LaCie announced on Thursday that its 5big Thunderbolt Series, 2big Thunderbolt Series and d2 Thunderbolt Series now provide users even more external storage by using 5 TB 7200 RPM hard drives from Seagate, which use Shingled Magnetic Recording technology (SMR) to pack data closer together.
"SMR achieves higher areal densities by squeezing tracks closer together," Seagate explains. "Tracks overlap one another, like shingles on a roof, allowing more data to be written to the same space. As new data is written, the drive tracks are trimmed, or shingled. Because the reader element on the drive head is smaller than the writer, all data can still be read off the trimmed track without compromise to data integrity or reliability. In addition, traditional reader and writer elements can be used for SMR."
The LaCie 5big Thunderbolt series is a five-bay unit that provides capacities of 10 TB ($999), 20 TB ($1,999) or 25 TB ($2,499). Features include speeds up to 785 MB/s, RAID 0, 1 and JBOD support with hot swap, dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining, and "whisper-quiet" cooling.
The LaCie 2big Thunderbolt series is a two-bay unit that provides capacities of 4 TB ($499), 6 TB ($629), 8 TB ($799) or 10 TB ($899). Features include speeds up to 327 MB/s, RAID flexibility, dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining, and two hot-swappable disks for non-stop data access.
Finally there's the LaCie d2, which is a single-bay device built for "pros." This external storage solution provides capacities of 3 TB ($299), 4 TB ($399) or 5 TB ($449). Features include data encryption, a fan-free aluminum heat sync design, speeds up to 170 MB/s, and a USB 3.0 port for alternate connectivity.
"Increasingly larger file formats for film and photography have driven the demand for more storage capacity. The availability of 5 TB hard drives enables LaCie to deliver significantly more storage capacity in its same compact desktop designs. This saves professionals valuable desktop space," reads the company's press release.
The new capacities are also available on the LaCie 2big Quadra and d2 Quadra storage solutions. For more information about the company's Thunderbolt products, head here.
