps in performance for those who need speed as much as durability.

With a generous 5-year warranty that includes Rescue Data Recovery Service, it’s about as “professional-grade” as you can get. That said, with a very high cost per gigabyte, it’s a tough sell for many. This is a drive for those whose data—and the speed at which you can access it—is more important than saving a money.

When we tested LaCie’s Rugged SSD (the non-pro model), the performance was stellar. Without a doubt, it makes for a great match for professional use. It’s tough, responsive at all times, and secure. Also, the company’s Rugged BOSS SSD is quite convenient for those who travel often and are interested in backing up content without a PC or Mac. But what if you need something a bit faster for your 6K, 8K, or even slow-motion footage? That’s where LaCie’s fastest external SSD, the Rugged SSD Pro, lands in the company’s SSD landscape.

The Rugged SSD Pro has an identical design as the non-Pro model except for the color; it’s black instead of orange. But what really differentiates the two is the fact that the Rugged SSD Pro is nearly three times faster, thanks to a higher-bandwidth Thunderbolt 3 connection, instead of a 10 Gbps USB link. The Rugged SSD Pro is designed to transfer data as fast as possible, so you save time when dealing with massive files or libraries.

Specifications

LaCie rates the Rugged SSD Pro to deliver sequential read performance of up to 2,800 MBps, but the SSD lacks a defining write speed specification. In testing, we found our 1TB sample capable of up to about 2.3-2.4 GBps when hammered with sequential writes, though. The 2TB model should be able to sustain the same. Thunderbolt 3 speeds come at a premium though, and with pricing listing at about $400 for the 1TB model and $700 for the 2TB, the Rugged SSD Pro is twice the cost of most 10 Gbps portable SSDs.

LaCie backs the Rugged SSD Pro with a 5-year warranty and rates it to endure some abuse though. But, that’s not all. The Rugged Pro also comes with Rescue Data Recovery Service tagged onto its 5-year warranty. If your drive gets damaged or just fails, you get a free data recovery attempt. That’s a service that can typically cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars depending on the case.

The Rugged SSD Pro featurea support for S.M.A.R.T. data passthrough, as well as Trim. The only thing lacking in LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro is AES 256-bit encryption password protection. That’s a secure feature that the cheaper Rugged SSD comes with. LaCie Rugged SSD Pro comes preformatted exFAT for compatibility with both Windows and Mac computers, but you can format it to your specific need. We have formatted our sample as NTFS for Trim support and consistency with our other tested drives.

Software and Accessories

Instead of the super short 5.5” cable the USB 10 GBps Rugged SSD comes with, LaCie packed a nearly-as-short 8-inch Thunderbolt 3 (40Gb/s) cable with the Rugged SSD Pro. The company also provides a download of the latest LaCie Toolkit to aid in keeping your files backed up or synced with the device. 

A Closer Look

With small dimensions measuring 0.7 x 2.6 x 3.9 inches and weighing in at just under 100 grams, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro is compact and travel-ready. With a metal casing covered in a grippy black silicon coating, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro is very solid. The ruggedized SSD can handle 3m drops, can get run over by a car, and is IP67 water and dustproof rated. It can remain submerged in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes in case you drop it in a puddle, a stream, or maybe even your toilet. Expensive electronics have a tendency to wind up in the worst places.

The waterproof USB Type-C port is located on the long side of the device rather than the short side like on most externals, and there is a white activity light next to the port. Thanks to a pair of Pericom Semiconductor PI3PCIE3412 PCIe switches, the Intel JHL7440 Thunderbolt 3 controller, and the JMicron JMS583 USB 3.2 Gen 2 controller, you can use the device with most Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C host devices, albeit at a slower speed when over USB. LaCie opted to utilize some of Cypress Semiconductor’s controllers for the task to manage the power to the device, too.

At the heart of the Rugged SSD Pro is Seagate’s FireCuda 510 M.2 NVMe SSD. This is the same SSD that comes in the Rugged SSD, but now it is a bit less restricted thanks to the faster Thunderbolt 3 interface. The SSD itself comes in an M.2 2280 double-sided form factor. Powering it is Phison’s PS5012-E12, a high-performance 8-channel NVMe SSD controller. It leverages dual Cortex CPU cores as well as dual co-processors (CoXProcessor 2.0) to balance NAND management and host requests at speeds of about 666MHz.

Our 1TB sample features thirty-two 256Gb Kioxia BiCS3 64L TLC NAND flash dies while the 2TB model features 512Gb-density dies. These interface with the controller at speeds of 533MT/s and operate at 1.8V. Additionally, this controller utilizes a DRAM-based architecture, so it takes advantage of some SK Hynix DDR4 operating at 1,600MHz. At 1TB, our sample comes with 1GB of DRAM cache while the 2TB model comes with 2GB. 

Comparison Products

To challenge the Rugged SSD Pro in today’s review, we threw in a few of the fastest portable SSDs we’ve tested as well as some cheaper alternatives. We include the Samsung X5 and G-Technology G-Drive mobile Pro as the Thunderbolt 3 powered competitors. With their high-performance and high cost, they compete directly with the LaCie.

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro and LaCie’s Rugged SSD are two other high-end alternatives, but are shackled down by a USB 10 Gbps connection. The Adata SE800 is a more affordable USB 10 Gbps SSD, but underperforms the two in most circumstances. We also included SanDisk’s Extreme, a SATA-based portable SSD and LaCie’s Mobile Drive, a portable HDD, for added perspective.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Looking at the rankings, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro does well to outperform its 10 Gbps competition and proves it can absorb our test files quickly, but it doesn’t perform as well when writing the large media file folders as it does with small files. All the Thunderbolt 3-powered SSDs offer much faster read performance. G-Technology’s G-Drive mobile Pro and Samsung’s X5 both offer faster media file writing performance than the LaCie, but only the X5 is more responsive during the 25GB document files transfer. G-Technology falls behind here because of the internal WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD powering it has slightly higher-than-average small file random latency.

Trace Testing - PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

When it comes to PCMark 10’s latest storage tests, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro takes the crown as the most-responsive SSD in the bunch by a significant margin. It is over twice as fast as the Samsung X5 and G-Technology G-Drive mobile Pro SSDs in this workload. The 10 Gbps competition proves capable, and LaCie’s Rugged SSD is one of the fastest we have tested yet, but with the slower interface holding these drives back, they can’t match the capability of faster Thunderbolt 3 devices. Relative to the HDD, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro offers a dramatic upgrade in performance.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

In ATTO, we tested LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro at a QD of 1, representing most day-to-day file access at various block sizes. Its sequential performance is very good as a Thunderbolt 3 portable SSD, with performance peaking at 2,450/2,130 MBps read/write. The LaCie’s performance is nearly on par with the Samsung X5 across the board, but is significantly faster than G-Technology’s G-Drive mobile Pro at smaller file sizes. The G-Technology, however, displays faster write performance at larger file sizes, which aided it in our media file transfer testing. 

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

Our iometer testing reveals the peak performance of the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro. Sequential performance peaks at 2.8/2.4GBps read/write, placing it in third place overall. The other Thunderbolt 3 devices, again, show slightly better write performance. With random read and write latency measured at 0.092 / 0.032 ms at QD1 and peak random performance hitting upwards of 480,000 / 340,000 IOPS read and write, LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro proves to be quite responsive.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. This test reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.

When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro features an SSD that has an SLC write cache. After writing about 25GB of data to the SSD, write speeds degraded from an average of about 2.1 GBps down to about half that, 1.1 GBps. While this is something we don’t like to see from professional devices, especially ones this expensive, the base write speed is still very respectable once the cache fills. And the drive recovers very quickly too. Just wait 30 seconds to a minute and it can write at full speed once again. Plus, unlike the Samsung X5, the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro doesn’t get too hot and throttle under heavy use. LaCie’s portable SSD remained well within its rated temperature operating limits.

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Are you traveling the world and need a storage device that can keep up (or do you plan to as soon as current restrictions ease?) LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro is a well-rounded choice for those willing to pay for it. It’s a top-of-the-line Thunderbolt 3, NVMe-powered portable SSD that’s built for professional use. With a solid build that’s IP67 rated and performance of up to 2.8 GBps, it’s a great fit for content creators.

That said, is it the best pick for your workflow? If you are a photographer, the Rugged SSD Pro, as well as other Thunderbolt 3 powered SSDs, are probably more than overkill. USB 10 Gbps portable SSDs like the non-pro Rugged SSD or even the Adata SE800 would most likely suit your needs better while hitting your wallet a whole lot less than the Pro model. At $400 for 1TB of storage, most people aren’t going to be able to afford a Thunderbolt 3 device. The Rugged SSD is about $100 cheaper and the Adata SE800 weighs in at about $150, though it offers significantly less performance to be fair.

The Rugged SSD and Pro SSDs are nearly the same save for the higher bandwidth on the Pro model. Both feature Seagate’s FireCuda 510 at their heart and identically tough casings that vary only in color. But the Rugged SSD has one feature that the Pro model should envy: full drive encryption for added security. That’s not necessarily LaCie’s fault as the Rugged SSD Pro’s dual-interface controller, supporting both Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C, makies encryption support for more challenging. Thus, the company left it out on this device. Hopefully, this feature will make it into the next Thunderbolt 3 product, though. Samsung’s X5 comes with this feature, as do many cheap external HDDs, too. Unlike those cheap externals, Samsung’s X5 is much tougher competition for the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro with the performance it is packing.

The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro isn’t the fastest Thunderbolt 3 SSD of the bunch but with it, you can process and edit even 8K video without slowing down, as long as your rig can handle it, that is. Samsung’s X5 is just as capable, though it tends to overheat when pushed too hard due to its internal storage consuming so much power when in use. In testing, it usually outperformed the LaCie with its larger write cache size and faster after cache write speed, but the compact-sized LaCie kept cool while the X5 throttled considerably after a few hundred GB of writes.

If you want no compromise on writing, G-Technology’s G-Drive mobile Pro is going to be the best for sustained write workloads like offloading a few hundred GB of footage at once. But then again, it isn’t as stable as the LaCie on all the host systems we tried it with. Sometimes the G-Drive mobile Pro will eject itself from devices that utilize the older Intel JHL 6540 Thunderbolt 3 controller, but not with newer JHL7440. The G-Drive also lacks encryption like the LaCie.

Whether you are on the hunt for your next Thunderbolt 3 storage upgrade, or you urgently need a travel-ready storage device that can handle all the elements and abuse you throw at it, we would highly recommend the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro. That is, mainly if money is no object or you need the extra performance it provides for your workflow. Otherwise, you may want to consider some of the cheaper USB 10Gbps options that still offer a lot of performance, but cost significantly less.

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While portable HDDs offer the best bang for your buck storage in terms of cost per GB, even the best external hard drives are much slower and more prone to damage than SSDs. Starting at just $69, the HP P700 portable SSD provides a strong 10 Gbps USB-C connection and solid performance at a reasonable price. 

In addition to its solid performance, the HP P700 offers a unique way to store its wire and adapter: a magnetic tray that snaps onto the bottom of the drive and secures these necessary-accessories while you travel.  Unfortunately for business users, it does not offer hardware-based AES encryption.

HP P700 Specifications

HP offers the P700 in three colors: black, red, and blue in capacities of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. Overall, they are priced quite competitively at $69.99, $104.99, and $174.99 and come backed by a 3-year warranty  Backed by a three-year warranty. the HP P700 features a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface that promises sequential speeds of up to 1,000 MBps and hits upwards of 78,000/73,000 IOPS read/write in random operations. It comes preformatted as exFAT, but can be formatted for whatever file system supports your workflow best. We formatted the HP P700 as NTFS for Trim support when testing in Windows 10.

Software and Accessories on HP P700

HP ships the P700 with a 6-inch USB Type-C cable and a USB Type-C male to Type-A female adapter. You can place these pieces in a storage box that attaches to the bottom of the SSD itself with magnets as part of the overall product design.

Design and Components of HP P700

HP’s P700 lacks a power indicator light as well as a rubber grip to hold it in place on smooth surfaces. HP’s P700 measure 92 x 65 x 9.2mm without the magnetic storage box and is about 21mm thick when the storage box is attached. The portable SSD weighs about 58g alone or about 102g with the included accessories. 

Structurally, the HP P700’s casing is metal on top and plastic on the bottom side that holds the magnets and PCB in place. The company ensured the design was small and lightweight, but while small compared to an HDD, it could have been considerably smaller based on the internal hardware design. Inside is a small PCB with only a few components overall. 

Managing the host interaction is a JMicron JMS583 USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCIe 3.0 x2 bridge controller that supports UASP, Trim, and S.M.A.R.T. data reporting pass through. At the heart of the PCB is an HP-branded Silicon Motion SM2263EN PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.3 SSD controller. The controller is a dual-core ARM Cortex design that is built on a 28nm process and utilizes a DRAM cache to operate. For that task, the device features a 1GB chip of Micron’s DDR3 DRAM. 

The SM2263EN SSD controller has 4-channels / 4 CE (Chip Enables) per channel that interface with sixteen of Intel’s 512Gb 64L TLC NAND flash that were binned and packed by Biwin Inc. It utilizes Silicon Motions NANDXtend ECC Technology (LDPC ECC) and features end-to-end data path protection to ensure data integrity. But, while these pieces of hardware are feature-packed, the HP P700 lacks an important feature for business users, hardware-based AES 256-bit full drive encryption to keep your data secure. 

Comparison Products

We put HP’s P700 up against a solid roster of 10 Gbps competition. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro, LaCie’s Rugged SSD, and Samsung’s T7 Touch cover the high-end and high-priced competitors while the Crucial X8, Adata SE800, and SanDisk Extreme make up the more affordable devices. Additionally, we threw in Samsung’s TB3 powered X5 and a LaCie Mobile Drive, a portable HDD, in for good measure.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

When writing our multi-media and document files, the HP P700 kept up with some of the fastest devices and bested its lower-end competition. Transfers went quickly and reads were up there at some of the best rates in the group, too. Crucial’s X8 puts up a good fight here, proving its worth as a value-based contestant, but it has quite an Achilles' Heel that shows when writing a few hundred GB at once. 

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

HP’s P700 ranks in fifth place in PCMark 10. With scores that essentially tie the SanDisk Extreme Pro, the HP P700 proves it is quite capable, but drives like the Crucial X8 and LaCie Rugged SSD are tuned a bit better for responsiveness in these workloads. Compared to a standard portable HDD, however, all of the flash devices are significantly more capable. 

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

In ATTO, we tested the HP P700 at a QD of 1, representing most day-to-day file access at various block sizes. The portable SSD displays similar performance to the rest of the group, peaking at a bit over 1,000 MBps read/write or about double that of the SanDisk Extreme. 

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly-configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

The HP P700 read and wrote at about 1 GBps in iometer. We also took a look at random performance and the HP P700 is quite impressive there. At QD1 it delivers some of the fastest responsiveness out of its competitors and, even when loaded with a bunch of random operations, it peaked at over 76,600 / 67,600 IOPS read and write. That's not something your ordinary HDD could even dream to do.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, & Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. This test reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  

When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

Temperatures were well within the rated operating range, even when reading and writing to the HP P700 at full speed for a few hundred gigabytes. We measured the write cache size at about 160GB. After writing at 1 GBps, speeds degraded to a respectable average of 605 MBps. The HP P700 outperforms the Samsung T7 Touch and Crucial X8 under heavier use. It will also usually outperform the Adata SE800 in daily use, but won’t keep up with the more intensive use cases that the SanDisk Extreme Pro, LaCie Rugged SSD, and Samsung X5 can.

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With NVMe SSDs taking over the market and many new devices supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2 performance, it’s fitting to get a portable SSD that can keep up with your internal storage. If you are constantly moving 10-20GB, or maybe 50GB at a time between your portable drive and system, HP’s P700 proves itself to be a valuable device, especially for those looking to save a few bucks over high-end options like the SanDisk Extreme, LaCie Rugged SSD, or the even more expensive TB3 devices. And, it not only performs well in your average day-to-day use cases; it is a fairly consistent performer when heavily used too, just not up to professional-grade standards.  

Aesthetically, while HP’s P700 is is quite sleek, it looks a bit like an internal SATA drive. We feel HP could have pushed the boundaries a bit more when it came to compact sizing. However, the included magnetic storage box attachment holding the accessories within it so you don’t lose them is a nice touch. Plus, the magnetic base partially makes up for the lack of a rubber grip on the bottom when there is a metal surface is near. A grippy bottom and fully metal design would have been better.

Because it is a business-class device, we were a bit more disappointed  that the HP P700 lacks hardware-based AES 256-bit full drive encryption. This feature is present on even cheap external HDDs and we feel that it should be standard, yet many high-end portable SSDs lack it. Samsung’s T7 Touch is one of the best secure consumer portable SSDs out there and sports an integrated fingerprint scanner. However, The T7 Touch's DRAMless architecture holds it back a bit in responsiveness compared to the HP P700.

Furthermore, Crucial’s X8 offers a competitively snappy user experience with a DRAM-based NVMe controller but is held back by slower QLC NAND flash in contrast to HP’s P700’s TLC NAND flash. The Crucial X8 will perform well in daily operations too, but it can’t sustain a lot of writing at once. Once the write cache on the X8 fills, the HP smokes it. Adata’s SE800 gives the HP P700 a strong run for its money and, while the design isn’t as clever, it is dust and waterproof, more compact and delivers similar performance for the price.

The choice of portable SSD comes down to what capabilities you need. If you require something more robust with better-than-average durability, warranty coverage, and sustained write performance, LaCie’s Rugged SSD or SanDisk’s Extreme Pro are the better choices. But, if you need a strong-performing 10Gbps portable SSD that gets the job done, HP’s P700 is a solid, budget-friendly choice with a uniquely helpful way to store your wires.

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LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD could be your next essential carry-on, whether you’re a professional photographer who’s constantly on the run or an avid videographer who often finds themselves caught up in remote regions of the world. With a capacity of 1TB, it has a decent amount of storage space, and with a battery pack built-in, it can back up your images without a PC, and even charge your phone while it's offloading. The Rugged BOSS SSD is a top pick for those who need a mobile storage device to ingest their data in the absence of a laptop or desktop.

LaCie developed the Rugged BOSS (Backup On-Set Solutions) SSD to be the perfect match for the photographer or videographer on the run. Not only does this external SSD store your data in a drop-, splash-, and dust-resistant enclosure, it's quite more technologically complex than any other SSD you’ve used before.

Effectively, it's a mini computer streamlined to be an all in one storage hub. Without the need for a large and clunky host device connected, LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD can help you preview and transfer files directly from your SD cards, USB devices, and even your phone. Not only that, it can even charge your mobile devices at up to 1.5A, too.

Specifications

LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD is available in only one capacity, 1TB, and costs about $450. Though it is priced very high per GB, the device comes backed by a 3-year warranty, rather short for a top-of-the line storage product. It features some unique coverage, however. Within those 3 years, it is eligible for one free In-Lab Data Recovery attempt where the company will return any recovered data on a storage device, or let you download the recovered data from a cloud-based account within 60 days.

LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD features a USB 3.2 Gen1 interface and thus, the company rates the internal SSD to deliver speeds of up to 430/400 MBps read/write. And, when a device is connected to the built-in USB Type-A or Type-C port, it can sustain the same, if not better performance. It also features a UHS-II SD card reader that can sustain speeds of over 250 MBps read/write. There's also a micro USB port for connecting your phone or tablet.

Software and Accessories

Included with the Rugged BOSS SSD are a USB Type-C to Type-C and a USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable for hooking it up via the Type-C port to your computer. LaCie explicitly warns against using the Type-A port to interface with your computer though, as you will not be able to perform certain tasks and it may drain the Rugged BOSS SSD’s battery when connected that way.

Additionally, the company includes a micro USB-to-micro USB, a micro USB-to-Lightning, and a micro USB-to-USB Type-C cable to interface with your mobile devices like an iPhone, iPad Pro, or Android device. As well, there is an optional power brick to use when needed. Yeah, this thing comes with a lot of accessories.

Supporting software includes LaCie’s Toolkit for macOS and Windows and LaCie’s BOSS app for iOS or Android. With these pieces of software, you can easily backup or just migrate your data. LaCie requires you to download the app to initially configure the device. Also, the company provides purchasers with a complimentary one-month membership to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan, too.

A Closer Look

The Rugged BOSS SSD seems to be a recycled DJI Copilot BOSS HDD, with some minor modifications. Unlike the other Rugged SSDs in LaCie’s lineup, the BOSS SSD lacks an official crush or IP rating. However, it is rated to absorb drops of up to 1.2m when encased in the orange silicone/rubber. It is even grooved so that it holds one of the included adapter cables onto the device and comes with a fitted cap for the IO ports.

On the opposite side of the IO is an Action button to confirm various actions and prompts when interfacing with the device. Interaction is quite intuitive, once you get the hang of it. Be sure to read the manual first.

Taking the drive apart was rather straightforward; we pried off the end-caps from the aluminum enclosure, which have O-rings to prevent water from entering. Inside the unit is a 7.7V, 2550mAh / 19.6wH battery that powers two PCBs, the storage media, and a tiny display, which also doubles as its indicator light. And while it features a battery for use when on the go or charging your phone or tablet, it also has a supplemental power port in case your host device can’t deliver it enough juice for standard use.

With a display output and the right interfaces to connect everything up, Intel’s dual-core Celeron N3010 CPU lives at the heart of this device. It operates at 1.04Ghz and can boost up to 2.24GHz within its low-wattage operation range. Interfacing with the CPU is a bank of four 512MB SK Hynix DDR3L 1600MHz DRAM ICs that operate at 1.35v.

Managing the power in this device is a TPS650842 Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) and responsible for the interface is an ASMedia ASM153E USB 3.2 Gen1 to SATA 6 Gbps bridge chip, which manages data transfers between the SSD and the host. Also integrated into the PCB design is a Genesys Logic, Inc GL3523, a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Hub controller for the USB port, and managing the SD card slot is a GL3227, a USB 3.1 Gen1 to SD 4.0 memory card reader controller.

