Skilled’s Score
Professionals
- As much as 48TB of capability
- Helps JBOD and RAID 0 striping/RAID 1 mirroring
- Sooner sustained HDD transfers than you may guess
- Professional-Blade Transport port can hit 900MBps
Cons
- Mirroring cuts marketed capability in half
- Professional-Blade SSDs restricted to 10Gbps
- Dear per TB in lower-capacity fashions
Our Verdict
In case you want numerous storage in a single field, the Thunderbolt 3 G-RAID Mirror dual-HDD delivers at speeds which may shock you. The field additionally accepts SanDisk’s Professional-Blade SSD modules for on/offloading and backup.
Worth When Reviewed
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Greatest Pricing Immediately
WD’s G-RAID Mirror is an exterior enclosure housing two 3.5-inch onerous drives. It gives as much as 48TB of storage with the drives in striped (RAID 0) mode, or half that in mirror mode RAID 1. It additionally gives a Professional Blade SSD port for SanDisk’s modular NVMe SSDs.
What chances are you’ll not notice if you happen to haven’t been round a 3.5-inch HDD shortly: They’re an entire lot quicker than they was once. In RAID 0, the G-RAID Mirror can ship information at over 400MBps. This isn’t your father’s RAID field.
Additional studying: See our roundup of one of the best exterior drives to find out about competing merchandise.
G-RAID Mirror options
The G-RAID Mirror is a good-looking, darkish grey, Thunderbolt 3, two-drive exterior enclosure obtainable in capacities as much as 48TB/24TB (striped/mirrored). The unit measures 5.24 x 8.27 x 4.06 inches (13.30 x 21.00 x 10.21 centimeters). It may possibly weigh as much as 7 kilos (3.17 kilograms) relying on the drives inside. Standing on non-skid ft, there’s little probability of this drive dancing across the desktop. The 4 hex bolts on all sides conceal anchor factors for attaching the unit to a Digital Imaging Technician cart or including different {hardware}.
The again of the G-RAID Mirror is house to 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports (1 pc, 1 pass-through, see beneath) in addition to the RAID configuration double dip change (JBOD, RAID 0/1). Meaning the RAID is onboard, which I want over the software program selection because it’s transportable throughout working programs with out putting in stated software program. There’s additionally a button to regulate the entrance LED mild.
The entrance of the drive is house to solely the aforementioned LED mild, and the detachable entrance grate that permits entry to the onerous drives for improve or alternative. Notice that due to the incredible quantity of capability, rebuilding a RAID 1 array can take a really very long time — two hours per terabyte.
By far essentially the most uncommon function of the G-RAID Mirror is its Professional-Blade Transport slot. The considerably dear Professional-Blade Transport modules are NVMe SSDs in proprietary enclosures that slide into the slot. They’re tremendous useful for importing, offloading, and backup, and are quick sufficient that you may boot from them. Nonetheless, the Professional Blade system is 20Gbps USB 3.2×2, and present Thunderbolt (Mac and Home windows) implementations don’t assist USB 3.2×2 at 20Gbps, dropping it to 10Gbps. Nonetheless quick, however not optimum. Thunderbolt 3/4 does assist 20Gbps USB 4, although, so I’m confused as to why SanDisk didn’t select USB 4 for the Professional-Blade Transport, and even Thunderbolt 3. Particularly as Mac customers appear to be the meant viewers.
As this drive is essentially aimed on the Apple/video manufacturing crowd, the G-RAID Mirror ships formatted to APFS. A single 24TB RAID 1 quantity was in our check unit’s case. There isn’t a software program on the drive as you’ll discover with most 2.5-inch onerous drives.
The high-capacity HDD conundrum
Whereas exterior 3.5-inch onerous drives may be extremely capacious (belief me, it’s a hoot to see a 48TB drive in your desktop), holding a lot extra information than different media additionally makes them tough to again up. The one media of acceptable pace able to holding the identical quantity of knowledge is, yup, one other onerous drive. Consequently, the best approach to keep away from information loss from onerous drive failure is mirroring it to a different onerous drive (RAID 1), or break up it amongst a number of onerous drives in one other sort of fault tolerant RAID.
The way you set the G-RAID Mirror will depend upon whether or not it’s a major or secondary repository. If it’s only one element in a bigger storage scheme, and backed up (macOS RAID as an illustration), then working it at full-capacity striped RAID 0 is ok. Nonetheless, if it’s a solo repository, you’ll need to run it at half-capacity, mirrored RAID 1.
Alas, mirroring tends to kill a tough drive’s value benefit over the far quicker, much more bodily strong, and extra dependable SSDs. Not fully, however the distinction is drastically decreased. A useful segue into…
How a lot does the G-RAID Mirror value?
The G-RAID Mirror is out there in (striped/mirrored) 12TB/6TB, 16TB/8TB, 24TB/12TB, 36TB/18TB, 44TB/22TB, 48TB/24TB capacities for $660, $750, $1,000, $1,200, $1,400, and $1,600, respectively, within the U.S. A part of the explanation for the higher-than-normal pricing is the Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
That works out to $55/$110, $46.88/$93.76, $41.67/$83.33, $33.33/$66.66, $31.82/$63.64, $33.33/$66.66 (striped/mirrored) per terabyte. As you’ll be able to see, the 44TB unit is the candy spot by way of value per terabyte.
