We look at a new workhorse high performance RAID system from G-Technology
G-Technology (part of the industrial giant Hitachi) are gradually gaining a reputation for high performance and reliability and - only slightly less important in a device that’s likely to be used by media and creative professionals - design flair. They've sent us a drive to try out.
It’s styled in the “traditional” Mac Pro perforated aluminium genre. This may not match the new Mac Pro, but the design is timeless and you simply can’t go wrong by adopting it.
There are two removable drives in the unit, and it’s configurable for speed or redundancy (or JBOD). If you’re working in striped mode, you’ll need to swap drives in pairs! This is a high performance array for heavy duty media use.
The speed is good across the USB 3.0 interface. We found it topped out at just over 300 MB/s, which is very usefully fast. Easily enough for punishing applications like video editing.
One small but surprisingly important point is that the fans are pretty quiet. This matters!
The drive comes with eSATA and Firewire 800, which might seem surprising these days, but could be incredibly handy if you need to transfer material from an older Mac.
There’s no Thunderbolt, but with speeds like this, that’s only going to be a marginal issue, and, it has to be said, USB 3.0 is probably the more universal connection.
Finally, G-Technology uses Enterprise-Class drives. This isn’t just a branding exercise: they last longer and are designed for a heavy duty life-cycle. This is backed up by a three year warranty and free support for that entire period.
This is a nicely-made (and designed) professional device and will only help to build G-Technology’s reputation in this field.
The G|RAID 8TB is $599.95
If you are within travelling distance of Holland on May 22nd and 23rd G-Technology are involved in the DYTG Show: a great event for aspiring content creators and G-Technology have an exclusive 2-4-1 ticket offer available here. For our American readers, G-Technology will be showing all their storage devices at Cine Gear in Los Angeles from June 4th - 7th. For details of Events G-Technology are attending click here.