LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB Desktop HDD Review

Introduction Today I get to review an amazing looking storage drive with a connection option available for any system. In the testing area is LaCie's newest d2 model, the d2 Thunderbolt 3 drive with 10TB capacity. Not only does it come with Thunderbolt 3 connections, it also features USB, USB charging and plenty of capacity. LaCie designed the drive with massive Lightroom libraries, storage expansion for SSD-based laptops, 4K video archiving, and the transport of projects for presentations in mind. It is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS systems. The included setup software even offers the option to split up the drive into two volumes, one for each and each with the size you specify. If the drive looks familiar to you, then that's no surprise at all. The d2 series has served as dependable storage options for 20 years and there have been many different versions of them. One thing in common is the external design which was done by Neil Poulton. Neil Poulton is an industrial product designer and his designs have won countless awards, including the prestigious IF Design Award and the Red Dot Design Award on multiple occasions. Neil Poulton specialises in the design of 'deceptively simple-looking mass-produced objects'. The drive's enclosure is forged from a single sheet of aluminium. That gives the enclosure an uncommon rigidity for long-term durability. The aluminium enclosure also aids with the heat dissipation, but it isn't the only cooling feature in this drive. There's also a tiny fan at the rear of the drive which helps with the cooling. While small fans tend to be loud, this one isn't. It makes less noise than the mechanical parts of the drive does. 10TB portable storage without heat throttling or extra noise levels, that's something we like. Inside the d2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB drive is a BarraCuda Pro drive. The BarraCuda Pro features a 7200 RPM spindle speed which allows the drive to perform with up to 240MB/s. For example, it will allow you to copy 64GB of photos from the d2 to your system in just 5 minutes. Sure, it doesn't beat SSD speed, but it brings a lot more capacity to the table. The LaCie d2 features more than one connection option, but the main connection is the Thunderbolt 3. The name of the drive gives that away. The d2 actually features two Thunderbolt 3 ports and that is because it supports daisy-chaining of up to 6 devices. With a 40Gbps connection, there is plenty to spare for more drives, monitors, or other Thunderbolt 3 powered devices. There is also a USB 3.1 Type-C port which allows you to connect the drive to systems that don't have Thunderbolt 3 at their disposal. The included cabled features a Type-A connector on the other end, making it compatible with pretty much any system. The USB port serves a double purpose with charging capabilities. You can connect and charge laptops with up to 15W power directly through the storage drive. Portability is all about keeping it simple and reducing the amount of cables and adapters you need, and this feature could easily eliminate the need for one of those. Connections to Thunderbolt 2 devices is possible too, but that requires an extra cable that isn't included. With the introduction to Thunderbolt 3, the connector changed to a USB Type-C style which makes it more compatible with newer devices. LaCie is proud of the drive and it shows in the included warranty. The d2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB drive is backed by an impressive 5-year warranty. Product Highlights Silent and sturdy though single-sheet aluminium construction Performance up to 240MB/s Large 10TB Capacity Universal compatibility with both Thunderbolt and USB Reliable and backed by a 5-year warranty Design by Neil Poulton Packaging The package shows the drive from various angels on the various sides. The front side also features all the vital specifications such as speed, capacity, and connection options. The rear side shows the drive set up next to a laptop and goes a bit more into detail on the various features such as the daisy chaining and the connectivity options. Inside is another box with the accessories. This box also features the quick install guide printed on top. Connect the drive and run the setup program located on it. Simple instructions, but for some users it might be the first new external drive that they're purchasing. It has to be easy for them too. A portable drive has to be usable everywhere, and the LaCie d2 is. The drive came with five different power cables, allowing connection in pretty much any location in the world. The power supply is fairly normal and there isn't much to note on that part. The d2 drive comes with two cables where the first is a Thunderbolt 3 cable with Type-C connectors. The second cable is a USB type-C to Type-A cable which provides universal compatibility for the drive. There is also a small warranty note included. A Closer Look Let us have a closer look at some of the features and included items, starting with the power adapter. It is compatible with 100 to 240V connections which make it usable everywhere. It is labelled for 12V at 5A which makes it provide around 60W of power. The Thunderbolt 3 cable is clearly marked with the Thunderbolt lightning icon as well as the number 3 to indicate the generation. This eliminates any confusion on which cable is which and for what. The blue 'eye' on the front of the drive acts as power and activity LED. It is a great way to incorporate this into the design and the overall look of the drive is excellent. Turning the drive around and having a look at the rear side, the first things we notice is the fan at the top. Right below the fan is the USB 3.1 port. Further down are the two Thunderbolt ports, one for input and one for output, followed by a Kensington security slot and the power connector. All the way at the bottom is another nifty little feature, a cable guard thingie that allows you to secure the cables from being accidentally unplugged. The bottom of the drive is fully covered in rubber knobs which give the drive a great stand while the prevents vibrations from travelling between the drive and the surface it is placed upon. It is also quite heavy which gives it a great stability despite the height vs. width. At the front end, we also see a small hole that allows for fresh air intake. Software If you're going to use Thunderbolt 3 on a Windows powered system, then you'll need to make sure that your motherboard is set up for this. In most instances, it will need BIOS and Firmware upgrades. Windows 10 users also need to make sure that they have the proper Thunderbolt 3 driver installed for the drive to be detected. The LaCie support portal will help with the drivers while you have to check your motherboard's manufacturer to see about the BIOS and Firmware steps. You might also need to allow the Thunderbolt device to connect to your system. When everything is set up and working, the LaCie d2 drive will show up within the Thunderbolt control panel. The drive comes with a setup application on the drive which will help you set up the partitions for the systems it will be connected to. That feature sadly only seems to be available via USB. If you'd like to check out the app, then I can refer you to our recent review of the LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt/USB-C drive that uses the same app. Naturally, you can also just use your administration panel or partition manager to create the setup you need. After all, it's a