The Best Budget RAID for Photo & Video Editing?

No one likes buying storage… It can be expensive and its not like its going to help you take better photos or make better videos. But it’s essential, especially if you’re handling client work or shooting a lot of stuff you want to keep. 

And if you want to keep that data really safe, you’re going to want a RAID array that stores your data on two hard drives, so in the event of a failure, you can pop a new one in and nothing is missing. 

I did quite a bit of research on which RAID to get, and I trust LaCie as a brand. But their products aren’t cheap. The Big2 is currently £620 on Amazon. I’ve had a few of their rugged drives and none of them have failed on me. The thing that really sold me was the good old usb and SD card slots on the front. It means that when I use this with my Macbook Pro i’m not constantly fishing in my bag for dongles etc..

Although,  this drive only has USB-C, Thunderbolt 3 and a Display Port which means I had to buy a Thunderbolt 3 – Thunderbolt 2 adapter in order to use it with my iMac. This cost me an extra £78 – thanks apple. There is a USB-A – USB-C cable in the box, but you’re going to want to use Thunderbolt to get the most out of this drive. 

Another reason for the upgrade was speed. My Western Digital 6TB drive is good for storage, but if I want to edit a project directly off the drive, its just too slow. I find myself copying projects to the desktop and editing from there. The LaCie Big2 handles the job with ease though. See the video for the speed test. Though, the real test is everyday use. And editing video with Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere has been a breeze over the past week. I’ve never felt that there is a bottle

If you have any more questions about the drive drop a comment below or hit me up on twitter.

https://amzn.to/2PPGKUe (Amazon US)
https://amzn.to/2QGIqkf (Amazon UK)

(please note that I use amazon affiliate links and it helps me to make this content, if you’re interested in the product, give em a click and we all win – thanks!) 

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