LaCie boosts F.A. Porsche-desgined hard drives to 500GB

Still milking that partnership with F.A. Porsche, LaCie has ramped up the capacity in its oh-so-distinguishable Porsche-designed external hard drive to a half a terabyte. Still rocking that sleek, silver case, the company's latest drive sports all the same amenities of its less spacious brethren, but stuffs a 500GB drive inside the fanless enclosure, which rolls along at 7200RPM and sports "at least" 8MB of cache (nail it down, guys!). LaCie also throws in all the cabling needed to get those transfers a-blazing, and encourages you to backup your system via its "1-Click" software -- but we know you're holding out for Time Machine. If you just can't resist pairing a supercar-branded hard drive with your wildly exotic notebook, the USB 2.0 flavor is currently shipping for $249, while the FireWire edition is slated to drop in October for $279.

[Via MacMinute]

UPDATE: Melissa Logan from LaCie wrote in to say that this drive does actually have a cooling fan, it just shuts off when not in use.

[bob @ Sep 13th 2006 1:55PM]

i need one of these woop! though ill wait for firewire, bloody PC people holding back firewire for inferior usb2 :p lol (dont take it too seriously guys

[Scott @ Sep 13th 2006 1:59PM]

That's actually a pretty competitive price for a drive that size. Hopefully they have a cache larger than 8MB though.

And I would debate that a heatsink or fan isn't necessary. Does the total capacity of the drive effect the heat output? The top speed is fixed at 7200 rpm. Obviously there will be a lot of extra revs/seek time when the drive is full, but I wouldn't consider a fanless enclosure a risk here. Anyone care to prove me wrong?

Also... what's with the bra ad? I would be interested to know the percentage of Engadget readers who wear/purchase bras.

[CharlieX @ Sep 13th 2006 2:02PM]

I've had 2 Lacie's burn out. Countless other stories on video sites too. Fanless = dangerous.

[JamesB @ Sep 13th 2006 2:14PM]

I've always thought that these were sweet - until I touched one. It really didn't feel as nice as it looks. It felt cheap - that bundled with LaCie's external HDD history (that I've seen) I decided to steer clear.

I do love the design.

[Dave @ Sep 13th 2006 2:37PM]

Yeah, my GF has burned through 2 LaCie drives on her Mac over the last year... I'm fed up of having to buy her new ones - never again on a LaCie

[Wonderboy @ Sep 13th 2006 2:38PM]

I really don't get the design hype... looks like a silver box.

As for Lacie... I hear a lot of people giving their HDDs a lot of crap, but I've got two Big Disk Extremes (500GB each) and haven't had one bit of trouble over the year and a half (close to 2 years) I've had them running. Sure they get a little warm, but I wonder where people are putting these things to have them over heat.

I've got both of mine hooked up to my HTPC, both packed to the brim with media... no problems, ever.

Back on subject... gotta say once more I really don't understand the styling hype (and obvious mark-up), you can get a 1TB Big Disk for $100 more. Say what you will, but when people walk into my living room and see my set up, it's the fact that I've got 2TB of HDDs that impresses people. They never look at the drives themselves cause they're tucked away in a (well ventilated) shelf. I wan't people seeing the TV, not the HDDs.

[Myles @ Sep 13th 2006 2:44PM]

Umm, "design"? So...if I took a chunk of aluminum and called it art would I get money too?

:p

[Paul @ Sep 13th 2006 2:45PM]

JUNK! Every LaCie piece of hardware I have ever owned has died on me in bad ways. From multiple external CD burners, to DVD burners to external harddrives used for back up. They use maxtor drives in them. Never get any drive other than Segate or it will bite you in the rear. Lacie's use Maxtors' crap hard drives with a cheaper price tag and very high failure rate. I have lost archives of client data thinking I would get the nice looking lacie aluminium case. Not worth the data loss or the $3500 in data recovery fees. Never buy La Cie when it dies you will kick yourself and rember reading my post.

[Christian @ Sep 13th 2006 2:53PM]

I've had one of these on my desk for two weeks now. It isn't fanless, though. It has a small temperature controlled fan on the right side of the housing. You'll have to run it for an hour or so, before it winds up. Not too much sound coming out from it, though.

I've got the 250GB version as well. The 500GB is more silent than the old one, and besides from that, they've replaced to mechanical sliding power button at the back, with an electronic-sort-of-push-button-alot-nicer (if you care).

The PSU got twice as big. But who cares, as it will rest in peace behind your desk (or bed, toilet kitchen sink, or where ever you use your Lacie the most).

With regards to the cheep'o-feeling, it's true. I think the 2.5" version is alot more neat. Obviously, the design must have been ment for 2.5" initially. For a great desktop drive, with a more sturdy design, put down the extra buch for a d2 edition.

Cheers

[Christian @ Sep 13th 2006 2:55PM]

>Umm, "design"? So...if I took a chunk of aluminum and
>called it art would I get money too?

Yes, that's how it works.

[Woolly Mittens @ Sep 13th 2006 3:04PM]

I've seen this pass as news on Gizmodo too. The wierd thing is, that I unwittingly bought one at the local "media-markt" three weeks ago and never gave it's apparent novelty a second thought.

As for heat. I can understand it'll melt if you run it 24/7. Mine seems to to content to spin down after 5 minutes.

[Dan @ Sep 13th 2006 3:15PM]

Stay well clear!

I've lost 3 out of 5 LaCie drives due to overheating. Lousy plastic casing!

[Jeff @ Sep 13th 2006 3:40PM]

"I really don't get the design hype... looks like a silver box."

It is a silver box.

We have one in my department at work. (We didn't buy it for the style; I think at the time it was the only one available at the capacity we got.) It is just a big, clunky, silverish-grey metal box. Despite what another poster said, it actually feels pretty substantial - but next to some of our other, newer drives, it almost looks retro.

I'm the kind of guy that calls the iPod iconic, so it's not as if I don't get what they were going for. But it is seriously an enclosure that doesn't seem to have had nearly as much thought put behind it as it gets credit for.

[del @ Sep 13th 2006 4:09PM]

I have 2 of the 250 gig drives with the same case. Case is mostly plastic, gets extremely hot, and both drives failed within 6 months.

The most amusing part is that the case has feet and indents so that you can stack the drives, but if you do that, they fail significantly faster.

[Dan @ Sep 13th 2006 4:53PM]

yep, I stacked them and they failed within 4 weeks!!!!

btw, only the front panel looks like metal, the rest is def plastic.

The D2 models have got a full aluminium casing and better heat dissipation but even D2 failed after a year.

Am quite happy with western digital 500gb mybook!

[Carnaval13 @ Sep 13th 2006 5:19PM]

Actually the LaCie 500GB Porsche drives have a fan. Check the specs on their site:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10764

[Matt @ Sep 13th 2006 8:05PM]

I'm not sure about the fanless comments, it says on the product page that the drive has a quiet smart fan.

I'm glad to hear its rather quiet, have you happened to notice if it turns off when you stop using the drive?

[chi4j @ Jan 5th 2007 10:59PM]

Dang,
I just ordered one from website, waiting for it to arrive.
Dang, dang, dang...
I hope if I take care of it - use as back up once in a while, it'll last.

[WS @ Nov 22nd 2008 2:53AM]

Some of these units have a fan and some don't. Taken from the datasheet on the 500 GB model:

Fan: "Fanless/Smart Fan"

I took mine apart the other to pull the HD and it had no fan.