LaCie 1Big Dock SSD Pro 4TB Review

TweakTown's Rating: 93%

The Bottom Line

If the 1Big Dock wasn't enough for you, LaCie has deployed the SSD Pro, a full fledge destroyer of 4K/5K workflows!

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Last month, we were able to get our hands-on the initial 1Big Dock from LaCie, a HDD-based solution with all the bells and whistles a creator would want apart from the performance. With the SSD models now available, we picked one up, so today we have the highest capacity 4TB NVMe solution in house for review.

Like the previous 1Big, the SSD Pro shares the same chassis offering Thunderbolt connectivity with a Type-C connection that splits off to a USB 3.0 hub, SD card reader, CFast 2.0 reader, and CFexpress slot. Internally, the SSD Pro uses a SAS connection as a custom FireCuda enclosure you will see later in the review.

Performance is marketed at the peaks of Thunderbolt 3; 2800MB/s and apart from the 5 in 1 "dock" offers 70W of power pass through to charge your devices. Also, the 1Big Dock comes with one-month of Adobe Creative Cloud and a Five-Year Rescue Services plan.

MSRP of the 4TB 1Big Dock SSD Pro comes in at $2599 with a five-year warranty.

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The packaging is that white box LaCie design, an image of the enclosure centered. Capacity is listed top right with marketing along the bottom.

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The spine of the box offers a full specifications list along with box contents.

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Unboxing, the SSD Pro sets itself apart with an embossed model on the drive tray. It's a Neil Poulton design, as was the original HDD model with all the extra connectivity down below.

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On the backside, we have a power input followed by two Type-C ports and a full-size DP 1.4 port. Above, you will find the Kensington lock and cooling fan.

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Above, we have that custom designed enclosure with a full cooling array that sites above the internal drive. This solution has what looks like a SAS connection.

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Internally, the 1Big Dock SSD Pro is using a 22110 variant of the FireCuda 510 with a 4TB capacity.

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Accessories include the power brick 20v at 5.5A for 110w, Thunderbolt 3 cable, and an install guide.

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CDM is a staple in performance testing; version 7 has seen some updates in the workloads used for testing. Sequential read is quite good for this solution, reaching 2945 MB/s read and 1133 MB/s write; mixed at 2819 MB/s.

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Throwing the 1Big Dock at AJA, we see a massive 457 FPS write and 917 FPS read with a 1080p workload.

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Moving to Ultra HD, the 1Big brings in 291 FPS read and 138 FPS write.

The quality of the LaCie 1Big is fantastic, including fit and finish with a full aluminum design, removable drive tray, and custom drive enclosure that aids in keeping the internal drive cool. The 5 in 1 dock works flawlessly and supports nearly all popular card formats, including SD, CFast, and CFExpress.

The performance will certainly be the reason you would want to purchase this unit over the higher capacity HDD models, this NVMe solution being nearly 14x faster. In our testing, the 4TB FireCuda NVMe solution was capable of 2945 MB/s read and 1133 MB/s write and nearly 500K IOPS.

Pricing is on par with expectations, as the 1Big Dock really has no competition to speak of. That said, it offers two capacity options at 2TB and 4TB, so for those not needing top capacity, you can save some coin and go for the lower capacity model and still enjoy the 5 in 1 dock.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula X570 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H60 (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)