LaCie Announces 12Big and 6Big Thunderbolt 3 RAID Enclosures

LaCie just announced the impressively fast Bolt3 external drive, but that’s not all the Seagate company has up it sleeves as they’re also ready with 6Big and 12Big external Thunderbolt 3 enclosures that feature up to 120TB capacity and impressive speeds thanks to the RAID 5/6 setup.

Both the 6Big and 12Big are equipped with Seagate enterprise-class drives featuring 256MB cache and 7200RPM for the best performance and reliability.

“From ultra high-resolution cameras to virtual reality to drones, the new experiences that content creators can bring to life are truly exciting,” said Tim Bucher, Senior Vice President of Seagate and LaCie Branded Solutions. “Creating these experiences generates unprecedented amounts of data while requiring extreme performance, and today we’re thrilled to help our customers by offering best-in-class storage solutions that excel in even the most demanding video workflows.”

Thunderbolt 3 features double the video bandwidth of its predecessor and it also lets users daisy chain dual 4K displays or a single 5K display to the LaCie 12Big or LaCie 6Big. With two 4K displays, users can spread out their workspace by dedicating one display to the timeline and the other to previewing 4K footage. It is even possible to power a compatible laptop through the USB-C cable and users can also connect the enclosures to USB 3.0 computers via the included USB-C to USB-A cable – but naturally, that won’t provide the same great transfer speeds as Thunderbolt 3.

The LaCie 12Big and 6Big are built with front-accessible drives that offer convenient and quick drive replacement while front-facing drive status LEDs help the user keep track of drive health and RAID build status. The enclosure itself is made of aluminium which helps dissipate heat far better than plastic, but that’s not all the cooling they have. There are also two thermoregulated fans that pull heat away from internal components.

Both the LaCie 12Big and 6Big are protected by a five-year limited warranty that covers the drives, the enclosure itself, and the spare parts. Price-wise, it starts at £2699 for the 6Big and £5799 for the 12Big.

LaCie has also partnered with Peli Products to offer custom cases to safely transport the LaCie 12big or 6big to and from set. The Peli Storm Case is an injection-molded case made of HPX high-performance resin that is virtually unbreakable and resistant to dents and shatter. The custom, durable foam configuration can house the enclosure itself as well as multiple LaCie Rugged drives and accessories such as cords or a power supply. The cases are lightweight, airtight, watertight and backed by Peli’s lifetime warranty.