should i get a LaCie 6TB 2big Thunderbolt drive? (D810 files slowing me down!)

snow patrol

snow patrol

snow patrol

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Hi all, got a d810 a few months ago and the file sizes are killing my synology...it's just not really fast enough and lightroom is pretty sluggish.

I'm thinking of getting a LaCie 6TB 2big Thunderbolt for my 2011 imac (no usb 3) and running it in the fastest raid mode for most speed and 6tb storage. I'll then simply use my synology for backup of files, just in case (also will start using my unlimited prime cloud storage).

Is this a good option for me? I know they're fairly pricey (about 400) but i'm thinking for a good mix of speed and size, it could be a good option? The only thing is that they've been out for a couple of years so are they still relevant?

many thanks for the feedback.
 
Ideally you'd have a smaller/faster local drive (SSDs etc) and then a larger slower storage drive/array to dump stuff once it's processed (like you suggested).

The problem here is that USB 2 storage won't be very fast :/ probably similar speeds to your NAS
 
Ah yeah, I read the (no USB 3) thing and assumed :P

You see how fast that a Lacie box can go on thunderbolt? Like have you seen any benchmarks? 6TB is fairly big so I don't imagine it'll be very fast for that price.
 
If the 5 big nas and 4 big das units we have in work are anything to go by, of the 5 units we had, 4 failed badly enough to loose all of the data. The rugged portable drives are first class but the multi disk units seem terrible.
 
Multi disk RAID setups in NAS devices are fine but you do need to monitor them for alerts of disk failures/issues. If you have issues with more than 1 disk then you'll likely have some major problems but then again if you data was on a single disk then you'd be screwed after just one failure.
 
Only one unit actually suffered a disk failure that we were notified of, the others simply lost their arrays for no apparent reason. (after a clean shut down and restart) The one das unit simply died completely and won't even connect to the lacie software, it goes through the usual startup procedure and just sits there doing squat. (data loss wasn't a big issue as it's always backed up elsewhere) Ironic thing is, a much cheaper netgear ready nas we've had 2 years longer hasn't missed a beat.
 
Wasn't sure whether you were referring to Lacie devices specifically but that explains it I guess hehe. Out of date firmware might have had a hand in your issues but without checking for similar problems, we don't know if this is a problem with all devices.

We've had plenty of Buffalo and Lenovo/Iomega devices that were pretty cheap and these have only ever had issues when drives start to die. That being said, a NAS shouldn't be your sole storage for files you deem important.
 
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There isn't a massive difference using SSD vs regular HD TBH, processing is dominted by CPU. You want lightroom installed to the SSD, the catalog files and previews, the RAW files and output goes to HD.
I use 1:1 previews and just let the computer chug away for a couple of hours before processing. Saves a lot of time. Once I've all processed all.photos and exported I delete the 1:1 previews to save space on the SSD.

Also, shoot 12bit RAW unless you plan to spend hours in photoshop pushing the shadows with loads of local adjustments. Quick global adjustments in LR amd you are nest with 12bit. I shoot 14bit RAW ocasionally on some critical landscape work, we are talking solid tripod mounted, remote shutter, mirror up, UniWB, hyperfocal focusing with liveview, checking the histograms in detail for exact expsoure kind of work here. When you are shooting more casualky, or in a dynamic environment like a wedding or event there are far too many other variables that will dominate image quality.
 
Thanks guys. My plan is to put all my photos on the thunderbolt drive and then keep them backed up on the NAS. At the moment, they're only on the NAS and yes...that could fail so they're not really backed up fully.

I've bought a 4tb lacie rugged raid portable thunderbolt drive for my photos. I like the idea that this is portable, so i can have the same catalog on both my laptop and desktop.

However, i'm still pondering getting perhaps the 8tb g-raid solution as well.
 
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