For storage duty, LaCie outfit the Rugged BOSS SSD with a 2.5-inch 7mm Seagate BarraCuda SATA 6Gbps SSD. It’s not the fastest SATA SSD available, but offers more than enough performance for an external-based device. It features a Phison S10 SATA SSD controller along with a DDR3 cache and interfaces with Kioxia’s 64L TLC NAND flash. It utilizes Low-Density Parity-Check / LDPC ECC to ensure data integrity over time, plus it supports Trim and S.M.A.R.T. data reporting, too.

Comparison Products

We threw in a little bit of everything to compare LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD. At the high-end there's Samsung’s X5 with its Thunderbolt 3 interface. Following it is a group of USB 10 Gbps devices: SanDisk’s Extreme Pro, Samsung’s T7 Touch, Adata’s SE800, and LaCie’s Rugged SSD. And, with SATA as a bottleneck, we also included the SanDisk Extreme and LaCie’s Mobile Drive, a 2TB portable HDD.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

When it comes to our file copy and read tests, the Rugged BOSS SSD comes in second to last in each test here. SanDisk’s Extreme features a faster USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, which offers it a bit more performance over the LaCie’s somewhat restricted USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface. The 10 Gbps and TB3 devices are over twice as fast on average.

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

In PCMark 10, LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD scores quite similar to the SanDisk Extreme. However, since it is restrained a bit on available bandwidth, the Rugged BOSS SSD falls into second-to-last place once again. Compared to the company’s Mobile Drive, the Rugged BOSS SSD is pretty much twice as responsive. However, the company’s Rugged SSD is much more responsive than it, with a performance that nearly rivals the TB3-powered Samsung X5.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

In ATTO, we tested LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD at a QD of 1, representing most day to day file access at various block sizes. It peaked at about 430 MBps read/write, while the SanDisk Extreme hit highs of about 530/500 MBps read/write. The 10 Gbps devices, on the other hand, hit upwards of 800-950 MBps and the faster Samsung X5 left them all in the dust with its performance.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD dishes out significantly faster performance than the HDD. Read and write speeds are over three times faster and its responsiveness is just as fast as many of the 10 Gbps devices out there at a QD of one. It even surpasses the read performance of the Samsung T7 Touch and Adata SE800 at QD1, because the Rugged BOSS SSD’s internal SSD features a DRAM cache, while these competitors lack DRAM in their architectural design.  

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. This test reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  

When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

The internal SSD features a small 12GB SLC write cache that averaged a write speed of 405 MBps before it fell slightly to 395 MBps once the cache saturated. With such a beefy enclosure, thermal throttling isn’t an issue. The internal SSD’s S.M.A.R.T. data reported a maximum temperature of 51C after a 600GB transfer to the device.

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We try to travel when time and finances (and pandemics) permit, and about 2 years ago those two criteria aligned for my wife and I. We traveled across Mexico and took over 600GB of images and video in the six weeks we were there. Then shortly after, we traveled Colombia for over three weeks where we tallied up another 150GB worth of data.

Lacking LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD back then I routinely emptied our 64GB and 128GB SD cards into a laptop or a portable SSD throughout these trips. However, this whole setup was a burden on my back, adding computer gear to my already loaded travel bags. Plus, I had to carry around an external battery to use on my phone here and there, too.

LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD aims to decrease your travel loadout if you are like me, only needing a laptop for backup purposes. Or, if you are constantly on the move from set to set and often finding yourself short on card space while shooting, LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD can be quite useful.

Packed inside LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD is more of a portable mini-mobile computer than a portable storage device. With USB Type-C, Type-A, and micro USB interfaces, it can connect to almost any device you have. Plus, with the built-in SD card reader and micro-SD card adapter, it can ingest your photos and videos on the run, at any time. It even doubles as a storage and expansion hub when working on your laptop or desktop at home.

Using the device and most importantly, importing images into the SSD within, went intuitively overall. With a few clicks to confirm or cancel operations, offloading data to the device went without a breeze when using the SD card reader or USB port. However, when using LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD with an iPhone XS and the lightning cable, transfer speeds between the devices say, when backing up my iPhone’s image and video library, were peaking at 11-12 MBps and averaging closer to 2-4 MBps. A 15GB transfer there took a bit longer than expected.  

Additionally, while we were a bit disappointed to see that the device operates at only USB 3.2 Gen1 speeds, the performance was still acceptable. The interface allowed for peak throughput of about 440-460 MBps to and from the device or even when passing through another device from the Type-A port. This is significantly faster than a standard HDD. It's also much more durable than an HDD without the mechanical parts. That fact paired with splash and dust resistance helps to instill a bit more confidence in using the device traveling, even when out in the woods camping.

The Rugged BOSS SSD’s extra capability adds to the complexity of the device and leads to a much higher-than-average price per GB than other USB storage devices, making it more expensive by that metric than even the fastest Thunderbolt 3 SSDs. However, LaCie’s Rugged BOSS SSD does a great job at what it was designed to do: back up your content computer-free. Although it is costly, we feel it fits ahis market niche quite nicely. With all the capability of this device and an easy-to-use interface, it is an easy recommendation if its features fit your workflow.

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Seagate’s FireCuda Gaming Dock is one of the company’s latest products for the gamer crowd. With a 4TB HDD at its core and powered by Thunderbolt 3, it aims to expand the storage and connectivity of the latest devices with some added RGB flair. The main drawback? The device doesn’t have laptop charging support built-in.

Most laptops come with just 500GB to 1TB internal storage and many nowadays feature a mix of just 2-3 Thunderbolt 3 and USB ports. Plus, they often lack an external display port, let alone an RJ-45 for a wired connection. For creative professionals, this limited connectivity can hinder a workflow, severely.

For gamers wanting to hook up their gaming keyboard & mouse, headset, monitor, webcam, maybe a USB thumb drive or another external or two, this is nearly impossible on many laptops. And, how many big title games actually fit into such little storage? Not too many when we’re seeing the latest games weighing into the 100-200GB range.

Specifications

Seagate’s FireCuda Gaming Dock solves these issues by packing 4TB of external storage alongside enough connectivity for their peripherals. This dock features a DisplayPort, five USB ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, an RJ-45 1GbE port, and mic and headphones ports. Not to mention the PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD expansion slot to go along with the RGB lighting. Priced at $349.99 it’s a costly piece of hardware, but it is packing quite a bit of flexibility over a single cable to the host. It is backed by a 3-years warranty, too.

Software and Accessories

Included with the device is a 30.5-inch-long Thunderbolt 3 cable, a power brick with 20V 5.50-amp output, and four different power cables to suit whichever country you are in.

Additionally, Seagate’s Toolkit is available for download. This software enables you to do a few things with your FireCuda Gaming Dock. It allows you to customize the dock’s RGB lighting and pattern control, configure backup routines, and folder syncing options.

A Closer Look

Seagate’s FireCuda Gaming Dock measures in at 2.01 x 10.63 x 5.32 inches (51 x 270 x 135mm) and weighs nearly 6lbs. The surface has a rubbery, grip-like texture to it. One the bottom of the dock, Seagate outfit it with some very sturdy rubber feet and cut out some space for ventilation.

Installing an M.2 NVMe SSD is rather simple to do. The RGB lit endpiece is held in place by magnets and covers the expandable M.2 slot. Unscrew the thermal cover and throw in your drive and cover it back up. We wouldn’t recommend trying to swap the HDD out yourself without some patience, though. We ran a plastic pry tool around the base and nudged it off. One corner wouldn’t unlatch, so we had to bend the cover off in an uneasy way, flexing it quite a bit until the cover popped off.

Cooling the unit is a small fan that is silent under most operation. Seagate outfit this dock with a fast 4TB 7,200-RPM Seagate IronWolf NAS HDD (ST4000NE001). It operates over a SATA 6 Gbps interface and features a 128MB DRAM cache. It offers quite some performance for an HDD.

All the USB ports run at 3.2 Gen2 speed, up to 10 Gbps, thanks to an ASMedia ASM235CM controller and some Via Labs, Inc VL822-Q7 USB hub controllers. For some USB power management and temp sensor, they opted to throw in an NXP Semiconductors ARM Cortex-M0+ based, 32-bit microcontroller, part number LPC11U67J.  For the audio ports, a Texas Instruments PCM2912A Audio Codec chip. And for the 1GbE Ethernet, Realtek’s RTL8153. It does well for the task with jumbo frame support, link power management, and wake on LAN capability.

Powering the Type-C port are an Intel Titan Ridge JHL7440 Thunderbolt 3 controller and ARM Cortex-M0 based Cypress Semiconductor EZ-PD CCG5 Type-C and power delivery controller, part number CYPD5235-96BZXI. Capable of up to 40 GBps in bandwidth, or about 2.8 GBps of bandwidth for storage devices, this Thunderbolt 3 interface allows for some high-speed performance and flexibility. When connected to the host, the front notification light on the dock will light blue when connected to a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Comparison Products

We opted to utilize a few high-end SSDs for connectivity testing. This included the Seagate FireCuda 510, SanDisk Extreme Pro, Samsung X5, LaCie Rugged SSD and G-Technology’s G-Drive mobile Pro SSD, all at the 1TB capacity.

Test System 

Outfitted with an ASRock Thunderbolt 3 adapter, utilizing an Intel Alpine Ridge JHL6540 controller, and an ASMedia ASM1543-powered USB 10 Gbps Type-C port, we used an ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate and Core i7-9700K-based desktop to verify connectivity and features.

Synthetics - CrystalDiskMark 

CrystalDiskMark (CDM) is a simple and easy to use file size benchmarking tool.

First, we tested out the Thunderbolt 3 port with some of the latest Thunderbolt 3 devices. Overall, performance looks to be a little lower than when connected directly to the host system’s Thunderbolt 3 port. With G-Technology’s mobile Pro, the Dock performed well. Up to 2.8/2.5 GBps read/write.

However, the Samsung X5 and LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro both exhibited lower write performance when connected to the dock, even with write caching enabled, versus being directly connected to the host. The Seagate FireCuda 510 performs quite well in the M.2 slot, though, coming close in performance to the G-Technology Thunderbolt 3 SSD. 

Random performance is similarly impacted as well--just a minor reduction in performance. With flash being as responsive as we have come to expect, a small percent change here doesn’t impact the overall usability of your devices all too much.

Next, when testing the other ports, we found them to perform quite well, no matter how many were used or how the dock was connected to the host. Here the internal HDD was also quite speedy, hitting 255/250 MBps read/write while the 1GbE RJ-45 port hit 113 MBps in either direction, too.

We did find the ASRock Thunderbolt 3 adapter on the host to be a little restrictive compared to the motherboard’s ASMedia USB 3.1 Gen2 link when it came to 10 Gbps device performance. So, results will depend on the device you use it with.

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Seagate’s FireCuda Gaming Dock is mostly well thought out and a quality-built device. The customizable LED glow looks great without overpowering. The dock is very flexible, with a lot of connectivity. With just a single cable, the connectivity with the device was almost as if I was using a desktop system. Just plug and go.

You can connect to the host over the USB or TB3 interfaces via the Type-C ports. We even tested the device with every one of its five USB ports filled by 10 Gbps SSDs as well as a Thunderbolt 3 SSD and another NVMe SSD in the onboard PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot all at once. All the USB devices performed at 10 GBps in each port. The TB3 ports did well, but there were some minor performance impacts from using the dock with some devices.

With up to 15W of power delivery, connectivity to peripherals over the Type-C ports went flawlessly. They even powered up LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro HDD when the USB ports didn’t. At times, the mobile Pro SSD wouldn’t power on or communicating when it was connected to the host system by the ASRock Thunderbolt 3 AIC, either. The FireCuda Gaming Dock fixed that little issue too. When G-Technology mobile Pro SSD was connected to the dock, it connected right way, each time without fail.

This storage hub combo can enable you to store your mass game library on the HDD and your most-played titles to whatever high-speed M.2 NVMe SSD you want to throw in. The internal HDD is quite fast with a 7,200RPM spindle speed it can break 250 MBps. Still, that pales in comparison to what the FireCuda Gaming Dock’s optional M.2 NVMe SSD slot is capable of. Testing with a 1TB Seagate FireCuda 510 E12 based SSD, it hit upwards of 2.8 GBps and almost 2.4 GBps write. 

Connecting to an external monitor went painlessly and worked within a few moments of connection. When gaming, a laptop screen can be lacking in size of features. Seagate’s Gaming Dock enables quick connectivity to a second, larger and more-responsive monitor via the extra Thunderbolt 3 port or Display port. Or even better, throw in an external GPU enclosure and game on some serious hardware when you’re home. Then disconnect and go on your way to school or work.

Seagate’s FireCuda Gaming Dock is also useful for the creative pro as it is for gamers, but it lacks an important feature: It doesn’t have laptop charging support. While it wouldn’t work for a laptop with high-end graphics, plenty of slim, light laptops can charge over USB-C/Thunderbolt. And for many, this is an essential feature to have on a dock like this. USB-C charging not only helps to free up clutter, but can be very convenient, letting you use one cable to get power and the expanding connectivity of a dock. With more and more laptops supporting this kind of charging, we hope Seagate adds the feature to future versions of this product, or products like it.

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If you’re on the hunt for a new external hard drive, WD’s My Passport is a well-rounded choice. With a solid track record, password protection, and capacities of up to 5TB, it’s prepared to store a lot -- if not all -- of your data and keep it safe.

WD’s My Passport is a popular seller and for good reason. It’s priced competitively and offers up a pretty good value if you are looking for a lot of portable storage on the cheap compared to SSDs. These portable hard disk drives (HDDs) aren’t the flashiest or fastest of storage devices, but having had quite a few pass through my hands over the years for various backup or data migration purposes, they always get the job done.

Specifications

The new My Passport has been slimmed down a bit compared to its predecessors, but packs some decent density. WD’s My Passport comes in capacities of 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB. All are backed by a 3-year limited warranty and priced to move. Our 5TB review unit sold for $127 on Amazon and Newegg when we wrote this. The company doesn’t provide performance ratings on these portable HDDs, but performance can hit upwards of 120-140 MBps, depending on the capacity.

Out of the box, the drive comes formatted as NTFS for use in Windows. There is a Mac model that comes preformatted for Macs, too. Plus, WD’s My Passport comes secured with AES 256-bit hardware encryption to keep your data from slipping into the wrong hands if it ever leaves yours.

On the go, WD’s My Passport is rated to operate in temperatures of 5-35 degrees Celsius (41-95 degrees Fahrenheit). And unlike SSDs, it isn’t rated to well for shocks. The company even warns end-users to not drop or jolt the drive, nor move the drive during any activity.

That, aside from slower speeds, is the main downside of opting for a hard drive over an SSD. If you drop it, particularly while it’s running, and the read/write head doesn’t have a chance to safely park first, you could damage the drive and lose your data. So be extra careful with your backup drive if it’s an HDD rather than an SSD.

Software and Accessories

WD’s My Passport comes with an 18-inch USB A to Micro USB B cable, which is about the perfect length -- not too short, nor too long. Additionally, the company provides users with WD Discovery software, which enables you to manage almost everything about your drive.

With WD Discovery, you can enable the My Passport’s AES 256-bit hardware encryption-based password protection via WD security software. The software also provides download links for WD’s Drive Utilities to configure and check up on your drive’s health, as well as WD’s Backup software. The backup software lets you quickly and conveniently schedule automatic backups. WD Discovery software even lets you backup media from social media and cloud services like Facebook, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

A Closer Look

Encased within its plastic enclosure, WD opted to utilize a Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR, a technology that overlaps data tracks to increase density)-based 2.5” HDD, model: WD50NDZW-11MR8S1 on our 5TB sample. It comes with a 128MB DRAM cache and has the USB bridge and connector built-in rather than using a standard SATA connection. Of course, it is a SED or self-encrypting drive, as it comes with AES 256-bit hardware encryption.

WD’s My Passport comes in two sizes depending on the capacity you get. The 1TB and 2TB models measure 4.22 x 2.95 x 0.44 inches and weigh 120 grams (4.2 ounces). Due to the increased number of platters that WD’s My Passport needs to reach 4TB and 5TB, the larger capacities are bit bulkier. Rather than your standard 7mm SSD or 9.5mm HDD, the HDD in this models measures 15mm thick, which also adds to the weight. The 4TB and 5TB models measure in at 4.22 x 2.95 x 0.75 inches and 210g/7.4 ounces.

Along with a redesign to slim down a bit, the My Passport is also available in three colors: black, red, and blue. It features a small white power indicator light that only appears visible when the device is powered on.

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Comparison Products

Today, we compare WD’s My Passport to a 2TB LaCie Mobile Drive based on Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology, as well as a bunch of speedy external SSDs we have tested. As the fastest of the bunch, Samsung’s X5 boasts Thunderbolt 3 performance but is closely followed by SanDisk’s Extreme Pro and LaCie’s Rugged SSD, both high-end 10Gbps devices. Following them, we threw in the low-cost (for an SSD), QLC NAND-based Crucial X8 and the DRAMless Samsung T7 Touch. We also added in an older SanDisk Extreme for good measure.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

When it came to writing our test folders, the My Passport held up well to LaCie’s Mobile Drive, only lagging it a few MBps here or there. WD’s My Passport even surpassed it during the photo transfer. In reading back our large .zip and movie files, again, the LaCie lead the WD drive by a bit. Compared to flash, as we would expect, these HDDs are much slower. So if you prioritize speed at all, you should probably opt for an SSD.

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of a storage device. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

Averaging 64 MBps in bandwidth and scoring similarly to LaCie’s Mobile Drive in this test, WD’s My Passport provides enough performance to compete with CMR drives. It of course lags the flash competitors significantly with significantly higher latency.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

Sequential performance comes in a little higher in our iometer testing, bursting up to 127/128 MBps read/write, and random performance is about what one should expect from an HDD. WD tweaked to the My Passport to perform pretty responsively under random writes, too.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. This test reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  

When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

As one would expect with a hard drive, WD’s My Passport doesn’t feature a write cache. But, unlike the inconsistent write performance we’ve seen with other SMR HDDs, WD’s My Passport writes extremely consistently. It even surpasses the LaCie Mobile Drive in total writes by the time the 15 minutes is up, writing nearly 30GB more. This pales in comparison to what a good SSD can do, but is impressive for a mobile hard drive nonetheless. And, temps were never an issue when testing.

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Aside from perhaps lacking some rubber on its exterior to keep it from sliding around on our test bench, there’s little to dislike about WD’s latest My Passport. Well, there is the issue of its interface. While most new devices feature USB Type-C ports, and some of the My Passport models (like the Mac and Ultra models) both feature the newer USB Type-C ports, as they should, WD lazily opted to forego the new standard on the vanilla version of the My Passport drive. Instead, the company slapped in the older and less-reliable SuperSpeed Micro USB B port with a USB-A cable. That seems dated in this day and age.

Still, while skimping out to probably save on manufacturing costs, the design provides ample bandwidth for the HDD’s underlying performance capabilities. Quite impressively, the drive displayed very consistent write performance, more so than even the CMR-based LaCie Mobile Drive. But WD’s latest My Passport portable HDD isn’t a record-breaker by any means, peaking around 120-130 MBps in testing.

If you’re on the hunt for speed, this is most definitely not an ideal choice—no HDD is. An SSD with 10Gbps or Thunderbolt 3 support would serve you much better, but of course also cost much more. This device’s performance pales in comparison to its flash competitors, which can hit 1 GBps or higher performance figures. But, if you’re looking to just back up your files or system, maybe transfer some files between PCs, or just need a lot of space for your data on the go without spending hundreds of dollars, the WD My Passport may be a near-ideal candidate.

This drive comes in capacities up to 5TB, and since street prices have started to fall, it has become a better value than ever. It looks good and comes backed by a plentiful 3-year warranty. To top things off, it boasts top-notch AES 256-bit hardware encryption password protection to keep your content secure from prying eyes. That’s great addition, especially if you’re the type who travels often and wants to keep sensitive data safe.

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LaCie’s Rugged SSD is exactly what the name implies: a rugged SSD. Built for the filmmaker or professional on the go, the Rugged SSD provides enough performance to let you transfer and edit 4K video quickly over a USB-C 10 Gbps connection. And aside from being fast, it also features convenient password protection to keep your sensitive data secure on both Windows and Mac systems, too. The main downsides? It's expensive and the included cables are short.

Moving around, backing up, and syncing a lot of media files, especially those RAW 4K videos you have taking up all your space, can be quite time-consuming. That’s what makes toying with (or testing) some of the latest 10 Gbps devices a pleasure and Thunderbolt 3 a dream -- at least with the quality ones that is. Drag, drop,  your task is done in a matter of moments and the drive is ready for more. Unlike those archaic HDDs that seem to take forever if you're dealing in gigabytes -- let alone terabytes. 

We recently reviewed the SanDisk Extreme Pro, a quality built, fast external drive that goes non-stop after hours of hammering it with data. It's built using WD’s Black NVMe SSD and is a pretty sweet drive if you need that type of performance to keep up with your workflow. 

But what if you want another option? Maybe one with a better encryption method that is hardware-based? Maybe you want something that's even more rugged and ready for the road. Or maybe you’re just a die-hard LaCie fan with money to burn? Either way, we now have the LaCie Rugged SSD, and it’s out to compete. With a similar formula to that of the SanDisk Extreme Pro, LaCie takes Seagate’s high-end PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD, the FireCuda 510, and packs it into the Rugged SSD’s fast and iconic Neil Poulton-designed enclosure.

Specifications

LaCie’s Rugged SSD comes in three capacities: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB.  With current prices at around $0.22 - $0.30 per gigabyte, the Rugged SSD fetches quite the premium over standard flash products. LaCie’s Rugged SSD comes preformatted as exFAT for out of the box compatibility with both Mac and Windows-based computers. The company rates the Rugged SSD to deliver data at sequential speeds of up to 1,000/950 MBps read/write.

Built with ruggedness in mind, LaCie’s Rugged SSD can not only sustain drops of up to 3 meters (10 ft), it can also endure a 2,000 kg (4410 lbs.) car running it over, according tot he company. It boasts an IP67 rating, meaning it packs dust protection and is capable of withstanding immersion in 3.3 feet of water for up to 30 mins without any harm. To top things off, this SSD comes backed by not only a 5-year warranty, but also 5-years of data recovery service if ever needed. Reliability is built into this SSD.

