Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
If you need a slew of storage in a single corner , the Thunderbolt 3 G - RAID Mirror two-fold - HDD delivers at speeding that might storm you . The box also accepts SanDisk ’s Pro - Blade SSD faculty for on / offloading and backup .
Price When Reviewed
This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined
Note the Pro Blade port on the front of the G-RAID Mirror.
Best Pricing Today
WD ’s G - RAID Mirror is an outside enclosure housing two 3.5 - inch hard drives . It provides up to 48 TB of storage with the drives in striped ( RAID 0 ) mode , or half that in mirror musical mode RAID 1 . It also allow for aPro Blade SSD portfor SanDisk ’s modular NVMe SSDs .
What you may not realize if you have n’t been around a 3.5 - inch HDD in a while : They ’re a whole lot faster than they used to be . In RAID 0 , the G - RAID Mirror can deliver data at over 400MBps . This is not your father ’s RAID box .
Note the Pro Blade port on the front of the G-RAID Mirror.
Further reading : See our roundup of thebest international drivesto learn about competing production .
G-RAID Mirror features
The G - RAID Mirror is a well-favoured , dark gray-haired , Thunderbolt 3 , two - movement outside enclosure uncommitted in capacities up to 48TB/24 TB ( clean / mirror ) . The social unit measures 5.24 x 8.27 x 4.06 column inch ( 13.30 x 21.00 x 10.21 centimeters ) . It can weigh up to 7 pound ( 3.17 kg ) depend on the drives within . Standing on non - skid feet , there ’s little chance of this ride dance around the desktop . The four whammy bolts on each side hide anchor points for attaching the whole to a Digital Imaging Technician cart or adding other ironware .
The back of the G - RAID Mirror is home to two Thunderbolt 3 port ( 1 computer , 1 crack - through , see below ) as well as the RAID configuration double dip permutation ( JBOD , RAID 0/1 ) . That mean the RAID is onboard , which I prefer over the software kind as it ’s portable across operating scheme without installing said computer software . There ’s also a button to adjust the front light-emitting diode visible light .
The front of the drive is domicile to only the aforementioned light-emitting diode brightness level , and the obliterable front grate that allow admission to the hard drive for upgrade or replacement . Note that because of the fantastic amount of capability , rebuilding a RAID 1 array can take a very long time — two hours per terabyte .
Note the Pro Blade port on the front of the G-RAID Mirror.
By far the most unusual feature of the G - RAID Mirror is itsPro - Blade Transport slot . The jolly dear Pro - Blade Transport modules are NVMe SSDs in proprietary enclosures that slide into the time slot . They ’re super handy for uploading , offloading , and patronage , and are fast enough that you could reboot from them . However , the Pro Blade organisation is 20Gbps USB 3.2×2 , and current Thunderbolt ( Mac and Windows ) implementation do n’t endorse USB 3.2×2 at 20Gbps , dropping it to 10Gbps . Still fast , but not optimum . Thunderbolt 3/4 does sustain 20Gbps USB 4 , though , so I ’m confused as to why SanDisk did n’t prefer USB 4 for thePro - Blade Transport , or even Thunderbolt 3 . specially as Mac users seem to be the intended audience .
As this drive is largely aimed at the Apple / video production crowd , the G - RAID Mirror ship initialise to APFS . A individual 24 TB RAID 1 ( mirror ) bulk in our trial unit ’s case . There is no software package on the driveway as you ’ll find with most external 2.5 - inch laborious drives .
The high-capacity HDD conundrum
While outside 3.5 - column inch arduous drive can be extremist capacious ( trust me , it ’s a hoot to see a 48 TB drive on your desktop ) , holding so much more data than other media also makes them difficult to back up . The only media of acceptable speed capable of holding the same amount of data is , yup — another backbreaking campaign . accordingly , the easiest mode to forefend data going from tough drive bankruptcy is mirroring it to another toilsome crusade ( RAID 1 ) , or split it among multiple unvoiced ride in another type of error broad RAID .
How you set the G - RAID Mirror will depend on whether it ’s a primary or secondary repository . If it ’s just one component in a larger store dodge , and backed up ( macOS RAID for example ) , then running it at full - capacity striped RAID 0 is fine . However , if it ’s a solo repository , you ’ll desire to go it at half - capacity , mirror RAID 1 .
Alas , mirroring tends to toss off a severe drive ’s cost advantage over the far faster , far more physically robust , and more reliable SSDs . Not entirely , but the difference is drastically reduced . A handy segue into …
How much does the G-RAID Mirror cost?
The G - RAID Mirror is uncommitted in ( striped / mirrored ) 12TB/6 TB , 16TB/8 TB , 24TB/12 TB , 36TB/18 TB , 44TB/22 TB , 48TB/24 TB capacity for $ 660 , $ 750 , $ 1,000 , $ 1,200 , $ 1,400 , and $ 1,600 , respectively , in the U.S. Part of the reason for the high-pitched - than - normal pricing is the Thunderbolt 3 connectivity .
That work out to $ 55/$110 , $ 46.88/$93.76 , $ 41.67/$83.33 , $ 33.33/$66.66 , $ 31.82/$63.64 , $ 33.33/$66.66 ( leach / mirror ) per terabyte . As you’re able to see , the 44 TB social unit is the sugared patch in term of price per terabyte .
