LaCie 6big Thunderbolt 3 48TB DAS Review

Pricing, Conclusion, and Final Thoughts

Pricing

The LaCie 6big 48TB model with Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C can be yours for £5024.87 or $4354.96 at the time of writing. That might sound like a lot, but you need to keep in mind that it comes equipped with enterprise-grade drives.

Summary

Let me dive right into it and start by saying, it was a true pleasure to test and review LaCie’s 6big. It is a beautiful unit with a simplistic yet effective design. That’s always a pro in my book as people familiar with my work will know. Of course, the enclosure doesn’t just look good, it also helps with the cooling thanks to the full aluminium chassis. The front is kept clean with just the drives while all connections are located on the rear.

A nice touch is the single LED which is used on the front of the device. While individual LED lights for each drive and connection option can be advantages, it isn’t always the best option. When you need to find the root of your issues, LEDs can be useful. But the 6big is built to last and doesn’t need this. Okay, that’s probably not why, but it matches. A more likely reason for this is that a DAS with is placed close to your workstation and that you don’t want a lot of flashing lights in the edge of your vision field.

Impressive Features and Performance

Of course, the main connection for the LaCie 6big is the Thunderbolt 3 connection. Not only does it allow for up to 40Gbps throughput, it also features the daisy chain ability where up to 6 devices can run on a single host port. Also, as a backup solution and for single usages, the 6big features a USB Type-C port. Finally, with USB, you have the ability to connect it to pretty much any host system out there. That includes everything from TVs to computers.

There are multiple capacity options available. It starts with a modest 24TB model (4TB drives) and goes in four steps up to 60TB capacity (10TB drives). Today I tested the 48TB model (8TB drives), but they all have one thing in common. They utilise enterprise class 7200RPM drives, pack five years of warranty with advanced replacement shipping, and impressive performance figures. Of course, with up to 60TB storage and 1400MB/s throughput, you got one of the best external storage solution possible.

If that still isn’t enough for you, then you should take a look at the LaCie 12big. That unit doubles almost all aspects, including speed. In fact, the 12big will max out the possibilities of the Thunderbolt 3 connection.

The Software

LaCie’s RAID manager is very easy to use. Once installed on your system, it will let you configure all aspects of the 6big with just a few clicks.

Pros

• Up to 60TB capacity
• 1400MB/s throughput
• Dual Thunderbolt 3 and backup USB 3.1 connections
• Hardware designed for redundancy
• Designer-created aluminium enclosure

Cons

• None

“LaCie’s 6big delivers an impressive performance which is perfect for 4K/5K/3D jobs. At the same time, it looks good and stylish.”

We would like to thank LaCie for this review sample.