Stefan Mileschin

If LaCie's 2big Thunderbolt isn't quite large enough to handle your storage needs, a solution is on the way. At CES, the outfit has revealed the robust 5big Thunderbolt series that can handle five hot-swappable drives (as the moniker suggests) while offering up to 20TB capacity with advertised speeds capable of notching 785MB/sec (we witnessed 750MB/sec with our own peepers) -- when appropriately configured. Wielding a handful of said drives affords the device custom RAID configurations allowing RAID 0 on three units while the remaining two reside in RAID 1. Dual Thunderbolt ports make daisy chaining an option -- if your wallet can handle it, of course.

If you're concerned about the heat output, the 5big sports a heat-dissipating enclosure alongside a Noctua cooling fan and exhausts to keep things at a manageable temperature. Both 10TB and 20TB configurations will be available with a beginning price tag of $1,199 from LaCie and other retailers at a yet-to-be-announced date. Small businesses may want to take a gander at the 5big NAS Pro which also sorts five bays with up to 200MB/sec speeds, a dual-core 2.13GHz Intel Atom processor, 4GB RAM and a single Wuala interface for both local and cloud storage. For now, the full PR rests past the break and a closer look awaits in the galleries.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/06/l...erbolt-series/