Last we tally , 4 TB and smaller SSDs were down to around $ 70 per terabyte , though the large 8 TB models were still over $ 100 per TB . Keep that in mind when deciding on your storage plan of attack .
If you ’re not interested in the current Pro Blade system , then a cheesy USB 3.x RAID enclosure such as the WD ( SanDisk ’s possessor ) MyBook Duo is an pick .
How does theG-RAID Mirror perform?
The 48 TB G - RAID Mirror that SanDisk post me get configure in RAID 1 ( mirroring ) — as you ’d expect reach the name . I try it in that mode , as well as in RAID 0 to see just what it ’s equal to of . ( Spoiler alert : a lot more . ) I also try the Pro Blade as I had two modules on manus , and put all three through PCWorld ’s mental testing suite for good measure .
The result of all these tests means there are a lot of capture and images to wade through below . If you desire to avoid that , the sum-up is that consecutive throughput with the operose drives is between 175MBps and 210MBps in RAID 1 , and 350MBps and 410MBps in RAID 0 .
The Pro Blade read and indite around 800MBps , well below the 1.8GBps it manages over USB 3.2×2 on a Windows PC . In practical terms , however , even the HDDs in RAID 1 are fast enough for at least an 8 K video stream , and probably several . With the Pro Blade on instrument panel , which mount as a separate drive , you’re able to adapt even high bandwidth scenarios .
free burning throughput is much better than with extraneous 2.5 - inch hard drive , especially in RAID 0 . However , as you ’ll see , if you want fast seek times , these are not the drives you seek .
G-RAID Mirror RAID 0 results
G-RAID Mirror RAID 1 results
The maraud 1 results are significantly irksome , but you ’ll still want to use this RAID mode ( 1 ) if the G - RAID Mirror is not going to be otherwise backed up .
WD SanDisk Professional Pro Blade results for reference
at long last , the Pro Blade trial results are about half as fast as what you ’ll see on a USB 3.2×2 bus . See the charts below for grounds of that .
As I said , it ’s always nice to have a piddling context , so we ’ve include the final result from PCWorld ’s Windows test bed for the hard disks in both RAID 0 and RAID 1 , as well as the Pro Blade SSD . They ’re compared to the recently reviewedSeagate Expansion Desktophard drive , and the Pro Blade Transport using USB 3.2×2 .
Yes , the number are a bit more impressive under Windows . But again , the Thunderbolt hindered the Pro Blade on the G - RAID by limiting it to 10Gbps .
The random number for the grueling magnetic disc are minuscule compared to the Pro Blade ’s . But CrystalDiskMark 8 ’s numbers are still valid , even if it ’s not design specifically for HDDs .
This chart demo just how choked the Pro Blade is on the Thunderbolt passenger vehicle . It ’s still way quicker at random ops than the HDDs though .
Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry
This is good performance, but half of what the Pro Blade on a USB 3.2×2 bus is.
Again , the Pro Blade Transport ’s solvent are admit to show you what these module can do at 20Gbps on a real 3.2×2 bus , and just how fret the Pro Blade on the G - RAID Mirror is by the Thunderbolt 3 heap .
The outcome for the Transport on the Mac are identical to those for the port plant on the G - RAID Mirror .
apparently , once again , the G - RAID Mirror in RAID 0 was way faster writing 450 GB than RAID 1 .
This is fast, but half what the Pro Blade on a USB 3.2×2 bus is capable of.
The G - RAID Mirror took a while to write 450 GB , as all hard drives will .
Jon L. Jacobi
The G - RAID Mirror ’s fan , when it kicks in at startup is rather flashy . Most of the sentence , however , my Mac Studio buff makes as much noise , and that ’s hardly any . To be fair , my office has mental test beds and NAS boxes whirring away most of the time , so my permissiveness for white dissonance is very gamey . But there ’s also haphazardness due the read / write head teacher moving about . If you have n’t been around hard drives for a while , it might bug you . One might reason for more sound - deadening material within , but that run to immobilize heat as well haphazardness , and that would be defective .
mark that the user template I downloaded says you only have to turn off the G - RAID Mirror double when change RAID modes , which one might represent as using the king button . This would be wrong . information on the site and my experience says you mustpull the power sparking plug both times to switch RAID way .
In total , the G - RAID Mirror is a lot faster in RAID 0 than RAID 1 , which means you might be in effect off with two less capacious model using RAID 0 and macOS ’s own RAID 1 mode . Then again , you could employ the Pro Blade when you ask real speed , and give the HDDs safely mirror .
Should you buy the SanDisk Professional G-RAID Mirror?
The G - RAID Mirror is an likable storage product , especially for videographers . It ’s handsome , speedy for a hard drive , and best of all , fantastically capacious . Throw in the Pro Blade interface , even if it is scat at half fastness , and you have an highly useful , albeit pricy solution for super - large data Set .
But come on SanDisk , USB 4 , USB 4 …
This chart shows just how choked the Pro Blade is on the Thunderbolt bus. It’s still way faster at random ops than the HDDs though.
In RAID 0 the G-RAID Mirror beat the Seagate, but lost in the safer RAID 1 mode.
The G-RAID Mirror took a while to write 450GB, as all hard drives will.