Software and Accessories

Both a USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cables are included with the Rugged SSD. Measuring just 14 cm (5.5 inches), they're very short, especially for desktop use. Most competitors offer 9-12 inch cables that allow for more flexible positioning.

As bonus software, the company provides a complimentary one-month membership to Adobe's Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which is a pretty sweet deal if you could use it. But, most importantly, users will want to download LaCie Toolkit, available for both Windows and Mac-based computers. LaCie’s Toolkit allows you to manage the Rugged SSD’s AES 256-bit hardware encrypted password protection, as well as the ability to back up and sync your files effortlessly.

The drive can be used with encryption with no performance penalty. Enabling encryption took only a few moments following the application’s guidance. Once configured, the SSD will lock itself when ejected. When you plug it back in, you can only access a small 2-3 MB sized partition that contains a unlock app to enter your password on both Windows and Mac OSes. Or, you can use the LaCie Toolkit to enter the unlock password, too.

A Closer Look

LaCie’s Rugged SSD is compact, measuring 65 x 98 x 17 mm (2.6 x 3.86 x 0.7 inches) and it weighs in at 130 g (0.3 pounds). The USB-C port is located on the long side of the SSD, rather than the short end, like most external storage devices. And there is a white power indicator light to the left side of the port.

The SSD’s physical ruggedness is partially enabled thanks to the high-visibility orange rubber/silicone coating of the drive, but the shell is also a dust and dirt magnet.  While it is not recommended, we opened our Rugged SSD to see what else makes it so tough.

The ridged casing is what looks to be CNC’d aluminum, helping aid the hardware in cooling. The adapter PCB and SSD within are padded and packed with thermally conductive material throughout. Almost no component goes untouched, for consistent heat dissipation over the life of the device. The casing of the SSD snaps together and multiple internal clips retain the PCB and components within.

Communicating between the NVMe SSD and the USB interface of the host system, LaCie has opted for JMicron’s JMS583 NVMe-to-USB bridge chip. It's a USB 3.1 Gen 2 to PCIe 3.0 x2 bridge controller that supports S.M.A.R.T. data reporting, the Trim command, and the UASP protocol for high performance 10 Gbps operation with the FireCuda 510 NVMe SSD.

The FireCuda 510 utilizes Phison’s E12 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.3 controller that's built on a 28nm manufacturing node. It's a high-performance dual Cortex R5 CPU-based architecture with dual co-processors (CoXProcessor 2.0 technology) that handle flash translation layer (FTL) management, while the R5’s handle mostly the reads and writes. Our 1TB review model interfaces with a 1GB DDR4 DRAM chip at 1,600 MHz to cache FTL data, too.

Additionally, this controller supports up to 8 channels, with four chips enabled per channel. In total, there are 32x 256Gb NAND flash dies, saturating the controller’s max capability. The dies are stacked into packages of 8 dies high, interfacing with the controller at 533 MT/s.

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Comparison Products

Up against the LaCie Rugged SSD, we put a whole assortment of 10 Gbps competitors. From Samsung, we included the new T7 Touch, as well as the Thunderbolt 3 enabled X5. From Lexar we added the SL100 Pro, another JMS583-based portable SSD. We also threw in SanDisk’s Extreme Pro and the older Extreme model. And, with value in mind, we included Adata’s IP68-rated SE800, as well as Crucial's X8, a QLC NAND-based competitor. Finally, just for comparison's sake, we added in a 5TB WD My Passport and a 2TB LaCie Mobile Drive, both HDD-based solutions.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Thanks to the massive bandwidth available to it, Samsung’s X5 dominates in file transfers.  But, these 10Gbps devices give it a good run for its money. Close to SanDisk’s Extreme Pro, LaCie’s Rugged SSD performs like the best of them in the write tests, ranking third or fourth place, depending on the transfer.

The LaCie's erformance in reading large files could use some minor improvement, however. In reading our 3.7GB .zip and 15GB movie files, it fell behind both Adata’s SE800 and Samsung’s DRAMless T7 Touch by a second. Crucial’s X8 is a value option, but it puts up a good fight in transfers under 100 GB , and large reads are faster than the Rugged SSD too.

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

In PCMark 10, LaCie’s Rugged SSD outperforms all the other 10 Gbps SSDs in our comparison pool. It ranks second overall, just behind the Samsung X5. In simple day-to-day use, in transferring your average photo folder or files folder, the Rugged SSD will be much more responsive than an ordinary HDD. Here, the average response time is about a quarter of a second faster, but the overall bandwidth is over three times faster than any external HDD. This makes working off of one of these so much better for videographers and those wanting speed, consistent low latency and high bandwidth.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

In ATTO, we tested LaCie’s Rugged SSD at a QD of 1, representing most day-to-day file access at various block sizes. Here it shows off high throughput over almost all smaller block size,s up until 512KB. Then beyond that most of these 10 Gbps SSDs exhibit the same performance, peaking at about 900-1,000 MBps.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

In testing with iometer, we measured peak sequential throughput of 984/1,013 MBps read/write, ranking it second only to the Thunderbolt 3-powered Samsung X5. Random performance at QD1 is average for an external NVMe SSD, although it seems that there could be some improvement in reading. 

Crucial’s X8, even though it features inherently slower QLC NAND, its random read responsiveness is faster than that of the Rugged SSD and SanDisk Extreme Pro.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We tossed in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. This test reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  

When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

No matter how much data is written, LaCie’s Rugged SSD writes very quickly, similar to the SanDisk Extreme Pro. The LaCie features a small 24-26GB write cache that writes at about 1,050 MBps. Once it fills, write performance degrades, but not too much. At worst, it fell to an average of 1,015 MBps from there on out, which is still fantastic. And, if you need that extra few MBps, the cache recovers after a minute or so of idle time.

In transferring around 280GB of data to the external over four separate drag-and-drops, the S.M.A.R.T. data reported a controller temp of just 39 degrees Celsius. This is much cooler than the source NVMe SSD, which reported in at over 55 degrees Celsius with a fan cooling it. The external surface of the Rugged SSD remained under 36 degrees Celsius while testing. 

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Tailored for professional use, it should come as no surprise that LaCie products are priced at a premium. And while the Rugged SSD’s asking price is justified, the short cables are not. While the drive looked nice on my desk with the cables being so short, this limited my ability to position the SSD comfortably when using my laptop on my lap or in a cramped area. Overall, this made using the drive a bit annoying and even caused it to be somewhat difficult to plug in at times with a limited range of motion. The same goes for when using on a desktop. In this reviewer’s mind, the cables need to be longer, preferably around 18 inches.

Buit even with that minor annoyance, LaCie’s Rugged SSD was always fast and responsive. With it, there's no need to spend time waiting on data -- you can spend more time actually working. LaCie’s Rugged SSD is fast, consistent, and has almost everything you could ask for from a high-end, 10 Gbps portable SSD.

SanDisk’s Extreme Pro is a better value per dollar if you only need consistent file transfer performance, but it has some drawbacks with the lower price. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro is only IP55 rated and its 128-bit encryption implementation is software-based. Using it is clunky and slow, especially with large files. Instead of a poor encryption experience, LaCie’s AES 256-bit full drive, hardware-accelerated encryption provides an smooth-to-use security, with access to the SSD’s full performance. This makes using encryption almost transparent, especially when actively working with large datasets.

If you are looking to save a few bucks, Samsung T7’s Touch offers more convenience with its built-in fingerprint scanner, but due to its DRAMless architecture, it can't keep up with the Rugged SSD. It is fast in light use, but not after being hammered constantly. Crucial’s X8 gives it a run for its money in light use too, but once you start hammering it, performance can degrade even more severely. The same goes for the Lexar SL100 Pro and Adata’s SE800, but only the Adata is a viable alternative for those looking for a weatherproof portable SSD for travel. It just can’t keep up in sustained workloads as the LaCie can. And, in terms of physical endurance, the LaCie Rugged SSD is one of the toughest SSDs out.

It is so tough and the company believes in its reliability so much that offering 5-years of warranty wasn’t enough for LaCie. Backing the Rugged SSD with 5-years of data rescue recovery service puts company support over the edge. No other company out is backing their devices with support like LaCie. If you are in search of a new 10Gbps portable SSD for professional use, LaCie’s Rugged SSD is a top pick, especially if bright orange is your favorite color. And, if it isn’t maybe the soon to be reviewed, blacked-out Thunderbolt 3 powered Rugged SSD Pro will pique your interest, next. 

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Samsung’s T7 Touch portable SSD is an innovative, secure, simple-to-use portable SSD. With sleek styling and performance of up to about 10 Gbps read / write, it both looks and performs fast. It even has hardware encryption that works in conjunction with a built-in fingerprint scanner for keeping data secure. But while it is innovative, it isn’t the best value you're looking for a 10 Gbps portable SSD and it's not the fastest drive in its class, either.

Whether you're just backing up your data or storing your media library, portable SSDs enable snappy data retrieval. The added speed over a standard HDD can come in handy in many situations, especially if you value your time. With Samsung’s T7 promising to deliver 9.5x the performance of an HDD, it's getting harder to even consider a pokey portable hard drive over a snappy external SSD.

Samsung sells the T7 Touch in three capacities: 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. Pricing (the 1TB model we tested sells for $230) puts it above the previous T5, but teh T7 also delivers twice the performance. Rated at 1,050 MBps read and 1,000 MBps write speeds, the small portable SSD can deliver exceptional speed over its USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface. As it is with most portable SSDs, the T7 Touch lacks an endurance rating, but comes backed by a 3-year warranty.

Like all other recent portable drives, Samsung’s T7 Touch is bus powered, so plugging it into most USB ports should be enough for it to operate, but speeds will be limited depending on which kind of port you use--you'll need a USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 port to get the best performance. 

The drive comes pre-formatted as exFAT to be compatible with almost any computer you plug it into. In addition to PC and Apple computers, the company states the T7 Touch will even work with mobile phones, gaming consoles, TVs, and more.

The Samsung drive comes with Trim support and features S.M.A.R.T. data reporting, so you can monitor your SSD. Samsung also outfits the T7 with AES 256-bit hardware encryption to appeal to the business users who like an added security lock on their data. But the company doesn't stop there.

Samsung even built in a fingerprint scanner, which streamlines the encryption authentication process. No longer will you even have enter a password. Just like on many smartphones and high-end laptops, your fingerprint unlocks the device. Conveniently, the scanner works to unlock the device, regardless if the supporting software is installed on the host or not, making unlocking simple on any device. The device can also store up to four fingerprints if you use the device in a shared environment, too.

Software and Accessories

Samsung ships the T7 Touch with two USB cables, one USB Type-C to Type-C and one USB Type-C to USB Type-A. They measure about 18 inches each, which is 6-9 inches longer than what most similar SSDs come with. That's a nice touch that should help you avoid dangling the drive from a front or rear port.

The company also included Samsung Portable SSD Software with the T7. It comes with packages for PC, Mac, and Android. This is used for updating the device and setting up the password encryption and fingerprint scanner and is also well designed and simple to use. In just moments of following the guided steps, we were able to get security set up.

A Closer Look

The T7 Touch features an aluminum enclosure and comes in both black and silver color options. The border of the scanner also doubles as a status indicator light. Referred to as a Motion LED, the indicator light will turn on when connected to power to show the device is powered on, and turn off after 10 seconds of idle time. When transferring data, the light will rotate around the scanner. And, when locked, it will blink on and off.

Samsung’s T7 Touch is quite compact, measuring at 85 x 57 x 8.0mm and weighing just 58 grams. With its tiny size and weight, its also shock-resistant and can handle a decent drop without fail, up to 6 feet according to Samsung. That said, it lacks any IP rating for protection against dust or water.

Integrated into its design are multiple thermal management technologies. The first is the company’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology, which helps to minimize heat generation to maintain optimal operating temperatures. Second is the use of an EPCM or Encapsulated Phase Change Material. This basically absorbs immediate excess heat from the components and releases it gradually to protect against overheating.

The drive features a new "Pablo" NAND flash controller. This DRAMless design manages two Samsung 92L TLC V-NAND flash packages on our 1TB sample. It interfaces with an ASMedia ASM2362 chip, which is a USB 3.2 Gen2-to-NVMe bridge chip for connection to the host.

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Comparison Products

Today, we pit the T7 Touch against a collection of competing 10 Gbps SSDs, as well as a few outliers to show the value in its performance. To start, we include the SanDisk Extreme Pro, LaCie Rugged SSD, Lexar SL100 Pro, and Adata SE800. As a value-oriented 10 Gbps portable SSD, we threw in Crucial’s X8. And with its comparatively pokey SATA interface, we also included the SanDisk Extreme. We also added in the Samsung X5, a thunderbolt 3 SSD,  WD’s My Passport and LaCie’s Mobile Drive, both portable HDDs.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Samsung’s T7 Touch isn’t the fastest 10 Gbps SSD you can get, but when transferring your favorite photos, video, or documents from your system to the T7 Touch, it will provide ample performance. It ranks sixth place during the write transfers and ups that to fifth place during the read tests.

Trace Testing – PCMark 10 Storage Test: Data Drive Benchmark

PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to measure the performance of the storage device. To test drives that store files rather than applications, we utilize the Data Drive Benchmark.

Samsung’s T7 Touch once again falls behind the pack here. In PCMark 10’s Data Drive Benchmark, it ranked in 7th place overall. Every 10 Gbps SSD outperformed it, but the Samsung drive still provides higher performance than the SATA-based SanDisk Extreme, and scored similarly to the Extreme Pro overall. As should be obvious, it delivered much better performance than the HDDs.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

In ATTO, we tested Samsung’s X7 Touch at a QD of 1, representing most day-to-day file access at various block sizes. While it managed to peak at 952 / 884 MBps read/write at the 8MB file size, most of its competition hit higher highs. As well, competing drives seem to provide better performance at smaller block sizes too, which showed in our file transfer results.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

In iometer, Samsung’s T7 Touch managed third place overall in sequential read performance, peaking at 974 MBps. Write performance hit a respectable 913 MBps, but the drive scores sixth place overall. It landed in sixth place under random tests too, trailing most 10 Gbps portable SSDs.

Sustained Write Performance, Cache Recovery, and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. This test reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds.  

Samsung outfits the T7 Touch with what seems like a 45GB write cache at the 1TB capacity. After writing to the drive continuously at about 930 MBps, it was able to write another 45GB after just 30 seconds idle time. So under average use, it should suffice. But, for those who manage large files daily, the T7 Touch isn’t the best candidate for the job. After the write cache fills, write speeds degrade to about 500-600MBps.

Temperatures weren’t an issue for the T7 Touch either. Samsung rates it to stay below 45C at room temp. When transferring over five hundred gigabytes of data to and from the SSD, its surface temperature managed to stay under 44C with no airflow.

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The Samsung T7 Touch isn’t the fastest 10 Gbps SSD we've tested, but it does offer a good bit of performance to keep up with the average consumer. It will store and read back all your high-res photos, video, and more with ease. And, if you have an NVMe based system, pairing the T7 Touch or another fast external SSD with it is a great idea to speed up your productivity. HDDs, and even slow SATA drives will bottleneck your file-based workflow when paired with an external option like the T7 Touch.

Constantly moving data to and from the T7 Touch during daily use went quickly. But sometimes write performance will stumble under large write transfers to the device. After about 45GB written, write performance degrades to SATA-like speed with this drive. This is not unlike most SSDs, though. Very few that we've tested so far are able to maintain their interface speed in both reads and writes over the capacity of the device. 

For those who manage large files daily, the T7 Touch isn’t the best candidate for the job. The recently reviewed SanDisk Extreme Pro or LaCie's Rugged SSDs are slightly better alternatives. And, if you are looking to save some cash, the Crucial X8 is tweaked to perform really well and sells for significantly less.

However, if you're a user on the go and need the AES 256-bit hardware encryption the T7 Touch may be the best choice yet for a portable SSD. The built-in fingerprint scanner is something more companies should pick up when adding encryption to their devices. Unlocking the SSD went without a hitch in our use. Consistently, the fingerprint scanner accurately scanned my fingers to unlock the drive, even without the software installed. 

We did have to install the software once to set up the drive's fingerprint reader and encryption. But once that was done, unlocking the device was stupid simple and it left our mind at ease knowing our data was protected once we unplugged. 

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Features and Specifications

If you are in the market for a backup drive, Seagate’s Backup Plus series of external HDDs may already be on your shortlist. But with so many options, it can be hard to navigate which one is best for you. Seagate's Backup Plus series alone is split into 3 product groups, sorted by capacity and feature options, which can be a bit confusing if you’re a storage newbie. And even if you know what features you need, you could miss out on something a feature worth considering and not know it too. So, let's break things down a bit for you.

The Backup Plus Slim, which is under a half-inch thick, comes in capacities of 1TB and 2TB and is available in four colors.The higher-capacity 4TB and 5TB models are about twice as thick and come in under the Portable naming scheme and feature just 3 color options. These are your average run-of-the-mill 2.5-inch 5400RPM external HDDs. Their performance is rather normal for an external 2.5-inch HDD and with USB 3.0 connectivity, they cover most people’s needs.

But, alongside the Slim models, Seagate has released the Ultra Touch. One of the best external hard drives you can get, the Ultra Touch has two distinct features -- three if you want to include the textured finish, but we don’t warrant that as much of a buying factor to consider, as much as Seagate may want us to.

Specifications

What we consider more important is the fact that that the Touch drives come with USB-C compatibility. But rather than feature a USB-C port on the device itself or a full-blown USB-C cable like LaCie products have, Seagate simply includes a small USB-A to USB-C adapter in the box to check off that compatibility checkbox. This is a rather boring feature, but important to consider, as laptop manufacturers are moving more and more to the new smaller connector.

The most important differentiator between the Ultra Touch and its competitors is a bit more intriguing. It features AES 256-bit encryption to keep your precious data secure. You wouldn’t want to leave your backup drive somewhere by mistake and give some stranger access to all your personal files, photos, videos, etc., would you? The Ultra Touch aims to prevent that with this handy feature. Some competing drives offer this as well, so keep a lookout for it if you're shopping for a portable storage drive.

Seagate’s Backup Plus Ultra Touch comes in capacities of 1TB and 2TB at this time and is available in both black and white. Performance stats aren’t listed in their marketing documents. But in our testing, they can at least hit 140MBps. And warranty coverage comes in at 2-years.

Software and Accessories

Included with the drive is one 18-inch USB micro-B to USB Type-A cable for broad compatibility and the USB-C adapter. This means it should also work with most Thunderbolt 3 ports, which can switch into a USB compatible mode.

From the factory, the Ultra Touch comes pre-formatted as exFAT so that it is both PC and Mac compatible. Pre-loaded on the drive are a warranty document and a quick start application, which helps you get started on the company's value-add software.

Toolkit is the backup and utility software. It will help you enable the encryption feature as well as automate file backups. As value adds, Seagate offers a year subscription Mylio, which lets you to protect, edit, share, and sync your photos across multiple devices, and a two-month complimentary membership to Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan.

Closer Look

As we mentioned earlier, the Ultra Touch has a somewhat different look to it than other externals: It features a textured finish that reminded us of luxurious upholstery. On our white review sample has a top section with a grey textured finish. Physically, the drive measures 11.7 x 78 x 114.8 mm and weighs 151 grams (a third of a pound).

Additionally, the USB 3.0 connectivity on the drive end is provided by a SuperSpeed Micro-B port rather than an integrated USB-C port. This is a bit of a bummer, but unfortunately common in the category. If you need to connect to a USB-C port, you'll need an adapter cable like the one that comes bundled. 

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Comparison Products

In our testing, we're pitting the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch against a variety of external SSDs and HDDs that use Thunderbolt 3 and various USB interfaces. Closest to the Seagate is the LaCie Mobile Drive (LaCie is a brand owned by Seagate), which is a pricey metal-clad 5400RPM external HDD and also included are results against the LaCie 4TB Rugged RAID Pro, which utilizes two 2.5” HDDs in RAID 0. Next, we’ve taken out the 1TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD and 480GB Kingston HyperX Savage EXO, both much pricier SATA-based solid-state drives. As well, we included a 1TB G-Technology G-Drive Mobile Pro for some Thunderbolt 3-based competition to stir things up a bit. There's no way the trio of hard drives is going to compete with the collection of SSDs, but it's always good to have comparison numbers to show why people opt for solid-state storage, aside from the increased ruggedness that comes from a lack of any moving parts.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of iPhone jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos from a Canon 6D), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Alongside the LaCie Mobile Drive, the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch lands at the bottom when transferring files. During the Photo and Documents transfers, the Seagate drive hit ~100MBps and peaked at 122MBps during the Movie transfer. Read performance also ranks it last or second-to-last. With an average read speed of 120MB/s, its rather sluggish compared to our flash-based competitors.

Trace Testing – PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

PCMark 8 is a trace-based benchmark that uses Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3 to measure the performance of storage devices in real-world scenarios.

Seagate’s Backup Plus Ultra Touch achieved an overall score of 2178 points and averaged a bandwidth rate of 8MBps here. This score ranks it second-to-last on our charts and goes to show just how much of a practical and sizable difference there is in application performance between a spinning disk and something of the solid-state flavor.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

In ATTO, the Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch lands in last place, with transfer speeds of up to 144MBps read and 148MBps write.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

On average, Seagate’s Backup Plus Ultra Touch ranks last overall. During sequential transfers, performance peaked out at 132MBps read/write. Seagate’s Backup Plus Ultra Touch boasts random read latency that comes in at ~8.8ms read and 3.5ms write. This results in an IOPS throughput of 113 IOPS read and 286 IOPS write, which is just a fraction of what something like the SanDisk Extreme or other SSDs are capable of. And, scaling out to a QD of 4 or even 128 doesn’t improve performance much, but rather just exaggerates latency.

Write Saturation and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We tossed in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window. When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. For SSDs, this test also reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. Keep in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

Under a straight 14 minutes of write time, Seagate’s Backup Plus Ultra Touch managed to write just over 109GB of data. Surprisingly, this outshines the LaCie Mobile drive significantly, by nearly 30GB. Still, it pales in comparison to its flash-based solid-state competitors.

Over the course of writing the data, we logged the highest temperature of 37C, which is rather low.

