In film and TV, all of us filmmakers have lots of hard drives and other storage options. My desk, a 72” Mayline drafting table and the main drawer, for big blueprints, is filled with hard drives from many films I’ve worked on.
Frequently, I purchase even more and for a recent project, I needed a drive to work off. The footage did not require anything extensive in the capacity or speed attributes but I do like nice design and I do like reliability.
A good portion of all my drives are Lacie or G-Tech. More times than not, I go for a Lacie Rugged drive (or pair) to take on a shoot. They are hardcore, metal and orange rubber encased hard drives fit for use on location. But, in this scenario, this drive will live on my desk and a bit of beauty is very welcome.
Lacie is no stranger to Porsche Design. I have multiple drives with the Porsche Design moniker but none quite like this. I had not actually seen one of these drives in person—I purchased this drive out of necessity and brand recognition. Lacie has been good to me for over a decade. Only once did a drive fail me and, in actuality, it was the power supply not the storage drive itself. Lacie replaced it and that drive still functions today.
Upon opening the box, I was a bit taken aback. The photography of the product on the box didn’t really do it justice. It seems the metal case with a heavy satin finish and fine polish accent edges is more like something you’d find at Tiffany’s rather than electronics to store data. When I first opened the box I was just eager to plug it in and get thing transferring data but after putting it down, plugging it in, and letting my fingers brush over the surface, I said, under my breath, “wow, this is nice.”
Scientists don’t actually run down the street yelling, “eureka,” when having discovered something amazing. When a scientist says, “huh, how about that…” there is really something profound discovered. I find myself raising one eyebrow like Mr. Spock and simply muttering ‘wow,' having stumbled on a compelling item.
Like my Ray-Ban Aviator review recently, I had not really intended to write a review about the drive—I bought it and was going to use it like I would have some sponges in the kitchen. It was just another hard drive to soak up some data. I went with the Lacie over the G-Drive because the last two hard drives I bought were G-Tech. Otherwise, it was really a 50/50 split as to which one I was going to buy.
Having a hard time finding anything wrong with it, the only two [maybe] negative things I can say: it is a hair louder than the other drives in the same class that I hard. Maybe it is just a higher pitch. I noticed it but only when I was trying to find something wrong with it. When it is in ‘Eco mode’ (energy saving mode) it is silent.
I could not find the RPM specification for the hard drive inside but I would assume it is 5400rpm. There are faster drives out there but this was purchased for price point and function. In other words, maybe it could be faster but for how I will utilize it, I doubt I’ll find the speed to be a problem.
For one terabyte of storage, native USB-C port, 10mm thin, 193g (6.8oz), a bit of shine, and you're looking for a good hard drive that might also have you glancing over at it more like jewelry than a utility for your computer, this is a great choice. There are cheaper hard drives out there but for $75.00 at Apple Michigan Avenue, and a true belief that technology should be as beautiful as art or fine furniture, not much negative can be said about this hard drive.
This little silver brick is rather nice.
Price: $75