LaCie has given a bump to its USB 3.0 external hard drives in terms of both capacity and speed with its latest d2 and 2big drives. Taking advantage of 3TB hard drives and the performance of USB 3.0, the company’s dual drive 2big USB 3.0 offers 6TB of storage and a 20 percent speed boost to 306MB/s – claiming the fastest performance of any 2-bay RAID solution to date – while the single drive d2 USB 3.0 offers 3TB of storage and transfer speeds of 156MB/s.

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Users will need a USB 3.0 port to take advantage of the improved transfer speeds, so those yet to make the step up to USB 3.0 will have to put up with slower USB 2.0 speeds in the meantime. The 2big supports three RAID modes, including RAID 0 for speed, RAID 1 for full data protection and JBOD for non-stop data access.

The Neil Poulton designed enclosures on both units sport a fanless aluminum heat sink design with 60 percent more surface area for improved heat dissipation. The d2 model offers an eco mode that is activated after 30 minutes of inactivity, while the 2big unit can be programmed when to switch to idle mode to reduce power consumption.

Both LaCie’s new drives will be available worldwide from the beginning of November 2010 at prices yet to be announced.