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Conclusion

Seagate’s Backup Plus Ultra Touch is a new external HDD from the brand that merges multiple concepts into one to try to sell old tech. Not that hard drives are bad per se. SSDs are just in a whole different world when it comes to performance.

The Backup Plus Ultra Touch's performance is average for a 2.5-inch external HDD, and there generally isn't a whole lot of variation between competing hard drives. The Seagate drive delivers sequential speeds upwards of 140MBps read/write, and Response times are nowhere near the realm of flash-based competitors.

But all that is to be expected, and is why it works great as a backup device. Considering a typical backup routine only carries out and updates a few times a month, performance isn’t much of an issue for the average consumer, especially considering the price. At $69.99, you’re paying $35 a terabyte for the 2TB model we tested today. That's about $10 more than some lower-end WD and Seagate drives,  but the Ultra Touch has features that add a lot of value.

Sure, there’s a new textured finish that looks pretty good. It also helps you grip the external when searching for it in your bag. But unfortunately, there are no rubber on the bottom of the enclosure to prevent slipping on the surface you place it on. And, the included USB-C adapter is not the classiest solution, although it is effective.

The Backup Plus Ultra Touch comes with some software trials to help you manage your photo library. The yearlong membership of Mylio included may be useful to some (a $50 value), but as an avid Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom user, the two months of included Creative Cloud Photography Plan ($20 value) appeals to me, and probably a lot of amateur photographers, too. Adding these two software values together chops off quite a bit of the price if you are going to utilize both.

What we really like about this drive, though, is just how easy the encryption works. Install the Toolkit software, click enable, add your password and you’re off. Once enabled, no one can see your data except for you -- unless you give someone else your encryption key. If you are into data security, the Backup Plus Ultra Touch is a great secure storage/backup option that is well worth those extra few dollars it commands over the competition.

Photo Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Capable of SATA-like speeds and available in capacities of up to 2TB, Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro Portable SSD is both speedy and spacious. It even features encryption software for enhanced data security when you’re on the go. It’s also priced quite competitively, although it isn’t without its quirks.

Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro is marketed as quite a durable device. The company says it’s military-grade shockproof, with a design that was inspired by a WWI-era German Junkers F.13 transport plane. And with military design in mind, it is quite secure with 256-bit encryption software for added security.

Specifications

The Bolt B75 Pro is available in capacities of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. It utilizes a USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C interface to deliver speeds of up to 520/420 MBps read/write. 

The drive features a standard three-year warranty, but lacks an official endurance rating at the time of writing. It is both Mac and PC compatible, as the Bolt B75 pro comes formatted as exFAT out of the box. Note, though, that our testing was completed with the drive formatted as NTFS.

Software and Accessories

The Bolt B75 Pro comes with two one-foot long USB cables, one type-C to type-C and the other type-C to type-A. Both power the device off the USB bus.

Silicon Power’s SP Widget software is compatible with this drive and available for download. With it, you can configure backups, enable the AES 256-bit encryption, and more.

Closer Look

The Bolt B75 Pro measures 124.4 x 82.0 x 12.2 mm and weighs in at 105 grams. The sleek aluminum casing features a multi-side power indicator light.

The drive is easily disassembled via four Philips head screws. But while the housing is sleek it’s a bit less durable than we expected. The exterior features a lightweight aluminum-alloy finish, which we were able to bend rather easy. This is unlike much tougher LaCie externals drives we’ve tested in the past. 

Opened up, we find inside houses a SATA-to-USB PCB featuring an ASMedia ASM234cm bridge chip and a SATA SSD that is secured using double-sided adhesive foam. Once we dig a bit deeper, we see that the Bolt B75 Pro is powered by a Silicon Motion SM2258XT SATA controller and Intel 64L TLC NAND flash. Being a Silicon Motion XT controller, that means this SSD does not feature any DRAM, which helps to help keep down cost, but can also negatively impact performance.  

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Comparison Products

Today, we throw Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro up against a few other external SSDs and an external HDD that we have recently tested. As the slowest competitor, we include the LaCie Mobile Drive 2TB HDD. Next, we include the Kingston HyperX Savage EXO and SanDisk Extreme, both USB C external SSDs that operate at SATA speeds. Additionally, we included two faster options, the Lexar SL100 Pro, a USB 10Gbps product, and Samsung’s Thunderbolt 3 powered X5 external SSD. 

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of iPhone jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos from a Canon 6D), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device. 

Unlike Kingston’s HyperX Savage EXO, the Bolt B75 Pro delivers some respectable results for a flash-based external. Write performance is just behind the SanDisk Extreme by a few seconds and leaps and bounds better than what the LaCie Mobile Drive can withstand. The Bolt was able to write at a rate of 449-487 MBps. During file reads, it comes in third overall, edging out over the other SATA based externals. 

Trace Testing – PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

PCMark 8 is a trace-based benchmark that uses Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3 to measure the performance of storage devices in real-world scenarios.

In PCMark 8, Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro wasn’t able to surpass the HyperX Savage EXO. But still, it proved itself to be quite fast for application use. With a total score of 4,913 points and an average bandwidth of 195 MBps, it ranks fifth overall and is significantly better than what any HDD could deliver.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

The Bolt B75 Pro hit its rated speeds and then some here. In reads, it hit a max of 567 MBps and while writing, it hit 507 MBps. This is similar to the SanDisk Extreme and HyperX Savage EXO.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

Results from sequential performance testing in iometer match that of ATTO. Speeds of 560/510 MBps read/write were achieved. With a fourth-place ranking, random performance is pretty decent too. At a queue depth of one, Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro is capable of up to 4,300 IOPS read performance and has the second-highest write performance, 16,500 IOPS. Also, peak random figures come in at 22,000 / 39,000 IOPS read/write.

Write Saturation and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. This test also reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

For the first twelve minutes and forty-five seconds of writing, the Bolt B75 Pro wrote at a rate of 485 MBps for a total of 375GB. Beyond that, however, write speed decreased significantly. Once the dynamic SLC cache is full, write speed averaged 70 MBps, with lows as low as 5-6 MBps. 

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 Silicon Power’s Bolt B75 Pro aims to offer up speedy flash in plentiful capacities in the form of a sleek and durable external storage. And it is quite cheap for an external SSD. But, like some other recent “Pro” type storage products we have reviewed, it doesn’t quite live up to that name.

One disappointing aspect was its encryption method. Based on Silicon Power’s Widget software, it works on a per-file or per-folder basis, uses up system resources, and takes a long time to encrypt. This is not as streamlined as what Samsung or Seagate have configured for their externals, which encrypt on a drive level. Using the latter method,  entering just one password unlocks the whole device and everything works instantly.  

Aesthetically, sure,the Bolt B75 Pro is made of an aluminum alloy and is advertised as military-grade. However, the Bolt B75 Pro isn’t as rugged as the company would lead you to believe. It’s better than plastic, but the casing can bend and twist rather easily. It’s also advertised as being scratchproof, but a dull pair of scissors seems to nick and scratch the casing without much effort. The drive looks good but isn’t so tough. Nor does it feature any sort of weather, water, dust, or crush resistance ratings like some more portable solutions like SanDisk’s Extreme and Extreme Pro. 

When using the Bolt B75 Pro, its performance is mixed. While we recorded average flash-based read and write speeds when transferring files to and from the external SSD, extended write testing showed things can go downhill fast. As we demonstrated, the DRAMless SSD powering the Bolt B75 Pro can degrade to speeds slower than a hard drive, just 70MBps on average after the dynamic pSLC cache exhausts due to its DRAMless architecture. 

However, when putting the drive under some consumer workload traces in PCMark 8, the storage test revealed some fairly competitive application and game load performance. So, if you don’t plan on writing hundreds of gigabytes of data often, then the write slowdowns will happen extremely rarely if at all. But, for those actual pros or prosumers who need to write large batches of files fast, look to alternatives or even toward building an external yourself. 

Current pricing places the Bold B75 Pro just ahead of what most SATA SSDs cost by a few dollars. This doesn’t make it the best deal in external storage, though it is quite competitive for an external SSD. Depending on the capacity, opting for a better-quality DRAM-based SATA SSD and an external enclosure may be a more valuable route if you are looking for more consistent performance. Or, spend a bit more and get a higher performance external SSD like the Samsung X5.

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A hardware leaker known on Twitter as momomo_us, who was spot on with specifications for Intel's Cascade Lake-X chips, has revealed alleged specifications for Intel's Xeon W 2200-series -- codename Glacier Falls W -- workstation processor lineup.

This generation of Intel Xeon W processors is segmented into two groups. The Cascade Lake W (CSL-W) processors, which came out in June, pack up to 28 cores and use the LGA 3647 CPU socket. The Glacier Falls W chips, which Intel has yet to officially announce, reportedly max out at 18 cores and will continue to slot into the LGA 2066 socket.

Glacier Falls W vs. Skylake W Specs

*Specifications are not confirmed.

Starting with the obvious, the new Glacier Falls W processors chips will seemingly arrive with generally higher base clock speeds than their predecessors, the Skylake W line. According to the leaker, the base clocks for the upcoming Xeon W-2295 and Xeon W-2255 CPUs are up to 700 MHz and 400 MHz higher than the Xeon W-2195 and Xeon W-2155, respectively. On the other hand, the Glacier Falls W-based Xeon W-2223 will allegedly have the same 3.6 GHz base clock as its predecessor. The Xeon W-2265 is a newcomer as Intel didn't offer a 12-core Xeon W chip in the past.

VideoCardz has leaked the pricing for the new Intel Xeon W parts. In general, the prices for Glacier Falls W are significantly lower than the previous generation. Some models, such as the Xeon W-2225 and W-2123 seemingly preserve the same price tag as their older counterparts. 

For the time being, only the Xeon W-2295 has appeared in the Geekbench database. The Xeon W-2295 seemingly delivers 5.3% and 9.1% higher single-and mulit-core performance than the Xeon W-2195. However, it's important to note that the Xeon W-2195 system was running faster memory, so the difference in actual CPU performance could be slightly lower than reported.

We've yet to hear a time frame as to when Intel will replace its aging Skylake W CPUs with Glacier Falls W chips. Today's leak could indicate that the new workstation processors aren't too far away.

Phanteks has announced the new Glacier Aorus Xtreme kit designed to cool the VRM and CPU for the impressive Gigabyte C621 Aorus Xtreme motherboard and the LGA 3647 Narrow Socket P processors. In addition to the kit for the board, Phanteks also announced new blocks in the Glacier C360I and C360A for Intel and AMD processors. Both the kit and new blocks are made from CNC-cut 100% pure copper with a full cover acrylic design that includes integrated digital RGB lighting in each.

Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Kit

The Glacier Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme kit (product code PH-GBAXTKT) is designed to cool the ridiculously expensive, and awesome, Gigabyte C621 Aorus Extreme motherboard. If that massive heatsink covering the 32-phase motherboard isn't sufficient, this kit will provide the base for cooler and quieter operations on both the VRM and socket 3647 CPU. The thick copper base of the blocks brings a higher level of heat transfer and capacity according to the company. The base includes microchannels and low flow resistance to keep things cool and the water easily flowing. 

The CPU block that comes in the kit is the Glacier C3647i Narrow Socket CPU block. Like the VRM cooler, it is also made of 100% CNC machined copper with a nickel plating, an acrylic top and integrated RGB lighting. The C3647i is designed specifically to cover the Intel Cascade Lake-SP Xeon Workstation family which includes the Xeon W-3275 among many other SKUs. 

The nickel plated blocks include an acrylic top along with integrated RGB lighting that is compatible with Phanteks D-RGB equipped cases and the Gigabyte motherboard. Sealing the base and the top is a Viton O-Ring which the company says is used in the automotive and aerospace industries and brings improved durability. This includes resistance to wear and tear of installation and over-tightening as well as extreme temperatures and aggressive fluids. Phanteks says the O-ring will keep its sealing performance for a long period of time (the warranty is two years). 

Glacier C360I / C360A CPU Blocks

In addition to the Gigabyte kit above, Phanteks has also released two new CPU blocks. The C360I is said to be compatible with Intel socket 2011-v3 and 115x sockets while the C360A will fit socket AM4 based motherboards. Like the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Kit, these blocks are also made from 100% copper and CNC machined to their specifications. Outside of the integrated RGB LEDs, the blocks have a choice of a grey or black accent piece next to the in/out ports (both colors included). 

The Glacier Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Kit will cost $369.99 (a pittance compared to the board it's made for). The Glacier C360I and C360A blocks will cost $79.99. Both the new kit and blocks will be available at the end of August according to Phanteks.

NVMe over USB, but at what cost?

Lexar, which was bought by Chinese SSD maker Longsys back in 2017 after previous owner Micron announced it was getting out of the retail removable storage business, is offering up a new SL100 Pro portable SSD and with impressive performance ratings. With speeds of up to 950/900 MBps read/write, this USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 device is speedier than the typical run-of-the mill SATA based external SSD. Its small size and shape make it very pocketable for those who are constantly on the go, and it features beautiful aesthetics. But pricing needs to be brought back down to earthly levels before it gets our recommendation.

Lexar has been in the flash memory business for over 20 years, though recent times have been rocky, the brand seems to be back on track.Two years later its acquisition, the company has launched the world’s first 1TB SD card and a new series of NVMe and SATA based SSDs. Alongside these launches also comes an external drive aimed at the creative professional, the SL100 Pro, which we are taking a close look at today in the 1TB capacity.

The SL100 Pro is the faster variant of their SL100 external SSD. It uses the latest USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 interface to deliver high-performance for the working professional, double what the SL100 or any SATA SSD can do. It features a darker look than the SL100’s grey finish and features a higher capacity option than the non-pro model, which tops out at 500GB.

Specifications

Lexar originally launched the SL100 Pro in three capacities: 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. But, since have dropped the 250GB model, although some can still be found from some online retailers. Th drive features a three-year warranty and is compatible with both Mac and PC. Out of the box, it comes pre-formatted as exFAT, although our testing was completed while formatted as NTFS.

With current prices being about double what most other external SSDs go for, pricing is a big issue for the SL100 Pro product line. Speeds of up to 950/900 MB/s read and write are faster than SATA based competitors, but not fast enough to warrant double the cost. A simple USB 3.1 Gen 2 NVMe enclosure like a the Pluggable USBC-NVMe or MyDigitalSSD M2X plus a standard NVMe SSD would come in cheaper and offer just about the same level of performance, as we noted in our recent feature: How to Build Your Own External SSD.

Software and Accessories

Included in the package are the portable SSD itself and two short USB cables. One is USB-C to USB-C while the other is USB-C to USB-A cable. The latter is much appreciated for broad compatibility, since many PCs don't yet have USB-C ports, or might just have one, while USB-A is much more common.

Lexar’s SL100 Pro SSD also works with ENC’s DataVault Lite software for added security. When enabled, it utilizes 256-bit AES encryption to encrypt data on the device to keep it safe from prying eyes. As another bonus, this helps to ensure your deleted data stays deleted as well. Files that are deleted from the vault are also securely erased and can’t be recovered. There is just one issue here, however. At the time of writing, due to US government requirements, the download for the software was temporarily unavailable until further notice, and it doesn’t come pre-loaded on the device. So if security and encryption are high on your priorities list, you should probably look elsewhere--at least until the software becomes available again.

Closer Look

The drive measures 55 x 73.4 x 10.8 mm and weighs in at just over 69 grams. Lexar’s SL100 Pro features a blacked-out brushed aluminum exterior that is as stylish as it is durable. It feels solid in the hand and has a bit of heft to it. As an SSD, it should be able to withstand significant drops and shock and still keep going, unlike the spinning platters and delicate read/write heads of hard drives.

As we said before, this isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill SATA-based external SSD. It’s not quite as fast as some of the Thunderbolt 3 devices available, but with a custom-designed PCB and the fastest USB interface currently available, it's quite fast. And powering it is an interesting combination of components.

Inside of this classy exterior is a JMicron JMS583 USB to NVMe bridge chip that connects to a Marvell 88NV1160 NVMe SSD controller that is, in turn, managing a bunch of 64L Micron TLC NAND flash. This controller is a lower-end model but obviously has enough grunt to saturate the interface, even without DRAM.

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Performance Results

Comparison Products

In today’s review, we'll be pitting the SL100 Pro against a few other external SSDs and HDDs that we have recently tested. Powered by HDDs, we’ve included the 2TB LaCie Mobile Drive and 4TB Rugged RAID Pro. Stepping things up, we added in the 1TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD and 480GB Kingston HyperX Savage EXO, which both deliver SATA SSD performance over USB. As well, we’ve included some Thunderbolt-based competition to heat things up a bit: a 1TB G-Technology G-Drive mobile Pro and 1TB Samsung X5, both high-end (and expensive) Thunderbolt 3 devices.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of iPhone jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos from a Canon 6D), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Lexar’s SL100 Pro rips through our test files with ease. It ranks third overall, behind our two Thunderbolt 3 comparison devices. In our real-world file write transfer tests, the photos folder wrote the fastest at 971 MB/s and read the fastest of 886 MB/s with the 3.7GB read file. Looking at things time-wise, the Lexar drive offers a significant advantage over the HDDs and a decent improvement in performance over the HyperX Savage EXO and SanDisk Extreme in every task.

Trace Testing – PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

PCMark 8 is a trace-based benchmark that uses Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3 to measure the performance of storage devices in real-world scenarios.

In PCMark 8, the SL100 Pro pulls in a score of 4,945 points and achieved an average bandwidth of 223MB/s. While significantly faster in sequential tasks like large file reading and writing over SATA based USB devices, random performance seems to be rather similar in applications. And, as you can see, it is significantly faster than any HDD.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

Lexar’s SL100 Pro hits top speeds of 1,076/923 MBps read and write in ATTO. This beats the manufacturer's ratings, which is always nice to see.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices.

At a queue depth of one, the Lexar SL100 Pro’s 4KB random read latency is double that of its competitors, which results in about half of the IOPS delivery. Overall, its random performance lags behind the other NVMe and SATA SSD based competitors on average from queue depths 1-4. This is probably why we saw a slightly lower score than that of the SanDisk’s. And, just as we saw in ATTO, it ranks in third place in sequential performance, hitting peak speeds of 918/898 MBps, respectively.

Write Saturation and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window, writing to the full span of the drive. When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. This test also reveals if the drive has a pseudo-SLC cache, which is a small portion of faster-programmed flash that absorbs incoming write workloads. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

Write performance for the Lexar drive was looking pretty solid, until we performed this test. Here we find that the SL100 Pro features a large and dynamic pseudo-SLC write cache. From empty, the cache seems to function pretty well. Up to the five-minute mark, it absorbed double the amount of data as the SanDisk Extreme. After that, however, it started slowing down until it ultimately wrote at a rate of just 180 MB/s due to its DRAMless design.

We were unable to log the S.M.A.R.T. data while writing data, but we still caught a few updates throughout testing. At most, our temperature readings were reporting ~55 degrees C and the unit was just warm to the touch.

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Conclusion

Lexar’s SL100 Pro is more semi-pro than professional. For those who are just looking for a sleek and speedy portable SSD, it will most likely suit your needs. It delivers performance numbers in the 1,000MBps range, but there is a catch. While its pSLC cache can be quite fast, once saturated, its direct-to-TLC write speeds are very poor, averaging 180MBpss. As a professional-labeled product, I would expect write speed to be much better overall considering the cost of the unit. SanDisk’s Extreme maintains full write performance at all times with an average speed that is triple that of the SL100 Pro’s.

Now, depending on your use case, this may not affect you in most day to day use. We wrote over 300GB to the Lexar drive before write speeds slowed down. So, if you aren’t writing hundreds of GB at once often (and from a similarly speedy drive), the SL100 Pro should keep up. You can definitely record and work on 4K media with these speeds. During our file transfer tests, we saw great performance as well when toying with 25-50GB file folders and large, multi-GB files. Temperatures were fine too.

After using the device for a good bit of time, we also came up with a few other minor complaints: Lexar could improve the device by giving it more grip to rest securely on whatever surface you place it on. Also, I'd like t see slightly longer USB cables included. I often found that these two issues make positioning the device around our laptop or on your desktop either a bit bothersome or nearly impossible. As well, considering the free encryption support is currently void in the US, one of its main value points is irrelevant.

But the biggest issue we have with the device at this time is the cost. At nearly double the price of SATA-based competitors, is the Lexar SL100 Pro really worth it for double the transfer performance? Considering the rather slow direct-to-TLC write speeds, we don’t think so. The performance doesn’t justify such a high price point. You are better off purchasing a JMicron JMS583 based NVMe SSD enclosure like the Pluggable or MyDigitalSSD M2X and an NVMe SSD to make your own external SSD at current prices.

The Lexar SL100 Pro has a lot going for it, but maybe a bit too much going against it too. Until Lexar brings prices down to more competitive levels, this drive isn't worth it unless you have money to burn. Otherwise, if you’re paying that kind of cash, go ahead and build your own or opt for something in the faster Thunderbolt 3 flavor if you have the requisite ports on your computing devices.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Lavish and Spacious

LaCie's simply named Mobile Drive is a sleek-looking portable HDD, for those looking for some style in their external storage lives. But that’s really all it has going for it compared to most other comparable external drives. In testing, it hit speeds of up to 140MBps, which isn’t too bad for a 2.5-inch HDD-based external, but is in the stone age compared to SSD-based alternatives. And, although it does come in at lower cost than flash, be prepared to pay the LaCie tax for its aesthetics. LaCie demands a significant premium, at $25-50 per capacity, over similarly performing external HDD options on the market.

LaCie’s latest generation of external HDDs focuses on lavish design. And we can't blame the company, given that single-drive portable disk-based storage tends to be pretty similar (and stagnant) when it comes to performance, making it tough to differentiate. This portable external HDD feels as solid as it looks. The diamond-cut aluminum finish makes this drive one of the classiest-looking devices we have used this year. But, looks aren’t all it has going on.

LaCie’s Mobile drive comes in spacious capacities to store all your data. LaCie states that their largest capacity can store up to 165 hours of 4K video or up to 500,000 photos. It utilizes the new USB-C interface, but, because it’s still an HDD inside, can’t begin to saturate the interface.

