LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2 128GB SSD Storage Upgrade Kit Review

TweakTown's Rating: 89%

The Bottom Line

For those that own the LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2, the SSD upgrade kit is a no brainer. Having the ability to turn capacity driven storage into a hybrid tiered performance storage solution is something we don't often see.

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After completing testing of the LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2, we had a chance to unbox and install the SSD upgrade kit.

The SSD Upgrade Kit comes in a single capacity of 128GB. The drive carries marketing specifications of 1150 MB/s read, and while the D2 itself was a fanless solution, adding the SSD upgrade kit includes a thermo regulated cooling fan for the upgrade module. Compatibility of the SSD Upgrade kit is limited to OS X 10.9+.

MSRP of the LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2 128GB SSD Upgrade Kit is set at $299.99 with a three-year warranty.

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Packaging for the SSD Upgrade houses an image of the module on the front with capacity and performance specification in the top right corner.

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The back of the packaging gives an illustration of the module being installed.

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Scope of delivery includes the upgrade module, power adapter, and install guide.

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Taking a closer look, you will notice that after installing this module, the D2 loses support for USB 3.0.

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Here we get a peek at the module and its m.2 form factor SSD used. I do believe, like the Little Big Disk 2, this solution too uses a Samsung XP941.

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Flipping the module over, you can see the tag offering up more information about the SSD upgrade. This side is also covered by a large heat sink to aide cooling.

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To start our testing, we loaded up AJA and the 720p workload. As you can see above, the SSD managed steady read results around 1000 MB/s, while write results carried a center point of 560 MB/s.

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Moving over to 1080p, the SSD hovered around 1100 MB/s read, with writes around 600 MB/s.

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Our last test with AJA was the 4K workload. Here we have a rather interesting write pattern moving from 350 MB/s upwards to 700 MB/s. Read performance was topping around 1200 MB/s.

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Switching over to Black Magic Design, we encountered a peak read speed of 1034 MB/s and 470 MB/s writes.

The LaCie D2 SSD Upgrade kit is a great solution for those wanting to add ultra-high performance storage to their already high capacity LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2 device. The build quality, as with most products from LaCie, was superb, and the upgrade module was simple to install by removing a few screws from the back of the D2. However, we did have a slight issue getting the module to slide right in due to the shielding on the Thunderbolt 2 PCB.

Performance of the SSD Upgrade was top-notch and to a point was expected to be after seeing it was using the m.2 form factor. In our testing, we reach 1200 MB/s read in our 4K workload, while write speeds topped out at around 600 MB/s.

Overall, for those of you that have the extra room in your budget and want to add on intensely quick storage to your D2, the SSD upgrade module is the perfect solution.

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