LaCie 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 Review

1. Introduction2. LaCie 2big Dock Thunderbird 3 20TB3. LaCie RAID Manager4. Testing Methodology5. Crystal Disk Mark / ATTO6. Backup / Restore7. Throughput 8. Real Life File Transfers9. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

LaCie's 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3, designed by Neil Poulton, is the latest addition to the company's professional product line. A two disk external drive, it offers fast transfer speeds courtesy of its Thunderbolt 3 interfaces; there's two of them, and there's also a USB 3.1 Type-C port as well. It comes in 8TB, 12TB, 16TB and 20TB capacities using Seagate's IronWolf Pro enterprise-class hard drives.

 

Actually just calling the 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 just an external drive does it a disservice as it also has a DisplayPort to connect to hi-res displays and a pair of card slots (SD and CF) to directly off load files from. You can also charge your phone via the front USB 3.0 port or connect a camera direct to the 2big Dock.

When in RAID 0 mode and using the Thunderbolt 3 interface the 2big Dock is fast, Lacie claim a maximum transfer speed of 440MB/s but we managed a shade more with read/write scores of 465MB/s and 463MB/s respectively. Obviously to get the most out of the bandwidth offered by interface you need SSDs and it'll be interesting to see if LaCie offer an SSD version of 2Big Dock Thunderbolt 3 somewhere down the line.

We found the 20TB version of the LaCie 2big Dock Thunderbird 3 for £1,038.00 (inc VAT) on Span.com HERE

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Pros.

• Capacity.
• Compact design.
• Interface options.
• RAID Manager software.
• 5-year warranty.

Cons.

• Pricey.
• Having to use the power button on the rear panel for RAID change confirmation.
• Really needs SSD's to get the best of the Thunderbolt 3 interface.

Kitguru says: LaCie's 2big Dock Thunderbolt 3 is aimed at the professional user combining very large capacity with a fast interface, just right for shifting large image files around and in that context the DisplayPort and the ability to import images from a Flash card or directly via the camera itself are very useful added features. But it all comes at quite some cost.

 

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