Specifications

LaCie lists the availability of the Mobile Drive in four capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB. All don’t have an official rating on LaCie’s website, but in testing, they can hit speeds of up to  about 140 MB/s. Unlike their SSD counterparts, the Mobile Drive features a shorter 2-year warranty.

Software and Accessories

Included with the drive are two USB cables, one a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and the other a USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable for broad compatibility. This means the drive will work with Thunderbolt 3- and USB 3-compatible devices.

From the factory, LaCie’s Mobile Drive comes pre-formatted as exFAT so that it is both PC and Mac compatible. Pre-loaded on the drive are a warranty document and a quick-start application to help you set up your Adobe membership and download LaCie’s Toolkit, which can be used to back up your data.

Like the LaCie Rugged RAID Pro we reviewed a few months ago, LaCie's Mobile Drive also features a 1-month membership to Adobe's Creative Cloud All Apps plan ($53 if purchased separately). Unfortunately, there is no encryption feature or software included.

Closer Look

LaCie's Mobile Drive features an all-aluminum sandblasted finish and diamond-cut design in moon silver color. In addition to moon silver, there is also a space gray model to fully match your Mac, but it is only sold by Apple at this time.

Our 2TB review sample measures in at 10 x 87.8 x 121.6 mm and weighs about 74g. The 4TB and 5TB models are double the thickness and slightly larger overall. These also weigh about double what the 1TB and 2TB models weigh, due to additional storage platters on the internal drives.

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Performance Results

Comparison Products

To gauge the performance of the LaCie Mobile Drive, we’ve opted to pit it against a few other external SSDs and HDDs that use Thunderbolt 3 and various USB interfaces. Included are results for the 4TB Rugged RAID Pro, which utilizes two 2.5” HDDs in RAID 0. Next, we’ve taken out the 1TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD and 480GB Kingston HyperX Savage EXO, both SATA, SSD-based competitors. As well,, we included some Thunderbolt 3-based competition to stir things up a bit, just to show how fast these SSDs really are over HDD competition. These included a 1TB G-Technology G-Drive mobile Pro and 1TB Samsung X5.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of iPhone jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos from a Canon 6D), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

When it comes to moving real files, LaCie’s Mobile Drive did pretty well considering its slow 2.5-inch HDD within. It came in the last place across the board in both writing in reading. It wrote our photos folder at 105 MBps, the movies folder at 132 MBps, and our docs folder at 91 MBps. Reading back large files resulted in an average speed of about 120 MBps.

Trace Testing – PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

PCMark 8 is a trace-based benchmark that uses Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3 to measure the performance of storage devices in real-world scenarios.

In PCMark 8, LaCie’s Mobile drive scored 1,585 points in total and averaged just 5 MBps, plopping it into last place. If you are for a drive in your professional workflow for anything other than backup, we suggest looking elsewhere to flash-based SSD alternatives.

Synthetics - ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

Just as in PCMark 8, the LaCie Mobile Drive ranks last on our ATTO charts. Sequential speeds hit nearly 140 MBps in both read and write.

Synthetics - iometer

iometer is an advanced and highly configurable storage benchmarking tool that vendors often use to measure the performance of their devices

LaCie’s Mobile Drive falls into the last place on our charts once gain. It maxes out at  roughly 140 MBps read/write. Random read latency comes in at 8ms at best, while write latency is much lower at just 3ms. While these numbers are decent for a hard drive, they pale in comparison to something like the HyperX Savage EXO and SanDisk Extreme SSDs.

Write Saturation and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in this one last test to measure the performance of the drive over a 15-minute window. When possible, we also log the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data to see when (or if) thermal throttling kicks in and how it impacts performance. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

Sequentially writing to the drive results in the slowest rate out of the test group, taking 15 minutes to write just 84GB. Over the course of writing the data, we logged the highest temperature of 38C, which isn’t too hot at all.

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Conclusion

LaCie’s Mobile Drive is more aesthetically pleasing than your average portable HDD. Its diamond-cut edging and sandblasted aluminum finish rank it up there as one of the best-looking and -feeling external HDDs we have come across to date. It's definitely a top pick if you want to match your external drive to your Mac or other aluminum-finished devices.

But flash-based storage is still light years ahead in terms of speed, and prices of SSDs have been steadily and dramatically falling over the last few years. So if you care about performance, you should probably opt for an external SSD. Performance of the Mobile Drive is average for an HDD of this caliber. In testing, we hit speeds of up to 140 MBps read and write and averaged transferring data around at about 120MBps. If you plan on doing anything other than backing up, your experience may be a bit laggy. Flash-based portable drives are much better for any more-demanding tasks, as demonstrated by our PCMark 8 results.

We appreciate that LaCie included USB-C to USB-A and USB-C to USB-C cables for broad market compatibility. Not everyone has the latest and greatest devices with USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 support. And, LaCie’s Toolkit is a great software tool for end-users to utilize for their backup routine. It's quite simple to use and gets the job done without much effort. It takes the guesswork out of backing up.

One thing that we think LaCie could improve is adding a rubber texture to the bottom of the drive to prevent slipping on desks and other surfaces. Other than that, the drive is a pretty solid build. The only other qualm we have is the premium price being so much higher than competing portable hard drives, to the point that you can get double the storage capacity, plus similar performance and warranty for roughly the same price or just a little more. If you are in search of a new portable HDD, LaCie’s Mobile Drive wouldn’t be our first recommendation, especially if you care about value. But if looks matter to you, externals don’t get much prettier than LaCie’s Mobile Drive.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Professional RAID Made Easy

With spacious capacities and a 10Gb/s USB 3.1 Type-C interface, LaCie’s got a new professional desktop RAID device that is ideal for the creative pro looking to up their storage game. LaCie’s 2big RAID, armed with two enterprise-class 7200RPM Seagate IronWolf Pro HDDs, is capable of delivering speeds of up to 440MB/s read/write.

But, while it is ~$150 cheaper than the 2big Dock and some of its competition, the 16TB 2big RAID is still quite pricey with a street price of about $700 bucks. With a price like that, it does have some perks, although it is missing some, too.

Recently, we took a look at a mobile RAID solution from LaCie, the Rugged RAID Pro. In essence, the device takes two HDDs and enables the end user to configure either RAID 0, 1, or simply set the two HDDs accessible in JBOD mode. It delivered decent performance and flexibility, but for those seeking larger capacity and higher performance, this little device won’t cut it.

For those of you in need of more space for your ever-growing media collection or those who want a faster scratch space for your workflow and are not yet ready to plunge into the expensive flash abyss, LaCie’s 2big RAID might be just for you.

Specifications

The 2big RAID comes in capacities of 4TB, 8TB, and 16TB. Prices start at $399.00 for the 4TB model, making it the least bang for your buck. The 8TB model is just $100 more for twice the capacity, but it doesn’t touch the value of the 16TB model if you need big capacity. While coming in at a hefty $700, it comes with the best price-per-GB of the family.

Pros demand and expect higher reliability out of their tools, and LaCie aims to give them exactly what they want. The 2big is similar to the Rugged RAID Pro, in that LaCie packs two HDDs into it and lets you configure them in RAID 0, 1, or JBOD mode. But the unit doesn't have ordinary HDDs inside.

Instead, the unit come with two of Seagate’s enterprise-class 7200RPM IronWolf Pro NAS HDDs, optimized for RAID and tuned to run 24/7. LaCie’s 2big RAID comes pre-configured in RAID 0 and is pre-formatted with the exFAT file system for the fastest speed and broadest compatibility. The company rates the unit for speeds of up to 440MB/s of sequential read/write throughput.

LaCie has even turned to world-renowned computer fan designer and manufacturer, Noctua, to help keep these drives cool through any workload. A 60mm Noctua A6x25 FLX fan that is whisper quiet from just two feet away resides at the rear of the all-black aluminum enclosure.

The 2big is compatible with both macOS 10.12+ and Windows 10+ computers with Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. It even features hot-swapping capability so that you can easily remove and replace drives even while the unit is in operation.

Software and Accessories

LaCie’s 2big RAID comes with a 39.5” USB-C to USB-C cable, 39.5” USB-C to USB-A cable, a 36W (12V-3A) power supply with various adapters, and a quick install guide.

LaCie’s Toolkit and RAID Manager software makes configuring the unit a snap. Changing RAID modes requires you to press the power button on the rear of the device for confirmation. This helps to prevent accidental data loss from changing modes accidentally. LaCie RAID Manager can also send you email notifications about drive and system health. Furthermore, you can use Toolkit to manage backup plans (Windows only), create mirror folders, and automate memory card imports directly to the device.

Additionally, LaCie includes a month of membership to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which enables you to use all of Adobe's Creative Cloud applications for free, a $79.49 value. And, to top things off, it comes backed by  five years of Rescue Data Recovery Services in case disaster strikes. That's a big plus.

Closer Look

The 2big chassis is a blacked-out an all-aluminum unibody design that measures in at 8.5 x 4.7 x 3.7" and weighs in at 6.2lbs. There is an indicator light on each of the metal disk trays, and the faceplates are plastic. The top one also features the classic blue dome light as a status indicator; however, the light is a bit intense.

Four rubber feet do an excellent job at keeping the unit stable and the desk vibration free. The unit also has vents on the chassis back and underside to aid with airflow. There's also a power button, power input, a Kensington lock port, USB 3.1 Gen 2 type C port, and a firmware update button on the rear of the unit.

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Performance Results

Comparison Products

We configured and tested the 2big RAID in all operating modes and threw it against a few devices we have reviewed in the past. We included a few external SSDs for comparison. Our first two competitors are the 1TB G-Technology G-Drive mobile Pro SSD and 1TB Samsung X5, both are Thunderbolt 3 based SSDs. We threw in SanDisk’s 1TB Extreme Portable SSD, 480GB Kingston’s HyperX Savage EXO, and LaCie’s 1TB Rugged RAID Pro. These all come with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface.

ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

When configured in a RAID 0 array, the 2big RAID hit its rated speeds of 440MB/s of sequential read/write throughput. As expected, it lags behind its flash-based competition but delivers a whole lot more usable space. When configured as RAID 1 or JBOD, performance halves and matches that of the LaCie Rugged RAID Pro, hitting ~230MB/s read/write. Performance is slightly better when in JBOD mode.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark (CDM) is a simple and easy to use storage benchmarking tool.

Like we saw in our review of the Rugged RAID Pro, CDM’s default sequential setting at a queue depth of 32 presented a slight “problem.” At QD32, the performance was over the rated 440MB/s read, but write speeds fell to 283MB/s. This improved to 384MB/s once we scaled back the queue depth to a more realistic value of 1. Again, both RAID 1 and JBOD results prove similar to one another at half the speed of RAID 0. This carries over to 4K random performance where we can see that compared to flash-based SSDs, this metric isn’t an HDD’s strong suit. 4K read/write performance comes in at up to 1/9 MB/s.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of iPhone jpg and 15GB of RAW photos from a Canon 6D), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

The 2big RAID delivered respectable performance that crushes the Rugged RAID Pro. Transferring photos and our documents folder resulted in speeds of 236-245MB/s, while transferring 50GB of movies resulted in a transfer rate of 433MB/s, just beating the SanDisk Extreme 1TB. Read performance comes in at ~290MB/s for both our 3.7GB and 15GB file read tests. We can see that in RAID 0 the transfers are not quite as fast as some of the fastest SSDs, but performance is much better than that of an ordinary mobile external device.

Trace Testing – PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

PCMark 8 is a trace-based benchmark that uses Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3 to measure the performance of storage devices in real-world scenarios.

Total scores range from 2,966 to 3,135 points and average bandwidth comes in at 14-16MB/s. These are high scores for a hard drive, but these “high” scores have nothing on flash. In PCMark 8, the rapid access times and fast small file transfer performance of flash enables the external SSDs to easily outperform the LaCie 2big RAID.

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Conclusion

LaCie’s 2big RAID is an excellent external storage device that is mostly a great buy for those looking to up their storage space. Being the size of a big brick, it’s not portable, but the sleek design will nicely accent the rest of your high-end tech on your desk. That is if you can stand the obnoxiously bright blue LED dome light on the front of the unit. In order to dim the light, I had to place a piece of tape over the clear plastic that shinny bright light shines through to the front blue dome. Only then was that “issue” remedied.

The inclusion of Seagate’s IronWolf Pro’s helps to add to the unit’s reliability and durability. Designed for 24/7 use with firmware optimized for RAID, it’s a perfect match for the working professional. The five years of data recovery services over the course of its warranty gives you a sense of confidence in the product, too. And, with speeds hitting upwards of 240MB/s each or 460MB/s in RAID 0, the drives are fast. But that speed does come at a slight cost.

While on, the fan is whisper quiet from two feet away and kept the HDDs operating around 40-48C during testing. While the fan is quiet, the HDDs can be quite the opposite. While performing a system backup, the device hummed and made all kinds of clinks and clanks when it hit small files that disturbed the peace of my rather quiet home. Nothing beats flash when it comes to silent pleasure. But let’s not forget that flash just isn’t at price parity with mechanical storage quite yet.

We like the fact that you can configure the device in RAID and JBOD mode. Not everyone needs the speed that RAID 0 has to offer, or they don’t want to leave their data at risk. For these people RAID 1 is a great way to add in some redundancy in case one of the drives fail, although it is not an excuse to go without a backup. And then there are people like me, who want the full capacity but prefer separate volumes for manually managed storage. Setting things up with LaCie’s RAID manager was quick and easy. The device’s flexibility is a perfect match for most in this regard.

While it lacks the Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, the SD card readers, and USB port of the 2big Dock, the 2big RAID’s simplicity makes it a lot cheaper. Over $150 cheaper in fact. As well, it is cheaper than G-Technology’s 16TB G-RAID and other professional storage solutions. The only thing close to it is the WD My Book Duo at ~$570, but that can’t touch the performance of this unit with its 5400-RPM RED drives. If you can do with a bit less performance and are tight on cash, it may be a worthwhile alternative. In terms of value, the 2big RAID has a lot going for it.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Dual-screens are starting to become more common on laptops: see the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo launched here at Computex this week, for instance, and Intel is already planning out more prototypes. At a press event at show in Taipei, the company showed off Honeycomb Glacier, a laptop equipped for gaming with two screens stacked one on top of the other.

It uses a unique dual-hinge design that stays propped up at your angle of choice. The bottom hinge uses a clutch mechanism, and you have to press a button to fold it back down. The top hinge is a standard tension hinge that you’d see in any laptop. It feels a bit rickety, but I’d expect better ergonomics in a product meant for mass production.

As for specs, the parts are all off-the-shelf, including an eight core / 16 thread, 9th Gen H-series Intel processor (they said it doesn’t have a four-number SKU) and an overclocked Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. There’s a fair bit of room below the hinge, with a cooling apparatus to draw air against a custom motherboard to cool 175 watts of components, all with just one large fan. And despite just one fan, it measures 42 decibels. 

There’s a Tobii eye-tracker in the hinge, and though the software definitely still needs time in the oven, I can see it making it easier to manage the two displays. I was able to use it to move my gaze between multiple windows and type without clicking to switch between apps.

The 15.6-inch, FHD resolution top display is where one would put a game or their main application, while the bottom is a great spot for social media, chat applications or managing streaming. That bottom screen is actually an automotive display (like I said, they build it from off-the-shelf parts) that measures 12.3-inches diagonally.

Two-screen devices have typically made me skeptical, but for gaming and productivity, I could see something like this making sense, and I’m curious to see if any OEMs will make something similar.

A nameless Cascade Lake-X 10-core, 20-thread processor has mysteriously popped up in SiSoftware's Official Live Ranker database. Judging by the configuration, this processor could be the potential candidate that will replace Intel's Core i9-9900X processor.

The Skylake-X Refresh (SKL-XR) processors are Intel's current high-performance offerings that are competing against AMD's second-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors in the HEDT (high-end desktop) market. The latest Intel client roadmap shows that the Blue Team is planning to launch its next wave of HEDT products, codenamed Cascade Lake-X (CSL-X), that will succeed the Skylake-X Refresh chips in the third quarter of this year. 

Although Cascade Lake-X will be built on the Cascade Lake processor microarchitecture, Intel will continue to produce these chips under the 14nm process node. As hinted in the leaked roadmap, the Cascade Lake-X parts will continue to slot into LGA 2066 motherboards. Nevertheless, things get a bit complicated regarding the chipset.

The speculation around the hardware community is that Intel will usher in the new Glacier Falls chipset to replace the existing Basin Falls (X299) chipset. However, the new roadmap still has the Cascade Lake-X parts under the X299 chipset, which could be a placeholder. It's possible that Intel hasn't chosen a naming convention for the Glacier Falls chipset. If you recall, AMD pulled a fast one on Intel and registered X399, so that's out of the question. It'll be interesting to see what Intel can come up with for Glacier Falls. 

The unidentified processor is equipped with 10 cores, 20 threads, and 19.25MB of L3 cache, which lines up with the Core i9-9900X's specifications. This leads us to think that this Cascade Lake-X chip is the successor to the Core i9-9900X. It apparently features a 4GHz base clock and 4.6GHz boost clock. Basically, we're looking at 14.29 percent and 2.22 percent improvements in base and boost clocks, respectively. But given the nature of the leak, the Cascade Lake-X chip could be an engineering sample, meaning the final operating clocks are likely to vary.

Tweakers.net reported last week on a leaked Intel roadmap purportedly from a Dell presentation, leading to somewhat panicked headlines that Intel would not have 10nm desktop processors until 2022.

There was one problem with that analysis, though: as we reported, the leaked roadmap covered Intel's commercial platforms, and not the client side of its business. Intel's commercial roadmap tends to trail the broader client desktop PC market (think enthusiast rigs) by roughly nine months.

Now the enterprising journalists at Tweakers.net have received Intel's client roadmap, but as with all leaks, we have to approach the information with caution. Intel's roadmaps are also known to change frequently.

This new roadmap, which extends out to 2020, doesn't have 10nm products listed, but we can clearly see the difference in the timelines that denotes a faster ramp for the Comet Lake processors for the broader market, implying that we shouldn't look too closely at the commercial roadmap (below) as an indicator that 10nm products won't arrive until 2022.

In either case, according to the new roadmap, we won't see 10nm arrive for the desktop until at least 2021. In the meantime, Comet Lake-S will land on the desktop in the fourth quarter of this year, bringing the mainstream desktop up to 10 cores fabbed on Intel's 14nm process. Cascade Lake X will arrive in the third quarter of 2019, again fabbed on the 14nm process, with up to 18 cores for the X299 chipset. This is effectively a refresh of the Skylake-X refresh for the high-end desktop.

On the server side, the roadmap has a Cascade Lake refresh listed for the first quarter of 2020, but that doesn't align with Intel's stated roadmap that has Cooper Lake on 14nm arriving in 2019 and Ice Lake following in 2020. That could mean that either Intel's plans have changed, or the roadmap is dated. 

Regardless of the roadmap, one thing is clear: AMD's 7nm processors are going to beat Intel's 10nm chips to market by a significant amount of time, setting the stage for what could be a massive upset on the desktop. We're sure to learn more about the arrival of those chips at Computex next month.

LaCie, Seagate Technology’s premium brand, has announced two new external storage products for desktop use and a rugged portable in the LaCie 2big RAID and LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle. Both products offer an internal RAID 0/1 setup for increased speed or redundancy and USB-C USB 3.1 (Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.0 compatible) interface for faster transfer speeds. The 2big RAID is intended to be a more static fixture while the Rugged RAID Shuttle, as the name implies, is designed for the rigors of travel and its inherent abuse.

The Lacie Rugged RAID Shuttle offers the same features as the Rugged RAID Pro such as speeds up to 250 MB/s using Hardware-based RAID (0/1 supported as well as JBOD), IP54 dust and water resistance, as well as being 1.2 meter drop and shock resistant. The main differences between the Pro and Shuttle is the latter uses Seagate Secure Hardware Encryption on the drive, double the capacity (up to 8 TB, two 2.5-inch drives) and is slightly larger in size. The Shuttle does not have the include an SD card reader.

The Seagate Secure Hardware Encryption uses AES 256-bit encryption methods and is said to be transparent to the user – in other words, no performance overhead. It can be password enabled or used as normal. The chassis is a secure design Seagate says is hard to crack and open. The unit has an orange rubber surround on it to assist with that drop and shock resistance as well as being able to withstand a crushing force of a two-ton car rolling over it.

The unit is connected to the system through a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C interface and is also compatible with USB 3.0 Type-A with an included adapter cable. The device is powered through the USB port and in most cases, even when using two 4 TB drives, power is fine. However, if the device is used with an older generation PC or small compact devices, you will need to use the optional external brick (included).

The Rugged RAID Shuttle offers a three-year warranty and Rescue Services as well as a 1-Month Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps.

The Lacie 2big RAID, on the other hand, is designed to be an external desktop solution without the rugged capabilities of the Rugged RAID Shuttle. This device supports speeds of up to 440 MB/s (RAID 0), supports RAID 0 and 1 as well as JBOD - all of which is configured through LaCie Toolkit software. For increased reliability, IronWolf Pro Enterprise-class HDDs are used. 

The 2big RAID is suggested to be used for video editing, back up, and archiving and will support capacities up to 16 TB using full-size 3.5-inch drives. Compared to the 2big Thunderbolt 2, it adds USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity, compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 hosts without using an adapter, and preformatted exFAT drives.

The chassis is an aluminum unibody enclosure capable of fitting two 3.5-inch HDDs and is powered by an external power supply. The 5-year warranty also includes five years of Rescue Data Recovery Services.

The 8TB LaCie Rugged RAID Shuttle will be available in May 2019 with an MSRP of $529.99. The LaCie 2big RAID is available starting April 2019 with an MSRP of $419, $529, and $739 for the 4 TB, 8 TB, and 16 TB models respectively.

Portable RAID Goodness

LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro is a fast external HDD designed for the mobile pro. The two internal 2.5” HDDs can reach speeds of 250MB/s of read/write performance in RAID 0, but the drive is also designed to take a beating and handle the weather almost anywhere you go. While it is on the pricey side, this LaCie product buys you peace of mind because the Rugged RAID Pro also includes a free data recovery service during its three-year warranty. In all, it’s a pretty unique drive with rugged protection for demanding environments.

