INTRODUCTION
For the majority of consumers any regular 2.5" portable HDD model will probably be more than sufficient to cover their needs but that's not really the case when it comes to professionals who spend too much time in the wild (like photographers). For that particular segment of the market manufacturers had to come up with something far more durable when used in harsh conditions and this is where IP certified enclosures come in. IP certified enclosures (IP stands for international protection / ingress protection) come in different shapes and sizes and are usually not only water resistant and dust proof but they can also withstand impact (shock resistant) and large amounts of weight. LaCie has a history of introducing 2.5" portable hard drives with IP certified enclosures and their latest 2TB Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C Professional All-Terrain Mobile Storage (STFS2000800) is here with us today.
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.
As stated by its name the 2TB Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C Professional All-Terrain Mobile Storage by LaCie is not only compatible with Thunderbolt (ideal for MAC users) connectivity but also with USB 3.1/3.0 for data transfer speeds of up to 10Gb/s (for the SSD models). This specific rugged model is currently available either outfitted with regular HDDs 2/4/5TB (transfer performance of up to 130MB/s) in capacity or with SSDs 500GB/1TB in capacity (up to 510MB/s). Its IP 54-rated enclosure (once again designed by Scottish product designer Neil Poulton) is not only dustproof and water resistant but it's also shock-proof (protects again drops from up to 2.2 meters height) and can withstand up to 1 ton of pressure.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
A large product picture is placed at the front of the white box right beneath the company logo, drive capacity and advertised performance.
The product specifications, system requirements and bundle contents are all printed on the left side.
Another product picture is placed at the top of the box.
At the rear we find yet another product picture used to showcase the various parts of the drive, the 3 years warranty logo, performance graph, serial number and the main product features in 8 languages.
Inside the box you will find the 2TB Rugged drive, rubber cover, USB-C cable, USB to USB-C cable and the quick install guide.
THE 2TB RUGGED
The 260g heavy enclosure of the 2TB rugged model by LaCie measures 140mm in length, 89mm in width and 24mm in height.
To showcase the size of the LaCie 2.5" Rugged portable drive we placed it right next to the 2TB A80 model by Silicon Power (also rugged) and the 1TB Slim Portable model by Seagate.
Neil Poulton has used a silver / orange color combination which looks surprisingly good (the orange part is made out of rubber).
At the top we find a rubber cap with the designers name on it.
You will need to remove it in order to access the "hidden" Thunderbolt cable.
The USB-C connector is also placed beneath that rubber cap.
Inside the LaCie Rugged 2TB drive we find a Seagate Mobile HDD model (7mm thick, 128MB cache, 5400RPM).
LACIE SETUP ASSISTANT
The LaCie setup assistant will launch the moment you plug the drive into your USB or Thunderbolt port.
Via this setup wizard you can format the drive according to the use you intend for it so you can choose to divide it into two separate partitions for use both with MAC and Windows systems or format it for use with one of the two.
This procedure takes less than a minute to complete and afterwards you can choose to also install Adobe Reader and the Genie Timeline free backup software.
TEST BED
TESTING METHODOLOGY
Keeping things simple so even people new in the field of computers can understand will always be our way so once again our testing procedure is almost exactly the same as the one we use with 2.5/3.5" external docking stations. This time however we will be comparing the product at hand with a wide range of 2.5" portable drives and standalone 2.5" enclosures all of which were benched using a HGST 7K750 SATA II hard disk drive. 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 June 18th 2017.
TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO
TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO
TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64
TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES
CONCLUSION
The rugged enclosure of the LaCie 2TB Thunderbolt USB-C Professional All-Terrain Mobile Storage is being used in several models in their product line and why not since thanks to the aluminum and rubber used it’s not only one of the most durable ones in the market today but it may also be the best looking one (largely thanks to Neil Poulton of course). The ability to use the drive with both MAC (thanks to the thunderbolt connectivity) and Windows systems (thanks to its USB 3.1 connectivity) is a welcome option but since the first ups the price of the drive we think the regular USB 3.0 version is a better option for Windows users. In terms of performance although we were unable to secure one of the SSD models it’s quite clear from our charts that the advertised speed of 130MB/s for the HDD variants is quite easily achieved (although not by all our benchmarks) largely thanks to the 2.5” Mobile HDD drive by Seagate.
We all know that LaCie makes high quality and performance desktop and portable drives so if you’re looking for an affordable model then the 2TB Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C Professional All-Terrain Mobile Storage with its current price of USD204.89 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 238Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) is certainly not one. Still for people who work on both MAC and Windows systems this drive represents a very good choice both in terms of quality and performance and that’s why it deserves our Platinum Award.
PROS
- Top Build Quality
- IP 54 Certified Rugged Housing
- Design (By Neil Poulton)
- Up To 5TB Capacity (SSD Models Also Available)
- Excellent Performance
- Thunderbolt & USB 3.1 Connectivity
CONS
- Price (For Some)