Bulk Up with the LaCie 4big Quadra RAID

LaCie's 4big Quadra RAID offers up to 6 TB of storage, hot-swapping, eSATA connectivity, and 30 to 80 percent energy savings over traditional RAID towers.

Folks who are in media production—or folks who are seriously into media consumption—know you can never have enough storage, whether it be for video editing and production, music and audio work, print production, or simply keeping track of your enormous catalog of media. Style-conscious storage and peripheral vendor LaCie is looking to solve those problems with its new 4big Quadra RAID storage device: it’s not slim and sleek, but it does offer up to 6 TB of storage in seven RAID modes (including RAID 0 and RAID 5). And if that’s not enough…you can rig four of them together for 24 TB of storage, although you’ll need some add-on eSATA handling.

“The LaCie 4big Quadra definitely sets a new standard in RAID Technology for creative professionals and small sever backups,” said LaCie’s Creative Pro product manager Arnaud Prezelin, in a statement. “For instance, the 4big Quadra enables digital content creators to work on multiple HD video streams or to manage RAW photos libraries with live effects.”

The 4big Quadra RAID offers an eSATA interface with burst transfer rates reaching 200 to 230 MB/s, alhtouhg it aso sports FireWore 400/800 and USB 2.0 interfaces. The 4big Quadras’ drives are hot-swappable, and the units uses 30 to 80 percent less energy than conventional RAID towers, and LaCie claims it’s almost 50 percent quieter.

LaCie will offer the 4big Quadra beginning in October in 2, 4, and 6 TB configurations at $849, $1,299, and $1,749, respectively. The systems come with backup software, and are also compatible with Mac OS X Leopard’s Time Machine backup system.