Power Requirements
The power requirement question is the only remaining aspect of LaCie’s 4big Quadra that we have not yet discussed. Let’s look at the results:
We decided to make four different measurements, utilizing all of the options that the product offers. The first is the peak power consumption measurement, followed by system idle power. Since RAID 5 involves continuous parity (XOR) calculations, it’s the most power-intensive RAID mode. The maximum power consumption of 35 W is about as much as a very efficient desktop PC would require when it’s idle. Compared to other storage solutions that are based on PC hardware--such as using a Celeron processor for parity calculations--the 35 W figure is a great result.
Idle power isn’t far away from the peak figure, at 30 W. Considering that each of the drives takes 6 W, the result again is excellent. But we were more impressed with the power consumption in auto sleep mode, which causes the drives’ spindle motors to be stopped according to the Windows power settings. If you set the hard drives to stop after 10 minutes, the 4big Quadra will do so, then consuming only 9 W from that point on. This is only about as much as a DSL router requires. Once the 4big Quadra switches off completely, the remaining power consumption will drop to 4 W.
Knowing that most of the storage products out there have only limited power saving features, if any, the comprehensive power options offered by LaCie are almost state of the art. Not only did everything work properly, but the power levels were at a level that will be hard for competitors to beat.
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Beware of this unit... There's a very nice article in German's CT Magazine that describes some 32-bit limitations and its consequences. Because of 2 TB limit it can overwrite the first sectors and corrupt all data on it just by connecting to a Windows PC alone.... Besides that, not all chipsets will work with this unit.
You said "..Here is one that stores up to 4 GB, is extremely stylish,..."
Do you really mean 4gb or was that a typo?
Keep reading. Further down it say 4TB.
Sorry lads, all changed now. Just this second noticed.
this "stylish" LaCie is no match for the Qnap TS 639 Pro. If you care about safe storage why this Quadro does not support Raid 6?? If you want to keep important data safe, in my case it is 30 years of photography,
use server-drives like WD 1002FBYS which are a bit more expensive but also 24/7 drives and not those seagate barracudas. Also the Quadro is pretty slow. At least compared to the Qnaps. And also not more exoensive. Before I switched to Qnap I bought about 8 TB of LaCie drives. They worked but in case you need a good Raid-system think twice!