LaCie Announces 5-Bay Thunderbolt RAID

LAS VEGAS - LaCie announced Tuesday for CES the 5big Thunderbolt Series, a 5-bay RAID solution for Thunderbolt Macs. It can support capacities up to 20GB, and the company said that it will support speeds up to 785MB/s.

LaCie 5big Thunderbolt Series

5big Thunderbolt Series RAID

The device supports RAID 0 (striped) and RAID 0 (mirrored), and drives are hot-swappable. Users can make a 3-disk RAID 0 volume and use the other two bays to make a RAID 0 safe volume. It can be used for a JBOD (just a bunch of drives) configuration for one large storage volume.

The 5big enclosure has been available for a while, but this is the first time LaCie has shipped a Thunderbolt version. Cooling is handled via the casing itself, which is made of aluminum, as well as an internal fan and "jumbo heat exhausts." LaCie describes the enclosure as "ultra quiet."

LaCie 5big Thunderbolt Series Inside

Inside the 5big Thunderbolt Series

The 5big Thunderbolt Series is available in a 10TB configuration for US$1,199 and a 20TB configuration for $2,199. Both are shipping now. The company told us that a 0TB configuration (i.e. no drives) will be offered, too.