Needless to say, desktop external hard drive can be a mundane product, but a collaboration between the peripherals manufacturer LaCie and the world famous industrial designer Phillippe Starck seek to buck the trend, by designing and manufacturing an external hard drive that is as beautiful as it is functional.

Designer Design:

The LaCie Starck Desktop external Hard Drive features a sturdy 3mm aluminium casing with mirrored metal front and rear panels. The less pretentious people might compare the LaCie Starck to a shiny pebble in a metal box. Yet, it is not just for looks. The build of the drive does much to keep the operating temperature of the device down.

 

Capacities and Compatibility:

The LaCie Starck Desktop External Hard Drive is available in capacities of 1TB and 2TB. This drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Features:

The Starck is not all beauty and no substance.

Performance:

The LaCie Starck Desktop External Hard Drive averaged read speeds of 11.6MB per second, with random writes of 18MB/s. Sequential read and write speeds were 29MB/s and 22.2MB/s respectively. Western Digital’s My Book Mac Edition finishes 1GB of copy test at a very impressive speed of 49 seconds which was the previous best time for a USB device and surprisingly, the LaCie Starck Desktop drive has managed to shatter the record and finish a full seven seconds faster.

Warranty:

LaCie offers Starck Desktop drive two years limited warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

This latest collaboration with Philippe Starck it has struck gold. The touch sensitive facia is certainly a gimmick, but a good one though. We would say that the LaCie Starck Desktop drive is inexpensive given its pedigree. It currently sells for just 77 pounds in Amazon, which is just 10 pounds higher than the cheapest available 1TB external hard drives. Overall, we recommend the drive without second thoughts.

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LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive (1TB & 2TB) – Technical Specifications

Manufacturer LaCie
Model Name LaCie Starck Desktop drive
Model Numbers 1TB: 301888EK
2TB: 301889EK
Drive Type Desktop External Hard drive
Storage Capacities available 1TB and 2TB
Dimensions (H x W x D) 195 x 115 x 52 mm
Weight 1.38 kg
Casing Aluminum
Hard Drive Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B
Spindle Speed 7,200rpm
Cache 16MB
Interfaces USB 2.0
Read/Write Speed Up to 480Mbits/s (60MB/s)
Power Source External
Software included LaCie Backup Assistant
LaCie Desktop Manager
LaCie Setup Assistant
Compatible systems Windows® XP, Windows Vista™, Windows 7/ Mac OS X 10.5,
10.6 or higher
Minimum free disk space: 600MB recommended
Mac Compatible Yes
Package contents LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive
USB 2.0 cable
External power supply
Quick Install Guide
Warranty Two years

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