LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3
Fast performance, generous storage
This drive has two features that are attractive if you deal with very large media files or have a high-end
display setup. It sports a gigantic 10TB capacity and two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Such a fast connection to your Mac might seem wasted on a traditional disk, which won’t saturate the 40Gbps bandwidth. The point of it, though, lies in the second Thunderbolt 3 port, which enables you to daisy chain another device – great news if you’re running short of places to plug things in to your Mac. That device can even be a 5K display.
This model also has a Type-C USB 3.1 port, and a Type-A-to-C is included for older Macs. Beyond that, this d2 looks just like other recent models; the friction afforded by the rubber-backed base is a particularly welcome touch for keeping the drive steady.
LaCie quotes speeds of up to 240MB/sec. As ever with storage, mean averages are lower – 220.7 and 211.5MB/ sec sequential read and write speeds, respectively, and 108.2MB/sec and 95.1MB/sec when reading and writing randomly around the disk; the latter is likely to be a rare occurrence at this capacity and when using the drive for very large files that occupy contiguous areas of the disk.
Bear in mind that at this kind of capacity, a means of backing up gets costly.