LaCie 8Big Pro5 review: Gargantuan capacity and Thunderbolt 5 speed

Macworld At a glance Expert's Rating Pros Massive capacity (32TB to 256TB) RAID 0 through 60 with multi-RAID setups Up to 7GBps sequential throughput with smaller data sets Hardware RAID Cons SSD-like price per TB in the 32TB capacity Three extra international power cords that will likely wind up in landfill Requires driver to be recognized Our Verdict The LaCie 8Big Pro5 provides tons of storage capacity with SSD-like sequential throughput thanks to eight drives, Thunderbolt 5 and hardware RAID. It’s also significantly cheaper than solid state solutions at the 64TB capacity and above. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed $5,979 for 32TB Best Prices Today: LaCie 8Big Pro5 RAID box (32TB) Retailer Price $5,979 View Deal $5979 View Deal Seagate/LaCie $5979 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket SSDs are expensive–hard drives, not as much so. Hence, when huge amounts of capacity are required, hard drives, albeit slower, can be a superior economic solution. Enter the handsome LaCie 8Big Pro5 (5 as in Thunderbolt 5) with its eight drive bays and hardware RAID implementation. It offers SSD-like performance with sequential transfers; it’s available with up to 256TB of capacity; features brick outhouse construction, and it comes with an outstanding warranty. What’s not to love? (Outside of the price, perhaps.) LaCie 8Big Pro5’s features The Thunderbolt 5 8Big Pro5 is rather large at 11.7-inches wide, by 9.1-inches deep, by 8.25 inches tall (approximate) and heavy, weighing 32 pounds with eight hard drives installed. It has eight vertically-oriented, front-accessible, easy-open, non-locking drive bays with non-tool trays on the front. Swapping out drives doesn’t get any easier. The 8Big Pro5 features Neil Poulon styling with the familiar blue power button,...