LaCie unveils 5TB Biggest S2S SATA RAID tower

LaCie is apparently looking to grab video editors' attention with the introduction of its latest RAID tower, which comes stocked with 5TB of storage and is scalable to up to 20TB for HD multi-stream support. The 5TB Biggest S2S five-disk RAID boasts a 3Gbit/sec eSATA interface, direct eSATA-to-SATA connection, burst rates of over 200MB/sec, and the ability to link up with three other S2S units on the eSATA PCI-X / ExpressCard to achieve the aforementioned 20TB solution. Furthermore, the disks are hot-swappable and the tower is hot-pluggable, and it can even be setup to beam out email alerts in the event of disk failure. The 5TB S2S is available now for $3,699 with a PCI-X card, or you can toss in an extra Benjamin and go for the PCI-E bundle.

[Blair Thiessen @ Aug 14th 2007 4:05PM]

We have the 2.5TB version at work. With 5x 500GB Hard Drives it works great with our Mac Xserve.

[Ayle @ Aug 14th 2007 4:56PM]

Raid 0???? What do you do when one of the hard drives fails????

[Blair Thiessen @ Aug 14th 2007 5:05PM]

No Raid1. well a bit different Drive 0 and Drive 1 are the same, Drive 2 and Drive 3 are the same. Drive 4 dose nothing unless lets say Drive 1 dies, then it will copy Drive 0 to Drive 4 and you replace Drive 1.

@Del Monte

It's an external drive case that has 5 drive bays, it comes with 5 hard drives but you can get them in different sizes. It also comes with a PCI or a PCI-E eSATA card to connect it with, you pick the PCI or PCI-E card when you order it. Works great with Windows or Mac OS X.

[Del Monte @ Aug 14th 2007 4:09PM]

What does one of these actually do? Is it just a storage platform? What are the main functions?

Thanks, N00b

[Randy @ Aug 14th 2007 5:06PM]

@ Del Monte

You plug this into your machine (via eSATA connection) and this thing provides you disk. You can configure it for Space (raid 0) or redundancy (raid 1+0, or 5)

[CraigJ @ Aug 14th 2007 5:07PM]

provides a place to store all your torrents...

[HineyWipe @ Aug 14th 2007 5:04PM]

Ah, laCie...I must rant on you. When it was LaCie with Paul McGraw at the Tech helm, LaCie was the bomb. But now, after numerous failed drives, poor design and failed power supplies (and lost data, don't forget lost data)...I snub at thee.
Now, if LaCie had just offered their (renamed 3rd party) storage with empty chasis with users "permitted" to install drives of their whim without losing a wad of cash...or breaking a seal.
(You can get a Port Multiplier PCI-X or Express card and an empty 5-drive PM chasis for under $900..add $500 more and you can get five SATA 500GB drives too...YMMV)

[CharlieX @ Aug 14th 2007 5:10PM]

Hear Hear! QC has going down the crapper with LaCie. We've sworn them completely out of the facility for ever and anon.

[kevin @ Aug 14th 2007 5:16PM]

seriously, LaCie's customer support rep actually hung up on us when we were calling about getting a SECOND replacement for a defective Ethernet Disk Mini.

I don't trust their drives at all now.

[steve @ Aug 14th 2007 5:10PM]

Sounds like a rip-off, the drives are ~350 a piece (probably even less in volume). Making 5 drives $1750. This is a $2000 mark up just for the case+a e-sata pci card which are probably just $50

I'd consider it for $2200. but $3700 is ridiculous

[tpp @ Aug 14th 2007 5:11PM]

Why do they have to make this thing look so f***ing ugly?

[scott @ Aug 14th 2007 6:03PM]

Cause it's meant for the server room, most things in server rooms are hideous...

[Ryan @ Aug 14th 2007 5:42PM]

Thats ok but if you're spending that much look towards something like Caldigit's HD Pro. We have one and its quite impressive for what it is. http://www.caldigit.com/HDPro.asp Certainly other options out there as well, I can just speak from first hand knowledge on the HD Pro.

[Typhoid Mary @ Sep 11th 2007 9:59PM]

To bad Thecus does it better, and cheaper.

[david @ Nov 27th 2007 3:37AM]

c'mon now... 5TB of porn... oh wait.... it's 5TB of word docs...