Final we checked, 4TB and smaller SSDs had been right down to round $70 per terabyte, although the bigger 8TB fashions had been nonetheless over $100 per TB. Preserve that in thoughts when deciding in your storage plan of assault.
In case you’re not within the present Professional Blade system, then a less expensive USB 3.x RAID enclosure such because the WD (SanDisk’s proprietor) MyBook Duo is an possibility.
How does theG-RAID Mirror carry out?
The 48TB G-RAID Mirror that SanDisk despatched me arrived configured in RAID 1 (mirroring) — as you’d anticipate given the title. I examined it in that mode, in addition to in RAID 0 to see simply what it’s able to. (Spoiler alert: much more.) I additionally examined the Professional Blade as I had two modules available, and put all three by means of PCWorld’s check suite for good measure.
The results of all these checks means there are numerous captures and pictures to wade by means of beneath. If you wish to keep away from that, the abstract is that sequential throughput with the onerous drives is between 175MBps and 210MBps in RAID 1, and 350MBps and 410MBps in RAID 0.
The Professional Blade reads and writes round 800MBps, nicely beneath the 1.8GBps it manages over USB 3.2×2 on a Home windows PC. In sensible phrases, nonetheless, even the HDDs in RAID 1 are quick sufficient for no less than an 8K video stream, and doubtless a number of. With the Professional Blade on board, which mounts as a separate drive, you’ll be able to accommodate even greater bandwidth eventualities.
Sustained throughput is a lot better than with exterior 2.5-inch onerous drives, particularly in RAID 0. Nonetheless, as you’ll see, in order for you quick search occasions, these usually are not the drives you search.
G-RAID Mirror RAID 0 outcomes
G-RAID Mirror RAID 1 outcomes
The RAID 1 outcomes are considerably slower, however you’ll nonetheless need to use this RAID mode (1) if the G-RAID Mirror is just not going to be in any other case backed up.
WD SanDisk Skilled Professional Blade outcomes for reference
Lastly, the Professional Blade check outcomes are about half as quick as what you’ll see on a USB 3.2×2 bus. See the charts beneath for proof of that.
As I stated, it’s all the time good to have slightly context, so we’ve included the outcomes from PCWorld’s Home windows check mattress for the onerous disks in each RAID 0 and RAID 1, in addition to the Professional Blade SSD. They’re in comparison with the lately reviewed Seagate Growth Desktop onerous drive, and the Professional Blade Transport utilizing USB 3.2×2.
Sure, the numbers are a bit extra spectacular underneath Home windows. However once more, the Thunderbolt hindered the Professional Blade on the G-RAID by limiting it to 10Gbps.
The random numbers for the onerous disks are minuscule in comparison with the Professional Blade’s. However CrystalDiskMark 8’s numbers are nonetheless legitimate, even when it’s not designed particularly for HDDs.
This chart reveals simply how choked the Professional Blade is on the Thunderbolt bus. It’s nonetheless approach quicker at random ops than the HDDs although.
Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry
Once more, the Professional Blade Transport’s outcomes are included to point out you what these modules can do at 20Gbps on an actual 3.2×2 bus, and simply how choked the Professional Blade on the G-RAID Mirror is by the Thunderbolt 3 bus.
The outcomes for the Transport on the Mac are equivalent to these for the port embedded on the G-RAID Mirror.
Clearly, as soon as once more, the G-RAID Mirror in RAID 0 was approach quicker writing 450GB than RAID 1.
The G-RAID Mirror took some time to put in writing 450GB, as all onerous drives will.
Jon L. Jacobi
The G-RAID Mirror’s fan, when it kicks in at startup is somewhat loud. More often than not, nonetheless, my Mac Studio fan makes as a lot noise, and that’s hardly any. To be truthful, my workplace has check beds and NAS bins whirring away more often than not, so my tolerance for white noise could be very excessive. However there’s additionally noise due the learn/write heads transferring about. In case you haven’t been round onerous drives for some time, it would bug you. One may argue for extra sound-deadening materials inside, however that tends to entice warmth as nicely noise, and that may be dangerous.
Notice that the person information I downloaded says you solely have to show off the G-RAID Mirror twice when altering RAID modes, which one may interpret as utilizing the ability button. This could be mistaken. Data on the web site and my expertise says you could pull the ability plug each occasions to modify RAID modes.
In complete, the G-RAID Mirror is lots quicker in RAID 0 than RAID 1, which implies you is perhaps higher off with two much less capacious fashions utilizing RAID 0 and macOS’s personal RAID 1 mode. Then once more, you may make use of the Professional Blade if you want actual pace, and depart the HDDs safely mirrored.
Do you have to purchase the SanDisk Skilled G-RAID Mirror?
The G-RAID Mirror is an interesting storage product, particularly for videographers. It’s good-looking, speedy for a tough drive, and better of all, fantastically capacious. Throw within the Professional Blade port, even whether it is working at half pace, and you’ve got a particularly helpful, albeit dear resolution for super-large information units.
However come on SanDisk, USB 4, USB 4…