Life as a video producer or photographer can quickly turn into the life of a data storage nut. At least that’s how I started. What once started as a simple hobby of trying to capture the moments and memories around me quickly turned into mental torture when it came to managing my data and backing up my thousands of RAW images and rather large video files. For a while, I didn’t even have a backup at all, eventually losing over 700GB of video forever due to a drive failure. If I had stored it on the LaCie Rugged RAID Pro, that story could have ended on a more positive note.

At $289.98, LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro is quite expensive, but it is a nice external storage device for the creative professional. It’s built to take a drop up to 4ft/1.2m while in non-operating mode and can handle the elements fairly well given its IP54 rating. But what really stands out is that this bright orange and silver external USB-C HDD features two internal HDDs and an onboard RAID controller for added speed as well as an integrated SD card slot.

Specifications

The device ships configured in RAID 0 and is preformatted with the exFAT filesystem with 3,726GB of user addressable space, so it is compatible with both MacOS and Windows out of the box. While it isn’t as fast as SSD storage, the RAID 0 implementation stripes the data to each drive and delivers upwards of 250MB/s of sequential read/write throughput, which is good enough for 4K video editing.

If speed isn’t as much a concern as data security, you can also configure the device to operate in RAID 1 mode instead. Basically, this setting duplicates the stored data onto both internal HDDs. This results in slower performance and just 2TB of capacity (1,863GB usable), but redundancy can be more important than speed. However, you shouldn’t use RAID 1 in place of a proper backup routine, for which you should use an entirely separate device.

Finally, you can also use both drives independently of one another by configuring the device as a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks), and thus both internal HDDs will appear as separate volumes to the host system.

Accessories

In the box, you get LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro, a USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to USB-A cable, two removable port covers, a power supply with adapters, and quick install guide.

Changing RAID modes is rather simple on the Rugged RAID Pro. After you’ve installed the LaCie Toolkit (included on the drive from the factory) and installed the RAID Manager (a download) and launched it, just change the device into the RAID mode you would like. You will have to confirm the change by using a paperclip (or similar) to press a small button on the device. That helps to prevent data loss from accidental mode changes.

You can use the Toolkit to format the device, too, letting it optimize the disk format for the specific operating system you are using (it defaults to NTFS for Windows or HFS+ for MacOS). Additionally, Toolkit can be used to manage backup plans (Windows only), create mirror folders, and automate memory card imports directly to the device.

LaCie also includes a month of membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which enables you to use all of Adobe's Creative Cloud applications for free, a $79.49 value.

And as a final value add, the most valuable one of all I might add, is a free subscription to Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery Services throughout the drives' three-year warranty. If a product could potentially save a customer thousands of dollars on data recovery, what could be better? Nothing says confidence in a product like that, especially to a creative pro where their data is their income.

Closer Look

The LaCie Rugged RAID Pro measures 140 x 91 x 30 mm and weighs at 0.446kg (0.981lbs.). For added drop protection and resistance to the elements, it features LaCie’s signature rugged drive orange rubber sleeve around it, which is removable. Within the sleeve is an aluminum housing with plastic end caps.

All ports and status lights are located on the same face under the removable rubber cover. There is also a built-in UHS-II SD card slot, which is a nice bonus and allows you to back up SD cards directly to the device. It works as a normal card reader as well.

The drive has two indicator lights. A large one indicates the drive is working, and a small one that, if blinking, indicates if the device needs power from the external power brick. From testing, it seems all my USB 3.1 Gen1 ports couldn’t supply enough juice to the device, but the USB 3.1 Gen 2 (specifically the Type C port, but not the Type A port) and Thunderbolt 3 ports were able to power it up without having to use the external power brick.

You can disassemble the drive with a screwdriver, but it will obviously invalidate the warranty if you break any warranty seals. After disassembly, we can see that the Rugged RAID Pro is comprised of five main pieces within the aluminum case: an internal chassis, a USB/RAID controller board, a small daughter board with three SATA data/power connectors, and two 2TB Seagate Mobile HDDs. The device uses normal SATA connectors, so there is a possibility that you could swap out the HDDs for something in the SSD flavor later on.

The device uses two ASMedia bridge chips for IO management. The ASM1156R is used for the RAID/JBOD configuration while the ASM1074 bridges the SATA drives into the USB 3.1 Gen 1 connection.

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Performance Results

Comparison Products

We configured and tested the Rugged RAID Pro in all operating modes and threw it against a few devices we have reviewed in the past. We also included a few external SSDs for comparison. Powered by Thunderbolt 3, our first three competitors are the 1TB G-Technology G-Drive mobile Pro SSD, 1TB Patriot Evlvr, and 1TB Samsung X5. We also included devices with the USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, like SanDisk’s 1TB Extreme Portable SSD and two DIY external drives that use a WD Blue SSD and HDD.

ATTO

ATTO is a simple and free application that SSD vendors commonly use to assign sequential performance specifications to their products. It also gives us insight into how the device handles different file sizes.

Configured in RAID 0, LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro hit 250MB/s of sequential read/write throughput with ease. Configured in RAID 1, the drive hit 125MB/s. A single drive pushed out 140MB/s in JBOD mode.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark (CDM) is a simple and easy to use storage benchmarking tool.

By default, CDM tests sequential performance at a queue depth (QD) of 32. This presented a “problem” for the Rugged RAID Pro. It hit roughly 200MB/s in RAID 0, which is much lower than the rated 250MB/s. Once we switched over to a QD of 1, however, we saw performance reach near the rated performance once again. The JBOD mode also showed more performance than RAID 1 once more, averaging 10-15MB/s of faster sequential throughput.

We are not surprised at how low the 4K random scores are compared to flash-based SSDs–this metric isn’t an HDD’s strong suit. Even in RAID 0, 4K random performance scales up to just over 1MB/s read and 3MB/s write, which will hurt it in our following tests against SSDs.

Transfer Rates – DiskBench

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of iPhone jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos from a Canon 6D), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Transferring data to the Rugged RAID Pro proved rather dull compared to our SSDs, although in RAID 0 it did outpace the Kingston HyperX Savage EXO SSD by a few MB/s. Read performance also came in at similar performance levels as the write tests: 115-120MB/s for the RAID 1 and JBOD config and upwards of 200MB/s in RAID 0.

Trace Testing – PCMark 8 Storage Test 2.0

PCMark 8 is a trace-based benchmark that uses Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 3 to measure the performance of storage devices in real-world scenarios.

With total scores ranging from 2,187 to 2,294 points and average throughput of 8MB/s, LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro outperforms our HDD comparison drive but falls far behind the flash drives. Whether in RAID 0, RAID 1 or JBOD, application performance is still rather limited by the underlying rotating media. Flash shows its advantage with sub-millisecond access times and much faster 4K random performance.

Full LBA Read/Write and Temperature

Write speed and temperature are two important and inter-related metrics for external devices. We threw in one last test to measure the performance of the drive in HDTune Pro, writing to the full span of the drive. We logged the temperature of the drive via the S.M.A.R.T. data. Bear in mind that results will vary based on the workload and ambient air temperature.

As a hard disk-based drive, the LaCie drive doesn’t have any SLC NAND cache to worry about, but performance does degrade as the drive fills. You can achieve upwards of 250MB/s of sequential read/write performance on the outer tracks, but after filling the drive, performance can be as low as 107MB/s in RAID 0. In RAID 1 and JBOD, performance lands around 140MB/s read/write at best, and dips to 60MB/s at worst.

Additionally, the test environment was a cool 25C. The Rugged RAID Pro’s temperature didn’t exceed 48C while testing. This was hot to the touch but within operating spec.

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Conclusion

Are you a photographer or videographer who is constantly on the go, traveling to get your next great shot? Do you need a somewhat fast, high capacity portable storage device for your work, or are you the type that prioritizes data safety over speed? Either way, LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro could be just what you are looking for.

Built to resist the elements and the occasional accident or two, the Rugged RAID Pro is an external HDD that combines LaCie’s Rugged durability with RAID functionality. Configured in RAID 0, the Rugged RAID Pro allows video editors to edit 4K video and transfer those large video files faster than any typical external HDD. In this configuration, it achieved its rated 250MB/s read/write specs and even outpaced the Kingston HyperX Savage EXO SSD during some of our file transfer testing.

Migrating to RAID 1 enables redundancy for those who want to lean more on the safe side. This, however, comes at the cost of performance and usable capacity. Read/write speeds will be limited to ~125MB/s (at best) and you will only have half the usable space of RAID 0.

Using the drive in JBOD mode does provide a bit more performance than RAID 1, but only slightly. And then you lose out on data redundancy and are probably just better off grabbing two external 2TB (or even 4TB HDDs) instead for a fraction of the cost. But that defeats the purpose of this type of device in the first place, which is to have two drives in a single, compact and portable enclosure.

The Rugged RAID Pro is very versatile with so many configuration options and connectivity that will work with any USB-compatible system and those with the latest Thunderbolt 3 support. We just wish our non-USB-C ports could power it without the need for the external power brick, but that won’t be an issue for most users. Most newer laptops feature USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity with enough juice to power the drive, but they don’t all feature SD card slots. That makes the integrated UHS-II SD card slot especially useful and simplifies backing up content in the field.

While it is on the pricey side, LaCie’s Rugged RAID Pro isn’t too overpriced considering its market placement and the peace of mind of data redundancy. LaCie includes one month of all Adobe apps for free, a $79.49 value. More importantly, the drive comes with three years of free data recovery protection. That service can (at times) cost thousands of dollars.

If you are a creative professional in the market for an external HDD, be sure to check this drive out. There aren't many competitors: Most other HDD solutions are much larger, and flash-based SSDs don’t yet offer similarly-priced capacity, nor the same value-adds. The LaCie Rugged RAID Pro 4TB has a unique blend of features and accessories that make it easy to use and quite the versatile travel companion.

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Comparing GeForce GTX 1060 6GB And Radeon RX 480

Powerful graphics hardware gets all of the love from gamers and enthusiasts, so long as games run the way they’re supposed to. When they don’t, drivers take the blame. That’s why driver teams are the unsung heroes of the graphics card world. They swoop in and fix whatever needs fixing. Over the long run, that can lead to significantly improved performance in games that you may be playing for months or years to come.

We wanted to get a sense of how much updated drivers improve performance, so we zeroed in on a pair of popular mainstream cards: AMD’s Radeon RX 480 and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. We benchmarked each card in 11 different games, using three different driver builds that were released in a two-year time span. Nvidia's card improved the most, an average of 4.3 percent per game versus 2.3 percent for AMD. 

However, driver performance improvement varies greatly by title. In certain cases, new drivers do deliver big speed-ups. AMD registers double-digit percentage gains in Rise of the Tomb Raider, while Nvidia registers massive speed-ups in Hitman and Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. In other games, fresh drivers don’t make much of a difference at all. Then there are the games that actually slow down a bit in favor of a more fluid experience. It sounds counterintuitive, but our frame rate and frame time charts below will illustrate those changes.

Why’d we choose the cards we did for this experiment? As it happens, the Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB were both introduced about two years ago (just 20 days apart, in fact). They both targeted the same gamers playing at 1920x1080, and they’re about as mature as graphics cards get while still being actively manufactured and sold.

We aren’t stopping with this performance comparison, either. AMD recently commissioned a study that showed its drivers are more stable than Nvidia’s. We’re working on a methodology for replicating those results, and plan to publish our own findings as a follow-up. If you have any ideas or suggestions of your own, feel free to share in the comments section!

How We Tested AMD and Nvidia Drivers

The hardware used to compare driver versions is consistent with our last several graphics card reviews--like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 3GB. We start with an MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard hosting a Core i7-7700K CPU. The platform is complemented by G.Skill’s F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ memory kit. Crucial’s MX200 SSD remains, as does a Corsair H110i cooler and be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W power supply.

Upon this foundation we installed Windows 10 Pro version 1803, with all available patches applied. The operating system’s ability to download and update device drivers is explicitly disabled by opening up System Properties, tabbing over to Hardware, clicking the Device Installation Settings button, and choosing “No (your device might not work as expected).”

Next, we downloaded three driver versions for each of the cards we planned to test: the launch build, a driver from roughly one year ago, and the most recent update available from each vendor’s website. Nowadays, AMD and Nvidia do a good job of ensuring remnants from their drivers are completely removed when an uninstall routine is run. However, we followed each driver swap with a round of Wagnardsoft’s Display Driver Uninstaller to be sure.

Because the differences between driver builds can be tiny, we took care to maintain an ambient temperature close to 26°C and collect our benchmark results on warmed-up cards. Most of the games we tested were supported by the latest version of the open-source OCAT overlay tool. For those that weren’t, we gathered data with a custom front-end for PresentMon.

Here's the list of the games we'll be testing on the following pages, along with the relevant settings:

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Battlefield 3 (2011, DX11)

Introduced five years before either AMD’s Radeon RX 480 or Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, Battlefield 3 was an afterthought by the time we wrote our reviews of both cards in 2016. Back then, even Battlefield 4 was hardly relevant. As such, we don’t expect either AMD or Nvidia put much effort into optimizing for this game, and it’s even less likely that the company revisited it since.

AMD’s Radeon 16.6.2 driver handled Battlefield 3 well right out of the gate, serving up low frame time variance and high frame rates at 1920x1080 using the Ultra graphics preset.

Interestingly, the Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2 driver package, published a year later, tightened frame time variance overall, but introduced some spikes that hurt the last percentile of our measurements.

Fast-forward another year and Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 smoothed everything back out again, nudging average performance up just a bit. That’s a 1.8% improvement over two years in a game that everyone forgot about.

Microsoft’s DirectX 11 API afforded Nvidia plenty of opportunity to optimize its drivers for better performance, and it was no surprise when GeForce cards turned in higher frame rates than comparable Radeons in DX11-based games.

In Battlefield 3, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB started faster than Radeon RX 480 and sped up an additional 2.7% over the next two years (even though we suspect Nvidia didn’t spend much time, if any, tuning for this title specifically).

Today, Nvidia’s card is about 12% faster than AMD’s in Battlefield 3 at 1920x1080 using Ultra settings. Of course, that only matters if you want to play the campaign: EA’s multiplayer servers are now offline. Still, a trip back to 2011 gives us a historical baseline to compare newer games against.

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Battlefield 4 (2013, DX11)

The newer Battlefield 4 was one of the games we used in our Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB reviews. Even though it was three years old by the time both cards launched, the DX11-based title still featured prominently in our test suite, making it a probable target for optimization.

The Radeon RX 480’s initial 73.7 FPS average rose to 76.4 FPS with Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2, before settling at 75.5 FPS in the latest Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 build. From introduction to two years later, that’s a 2.4% speed-up.

Frame time variance in Battlefield 4 is a little higher than its predecessor. But AMD’s Radeon RX 480 achieves similar 99^th percentile frame rates across the board, improving slightly in the latest driver builds.

Nvidia was already getting the Pascal architecture’s maximum performance in Battlefield 4 when GeForce GTX 1060 6GB launched. The card’s average frame rate increased by one-tenth of a percent over two years.

The GeForce’s frame times are much lower than the Radeon’s, which is, mathematically, where the higher frame rates come from. However, Nvidia’s variance is also lower, evident in the thinner line across our frame time over benchmark chart. This corresponds to an overall smoother experience.

Although Nvidia wasn’t able to improve the 1060 6GB’s performance in Battlefield 4 from launch, a 95.6 FPS average with its newest 398.36 driver represents a 26.6% advantage over the Radeon RX 480 at 1920x1080 using the Ultra preset.

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Metro: Last Light Redux (2014, DX11)

Technically, Metro: Last Light was introduced in 2013. But the Redux version we’re testing today came out a year later. Its built-in and highly configurable benchmarking tool makes Metro popular for generating repeatable data. Case in point: tests run two years apart on entirely different platforms fall within 1 FPS of each other thanks to a heavy dependence on graphics performance.

Based on our average frame rate results, the Radeon RX 480’s profile did change over time in Metro, improving 1% from 16.6.2 to 18.7.1.

Those 99^th percentile numbers are far more interesting, though. Breaking frame rate down by percentile also shows that the slowest five percent of frames are quite different from one driver build to another. AMD’s newest package isn’t even the best. As we saw in the Battlefield games, last year’s 17.7.2 version offered the best performance. But 17.7.2 and 18.7.1 are both dramatic improvements over 16.6.2.

Need proof? Check out the frame times across our test sequence. All of those red spikes correspond to frames that take tens of milliseconds longer to display than the thicker trendline down below. The resulting animation appears less smooth. Fortunately, AMD addressed the issue through its drivers. The 17.7.2 line, in black, suffers the least amount of variance, while 18.7.1 isn’t quite as tight.

Flip right over to Nvidia’s frame time chart and observe the difference. Three thick trend lines convey fluid animation. A handful of spikes from the 385.28 build stand out, but only because the other two versions demonstrate ideal behavior.

Back to GeForce GTX 1060’s average frame rate, there's a mere 0.7% improvement from 368.95 to 398.36, and no real drama to speak of in the slowest 1% of frames.

Despite minimal improvement over time, Nvidia’s card still ends up 14% faster than the Radeon in Metro: Last Light Redux at 1920x1080 using the Very High preset.

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Grand Theft Auto V (2015, DX11)

Originally released to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V didn’t make its way to PC until early 2015. We promptly added it to our graphics testing suite, giving us one more DirectX 11-based comparison point.

AMD clearly improved the performance of its Radeon RX 480 in Grand Theft Auto V after launch. The Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2 and Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 builds yield quantifiably higher average frame rates compared to 16.6.2. In the end, two years of driver work translate to a ~4% speed-up.

In comparison, Nvidia only coaxed 1.4% more performance from GeForce GTX 1060 6GB’s Pascal architecture between 2016 and 2018. That’s alright, though. Its aggressively-optimized driver helps the 1060 6GB outperform Radeon RX 480 8GB by more than 30% at the same resolution and quality settings in our benchmark sequence.

Beyond average frame rates, a comparison of frame time charts shows all three Nvidia software packages facilitating less frame time variance than what the Radeon demonstrates. Again, the implication is a qualitatively smoother experience.

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The Witcher 3 (2015, DX11)

When our team picks games to test, we naturally gravitate toward popular titles relevant to our readers. However, we also try to mix in dissimilar genres, diverse API support, games that promote repeatability, and a variety of underlying game engines.

The Witcher 3 utilizes CD Projekt Red’s REDengine 3. Although its renderer supports DirectX 11 and is loaded with Nvidia GameWorks effects, AMD and Nvidia hardware are more evenly matched in this game.

Small, steady gains give AMD’s Radeon RX 480 a 3% speed-up in today’s The Witcher 3 frame rates compared to June 2016.

The oldest and newest driver builds exhibit the greatest number of frame time spikes, though. This is evident in our frames per second by percentile chart, which shows the slowest 1% of frames falling off more slowly with Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2. A 99^th percentile frame rate of 52.3 is almost 3% better than 16.6.2’s 50.8 FPS result.

Next to no improvement over two years in The Witcher 3 suggests that Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB was already well-optimized for this game when it launched.

Although average frame rates suggest a lack of variation from driver to driver, the latest 398.36 build suffers a worse 99^th percentile frame rate than its predecessors. A peek at the FPS by percentile chart even shows how the slowest 5% of frames drop off faster.

In our launch coverage, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB led Radeon RX 480 8GB by about 5%. Today, the competing mid-range cards appear evenly matched, with AMD serving up a superior 99^th percentile frame rate using the latest drivers from both companies.

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Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016, DX12)

The Windows-based version of Rise of the Tomb Raider launched two months after the build for Xbox. A patch with DirectX 12 support followed not long after, although the API’s benefit wasn’t immediately apparent. As a result, we first tested AMD’s Radeon RX 480 and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 using DirectX 11. Now there’s even a version with Vulkan support, giving macOS and Linux gamers a taste of the action.

The Radeon RX 480 suffered notoriously bad performance in Rise of the Tomb Raider when it launched. This changed with the 16.7.3 build, which included the following line in its patch notes: “Rise of the Tomb Raider performance increase up to 10% versus Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.2 on Radeon RX 480 graphics.”

Comparing 16.6.2 to 18.7.1 shows us that Radeon RX 480 is more than 13% faster today than it was back in 2016.

Meanwhile, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB’s average frame rate increased by almost 4%, while its 99^th percentile frame rate dropped by ~9%. Notice also that Nvidia’s frame time results look a lot less smooth than AMD’s.

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Hitman (2016, DX12)

After our look at Rise of the Tomb Raider’s Foundation engine and Hitman’s Glacier engine, we’re up to six distinct renderers.

As with RotTR, we added Hitman to our benchmark suite as a DirectX 11-based test. But after two years of patches (and the addition of features like HDR), the game is plenty stable in DirectX 12 mode.

Hitman was part of AMD’s Gaming Evolved initiative. The company worked with IO Interactive to build in support for Eyefinity multi-display configurations, widescreen resolutions, super-sampling anti-aliasing, and asynchronous compute. Perhaps that’s why the Radeon RX 480 started strong in 2016 and gained very little over the years—one quarter of a percentage point, by our calculations.

All three of the driver builds we tested track very closely in an accounting of frames per second by percentile.

A look at frame time over the benchmark run shows why the slowest 1% of frames are so slow: frame time spikes throughout our 100-second sequence imply severe stuttering issues. However, experience and qualitative observation tell us that many of those peaks are attributable to scene changes in Hitman’s integrated benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB’s frame time results are similar to AMD’s, corroborating our hypothesis that those ugly spikes are inherent to the test sequence and not a two-year-old bug suffered by both GPU vendors.

Nvidia overcomes initially poor performance, speeding up more than 15% across two years of driver updates. That’s not enough to usurp the Radeon’s advantage, though. AMD maintains a 4% lead at 1920x1080 using Hitman’s highest detail settings under DirectX 12.

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Tom Clancy’s The Division (2016, DX12)

When the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and Radeon RX 480 launched mid-2016, Tom Clancy’s The Division was only a couple of months old. The game initially surfaced with support for DirectX 11 through its Snowdrop engine, and that’s what we tested it under at the time.

Later in the year, a patch enabled preliminary DirectX 12 support. AMD’s cards gained a bit of performance, while Nvidia’s didn’t fare as well.

