LaCie 5big launched: 7.5TB network attached storage appliance

As its name indicates, the LaCie 5big can receive up to five 3.5″ drives to reach a total capacity of 7.5TB (5×1.5). It can be configured in seven different RAID modes, among them RAID5 and RAID6. Most people will use a half the capacity for redundancy (in case of a hardware failure on one of the drives). It is a network attached storage (NAS), but it also has a USB 2.0 and three eSATA ports (eSata is as fast as internal HDD). The 5big comes with an administrative interface that makes it possible to create user account accounts to manage “who can access what”. It costs between $900 (2.5TB) and $1900 (7.5TB).