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Home arrow Reviews arrow LaCie Rugged
LaCie Rugged PDF Print
Written by Vladimir Gojkovic   
Friday, 08 June 2007
LaCie is a brand which managed to become recognizable in a relatively short time-span in the HDD industry, mainly due to using the highest-quality components available and an elegant design. This time round, they have for us quite a different thing. They were aiming at a more narrow target market – those who need their data on the road, or those that simply wish their HDD to look different (fancy, that is :)).

  

Anyway, it's a device of a most pleasant exterior looks, which, alongside the aesthetic function, also gives out an impression of being very robust, hence the “Rugged” in its name, so you can always carry it around with no fear, wherever you go. Talking about robustness, let's just mention that the manufacturer specifies on the box that the HDD can be dropped on the floor from up to 90 cm of height with no consequences at all, but have in mind that “dropping is not recommended while the drive is active”!

LaCie Rugged 
Capacity160GB
Interfacemini USB 2.0
Rotational speed5400rpm
Interface Transfer Rateup to 480Mbit/s (60MB/s)
Max Sustained Transfer Rateup to 30MB/s
Average Seek Time (Write)<12ms
Cache8MB
Maxium Drop Height35 in. / 90cm (non-operating mode)
Size3.5 x 1 x 5.7 in. / 90 x 25 x 145 mm (WxHxD)
Weight8.8 oz. / 250 g
 

What's within? Inside the rack you can find a Samsung 2.5” 160 GB hard disk containing 8 MB of cache memory, and it's rolling at 5400 RPM. The device requires 2 USB ports to be available, one for the power-supply cable, and one for the data cable (which will perfectly fit newer computer cases, most of which have exactly 2 USB ports in front). As far as the data transfer is concerned, USB 2.0 interface has a theoretical data flow capacity of 60 MB/s, which is more than enough for maximum usage of hard drive's capabilities. The performance scores are rather mediocre compared to that of the disk's desktop counterparts, but this isn't a device meant to be very fast anyway. The “burst” reading speed is nearly 40 MB/s, whereas the normal continuous reading speed is at a decent 34 MB/s. Although the packaging states that the disk's random access time is <12 ms, we couldn't get a result better than 18 ms. How such a discrepancy is possible, we don't know. Of course, 18 ms is not at all a bad result, especially not in this range of products, but it is still very different from the one stated on the packaging, so some might feel disappointed.

 

In everyday working conditions, the disk proved to be excellent. Although the read/write values are around 20% lower than the usual ones, one could not feel the difference at first, which is definitely a plus. Heat is no problem at all, as the disk case is made out of aluminium which acts as a sort of a passive cooler, so that the disk remains completely cool at any given time, even under full load. The bezels are sodded with soft rubber, which ensures that the disk won't drop out of your hands or pockets so easily, should it, God forbid, happen to be at a height greater than 90 cm.

  

Beside the hard disk, necessary cables and a driver CD (for older operating systems, as the device is Plug & Play on XP and Vista) also found a place in this bundle. The software supplied here is the “1-Click Backup” application, which has a very friendly user interface and is fantastically simple to use; although it doesn't have any compression or “ghosting” options, it does its job very well.

 

All in all, this is obviously a device targeting a very small group of people. Price is one of the factors that narrow that group even more. However, those who are in need of this type of device know what they are paying for and will appreciate what LaCie Rugged brings them.
 
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