Today, the Radeon RX 480 is about six percent faster than it was in The Division under DirectX 11. But strangely, the 18.7.1 driver is a couple of percent slower with DirectX 12 than build 16.6.2, which was available before this game even acquired a DX12 renderer.

Measured frame times during the benchmark run are messy-looking. But they’re not as bad as the results from Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB.

The GeForce inched past AMD’s Radeon RX 480 in our launch coverage two years ago under DirectX 11. And it’s even faster under DirectX 12 using Nvidia’s 398.36 driver.

However, while the 1060 6GB sped up by more than 6% from 368.95 to 398.36, and the Radeon RX 480 lost performance between AMD’s 16.6.2 and 18.7.1 drivers, the GeForce still lands behind the Radeon at 1920x1080 under DirectX 12.

The 1060 6GB’s struggles appear related to big frame time spikes that affect smoothness. Our FPS by percentile chart shows Nvidia’s performance dropping off much faster beyond the 90^th percentile compared to AMD’s.

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Battlefield 1 (2016, DX12)

Battlefield 1’s October 2016 introduction takes us to the point where we’re testing games that weren’t around when GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and Radeon RX 480 launched. The game reminds us of this by detecting Nvidia’s 368.95 driver and asking for an update to 384.94 or newer. Strangely, AMD’s similarly-old 16.6.2 build didn’t trigger the same error.

Regardless, this third Battlefield entry in today’s experiment is still based on the mature Frostbite game engine, so it’s no surprise to see both GPU vendors serving up smooth performance across two years of driver updates.

Although it’s disappointing to see the Radeon RX 480’s average frame rate decline year after year, there’s a positive story hiding deep within the data.

First, tab over to frame time chart. The two oldest driver versions—16.6.2 and 17.7.2—demonstrate big frame time spikes at similar points through our test sequence. AMD cards are especially notorious for stuttering when we start recording performance. This behavior largely ceases in 18.7.1. In fact, a lot of the frame time spikes shared between prior drivers disappear entirely with the latest one. The outcome is clear in our FPS by percentile breakdown: Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 yields a smoother experience in the slowest 1% of frames, despite registering a lower average frame rate.

Again, Battlefield 1 wouldn’t start with 368.95 installed, so we only have two data points to share. Performance definitely improves from 385.28 to 398.36, though. As with the Radeon, a lot of frame time spikes that plagued GeForce GTX 1060 6GB one year ago disappear using Nvidia’s newest driver. Consequently, the slowest 1% of frames in our test sequence are much smoother than they were previously.

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Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation (2016, DX12)

Technically, Ashes of the Singularity was released early in 2016, allowing us to benchmark it in DirectX 12 mode for our Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB reviews. The Escalation update followed in November of 2016, and that’s the version we test today.

AMD’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture is better-utilized in DirectX 12-based games than it was under DirectX 11. As a result, GCN is widely considered superior to Pascal in the newest games.

But whereas our benchmark results using AMD's 16.6.2 driver are consistent from 2016 to 2018, the Radeon’s average frame rate under Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 is surprisingly lower.

As we saw in Battlefield 1, the 18.7.1 driver appears to sacrifice some peak performance in favor of less frame time variance. The result is a better 99^th percentile frame rate and minimal drop-off in the slowest 1% of frames.

GeForce GTX 1060 6GB began its life trailing the Radeon in Ashes of the Singularity. Subsequent game patches and driver updates improved the mainstream card’s position though, and now it’s faster than the RX 480. Even more impressive, Nvidia bettered the 1060 6GB’s 99^th percentile frame rate without compromising peak performance.

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Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (2017, DX11)

Given its March 2017 release date, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands was still a twinkle in Ubisoft’s eye--or at least was still in development--when GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and Radeon RX 480 were introduced.

The game ran fine under AMD’s 16.6.2 driver, published more than eight months prior to Ghost Recon’s launch. However, it’s clear that AMD made some improvements once its software team had the game in hand. Over two years, the Radeon RX 480’s average frame rate sped up 9.6%.

Moreover, the card’s 99^th percentile frame rate jumped almost 20%. Big spikes from the 16.6.2 driver in our frame time chart give way to the black and blue lines, which reflect tight frame time variance and an utter lack of micro-stutter.

The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB’s performance doesn’t really change in Ghost Recon, even though Nvidia’s 368.95 driver preceded the game by eight months. Maybe the company’s cooperation with Ubisoft to get GameWorks effects into this title allowed it to optimize ahead of launch.

Regardless of its static performance, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB maintains a small advantage over the Radeon RX 480, despite that card’s substantial speed-up.

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Conclusion

By now, AMD’s Radeon RX 480 and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB are both very mature. The pair of cards gives us a rare opportunity to compare products designed to compete against each other and introduced mere weeks apart.

Although we benchmarked three driver builds from each company, allowing us to capture performance snapshots at launch, after a year of improvements, and under today’s newest builds, we’re most interested in pitting each card’s original behavior against their profiles now. We don’t want to reach too far in our attempt to derive meaning from the data, but certain trends are fairly obvious.

In older DirectX 11-based games, Nvidia’s advantage over AMD is huge. Even today, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB is 12% faster than the Radeon RX 480 in Battlefield 3, 26% faster in Battlefield 4, 14% faster in Metro: Last Light Redux, and 30% faster in Grand Theft Auto V. The margins of victory shrink in newer DirectX 11-based games, and go the other direction in a couple of DirectX 12 titles, favoring AMD’s architecture.

Of the 11 titles we tested, seven see the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and Radeon RX 480 separated by single-digit percentages in our average frame rate results. It’s no wonder that AMD saw fit to re-release an overclocked RX 480 as Radeon RX 580 just 10 months after the 480’s debut. As cryptocurrency prices stagnate, AMD fans can even find the newer RX 580 for about $20 less than GeForce GTX 1060 6GB.

As for speed-ups specifically attributable to drivers, they’re not as common (or as pronounced) as some enthusiasts might hope. AMD can boast of its gains in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Initially, the Radeon RX 480 didn’t do particularly well in this game. But driver version 16.7.3 included some big fixes that AMD called out in its patch notes. Today, Adrenalin Edition 18.7.1 arms the card with 13%-higher frame rates than the RX 480 at launch.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is a win for AMD too, but mostly because the Radeon’s launch driver preceded Ghost Recon by eight months. Once AMD’s driver team started optimizing for the game, it boosted average frame rates by almost 10%. But in Tom Clancy’s The Division, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, and Battlefield 1, the Radeon RX 480’s performance is actually lower today than it was at launch by a few percentage points. But to be fair, AMD’s newest drivers do even out a lot of frame time spikes we measured from earlier builds in those titles.

Nvidia’s most pronounced optimizations happened in Hitman and Ashes of the Singularity. In the former, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB got a 15% boost last year that carries over to the newest 398.36 driver. In Ashes, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB enjoys 13%-higher performance today compared to two years ago. Otherwise, gains range from one-tenth of a percent to about six percent. In Tom Clancy’s The Division, the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB even loses one-tenth of a percent compared to Nvidia’s launch driver.

Bottom Line

As expected, new video drivers increase frame rates in most titles, but the differences are often subtle. AMD averages a 2.3% speed-up across our benchmark suite, while Nvidia averages 4.3%. In some games, you will see noticeable improvements, with frame rate boosts as high as 15%. But in others, the change is so modest that you might not notice it. It's unlikely that a driver update will make a game that was formerly sluggish or unplayable suddenly run well on the same hardware.

Which graphics card comes out ahead in this experiment? Whether you count the overall improvement from 2016 to 2018 or tally the total number of average frame rate wins, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 6GB bags the greatest number of victories. That's why AMD followed up its Radeon RX 480 with the RX 580 less than a year later.

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Features & Specifications

Thunderbolt 3 provides the fattest data pipe for direct-attached storage devices. The 40Gb/s connection is just as economical as it is fast, but adoption in commodity PCs has been slow. That will change in 2018 as prices drop. Today, we look at the Areca ARC-8050T3 series, which is the fastest Thunderbolt 3 storage device to date.

Areca's products are enterprise and professional-focused, but unlike others in this market, the company doesn't shy away from performance enthusiasts. For the last decade, the company has been known as the go-to source for high-speed storage technology that enthusiasts often use to set competitive benchmark records. Areca's customizable RAID controller programming and the potential for massive chunks of onboard memory are the secret brew. You can test an older LSI hardware RAID card against the same LSI ROC (RAID-On-Chip) found on the Areca equivalent, and the latter will give you more throughput and lower latency every time. To spell it out, the third-party company has outperformed the in-house brand repeatedly, but at a lower price point. That's what this company is about, and today we'll see it play out again.

We recently published a review of the LaCie 12big. In our review, we talked about the limited competition in the Thunderbolt storage space. The 12big and the smaller 6big target professional users, but they use chip technology borrowed from consumer storage. LaCie has invested a lot in Thunderbolt 3 products, but we could only find older LaCie Thunderbolt 2 storage systems for comparison. That's when we found the Areca ARC-8050T3 series that comes with a varying number of drive bays, including a 12-bay model that is a direct competitor to the LaCie 12big. Unlike its competitors, the Areca model uses enterprise-class RAID controller technology. 

Specifications

Areca released the ARC-8050T3 series with five models that offer varying size and capacity options. The 4-bay model is the only system to use a single-core ROC that supports 6Gb/s SATA and SAS. Areca backs the 800MHz processor with a 1GB DDR3-800 cache. This system is also the only one in the group without a display, but it's also the most economical.

Areca also offers two six-bay models with nearly identical specifications. The ARC-8050T3-6M has a handle, which makes it travel-worthy. We assume the "M" stands for mobile. This is the only system we were not able to find for sale in the US. The non-M version has a different case design. The six-bay models also have expansion capabilities via an SFF-8644 two-lane connection on the back. These devices use the same 1.2GHz dual-core processor that comes in all models but the four-bay unit. Electrically, the ROC supports 12Gbps SAS, but it is also backward compatible with 6Gbps SAS and SATA. Areca backs the ROC with 2GB of DDR3-1866 memory.

The ARC-8050T3-8 is essentially a spruced up -6. The system is a little taller, but the two lanes used for external expansion on the -6 model instead route inside the unit to the eight-drive backplane. This system also adds a second HDD cooling fan running at a lazy 2,700-RPM.

We're testing the flagship model with twelve drive bays, a dual-core 1.2GHz ROC, and 2GB of DDR3-1866. The specifications read like a RAID controller because that's the technology in the box. Areca uses a powerful LSI (now part of Avago) hardware RAID processor to deliver very high performance. The processor can address sixteen channels. Twelve are internal, and four connect to expansion devices via an SFF-8644 cable.

Areca doesn't list performance claims for these products because it depends on the storage devices. This series is sold diskless, but B&H Photo and PC Pit Stop have preloaded systems available, so you don't have to piece a system together.

Features

Except for the four-bay model, all the ARC-8050T3 systems support RAID 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, single disk and JBOD. The smallest system in this lineup doesn't support RAID 30, 50, or 60 because it doesn't have enough drive bays to support the advanced arrays.

The larger systems support hardware-level encryption without impacting performance. You can use self-encrypting drives (SED) with all of the ARC-8050T3 systems.

Pricing & Warranty

The ARC-8050T3 systems sell as standalone components. Some companies will bundle drives and others will even configure the system with the drive installed. The reseller handles those value-add configurations. The enclosures are normally sold diskless. Prices range from $999 for the four-bay and scale to $2,299 for the 12-bay model we're testing. Areca backs the ARC-8050T3 series with a standard three-year warranty.

Accessories

Areca keeps it all very simple. Inside the package, we found an easy to follow paper installation guide to walk us through the installation process. The system ships with screws for installing drives into the sleds, a long active Thunderbolt cable with Type-C connectors on each end, a power cable, and an Ethernet cable.

Areca makes, but does not include, a battery backup module. This is an optional purchase and allows the DRAM cache to retain data in the event of a power failure. The -4 and -6M models do not support this feature.

Software

You need to load the custom Thunderbolt 3 driver before you use the software or even plug in the ARC-8050T3. We made the mistake of plugging the system in first and then spending an hour trying to set up the device. The installation process takes less than three minutes if you install the driver first.

The management software is nearly identical to Areca's RAID controller software. The settings will seem overwhelming at first if you are not accustomed to this level of control. There are two ways to approach the software. You can dive into every setting and build a custom array, or you can simply use the Quick Create button and select from the eight options. The default setting is already configured and will get you up and running. The default settings will change when you select a different RAID level, so there is already some optimization built in.

The full custom experience is one reason why Areca's RAID controllers spent time at the top of the world record rankings for storage-based benchmarks. Enthusiasts can spend hours in the software to get the maximum performance. I've spent several late nights experimenting in the interface to squeeze out a few extra PCMark points.

Packaging

Areca keeps the packaging simple. All of these devices will sell online, so there is very little concern for shelf appeal. The system ships in a dense cardboard box with a full-color box inside. The inner box does have a picture and some specifications, but I would be surprised to see these in a brick and mortar store.

A Closer Look

We have the flagship model in the lab for testing. Areca calls this a desktop form-factor. The drives install in two rows, so the system is half the height of the LaCie 12big, but it only takes up a little more desk space. You can control the array with the buttons and display. You can use it to set the system up without even installing the software. A password keeps others from tampering with your array.

The system supports 12Gb/s SAS HDDs, which you won’t find on the LaCie Thunderbolt products. The sleds support 2.5" and 3.5" drives in both SAS and SATA flavors, so you have several options. It's possible to split the system into several arrays, too.

The business end of the system is on the back side. There are two large fans that cool the drives. A small fan cools the power supply, and a midsize fan keeps the electronics happy. We ran this system on a desk and didn't have any issues with noise. The system dynamically adjusts the fan speed based on internal temperatures.

The two Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports are the primary connectors. You can daisy chain Thunderbolt 3 devices together. The interface also carries a video signal. 

If twelve bays are not enough, you can also expand the system by connecting a JBOD box. The Areca software allows you to build a separate array or integrate the drives into your internal RAID. You can also daisy-chain more Areca ARC-8050T3 systems through Thunderbolt 3 and use one interface to control everything.

The systems have an advanced auto-power feature that is based on the host system's power status. This allows you to build one large RAID array that spans your other ARC-8050T3 systems.

The Ethernet port may be confusing for inexperienced users. This port allows you to run the Areca software remotely from another system (out-of-band management).

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Performance Testing & Final Thoughts

Comparison Products

Today we're testing the LaCie 12big, 8big, and 5big Thunderbolt direct-attached storage systems against the 12-bay Areca ARC-8050T3.

Testing Notes

To keep the tests fair, we pulled the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 v5 8GB drives from the 12big and used them in the Areca ARC-8050T3-12. We ran the 8050T3-12 in RAID 0, 10, 5 and 6. We also carried over the RAID 5 and 6 results from the 12big. We tested the 5big in RAID 5 and the 8big in RAID 6.

Sequential Read Performance

The internal RAID algorithms for the Areca and the LaCie systems are completely different. That becomes clear in the first test with a QD1 128KB read across the addressable user space. The LSI controller in the Areca comes from the enterprise side of the market. It's older technology, but the ROC is much quicker than LaCie's consumer technology that it brought up to serve the prosumer market.

The 128KB sequential read test shows us why the Areca is so much faster. At QD1, the Areca is 1,000 MB/s faster than the nearest LaCie. The Areca reaches full speed at QD2, but the 12big doesn't start to level off until QD8.

Sequential Write Performance

The ARC-8050T3-12's large 2GB DRAM cache and high clock speed fuels higher sequential write performance. We see a steep performance decline in RAID 10 as we write across the full LBA range, but 0, 5, and 6 hold steady.

The Areca offers twice as much performance with 64KB blocks than the LaCie. The 12big starts to come alive with 512KB blocks and performs better as we scale to larger data. The Areca muscles its way through all block sizes.

Random Read Performance

The ARC-8050T3-12 takes the lead in the random read test as we scale from 4KB to 32KB at QD1. The 12big in RAID 5 and 6 is competitive with the Areca in the 4KB and 8KB read tests. This will become more important later in the review when we move to real-world applications and directory transfers.

Random Write Performance

The Areca delivers the best performance in RAID 0. RAID 10 performance drops drastically, but RAID 5 and RAID 6 are even lower. All of the ARC-8050T3's RAID modes outperform the three LaCie products running RAID 5 and 6.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

For professional users, the 100% read and write tests are nice, but most work happens in mixed workloads where the data flows both ways. 70% sequential reads have long been considered the ideal test for audio, video, and photo production work. Areca's enterprise technology allows it to excel in these workloads.

Random Mixed Workload Performance

None of these systems were designed specifically for heavy workloads. Some users do run these systems attached to powerful host systems that with multiple virtual machines. Microsoft's Hyper-V is 4KB heavy, but VMware's technology favors 8KB blocks. We run both 4KB and 8KB tests with a focus on 70% reads for virtual machine users.

Real-World File Transfer Performance

This series of tests originates with our portable storage product reviews, but it's an excellent way to test moving real data from a host PC to an external device. The data comes from a high-performance NVMe SSD (Intel SSD 750 800GB) that is fast enough to saturate the device under test in sequential, random, and mixed workloads.

We tested with the Avatar (2D + 3D Edition) Blu-ray for the ISO transfer. We used rFactor from the post-installation directory (C:/Program Files) for the Game directory transfer. The Directory Test is a 15.2GB block of data that comes from a daily-use notebook. It contains a mix of images, software installations, ISO files, and multimedia that yields a nice real-world workload.

The Areca handles large sequential transfers much better than the 12big. That changes when we move to smaller blocks in the game directory test. We can tune the Areca for increased small-block performance, but we could also tune the LaCie systems to perform better as well.

The LaCie 12big outperforms the Areca in RAID 0 and 10 when we mix large and small blocks in the directory test. The 12big takes a much larger performance hit when we focus on the RAID 5 and 6 results. The Areca doesn't suffer as much of a performance penalty in arrays with redundant data. 

PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark

In this series of tests, we run applications workloads on the external storage devices. These are real-world mixed workloads with professional applications in the PCMark 8 storage suite including Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign, and Illustrator.

The Areca ARC-8050T3-12 has the strongest performance in the professional applications. There is very little deviation between the time to completion between the different arrays. The LaCie systems are also fast, but there is a clear gap between the systems in redundant arrays.

Total Storage Bandwidth

The ARC-8050T3-12 is the clear performance leader, but not all of the results are what we expected. RAID 5 and 6 delivered higher throughput than RAID 10. We expected RAID 10 to fall just below RAID 0.

Final Thoughts

Areca is known to deliver high-performance products at a low price, but "low price" is a relative term when we're talking about enterprise and prosumer computer hardware. The company's products are more value-focused than many of its competitors. Areca doesn't do a lot of advertising, but it has a strong enthusiast following that stems from delivering some of the highest-performing RAID products on the market. Serious prosumer users are not enthusiasts, though. To professionals, these products are tools rather than fun technology to fiddle with for fun and benchmark glory.

The Areca ARC-8050T3-12 is a clear performance leader. I would expect similar performance from the 6- and 8-bay models. They share the same RAID-On-Chip technology from LSI but have a reduced number of internal drive bays. The systems have features we don't see in competing products, such as a front-facing display screen and expansion capabilities that flow data back to the internal RAID controller.

The ARC-8050T3's large cache helps accelerate write performance in redundant arrays. In our testing, we only observed a small performance penalty in RAID 5 and 6. Other products have more trouble sustaining write speeds with parity arrays. LSI, now part of Avago, spent several years at the forefront of RAID technology. While LSI was widely considered the leader, only a few knew that Areca was doing it better with the same silicon.

The ARC-8050T3-12 sells for $2,299 and the LaCie 12big sells for $7,899. LaCie ships the 12big with twelve 8TB drives for a total of 96TB. Our system included Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 v5 drives that sell for $254 on Amazon. Adding the same drives to the Areca raises the cost to $5,347, or $2,552 less than the LaCie 12big.

After looking at the performance results in our tests, it's easy to figure out which system delivers the better value and performance.

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Features & Specifications

LaCie's new 12big Thunderbolt 3 breaks the direct attached storage mold. The 12big houses up to 12 drives, making it the largest storage tower we've ever tested. The Thunderbolt 3 interface provides twice the raw performance of Thunderbolt 2, and combined with the 12-drive capacity, this tower gives professional users the capacity and throughput to work with 4K, 5K, and even 6K video in real time. 

The LaCie 12big is 17.6 inches tall, but it looks much larger in pictures. You can tell this new pedestal tower is big, but its size becomes more apparent when you place it next to a computer monitor. LaCie also claims the tower can deliver 2,600 MB/s of throughput, so it might bring big performance to match the large footprint.

Intel developed Thunderbolt technology, but Apple brought it to market first. The broader PC market adopted the interface later. Apple brought Thunderbolt 3 (TB3), the latest and fastest iteration of the technology, to market in three MacBook Pro models. The laptops feature TB3 ports and not a single USB port (although TB3 also merged with USB 3.1 with the Type-C interface). Apple also built a $30 bi-directional TB3-to-TB2 adapter that allows older devices or host systems to communicate with the newer interface.

Thunderbolt technology is not new or particularly rare on the PC. Most motherboard manufacturers already have add-in cards or integrated onboard connectivity. The interface lets you run large storage systems at high speeds, but it originated with Intel-proprietary chips. Intel recently announced that it is giving away the IP so third parties can build less-expensive device-side controllers that are more power efficient. Intel will also bring Thunderbolt technology to the CPU die in future desktop processors. That will make Thunderbolt as common as the USB interface.

Until then, high component costs will limit TB3 technology to creative professionals. In recent years, systems like the HP Z800 workstation have pried market share away from Apple in the prosumer/creative space. HP systems are usually more powerful than Apple's, and cross-platform software allows you to run the same applications on both operating systems.

Creative professionals, such as YouTubers, filmmakers, and post-production specialists, are among LaCie's target audience. These groups are a growing demographic. For instance, YouTube viewership is through the roof as the number of so-called "cord cutters" just hit an all-time high last quarter.

Specifications

The 12big currently ships pre-loaded with drives at four capacity points. LaCie may increase the capacity range now that Seagate has new 12TB drives available. Many of LaCie's 12big systems shipped with Seagate Enterprise NAS HDDs, but those drives were retired and replaced by the IronWolf Pro from the Guardian Series HDDs. Our 72TB system shipped with twelve 6TB Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD V5 drives (review here).

