The LaCie Little Big Disk is available as either a 240GB and 500GB SSD, or as a 1TB traditional 7200RPM hard drive. All three varieties use dual disks as a striped RAID set–wherein data is split evenly between the two disks.
And because the Little Big Disk is built with Apple’s new Thunderbolt technology, it’s lightning fast–with data transfer rates of up to 10Gb/s (double that of USB 3.0). Plus, Thunderbolt allows the LBD to daisy-chain between your MBA, Mac Mini and Thunderbolt Display.
The LBD measures 1.6 x 5.5 x 3.3 inches and weighs just 630 grams. Its aluminium case’s unique heat-sink shape keeps the unit cool without requiring a fan and was designed by award-winning designer Neil Poulton, who has worked with LaCie in the past.
No word yet on price but the Little Big Disk is expected to be released Summer of 2011–which can’t come soon enough. [LaCie]
ozoneocean
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:26 PMIntel’s Thunderbolt technology more like :)
It’s pretty brutish and heavy looking… and that sort of RAID isn’t that great a setup is it? You double your chance of a failure like that.
EckyThump
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:33 PMOh I don’t know, raid 1 is slower and you can only use 50% of capacity, for dual disc striped is probably fastest, but yeah you do take a risk! #]
Richard
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 5:34 PMDepends what you want to do with the data. Striped is quicker and offers more capacity, mirrored is slower (relative to striped) but offers data redundancy. Then theres a bunch of others that fall between.
EckyThump
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:28 PMThunderbolt! .. so it’s Apple only then? No doubt it will be too expensive also? #}
Andrew
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 11:22 PM2 x 240GB SSD will make it a +$1000 500GB drive.
Given that single 500GB SSDs are over $1500, the 1TB option is likely to go for $3000.
Of course, they could cheap out and use last gen SSDs, but then it would be no faster than USB 3.0 anyway.
This product has already been delayed. I expect that they’ve finally realised that there is no TRIM support currently available for SSDs in a RAID configuration.
BTW, this is only the third thunderbolt periferal to be announced. Like the others, the minimum cofiguration of it is over $1000. Things are not rosy for the interconnect.
Stephen
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:35 PMWhy would you go with an external SSD? My external drive’s for backups – I don’t care that it can launch windows 20 seconds faster, I just care that I can leave everything on overnight and it will have done its job.
Richard
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:41 PMNot everyones externals is for backups. I run virtual machines off my laptop for instance and use externals to house some of them. Granted I’m not using an SSD either, but I wouldn’t complain if my company made them available.
Mike
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 4:10 PMI’d also love being able to transfer data to/from my external off my laptop faster.
That said, I got that done with an external USB3 case and an SSD months ago. Oh yeah, and it cost me $30 for the case? Doubt this sucker will come in anywhere close.
Dave
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 4:32 PMI would love to boot my iMac from one of these and just use the internal 2TB HDD for Music and Movies. Apple’s SSD Sucks in performance and price so this would be very welcome in my house.
poltak
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 4:38 PMI don’t know why you would want an SSD as an external drive… but then again, there’s a huge veil of ignorance shrouding how SSDs actually work from the majority of computer users (especially the shortcomings associated with SSDs).
But then again, most (hopefully most) people do a little research beforehand when investing a lot of money into new tech.
But then if it is sold with “Apple’s new Thunderbolt technology” branded all over it, then reason and research usually go out the window with purchases… NO! That was a joke! Don’t flame me, Apple fans. I like OS X!
But really, Giz… “Apple’s new Thunderbolt technology”…?
vid
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 4:47 PMThat set-up really only looks useful for a working folder, like large or numerous Indesign/Illustrator/P.shop/CAD or Video files etc. You could work on the files directly with minimal impact on your system… though agree with everyone that RAID 0 is very risky.
You’d have to have another solution to back all of these files up again…. or just do what I did and get a Synology 1511+ and DS510. Set 2x 500GB 7200 drives in RAID 0 for working files and 3x 3TB drives in SHR 1 disc redundancy with automated backups of the working drive. Then use a second machine to do all the crunching and your main work station is never tied up. And most importantly, your data is secure!