LaCie d2 Professional USB-C Review

TweakTown's Rating: 86%

The Bottom Line

When it comes to external hard drives, the d2 Professional sits on top with incredible performance, capacity and warranty support.

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The d2 lineup goes back over a decade and includes DVD and Bluray drives, networked hard drives, before NAS were cool and USB 3.0, USB-C and Thunderbolt enabled storage solutions. The latest solution, the d2 professional aims for broader compatibility with increased capacity for media professionals.

The d2 professional follows the design of past solutions with the iconic Neil Poulton enclosure. That said, LaCie has decided to set this unit apart from all others with a black aluminum colorway.

Capacity options include 4,6,8 and 10TB models all supporting USB 3.0, Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 with included adapters and cables. Performance is stated to reach 240 MB/s read and write taking advantage of the latest Barracuda Pro 7200RPM, Enterprise drives.

Compatibility includes Windows 10 along with macOS 10.12.4 and later. MSRP of the 10TB model sent for review is $429.99 with a five-year warranty.

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Packaging offers capacity at the top right and image of the drive centered. Along the bottom, we have notes of connectivity with USB 3.0 and USB-C.

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On the backside, we have warranty and compatibility listed at the top along with performance metrics.

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Included in the box, we have the power adapter and cables that include USB-C and Type-C to C.

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Looking at the enclosure, the design hasn't changed. We have the blue orb at the front that is both power and activity with the sleek aluminum body of the enclosure, now black setting it apart from past models.

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The I/O includes a power input, Kensington lock slot and USB-C Gen 2 connector above.

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Testing the performance of the d2 Professional, we first used macOS with our 2017 iMac and came away with 237 MB/s read and 235 MB/s write.

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Same drive and setup in Windows, we come away with 248 MB/s read, and 250 MB/s write.

I've been using the d2 Professional as a single drive backup solution to my four drive NAS at home for the last two months. In this situation, the drive doesn't get a lot of activity but when it does it chews through it quite quickly thanks to the performance of the Barracuda Pro.

Build quality as you can imagine is quite good, LaCie is known for quality so I would expect nothing less and the blacked-out aluminum enclosure takes it to another level as this unit is both durable and quiet but also looks damn good doing it. The Barracuda Pro, in my opinion, takes this platform to another level with the ability to offer both performance and high capacity options without breaking the bank.

As mentioned, a few times above, performance was great. At 240-250 MB/s read and write this drive chews through backups without an issue and if we look again at Black Magic, we see 60 FPS with 2160p 422HQ video and 1080p30 across the board.

Closing this out, Lacie solutions always demand a price and this one doesn't falter from that. At $429.99 this is one of the pricier 10TB external drives but does make up for it when considering it supports USB 3.0, USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and comes with a five-year warranty.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 8350K (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 4x8GB DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Air 540 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)
• Wi-Fi NIC: ASUS PCE-AC88 (buy from Amazon)
• 10Gbe NIC: ASUS XG-C100C (buy from Amazon)
• Thunderbolt 3: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)