Comments on: LaCie 301435U 8 TB 4big Quadra eSATA/FireWire 800/Firewire 400/USB 2.0 RAID Hard Drive

By: S. Metzeler

S. Metzeler — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:11:17 +0000

Very easy to configure, very fast, at least over eSATA interface.

Maybe a bit louder than I expected based on the description, but bearable.

By: Felipe Cruz Ferrero

Felipe Cruz Ferrero — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:26:58 +0000

So far so good, im using it as a backup unit for an SQL Retrospect MSSQL backup machine, the drive is heavily used, i bought a spare drive just in case.
Pretty happy with the speed, its a nice looking device and mostly, so far its very reliable.

Using it on Raid 5

By: Cape Blues

Cape Blues — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:56:59 +0000

Everything worked great on the 6TB except the eSATA hook up. I bought LaCie eSATA PCI card and installed it on my Mac Pro and coupled it up and have had issues. I believe it is the power level to the eSATA port being low? But most of the time the drive will not show up on the desktop. I ended up not using it which is a pain and waste and switched to Firewire 800 which has been flawless. I don’t know if its the Lacie PCI card’s fault or the 6TB fault? But one of the two is not doing its job and for the price, thats not good enough. Tech support was not able to help other than say send it back which would be more trouble than its worth. Sad overall as the RAID set is good and useful. Makes one wonder about cost effectiveness though. Pretty darn expensive at the end of the day!

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:27:53 +0000

This is by far one of the best purchases I have ever made. I previously had two 1TB drives running in a software RAID 1. I then needed more space and the cost of changing the ARRY to a 2TB software Raid 1 was too expensive. Instead I first purchased a Qx2 from OWC which was the WORST device I have ever owned. It constantly went into rebuild mode, was very loud, and the fan alarm went off once a week in the middle of the night waking me up. STAY AWAY FROM the Qx2. I then did some research and found out about the 4big. I couldn’t find too much info on it but decided anything was better then the junk I had. I connected the 4big and was running in a matter of minutes. IT IS AMAZING. It runs super quiet, I MEAN ALMOST SILENT. It is not constantly spinning the hard drives down and then having to spin them up. It also has a an AUTO mode for low power (which is almost no power) when the computer is off or sleeping. It is more compact and much better looking. I now am running four 1TB drives inside of it with a RAID 5 giving me 3TB of space. It is lightning fast too on reads and writes. Think about this RAID array before a 2TB drive. A drive can fail and you wont be left in the cold. It is also upgradeable to 8TB.

By: Here in Small Town Ohio

Here in Small Town Ohio — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:17:51 +0000

I bought this array primarily based on it's design and claims of super quiet operation. Performance was good and easy to set up (though figuring out how to switch the raid levels took me a bit - I kept pushing the "button" on the back instead of using the tiny little Lacie key provided).

However I'm mainly posting this to reflect my disappointment in the sound levels. I have a mac pro with a 4870 video card and 4 hard drives inside. From my desk I can BARELY hear a slight whir from it. This unit is noticeably louder than the mac pro and even more annoyingly the fan seemed to vary in speed frequently so the pitch of noise was constantly changing.

In the end I returned mine as it was too loud for my needs. Given the premium price and design specifications, I think they need to work more on sound isolation. A pity because otherwise it was a nice unit.