INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Thanks to the development of 10TB 3.5" drives people can finally carry around with them a very large amount of data without having to worry about size and weight. Sure the 3.5" format isn't very convenient but if your job demands the extra storage space it's not like you have many choices currently. Still up until this day manufacturers haven't really released many 10TB external drives and the ones that have obviously didn't have professionals and enterprise users in mind when doing so. Because of that most 10TB external hard drives only feature USB 3.0/3.1 gen 2 (5/10Gbps) connectivity which although extremely popular among gamers, enthusiasts and yes even professionals there are many out there who'd rather go with the faster (40Gbps) Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. LaCie recently updated their popular D2 Thunderbolt professional desktop storage line to include Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and of course a 10TB drive.

   LaCie, the premium brand of Seagate technology, designs world-class storage solutions for photographers, videographers, audio professionals, and other power users. With leading technology, performance, quality, and customer support, LaCie helps you realize your creative vision. We differentiate ourselves with a focus on design, unmatched technical performance, and long-term reliability. Since 1992, we have collaborated with visionary designers to bring you cutting-edge products. From Ziba Design to Porsche Design GmbH, as well as Karim Rashid, Ora-IIto, and Philippe Starck, a who’s-who list of prominent designers have made their mark on our products. The talent of these designers ensures that you are not just getting a way to store your files — you are buying a product where design and technology merge to result in complete usability. For the past 15 years, we have also had a close partnership with Scottish designer Neil Poulton, who designs all of our professional products, including our award-winning Rugged™, d2, 2big, 5big, and 8big Rack storage solutions. At LaCie, we protect your life’s work. And we expand what’s possible.

   In terms of looks the brand new D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB professional storage drive by LaCie (STFY10000400) follows the same lines as the rest of the D2 Thunderbolt line so once again the enclosure is made out of aluminum (also used to dissipate heat coming from the drive inside) and is also designed by Neil Poulton. This time over however under the hood LaCie has placed a high-performance (7200RPM/256MB cache) Seagate Barracuda Pro 10TB enterprise-class drive (check our review here) which can achieve read and write performance of up to 240MB/s, whisper quiet 20mm fan and both USB 3.1 (backwards compatible) and Thunderbolt 3 Type-C connectivity. Also thanks to its three available type-c ports (dual Thunderbolt 3 & USB 3.1) the D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB professional storage drive can power a compatible laptop (with a power consumption of up to 15W) and can also be connected with either up to six extra D2 professional storage drives, two 4k monitors or a single 5k monitor (daisy chaining technology). Let's see what the latest single drive desktop drive by LaCie is all about.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A large product picture is placed at the front of the box right over the connectivity options and beneath the drive capacity and company logo.

 

 

Another product picture is placed on the left side of the box and is used to showcase all of the available connectors.

 

 

You can find the specifications and features of the product on the right side of the box right over the system requirements and box contents lists.

 

 

The daisy chaining technology and dual connectivity are both showcased at the rear of the box.

 

 

LaCie wrapped the drive inside a plastic bag and placed it between two thick plastic spacers.

 

 

Along with the D2 Thunderbolt 3 you will also get a type-c to type-c cable, USB to type-c cable, wall power adapter and 5 different power cords which allow the device to work pretty much anywhere on the planet (this surprised us all).

 

 

The quick install guide is printed on the box which contains all the cables.

 

 

THE D2 THUNDERBOLT 3 10TB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The aluminum body of the D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB weighs 2.2kg and measures 217mm in length, 60mm in width and 130mm in height (base included).

 

 

To showcase just how "compact" the D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB drive is we placed it right next to the Seagate Central 4TB and the WD My Cloud 3TB.

 

 

At the front of the aluminum enclosure LaCie has only placed a large blue activity LED.

 

 

Turning the device around we see the 20mm exhaust fan, three USB type-c ports (dual thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1), DC in, cable holder and a Kensington lock.

 

 

The D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB also features an anti-slip rubberized base.

 

 

Inside the D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB LaCie has placed one of the fastest 3.5" HDDs in the market today, the helium-filled Seagate Barracuda Pro.

 

 

SETUP – GENIE TIMELINE SOFTWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you connect the drive to your system the setup wizard will launch. From here you can format the drive according to which system you plan on using it (MAC/Linux and/or Windows) and you can also install drivers and bundled software.

 

 

LaCie bundles the free version of the Genie Timeline backup software with the D2. This is very easy to use so you can either choose to automatically backup your entire drive onto the D2 or specific files and folders.

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one we use with 2.5" external drives and 2.5"/3.5" external docking stations. Naturally we will also be comparing the product at hand with previously reviewed 3.5" external drives so you know what you're getting (we no longer include 3.5" enclosures in our charts). Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write - also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) numbers were recorded into our charts. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with every update installed up to May 2nd 2017 (UASP compatible devices are tested on a Windows 8.1 installation with every update installed).

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   LaCie has been the number one choice of professionals and enterprise users for many years now and every single time one of their products falls in our hands we understand why. Build quality is always excellent, design reminds us of products made by Apple (and we all know how popular those are) and performance is top of the line (unfortunately we couldn't test the D2 with a Thunderbolt 3 connection but USB 3.1 should be more than enough to max-out the performance of the Barracuda Pro 10TB drive inside). All these also apply for the new D2 Thunderbolt 3 Professional Storage Drive and on top of those you’re also getting compatibility with both PCs and MACs. We were also surprised to see that LaCie has used an inaudible 20mm fan at the rear (noise levels never went over 38dBA even when recorded from just 5cm away) to cool the Barracuda Pro 10TB drive placed inside. Of course the fan is very small so it doesn’t do such a great job but still the 48 degrees we recorded during our tests is not a bad number (based on the noise/temperature ratio). As for its features the Daisy Chaining technology can be extremely useful to professionals who need extra portable storage space or who use 4k/5k displays (unfortunately we only had 1 sample so we couldn’t test its connection to other D2’s).

   LaCie products are feature-rich and combine top quality with performance thing that almost always come at an extra cost (employing famous designers for their products doesn’t really help). Because of that the new D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB Professional Storage Drive does not come cheap and more specifically it will set you back USD599.94 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 672Euros inside the EU (Amazon.com). Of course professionals and enterprise users who are looking for everything in an external drive including quality, performance, features and connectivity will probably not care about the price of the new D2 and since they are its main target audience it does make sense. In conclusion the D2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB Professional Storage Drive has it all, performance, quality, features and connectivity and even though it’s priced higher than what we’d hoped it’s still way too good for us to deny giving it our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Design / Size
- Top of the Charts Performance
- 10TB Storage Capacity
- Daisy Chaining Technology
- Thunderbolt 3 & USB 3.1 Connectivity (Backwards Compatible)
- 5 Years Warranty

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)