Review LaCie hard disks and DVD burners to go

For the review several devices of the accessory manufacturer LaCie have kindly been made available to us, which cover very different performance- and application-domains. Small, light and with an "always nearby" factor, the 1.8" LaCie "Skwarim" presents itself; elegant, light and fast, the designer oriented "Sam Hecht little disk"; and the particularly flexible and robust two-coloured LaCie "rugged" with 320 GB memory. The remarkably compact and light for its class Portable DVD+-RW Slimline burner appears likewise in the simply elegant Sam Hecht design and offers the standard burn- and read-speeds.

The main focus points of the review are the mobile characteristics and the offered transfer rates on the different test line-ups. Thus we have measured the data transfer on different computers on Windows Vista Business SP2, Windows XP SP3, and Max OS X with (as far as possible) and without additional power supply, we took a look at the maximum power consumption, and we looked closer at the cases regarding their robustness.

As test tools we have used HD Tune (here the Pro-Version) which is already known from our notebook reviews and on Mac OS X we have used Xbench 1.3. We measured the read- and write-speeds on all (device-dependent) interfaces available.

We have measured the energy consumption when connected by mains (with Skwarim as the exception) and thus the maximum power consumption to be expected should be reflected here. In mobile use this is reduced somewhat, which is also obviously partly due to the rather lower transfer rates.

The Franco-American manufacturer traditionally developed the four different LaCie series together with notable design studios and thus expresses its particular connection in view of appealing design.

USB: Strongly dependant on the interface used in the notebook, our results should only serve as support. As to the quality we have had to establish to some extent enormous differences in particular in the USB ports in our notebook reviews. Thus some USB connections in notebooks supply just about 20 MB/s, others more than 30 MB/s. Of course that unnecessarily thwarts the best hard disks. Therefore we have involved the HP 2710p (a desktop), with a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H mainboard (USB up to 36 MB/s), that is for the read tests in order to exhaust the USB interfaces of the test hard disks as much as possible.

Firewire: Whilst the USB transfer rates on Mac and PC barely offer differences, the LaCie hard disks on FW400 and FW800 interfaces on Windows Vista and XP seemingly have a writing weakness. Here we didn't manage to get write rates of more than 5.2 MB/s. An external FW400 hard disk used as a cross check with an Oxford chipset that's around 6 years old provided a 19 MB/s write rate after all, on the same interfaces. A current, external Western Digital Studio Edition (1TB) provided write rates of 34.1 MB/s over FW400 and 45.9 MB/s over FW800. On the Mac Mini with Mac OS X this problem didn't arise. Here the speeds were on the usual high level and are at least an indication of the long Mac tradition of LaCie.

Apart from the small LaCie "Skwarim" all drives are provided with a mains adapter. Nevertheless an external mains adapter is also enclosed in the optical drive. For both of the larger hard disks, however, the USB connection with additional USB power connector, which establishes a second connection to the power supply, has to suffice.

We have tested all hard disks on several note- and netbooks as well as desktop PCs and in this regard were able to discover no faults. Only partly low transfer rates were to be observed, when the host notebook is operated on the battery (dependant on settings and device).

4-pin FW ports in any case call for an additional USB power connection, whilst the 6-pin variants standard on Macs and desktop PCs provide the power.

The relatively high power consumption of both of the 2.5" hard disks from Hitachi that are to be found in the "little disk" and the "rugged" weren't really convincing. Whilst a Samsung Spinpoint M6s in a 12.95 Euro USB case from Conrad only requires a maximum of 2.7 Watt, both of the LaCie devices luxuriously indulge themselves with 3.1- 4.9 Watt.

The accessory products tested by us cover a broad spectrum and offer the suitable external device for many application areas. You cannot expect the highest possible suitability for daily use from all of the visually eccentric devices, yet in exchange they are convincing with other peculiarities.

The Sam Hecht models, with their high-gloss plastic cases, are comparatively light and appeal to design-smitten users with their straightforward and reduced style.

The "Skwarim" is convincing through its small size and unsusceptible cover. The live weight of less than 100g with an integrated USB port is very compact.

The LaCie "rugged" is the stable one in the test and in addition can come up with broadly diversified interface equipment.

The start-up is less time-consuming on all models. Also the platform comprehensive software will particularly please those who want to use their devices with Windows and Mac OS X (apart from the portable DVD).

It's a shame that the FW devices have a pronounced writing weakness to battle on Windows, especially as the other transfer rates are very convincing. Here Mac OS X users have a clear advantage and can clearly exhaust the Mac-typical interfaces better.

Also the energy consumption of the 2.5" models isn't really convincing, as the level of economical comparison models is to some extent clearly undercut.

On the whole the tested models constitute pleasantly different accessories, which according to application area and also through intrinsic values are convincing.