The 12big's performance appears to be limited by processing power rather than disk performance. All four capacities come with the same specifications; up to 2,600/1,700 MB/s of sequential read/write throughput with Thunderbolt 3 and a RAID 0 array configuration. LaCie lists the RAID 5 specifications at 2,400/1,200 MB/s read/write. The system also supports USB 3.x, but the interface reduces performance to 400 MB/s of sequential read/write performance with RAID 0. That drops further to 350 MB/s of sequential read/write throughput over the USB interface with a RAID 5 array.

Features

The LaCie 12big comes packing many features that transform it into a smart storage device. An onboard RAID controller powers the system and provides several user-adjustable settings and modes. That allows you to dial in the best performance for your workload.

Nested RAID options like RAID 50 and RAID 60 aren't possible unless you have a large number of drives. The 12big supports powerful nested arrays, but most of us will use traditional RAID levels to maximize performance and capacity. The most popular options will be RAID 0, 5, 6, or 10. You don't have to use all twelve bays in a single array, either. It's possible to build a RAID 0 array to access data at very high speeds and then an additional RAID 5 or RAID 6 array for long-term storage. The 12big is also the only shipping Thunderbolt 3 system with USB capabilities and RAID 5.

Thunderbolt 3 is one of the best data interfaces ever released. The PCI Express 3.0 x4 control chips support 32Gbps of bandwidth and can carry both the display output and other traffic through the same cable. Combined, Thunderbolt 3 delivers 40Gbps bandwidth. The 12big features two Thunderbolt 3 ports for easy daisy chaining with other devices. It also features a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port that you can daisy chain with the Thunderbolt string. You can also use it to connect to a host system, but it is slower than Thunderbolt.

Pricing & Warranty

High capacity HDDs are not cheap, especially when you magnify the expense by twelve. The LaCie 12big starts out at $4,999 for 48TB (12x 4TB). That leaps to 72TB (12x 6TB) and moves the needle to $6,699, which one of the biggest price increases in the series. There is also a $1,700 increase to the $8,399 96TB (12x 8TB) model. Spending $10,000 nets you 120TB (12x 10TB) capacity.

All 12big systems carry a standard five-year warranty.

Accessories

The system ships with six different power cords so your ready no matter where you are in the world. It's a large system, but I've seen videographers boast about taking their 12big and 6big Thunderbolt 3 systems to every shoot. Now I understand why LaCie and third-party companies sell Pelican cases with custom form-fitting cushion inserts.

LaCie includes a single Thunderbolt 3 active cable with two Type-C connectors. The company also includes a USB passive cable with two Type-C connectors. The third cable is USB Type-C to Type-A so you can connect to legacy host systems.

Software

LaCie includes four applications plus a Thunderbolt driver. You will have to download the software from the LaCie 12big support page, but that ensures you get the latest revision. The suite includes two Backup Manager Pro applications (Genie and Intego). For the security conscious, LaCie's Public Private software supports AES 256-bit encryption.

The company also recently updated the RAID Manager software. This is the interface you use to configure your array (it ships in RAID 5), change the settings, set up notifications, and more. It's a comprehensive interface with powerful features. 

Packaging

Given its size and cost, LaCie will sell most 12big systems through online retailers. The company put together an attractive package for brick-and-mortar stores anyway. The front of the package has a drawing of the system and a list of specifications.

LaCie pre-installs the drives and wraps the 12big in a plastic bag. LaCie packaged the system very well. The design is like the packaging used with many large flat-panel TVs. The carton is built around an inner structure designed to keep the system secure.

A Closer Look

The system looks great on your desk. You can tell it's a quality build and the system has a nice texture. We thought it was made entirely of aluminum, but we found plastic under the textured covering on the drive bays.

The famous signature LaCie blue orb also returns. The orb is smaller than we've seen on most of the previous models, but it still serves the same function. When it is blue, the system is on and operating correctly. If it turns red, you have a problem and should consult the LaCie RAID Manager application. The orb is also a button. Pressing it sends the system into a suspended mode to reduce power consumption. 

All of the connectors are on the back of the system. This is where you plug in the power, the two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the single USB 3.1 port. There is also a reset button on the rear of the unit. LaCie also outfitted the 12big with a Kensington lock port near the reset button.

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Performance Testing & Conclusion

Comparison Products

We're using the LaCie 5big (5-bay) and 8big Rack (8-bay rackmount) Thunderbolt 2 systems as comparison models. Not to downplay the previous generation, but the new 6big and 12big with Thunderbolt 3 provide twice the maximum theoretical performance of the Thunderbolt 2 models. We tested the 5big in RAID 5 and the 8big in RAID 6. We also include the Western Digital VelociRaptor Duo in the comparison charts. As the name suggests, the VelociRaptor Duo uses two Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB drives in RAID 0. The drives spin at 10,000 RPM but still use a standard SATA connection.

We tested the LaCie 12big with all twelve drives in RAID 0, 5, 6, and 10. We did run across an unexpected issue. Most of the large RAID arrays we've tested over the last few years support SSDs or at least offer an option for an SSD cache. When you combine hard disk drives into an array, you multiply the throughput performance. Sadly, it can also multiply latency outliers as well. The increased potential for latency outliers can amplify inconsistent performance.

You can tame the issue by building more than one array and leveraging the additional volumes to gain a performance advantage. You will have to be mindful of where your project data comes from or goes to. One way to do this is to read from one array and write to another. This tactic reduces your performance loss from mixed workloads but also complicates your workflow. Luckily, LaCie's RAID Manager software allows you to customize your storage volumes. This isn't a one-size-its-all system.

Sequential Read Performance

All three LaCie systems and their various RAID levels provided similar performance during the sequential read test. The new 12big is slightly faster than the older systems, but the increased odds for latency outliers from so many drives introduces more performance variability.

The 12big system targets video professionals, so the default 128KB stripe size is appropriate. You should use a 64KB stripe size if you plan to use the system to run applications or manipulate smaller files.

It's possible to reach very high levels of performance with the right workloads. Large-block data, like we find in video files, wakes the 12big up. We found that even relatively small 128KB blocks at high queue depths can tease out more performance. 

There is very little difference between RAID 0 and RAID 5 during many of the read tests; they provide less performance and consistency than RAID 10.

Sequential Write Performance

RAID 0 and 10 didn't provide the best sequential write performance. The 12big's RAID 5 and 6 levels were much faster.

We can attribute the inconsistent results during the sequential write workload to the large drive count. This is where compounded latency can bite you. The drives have a small integrated cache, but the caching algorithms ignore large chunks of data. Unfortunately, the 12big doesn't have a sizable DRAM cache to help ingest incoming data like a dedicated high-end RAID controller does.

Random Read Performance

The 12big's different RAID levels delivered similar performance throughout many of the random read tests. There were a few outliers as we cycled through the various block sizes, but performance improves as we intensify the workload.

Random Write Performance

The 12big exhibits more write inconsistency, but that isn't entirely surprising with random data. The cache on the drives should absorb this data, but the platter takes the brunt of the load after the workload saturates the buffer.

Mixed Sequential Workload Performance

The increased number of disks in the arrays doesn't do much for performance in mixed sequential workloads. The same can be said for the extra bandwidth between the 12big and the host system. The 12big has an underpowered RAID controller, so it can't fully utilize the combined performance of the disks inside the tower.

Mixed Random Workload Performance

We see high, yet inconsistent, performance once again. The performance is high enough for you to run the intended workloads, but the 12big doesn't look like a significant improvement over the previous generation when we test with synthetic workloads.

Real-World File Transfer Performance

This series of tests is an excellent way to test real data transfers from a host PC to the 12big. The data originates from a high-performance NVMe SSD (Intel SSD 750 800GB) that is fast enough to saturate the device under test with sequential, random, and mixed workloads.

We often see performance measured in throughput, but time-based results are easier to interpret because the sense of time is universal. We tested with the Avatar (2D + 3D Edition) Blu-ray. For the Game test, we used rFactor to transfer data from the post-installation directory (C:/Program Files). The Directory Test consists of a 15.2GB data transfer. It contains a mix of images, software installations, ISO files, and multimedia that yields a nice real-world workload.

All of the products perform very well in these basic transfer tests, but the 12big configured in RAID 0, 5, and 6 wins many of the tests. The Blu-Ray test, which consists primarily of sequential data, is the closest to the 12big's intended use-case. We see a big performance increase over the previous generation systems, including the older Western Digital VelociRaptor loaded with 10,000 RPM drives.

PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark

There are many ways to utilize the LaCie systems. The system presents the storage pool as a drive volume (or several depending on your configuration), so you can install software to it like a local disk. We often discuss using iSCSI over a network, and the same concept is true here. You can host the operating system on a local SSD and then install other software on a secondary drive. This keeps your SSD running well by reducing the amount of clutter on the drive. It also keeps your secondary HDD storage running at high speed by reducing data fragmentation. Most of the random writes will go to the boot drive that hosts your operating system.

Again, we see strong performance from the 12big, but you could optimize and also adjust the number of disks to improve the performance.

Total Storage Bandwidth

We average the PCMark 8 results into a throughput metric to highlight the toll data redundancy takes on performance. The benefit is that you can weather a hard drive failure (RAID 5) or two (RAID 6) and your data is still secure. RAID 10 performance was slightly higher than RAID 0 and also offers data redundancy. It also cuts your usable storage space in half. We almost always recommend some form of data redundancy unless you plan to use the storage for scratch use and keep a permanent copy of the data on another storage device. 

Conclusion

We like to give you the laser focus on performance, but we also use some of the diffused light to pan around the outside edges. The LaCie 12big is a versatile product. The number of drives allows you to fine tune the array so that you can find the best performance for your use-case. Twelve-disk arrays are not always the best way to utilize the space, so you can also split the drives into several arrays.

The 6big pictured above is the 12big's half-height, half-capacity, and half-priced relative. It also features the same internals. It gives you a lower entry price point while still providing excellent features and redundant storage--just with fewer disks.

The 6big is relevant because the 12big's price is just as massive as the system. The 120TB model weighed in at $13,999 when it debuted on the market. Thankfully, LaCie lowered the price to $9,999. The LaCie 12big doesn't have a lot of pound-for-pound competition in the market. QNAP has attacked the Thunderbolt 3 market with NAS/DAS combination products, but they can also be expensive. They also require more experience to configure. Areca, a favorite among PC power users and enthusiasts (but an obscure company to everyone else), also has a 12-bay Thunderbolt 3 system. It also requires some storage knowledge to set up.

We really like the 12big's easy setup and overall design. Drive bay locks would be nice to ensure your disks never walk off unexpectedly. LaCie does offer a secure travel case with form-fitted foam to protect the system during travel. For some professionals, that's a big selling point. In an ideal world your 12big will sit in a comfortable studio, but when you need to go, LaCie makes it easy to take your big gun to the wild.

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Phanteks announced two new premium reservoirs to its Glacier Series of water cooling products. The company said these reservoirs were inspired by water distribution plates created by the modding community and were developed to showcase and highlight the liquid element of your build.

The Phanteks Glacier R160 and R220 reservoirs are constructed using a large polished acrylic block attached to a sandblasted aluminum backing heatsink with built-in fins for improved heat transfer. There is a nickel plated copper plate sandwiched between the large aluminum heatsink and the fluid in the reservoir to help prevent galvanic corrosion cause by dissimilar metals. Both reservoirs include a mounting location for a DDC water pump and includes a matching anodized heatsink for an optional pump.

These reservoirs feature a multi-port design and are equipped with integrated RGB lighting compatible with MSI’s Mystic Light Sync, Asus Aura Sync, and Gigabyte RGB Fusion. Each reservoir is fitted with a number of high-intensity RGB LED lights. Phanteks also includes a flexible mounting bracket that allows the reservoirs to be attached to either a 120mm or 140mm fan in multiple orientations.

The Phanteks Glacier R160 and R220 reservoirs will be available February 2018 with a MSRP of $90 and $110, respectively.

Phanteks announced that it has added a handful of new products to its Glacier Fitting Series, including GPU extenders, T-splitters, adapters, and 16mm hard tube adapters. Originally spotted at Computex 2017, these fittings are now ready for retail.

The company stated that these new fittings are CNC-machined from solid brass and precisely engineered to create a high-flow design for extreme water cooling performance. The new Glacier fittings are available for universal and hard tube applications and come in satin black and mirror chrome finishes.

The company uses Viton o-rings for improved durability and an overall superior seal compared to those made of regular rubber. Viton is an elastomer commonly used in all manner of sealing applications, including industrial use and the automotive and aerospace industries. Viton seals are popular due to their excellent compression properties and resistance to most oils and petroleum-based fuels and lubricants.

O-rings and seals made of Viton are also resistant to oxidation, UV exposure, fungus, and mold. This material has an effective operating range between 5°F and 400°F, making it an excellent choice for applications such as water cooling fittings.

It should be noted that just because these fittings are made by Phanteks, they do not necessarily have to be used with other Phanteks products. These fittings are compatible with any aftermarket open-loop water cooling system that uses standard G1/4 type fittings.

Phanteks stated the new Glacier Fitting Series will be available in “September 2017” and listed prices ranging from $18 to $20 for the hard tube fitting and $4 to $14 for the universal fittings.

Phanteks announced the Glacier C399A CPU water block designed specifically for AMD’s Threadripper processors.

The Glacier C399A features a see-through polished acrylic cover mated to a large nickel-plated copper base. The base of the water block measures 85 x 8 x 70mm (W x H x D) and is equipped with densely packed rows of 0.6mm-wide cooling fins spaced 0.4mm apart and standing 5mm tall.

Phanteks has integrated RGB lighting capable of displaying 16.8 million colors into the clear polished top. The C399A is compatible with any RGB-equipped case and motherboard fitted with industry standard 4-pin RGB lighting headers. The Glacier C399A water block is available with anodized satin black or mirrored chrome accents and is compatible with any aftermarket open-loop water cooling system that uses standard G1/4 type fittings. Fittings for both hard and soft tube applications are sold separately.

One of the unique aspects of Phanteks water blocks is their use of o-rings made of Viton. For those of you not familiar with the properties of Viton, this material is popular due to its excellent compression properties and resistance to most oils and petroleum-based fuels and lubricants.

Water block seals made of Viton offer improved durability and an overall superior seal compared to those made of regular rubber/ They’re also resistant to oxidation, ozone, UV exposure, fungus, and mold. Viton is an elastomer commonly used in a number of sealing applications, including industrial use and the automotive and aerospace industries. This material has an effective operating range between 5°F and 400°F, making it an excellent choice for applications such as CPU and GPU water cooling.

We reached out to the company for information on pricing and availability.

Features & Specifications

Thunderbolt 3 debuted nearly a year ago, but Thunderbolt 2 still has a massive user base. The technology wiped Fibre Channel DAS off the map and provided professionals an easy path to high-speed, high-capacity storage. At the same time, many professionals have migrated from the Mac Pro to powerful Windows-based systems like the HP Z Workstation platform. Companies like LaCie have catered to Apple users while keeping a toe in the Wintel waters. That experience positions the company to support Windows users, in contrast to companies that treated Windows users like second-class citizens.

Regardless of your current platform, Thunderbolt offers superior features compared to USB and isn't as expensive as 10Gb Ethernet. Thunderbolt connectivity first appeared on a limited number of PC motherboards designed for audio-video professionals, but over time the high-bandwidth technology trickled down to some mainstream and enthusiast motherboards.

The second version of the technology offers a full-duplex 20Gb/s connection. For the most part, Thunderbolt has been used exclusively for storage devices and monitors (thanks to DisplayPort Passthrough).

LaCie, a Seagate company, is the market leader in Thunderbolt storage. No other company offers as many different models with the technology. We tested the LaCie Rugged RAID, a truly portable Thunderbolt-enabled device, in early 2016. The new 12big pedestal storage system (review coming soon) is at the other end of the scale with twelve hard drives. Seven distinct products, separated by capacity, populate the middle range.

Today we're testing the two flagship Thunderbolt 2 models that pack a large amount of storage capacity in a small package. The LaCie 5big uses a traditional pedestal form factor that fits nicely on or under a desk. The LaCie 8big is only 1.75-inches tall. The 1U 8big was designed for larger installations where using a rackmount system to take advantage of Thunderbolt's pass-thru makes for a tidier installation. The system is based loosely on Seagate's Business NAS, but was given a makeover by Neil Poulton, LaCie's award-winning designer. 

Specifications

*Ships with Seagate enterprise-class HDDs.

The LaCie 5big and 8big Rack Thunderbolt 2 storage systems use Marvell hardware RAID technology. You can align the disks in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 arrays or chose a simple JBOD configuration. You can also configure more than one array in the system.

Connectivity comes from dual 20Gb/s Thunderbolt 2 ports on the back of each system. Thunderbolt supports daisy-chaining up to six devices. Most host systems feature two Thunderbolt ports for up to 12 devices. This has added meaning for the 8big where users can build a large system in a rack for up to 1.7 petabytes of storage. The Thunderbolt specification supports cables up to 100 meters so you don't have to hear all of those spinning disks in your studio.

The performance varies for each specific product SKU and the type of array you build. The 5big comes in 10TB, 20TB, 30TB and 40TB capacities. The largest come outfitted with enterprise-grade disks. The 8big with eight drive bays ships in five capacities that range from 12TB to a massive 64TB. There are two stops at 48TB, one with, and one without, enterprise disks. The non-enterprise model uses Seagate's 8TB Desktop HDDs and the higher-spec unit uses Seagate's 8TB Enterprise NAS HDDs. The performance is close enough for LaCie to only list the performance by overall capacity. The real difference is in the build quality between the two drives. Enterprise HDDs are designed for environments with increased vibration, like a server rack. They also employ sturdier components and more robust firmware.

Pricing And Warranty

*Ships with Seagate enterprise-class HDDs.

High capacity hard disk drives are expensive, and when you need several to fill a device the cost amplifies quickly. The bare LaCie 5big starts at $1,199, but with five 8TB Seagate Enterprise NAS HDDs the final bill comes to nearly $4,000. The 8big Rack with eight drive bays has an even higher ceiling, but it starts at just $1,599. With the sale 8TB Enterprise NAS HDDs the price elevates to $6,899. We used MSRP pricing direct from LaCie for the chart, but there is some retail pricing drift. We found the 8big Rack 48TB for as low as $3,999 at Newegg. That is nearly $300 off the MSRP.

Both systems include a standard five-year warranty.

5big Packaging

The LaCie 5big ships with solid support and protection. The 5big features a full retail print allowing users to shop in retail stores with confidence. LaCie provided specification and features lists. Users also get a great look at the system thanks to the images on the front and back.

5big Accessories

The 5big comes ready for international travel with a five different power cables that accompany paper manuals and other assorted hardware. the system also ships with a Thunderbolt 2 cable. That will save users the added expense because these cables are not cheap.

The LaCie 5big

The system is identical to the now discontinued 5big NAS other than the two Thunderbolt ports that replace the Ethernet ports. The large blue orb on the front lights up when the system is turned on. You can press the button for a moment to put the drives to sleep or press it longer to shut the system down. There is a red LED inside for more complex operations like resetting the system to factory defaults.

8big Rack Packaging

The LaCie 8big Rack isn't the type of product you buy at a local Best Buy or Fry's Electronics store. The system has to ship double boxed due to the size and weight. The system ships exactly like the Seagate Business NAS, a 1U 8-bay NAS that shares the same basic case structure. The drives ship in a closed-cell form fitting foam to reduce vibration during shipping. Under the foam is another layer of protection via form fitting plastic that supports the 8big Rack NAS.

8big Rack Accessories

The 8big Rack ships with more accessories. LaCie includes rack rails and mounting hardware. There is also a cable management arm that actuates with the sliding action. The Seagate / LaCie slides are some of the best I've used if you have a square hole rack. The screws and washers fit inside the square holes to hold the rails center. You don't use rack nuts and the tapered screws fit flush allowing the 8big to fit perfectly flush with the rack.

The system also ships with two power cords and a Thunderbolt 2 cable. the cable is the same as what ships with the 5big and is right around three feet in length. This may not be long enough for most installations unless your host system is also in the rack.

The LaCie 8big Rack

Neil Poulton designed an attractive rackmount system but the recessed status and button system could use some work. If your 8big is in the top of the rack the recessed area is difficult to view with another system mounted under. Things get worse if your 8big is at the bottom of the rack. The 8big itself obstructs the view and access to the buttons. The perfect mounting point is chest to eye level. Here you see the status LEDs and can easily work the buttons.

The system features a power, silence and ID buttons. The power button is obvious. The silence button mutes the alarm should there be a problem with a drive or power. The ID button flashes an LED on the front and back of the system. This makes it easy to identify the correct system in a rack with several installed.

The drives slide into space in the forward half of the 8big. There is a removable tool-free cover that users access with two pull tabs on the side. You simple use the thumb screws that allow the rack slides to pull the system out. From there you remove the cover with the pull tabs that unlock the metal top.

The system also features four user replaceable fans should one fail. All of the hardware is hot-swappable so you don't even need to turn the 8big off to replace a disk or fan.

The LaCie 8big we received to test features redundant power and two Thunderbolt 2 ports on the back. Smaller capacity systems that ship with only 4 HDDs come with a single power supply. LaCie offers a redundant power supply kit should you want a dual PSU system.

Software

There are three key software packages included with both the 5big and 8big.

• Intego Backup Manager Pro
• LaCie Private-Public (AES 256-bit Encryption)
• LaCie RAID Manager (Administrator Console)

You can use LaCie's administration tool or Marvell's. The Marvell software gives you a little more control with additional features to fine tune the array but the LaCie software is easier to manage. The LaCie management software gives users easy access to 95 percent of the options but it does seem to have a slight delay after issuing a command and that makes it feel clunky.

LaCie also includes system backup software via Intego Backup Manager Pro. LaCie Public-Private includes an AES 256-bit encryption engine to keep your data secure.ivity first appeared on a limited number of PC motherboards designed for audio-video professionals, but over time the high-bandwidth technology trickled down to some mainstream and enthusiast motherboards.

The second version of the technology offers a full-duplex 20Gb/s connection. For the most part

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