Performance: 35 out of 40.
We are not exactly sure who came up with the 440MB/s performance rating as that is being extremely conservative. In testing, and RAID 0 configuration, we saw peaks of 490MB/s and got well above 440MB/s levels for the first ~3TB of capacity. In fact, we did not see 440 until about the 4TB mark. Now that is being conservative in your specifications! Needless to say, that is a lot of performance from just two hard disk drives and as such the 2Big Raid 16TB knocks it right out of the park. By the same token the less than sterling RAID 1 performance did leave us wanting a bit more. As such there is room for improvement, but we doubt many will find this a slow, for a hard disk drive based, model.
Technological Innovation: 15 out of 20
One the one hand typical Direct Attach Storage devices are usually best described as utilitarian in the aesthetics department. Instead they rely upon their abilities to do the talking for them. The LaCie 2Big RAID may not win any art awards but it really is an elegant looking DAS. One that also backs up its pretty face with durability, ease of use, and performance. That is pretty darn innovative for this corner of the market. On the other, the 2Big RAID is a bit of step back from the single bay d2 models. The 2Big series really needs daisy chaining abilities to be considered a truly great dual bay DAS. As such it is fairly innovative but does so at the expense of functionality.
Build Quality & Warranty: 20 out of 20
Great five year warranty that even included a free recovery service for the full five years? Check. Good yet low noise cooling? Check. An all metal chassis thick enough to deflect pistol rounds? Double check! To be blunt no one should have any qualms about the build quality or warranty the 2Big RAID has to offer. It is the gold standard for DAS models and others wish they were half as good.
Value: 18 out of 20
So let’s break down what it would cost to build a similar 2-bay DAS. First, you will need a pair of IronWolf Pro 8TBs. They will set you back about $300 (USD) each… yes considering you can get a 16TB for $500 the 8TB’ers are overpriced but it is what it is. To get the Rescue services extended for the full five years will set you back about another $40 or so (and you will have to wait 2 years before buying two 3 year plans). That is about $640 right there. Add another ten bucks for a decent Type-C to Type-A USB cable (as few enclosures come with two cables). The included Adobe cloud service offer is another $50. So basically, you will have a 2bill budget for your 2bay DAS enclosure. That is doable, but not easy considering you have to find an active cooled model that is quiet and robust. Then you are left with a device that looks nothing like anything else you own, and good luck finding one with a five-year hassle-free warranty. So yes, the 2Big RAID is a pretty decent to excellent value.
Final Score: 88 out of 100
While there is a bit more of a performance hit than we would like to see in RAID 1 configuration the LaCie 2Big RAID series really does tick nearly all the boxes for what it means to be a good DAS device. Good to great performance backstopped by durability and elegance really is a winning combination. One that will not look out of place on nearly any desk or any environment while still offering excellent storage flexibility. This goes double when paired with either a Seagate FireCuda Gaming Dock or a LaCie 1Big Dock SSD Pro – as that makes for one potent combination.
