LaCie Rugged SSD4 4TB Review

1. Introduction2. LaCie Rugged SSD43. ATTO/CrystalDiskMark/AS SSD4. Throughput5. PCMark 10 Data Drive Benchmark6. 3DMark Storage Benchmark 7. Temperatures8. Real Life File Transfers9. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

LaCie is Seagate’s premium brand, and the Rugged range of external drives sits under the company’s Professional banner. Instantly recognisable by their bright orange Neil Poulton-designed protective enclosures, the Rugged series has been around for over a decade, and the latest addition to the model lineup is the Rugged SSD4, available in three capacities: 1TB, 2TB and a flagship 4TB version.

The range is constantly changing and updating to reflect advances in drive technology, i.e. SSD versions and interfaces, i.e Thunderbolt and USB-C connections. The palm-sized Rugged SSD4 uses a Gen 4 NVMe SSD matched to a USB 40 Gbps, Thunderbolt 5 compatible interface. LaCie rates the read performance of the drive as up to 4,000MB/s with writes up to 3,800MB/s.

LaCie quotes a file transfer rate of up to 4,000 MB/s and 3,800 MB/s for reads and writes, respectively, for the Rugged SSD4. Using the ATTO benchmark, we couldn't hit the official maximums; the best we saw was 2,771MB/s for reads and 2,880MB/s for writes. Switching over to the CrystalDiskMark 8 benchmark, we could get a bit closer to the official figures, the best being the 3,110MB/s from the default Peak Performance test. The best write figure, 2,996MB/s, came from the Default 0 fill test.

With a nod to the environment, the Rugged SSD4 contains at least 35% recycled materials by weight, including pre-consumer and post-consumer material.

The drive is IP54 rated. The IP (Ingress Protection or International Protection Rating) rating is an international standard to define the sealing levels of electrical enclosures against dirt and water. The first digit indicates the level of protection against solids, while the second indicates the protection against water. The first digit ranges from 0 (no protection) up to 6 for something that is dust-tight. The second digit ranges from 0 (no protection) up to 8 – full protection from total immersion in water beyond 1m. An IP54 rating means that the Rugged SSD4 is protected from limited dust ingress and from water spray from any direction, as long as you remember to use the port cover. Thanks to its rubber enclosure, the drive can withstand a 3m drop and 1 ton of pressure.

LaCie bundles two useful services with the Rugged SSD4 – a 2-month membership to Adobe Creative Cloud Pro and 3 years of Seagate's Data Recovery Service.

We found the 4TB version of LaCie's Rugged SSD4 on Jigsaw24.com for £474 (inc VAT) HERE.

Pros

• Physical data protection.
• USB 40 Gbps and Thunderbolt 5 compatibility.

Cons

• Pricey.
• The port cover is easy to lose.

KitGuru says: LaCie's Rugged products have always been popular with professional photographers and videographers who are constantly on the move, and the Rugged SSD4 delivers both capacity and performance thanks to its USB 40 Gbps interface.

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