Storage specialist LaCie just lifted the veil on its new d2 Thunderbolt 2 external hard drive, which may cause some sticker shock to all but the most affluent buyers.
Geared towards photo editors and other creative professionals, the LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 boasts data transfer rates of up to 220MBps from its mechanical hard drive, which comes in one of three capacities. You can get the d2 with a 3TB, 4TB, or 6TB hard drive inside.
That’s not all though. LaCie will also allow owners of the d2 Thunderbolt 2 to upgrade it with a card-based solid state drive. The idea is that the drive will use the SSD to handle data transferring tasks, while also offering the benefit of a much larger mechanical hard drive for storing large files and folders.
Many PCs are set up this way at all, combining an SSD and a mechanical drive in the same system to offer the best of both worlds. LaCie claims that by adding the SSD upgrade to the d2 Thunderbolt 2, it can achieve data transfer rates as high as 1150MBps. That might be overkill for most people, but for folks who regularly work with 4K photos and/or videos, this could be just what they’re looking for
The d2 has dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, and a USB 3.0 port as well. You can also lock the drive down with a built-in lock port. Wearing a body made of aluminum, data stored on the d2 Thunderbolt 2 will be guarded by AES 256-bit encryption, and buyers are protected by a three year limited warranty.
The LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 won’t come cheap. The 3TB version will run you $299. Bumping storage up to 4TB adds $100 to the cost ($399). The largest version, which offers 6TB of space, will set you back $599.
Then, there’s the SSD upgrade. The 128GB drive costs $299, and that’s the only variety that will be available. You’ll also be able to get USB 3.0-only based models of the d2 Thunderbolt 2 starting in October. It’s unclear how much those will cost at this point.
The LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 is expected to launch sometime this month.
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