LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive review: LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive

The LaCie Brick is your standard USB external drive, except for its aesthetic design. It comes designed and painted like a Lego toy brick. This allows you to conveniently stack Bricks on top of each other if you need the additional storage and are cramped for space on your desk.

7.8

LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive

The Good

Fast performance; inexpensive; includes backup software for both Windows and Mac operating systems; easy to set up; convenient stackable design.

The Bad

Short USB cable will limit placement; phone support requires a toll call and is only open on weekdays.

The Bottom Line

The LaCie Brick combines great performance with clever styling to make a desktop hard drive that you'll want to use <i>and</i> show off.

Setting up the drive is a simple task and can be done in a matter of minutes, if not less. It comes with a single USB cord and an external AC power adapter. One downside we found is that the USB cable is rather short--about 24 inches--so you will have to park the drive very close to your computer, perhaps even on top of it if you use a desktop that sits on the floor. Some users will be fine with this, but we'd like a longer cord to have more flexibility in positioning the drive. LaCie throws in some disk management software for just about any operating system imaginable which is a nice bonus. It also comes with 1-Click software that allows you to easily set the target folders and default sources for easy copying, all at the touch of--you guessed it--a button.

1. Drive type: desktop hard disk drive
2. Capacities: 160GB (white), 250GB (red), 300GB (blue), and 500GB (red) (7,200rpm)
3. Capacity of test unit: 250GB
4. Cache: 8MB
5. Dimensions: 4.4x7.4x1.7 inches; 34.9 oz.
6. Notable design features: Lego toy design with stackable capabilities.
7. Connection options: USB 2.0/1.1
8. Operating systems supported: Windows 98SE/2000 Pro/ME/XP Home and Pro; Mac OS 9.1; Mac OS 10.2.1. or greater
9. Software included (on disc): LaCie 1-Click Backup Software, Silverkeeper Backup Utilities, Driver-free, Silverlining Pro Drive Management Utilities for Mac OS 9.x, and Silverlining 98 Drive Management Utilities for Windows 98SE
10. Any additional features: none
11. Service/support: One-year limited warranty; phone support (toll call) weekdays, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT; e-mail to tech support via an online form; Web site: FAQs, manuals, and drivers

On CNET Labs' benchmark test, the LaCie Brick performed quite well with transfer speeds. The Brick took a little more than 21 minutes to write our 10GB test folder to its disk. The read tests reported a blazing score of 8 minutes copying our 10GB folder back to the test machine. These are excellent scores for practically any USB 2.0 drive on the market today.

The LaCie Brick makes for a practical and inexpensive ($130 for the 250GB version), uniquely designed desktop drive that should suit the needs of almost any consumer in the storage market. Throw on some blue and white Bricks, and you've got yourself a storage Lego fortress to be reckoned with.