LaCie 8big Rack Thunderbolt 2
8-bay 1U Rackmount Hardware RAID | Dual Thunderbolt 2

Overview:

Fibre Channel DAS has been dethroned. Featuring Thunderbolt 2 speeds of up to 1330MB/s and 48TB in a 1U rackmount size, the 8big Rack has seized the crown. Video pros, meet the king of storage for 4K workflows.

Thunderbolt 2 Speeds for the 4K Era

With Thunderbolt 2 technology, the interface is no longer the performance bottleneck. For the 8big Rack, LaCie harnessed the breakthrough performance potential of the Thunderbolt 2 I/O, squeezing the absolute best speeds out of the hard disks. Add a hardware RAID controller and 7200RPM disks, and the result is incredible, sustained speeds of up to 1330MB/s that turbocharge 4K workflows, file transfers, or backups.

With this kind of speed, videographers can work directly from RAW files in Apple Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere, get maximum quality from footage, and see edits in real time. No need to first convert footage into a lower resolution. Avid Pro Tools users will notice incredibly smooth audio mixing, even when working with hundreds of tracks simultaneously. Professional photography agencies and other Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture users can browse through archived libraries of thousands of RAW and edited images, with zero lag.

Bulletproof Reliability

With full component redundancy, the 8big Rack gives professionals superb reliability and data security. Fans, disks, and PSU are fully redundant, hot swappable*, and user-serviceable. And hardware RAID 5/6 provides security against disk failure and data loss, without compromising on transfer speeds. Whatever the contingency, zero data loss, and zero downtime.

Its innovative cooling system prolongs component lifespan, featuring three efficient, thermoregulated cooling fans to drive airflow. A metal sheet beneath the disks dissipates heat, and cool air flows under the sheet to drain hot air away. Above and between the two rows of disks, air flows from front to back, conducting heat away from sensitive components.

The Most Powerful I/O, Reinvented

Thunderbolt technology redefined external storage with its speed and versatility for bandwidth-intensive applications. Thunderbolt 2 builds on those advances by doubling the speed potential to 20Gb/s and enabling simultaneous RAW 4K video editing and display. And thanks to support for DisplayPort 1.2, it’s now possible to daisy chain higher-resolution displays such as 4K monitors.

In addition to higher performances, the Thunderbolt 2 I/O offers dramatically simpler connections than Fibre Channel. Connect the 8big Rack to a computer via the Thunderbolt cable – no HBA (host bus adapter) necessary – and instantly the volume mounts on your OS. And unlike Fibre Channel, Thunderbolt 2 is truly a plug and play and single-vendor solution. No port mapping or multipathing is required to achieve this performance. Thunderbolt technology even supports optical cables, which means you could connect a 8big Rack to a computer located up to 60 meters (197 feet) away.

Thanks to dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, you can daisy chain up to six devices to a computer via a single cable (included in the box). For example, you could connect a total of 36 8big Racks via the six Thunderbolt 2 ports on a single Mac Pro®, enabling more than 1.7PB (1728TB) and more than 3000MB/s – in a mere 36U. Compared with Fibre Channel solutions, the 8big Rack delivers outstanding scalability in half the space, a much simpler setup, and unprecedented performance.

Innovative Design, Breakthrough Usability

The 8big Rack industrial design demolishes the status quo for rack storage, with a relentless focus on usability for professionals.

8 x 3.5” Disk Bays Pack more storage in valuable server room space. Reduce the initial investment by purchasing the 4-disk version and adding additional disks as needed.	Metal Sophisticated aluminum front and all-metal enclosure.
Status LEDs From any angle, instantly check system health, disk status, and Thunderbolt connectivity, even when many 8big Racks are installed in a cabinet.	Power-Saving Mode Save energy by pressing the power button to spin down disks without interrupting daisy chain transfers. Press and hold the button to shut down the product completely.
ID Buttons From front or rear, press the ID button for an easy way to target a specific 8big Rack for maintenance. No more guesswork, counting screws, or waiting for a second person to help.	Alarm Impossible-to-miss notification of degraded RAID. Silence the alarm with the mute button.
Easy Access The cable management arm lets the 8big Rack glide out from the cabinet without unplugging cables. And accessing components is as easy as clicking a hidden latch to release the top panel.	Tool-Free Maintenance Quickly identify failing components thanks to the internal status LEDs for fans and disks. Then, simply pull out and replace the failed component.

Packed with Value for Pros

LaCie RAID Manager software gives you a centralized, powerful way to configure and monitor all the 8big Racks that are connected to a single workstation. From one application, you can control the RAID mode, system monitoring, and email alerts. Select RAID 0, 1 (two-disk configuration only), 5, 6, 10, or JBOD. RAID Manager even supports RAID migration, so you can move from RAID 5 on 4 disks to RAID 5 on 8 disks – without data loss. And system monitoring can alert you of problems or potential problems via desktop notifications or email, so you can address issues before they result in data loss. 

For the ultimate in peace of mind and value, the 8big Rack features a three-year limited warranty. It includes comprehensive, complimentary web-based resources, expert in-house technical support, and worldwide repair and/or replacement coverage. You can even upgrade this service with warranty extensions, fast product replacement, and even data recovery services.

* Hot swapping will result in data loss in a RAID 0 array.