The 5big performed roughly along the lines we’d expect from the Samsung hard drives at an average 76.2 MB/s read and 75.4 MB/s write speed. The HP X510 Data Vault showed an erratic performance, with a high Sequential Read score of 114.3 MB/s, but a far lower write speed of 40.3 MB/s. However, the X310 offered the most surprising results, lagging way behind at 27.6 MB/s and 28.5 MB/s respectively, (causing us to think there may well be an issue with our test machine’s drive, or SATA Controller. That’s one we’ll need to dig into.) But certainly from the results, you can see that the LaCie 5big offers fast, and consistent consistent drive performance across the benchmarks.
Conclusions
The LaCie 5big Backup Server is most definitely a strong backup, file sharing and remote access resource for small business, and LaCie have done a good job of implementing Windows Home Server on their 5big hardware. The hardware looks great, performs well and is very simple to use. For those looking for a large server for their business, who do not have the time, technical knowledge or requirement for a full enterprise server solution, the 5big Backup Server is a great fit. LaCie’s selection of add-ins won’t turn the world upside down or turn owners of other Windows Home Server systems green with envy, but they’ll certainly prove useful to mixed PC & Mac office environments, with Time Machine support a boon. It can be argued that LaCie’s support for Mac is not as effective as HP’s, as the latter includes a remote desktop client to access the Windows Home Server Console from a Mac as well as PC, so the server can be managed from either platform – that’s certainly an advantage for HP, and is a feature we’d encourage LaCie to adopt to compete more effectively.
That may be a moot point however. Beautiful hardware and competent software certainly makes for an effective solution, and whilst we were initially troubled by the 5big’s hardware specifications, it fought its corner well against HP’s Data Vault in testing. But at a starting price of £1,019/$1,199, the 5big Backup Server is too expensive compared to its peers. With huge brands such as HP, Acer and Lenovo selling similarly specced servers from $350, and even adding on the additional cost of storage to meet the same 5TB pool as the 5big, you have to look very hard to see why a small business owner would pay twice as much as some of its competitors for the 5big Backup Server. Sure, LaCie have a 3 Year Warranty in place, but so does HP’s X510 Data Vault with a faster processor and more RAM. LaCie supports OSX with Time Machine, again, HP are already there. With a beefier specifications and stand-out, exclusive add-ins, the story may be different – but when compared to its peers pound for pound, LaCie have missed the mark on the 5big’s pricing.
I really like the LaCie 5big Backup Server, and hope it does well. But with far more cost effective backup servers available in the market today, you’d need to be a big fan of LaCie’s to justify the premium.