hard disk and you can do with it as you can with any other hard disk drive. Genie Timeline Backup Software The drive comes with the Genie Timeline backup program included and it is real easy to set it up and use. It only requires two steps. Select the LaCie, or another drive you want to use as the backup target, and hit the next arrow at the bottom of the screen. Now you can either use the smart selection of files and features. Or you can manually select the folders you want to backup to your portable Rugged drive. Once done, the app will start the backup process. You can pause this at any time to the left on the screen, should you want to do so. Test Procedure Testing a drive like this is a pretty straight forward process. A mechanical drive does not have the same impact from wear and tear as solid state drives and as such the drive doesn't require any long-time conditioning test. I'll still be running extensive tests with various data fillage scenarios and benchmark applications. First, I'll test the drive empty after which I'll gradually fill it with 25% data at a time and retest it under each of these fill scenarios. This will give us a detailed view on the drive's performance as it fills up and whether that has any impact on the performance or not. For these tests I'll be using the well-known ATTO, Anvil's Storage Utilities, AS SSD, and CrystalDiskMark benchmark tools. Following the fillage tests, I'll be using AIDA 64 and IOmeter to get a more detailed view of the drive's raw performance. These tests run best with an unpartitioned drive and as such exclude data fillage, but in return, we get even more details on the drive's performance, including access times, sequential, and random performance. Test system: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7-EU Intel Core i5-6600K EVGA GTX 980 SC Kingston Fury DDR4 2400MHz 32GB Samsung SM951 NVMe 256GB in RAID 0 be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate Software used: AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage Utilities ATTO Disk Benchmark AS SSD Benchmark CrystalDiskMark 64bit IOMeter Windows 10 Pro AIDA64 AIDA64 is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. It provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives and is compatible with most Microsoft Windows operating systems. It also has a disk benchmark tool, and that is the one I'll be using. Random Performance The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are actually a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. Access Times The Access time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Anvil's Storage Utilities Anvil's Storage Utilities is a new benchmarking utility that we have started using here at eTeknix, it's completely free to download and has the ability to test mainly hard drives and solid state drives, but also any other form of storage medium that you can throw at it. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis These charts will show how the drive performs in relation to fillage with 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% data. Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. AS SSD The AS SSD software determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains five synthetic and three practice tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD. These tests are performed without using the operating system caches. In Sequential tests, the program measures the time it takes to read and write a 1 GB file respectively. To give a clearer picture of the drives tested, I've chosen to include all tests. Special the copy test is one that I think is relevant on the consumer level as it gives the user a view into one of the operations he's going to do many times. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis These charts will show how the drive performs in relation to fillage with 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% data. Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. ATTO The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customise your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis These charts will show how the drive performs in relation to fillage with 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% data. Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD benchmark utility for your hard drive that enables you to rapidly measure sequential and random 4KB/512KB read/write speeds. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis These charts will show how the drive performs in relation to fillage with 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% data. Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. IOMeter IOMeter is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. It is used as a benchmark and troubleshooting tool and is easily configured to replicate the behaviour of many popular applications. One commonly quoted measurement provided by the tool is IOPS. IOMeter allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file. Configurable items within the Access Specifications are Transfer Request Size, Percent Random/Sequential distribution, Percent Read/Write Distribution, Aligned I/O’s, Reply Size, and TCP/IP status among others. Sequential Performance Random Performance Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, the LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB drive can be found at Amazon UK for just £575.00. I couldn't find it listed on the US counterparts yet, but I'm sure that it will be soon. Conclusion The LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 is one of the most beautiful external drives that I know of and have had the pleasure to test. The design isn't just for your eyes, it's also effectively helping the drive to stay cool. Since the majority of the drive is built from a single sheet of aluminium, the LaCie d2 is both as great at heat dissipation as it is sturdy. The connectivity is one of the places where this drives really shines. As the name suggests, it features Thunderbolt 3 40Gbps connections, and not just one of them. The drive features two of these connectors, allowing you to daisy-chain up to six devices onto one host port. That could be other storage drives or monitors, for example. Besides the Thunderbolt connections, the drive also features a USB-C connector. This one features a double function as it can be used to connect the drive and it can also be used to charge with up to 15W of power. A mechanical-based drive has some natural limitations when it comes to performance, at least when compared to flash-based storage. But that doesn't mean that the LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 performs badly in any way. On the contrary, the drive delivers great results on all levels and wins every test with ease. Fast sequential read/write speeds of 240/230 MB/s, random read/write performance of 790/670 IOPS, and read/write access times all the way down to 15.4/3.4 ms. The LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 will make sure that you won't run out of portable storage space anytime soon. With 10TB capacity, it matches internal drive capacities. Inside the d2 is a Seagate Barracuda Pro drive which is an enterprise-class drive with 7200RPM and a 5-year warranty. Pros Impressive 10TB capacity Thunderbolt 3 with daisy-chain support USB Type-C with charging support Great performance Silent and cool operation Long warranty Cons None "The LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 looks stunning while bringing an impressive capacity and performance." Thank you LaCie for providing us with this sample.