LaCie this week has introduced two new workstation-grade external storage solutions using Thunderbolt 3 with the focus on big on-the-desk data storage. The 6big and 12big devices pack in six or twelve enterprise-grade hard drives respectively and can provide up to 60 TB or up to 120 TB of storage space. The HDDs can be implemented as a JBOD or work in various RAID modes. LaCie’s devices promise to be able to take advantage of Thunderbolt 3’s 40 Gb/s bandwidth by providing up to 1400 MB/s or 2600 MB/s read speeds, which can be important for those who work with UHD video content.

The LaCie 6big and 12big DAS with six and 12 drive bays are made of aluminum and come with integrated PSUs and cooling. The storage devices are based on a proprietary platform from LaCie, which supports hardware RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50 modes. Seagate, the owner of the LaCie brand, does not disclose details about the platform behind the new DAS products, but it naturally has a hardware RAID controller (presumably from Seagate’s LSI division) as well as Intel’s Alpine Ridge controller for Thunderbolt 3.

The LaCie 6big and the LaCie 12big external storage devices will be sold in various configurations that use different hard drives, all of which support hot swapping and feature 7200 RPM spindle speed. The top-of-the-range 60 TB and 120 TB models use Seagate’s helium-filled Enterprise Capacity 10 TB HDDs rated for 2 million MTBF and 550 TB/year writes unannounced 10 TB HDD. Meanwhile the lower-capacity DAS devices will use Seagate’s Enterprise NAS HDDs rated for 1.2 million hours MTBF and 300 TB/year writes. The LaCie 6big and 12big will initially be available fully populated, and from a performance point of view maximum read and write speeds will mostly depend on RAID modes.

Update 11/3: As it appears, the LaCie 6big and 12big DAS do not use Seagate's Enterprise Capacity 10 TB HDDs, but rely on unannounced 10 TB drives from the company.

The LaCie 6big and 12big DAS
  6big 12big
HDDs Unannounced 10 TB HDD
Enterprise NAS 8 TB
Enterprise NAS 6 TB
Enterprise NAS 4 TB
Maximum Number of HDDs 6 12
Capacity 60 TB (6 × 10 TB)
48 TB (6 × 8 TB)
36 TB (6 × 6 TB)
24 TB (6 × 4 TB)
120 TB (12 × 10 TB)
96 TB (12 × 8 TB)
72 TB (12 × 6 TB)
48 TB (12 × 4 TB)
RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50
RAID 0 Read Speed 1400 MB/s 2600 MB/s
Write Speed 1400 MB/s 1700 MB/s
RAID 5 Read Speed 1200 MB/s 2400 MB/s
Write Speed 1150 MB/s 1200 MB/s
Ports 2 × Thunderbolt 3
1 × USB Type-C
Fans 2 4
PSU 250 W 400 W
Dimensions (W x H x L) 161 × 225 × 237 mm
6.3 × 8.9 × 9.3 inch
161 × 447 × 237 mm
6.3 × 17.6 × 9.3 inch
Cables Included USB-C (Thunderbolt 40Gb/s or USB 3.1 10Gb/s) cable
USB-C to USB-A cable
Power cable
Software LaCie RAID Manager
LaCie Private-Public for AES 256-bit software encryption
Intego Backup Manager Pro
Genie Backup Manager Pro
Prices 24 TB starts at $3199 48 TB starts at $6399

Both DAS solutions from LaCie feature two Thunderbolt 3 ports, making it possible to daisy-chain a display or another TB3 device to the storage arrays. In addition, the 6big and the 12big are equipped with one USB 3.1 Type-C connector which allows to use them with systems not equipped with TB3, but at considerably lower speeds (i.e., up to 350 – 400 MB/s depending on RAID mode).

Like other LaCie’s DAS products with multiple drives, the 6big and the 12big come with the company’s proprietary RAID management software that allows setting them up and then monitoring the condition of the drives.

For pricing the LaCie 6big 24 TB starts at $3199 whereas the LaCie 12big 48 TB starts at $6399.

Source: LaCie

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  • ddriver - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    Both can't be good, but putting it under the table won't make for a nice photo.
  • Valantar - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    I'd be more worried about the noise introduced to the audio system by having 12 7200rpm motors (plus four fans and a hefty PSU) next to your speaker cables. Metal housing might help, but probably not that much.
  • BurntMyBacon - Wednesday, November 2, 2016 - link

    I've induced noise on a cheap set of speakers using only a single 800-2500 RPM 120mm fan. Of course it wasn't in a metal housing (which does more than you seem to think if properly grounded). More importantly, the power to the fan was from an unshielded PWM type connector. I would think that they'd want to use shielded wire for TB3 cables. Even if they didn't, I doubt the switching speeds in the TB3 cable that might couple into the speaker would be in a range audible to humans or reproducible by the speakers in the picture.
  • BurntMyBacon - Wednesday, November 2, 2016 - link

    @TheinsanegamerN: "Perhaps he is referring to the vibrations from sound "upsetting" HDDs?"

    For sure you could cause damage if you placed the HDD stack next to a sufficiently sized subwoofer and played a lot of loud bass heavy audio. Hard to say if the setup above would be sufficient.
  • BurntMyBacon - Wednesday, November 2, 2016 - link

    @joelypolly: "I takes a lot more magnetic force than what is in a speaker to cause issues to a HDD"

    Depends on the speaker, but in this case I'd wager you are correct. Small speakers with high powered magnets are the ones to look out for as larger speakers already put some significant space between the magnet and the edge of the chassis.
  • Samus - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    Most speakers over the last few decades are magnetically shielded (isolated magnets, RF\EMI foil lining) so you could place them next to CRT's and VCR's...today it's obviously applicable to prevent interference with nearby appliances such as hard disks, routers (wireless signals) and reduce coil whine in high current components of game consoles.

    Magnetic interference\damage from speakers is virtually non-issue, however, putting Seagate hard disks in a product like this, at this price, makes me seriously question LaCie's decision to do so. With so many good alternatives such as the WD Datacenter and Hitachi He6, why would you want a shingled recording product or an unproven helium design from Seagate?
  • cm2187 - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    Hum. My experience with similar synology NAS is that 12 disks spinning is a lot of noise. You don't really want to have that on your desktop. Or perhaps combined with this sort of long optical cables: http://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/w...
  • willis936 - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    I don't see a price on there but I'd be surprised if that kind of cable cost less than a thousand dollars.
  • cygnus1 - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    They've been around a while for the older Thunderbolt versions. 10m active optical cables run around $250. Definitely more expensive than copper Thunderbolt, but not anywhere near a grand.
  • cygnus1 - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - link

    http://www.apple.com/shop/product/HE125VC/A/thunde...

    The 60m version actually is about $1000.... damn.

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