G-Technology’s New G-DOCK and G-DRIVE Offer Speed, Versatility and Flexibility

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G-DRIVE

Like you, much of my life is digital. That includes documents, pictures, music and video. Those files are precious… and increasingly larger and larger. Seriously, one video for a Gear Diary post can be a gigabyte and a half before I even begin to process it. It adds up … quickly. In addition, protecting that data is more important than ever, so having the ability to move files from one location to another is too. And when your files are huge and your file transfer rate is slow, it means only one thing — wasted time. G-Technology is looking to change that with their new, flexibility, fast storage solution, the G-Technology Evolution Series of G-DRIVES. I had a chance to meet with G-Technology a few weeks ago to get a preview of this new storage solution; it is impressive.

G-DOCK

The Evolution Series is actually a family of products all designed to work together. There is the G-DOCK ev™ with Thunderbolt, the G-DRIVE™ ev and the G-DRIVE ev PLUS external hard drive modules with USB 3.0. Together, the Evolution Series is designed to permit large, fast and reliable storage. Why might one need something like the Evolution Series? Think about it this way. If you shoot 36MP RAW images, each 100 pictures takes up 5GB of storage. 1000 images is 52GB. That may sound like a lot, but I have well over 20,000 images on my computer right now! Similarly, uncompressed 2K video takes 764GB of space per hour. That’s a bit of an issue when you consider the fact that my MacBook Pro has a mere 500GB of space. (Remember when 500GB sounded HUGE?!?!) Thanks to its large, flexibly capacity the G-Technology Evolution Series is designed to allow each individual or company to increase their storage as needed at a relatively cost-affective rate.

And it isn’t just space at issue. No, professionals need to make sure their work is backed up, and they need the ability to move files quickly. The G-Technology Evolution Series is designed to do that too.

G-DRIVE

The G-DOCK is the heart of the system. It has dual Thunderbolt ports, and it will ship with two G-DRIVE ev hard drives. (More on that in a moment.) Those two drives offer 2TB of storage and are hot-swappable. The G-Dock ships with a Thunderbolt cable (pricey in itself if you need to purchase individually) and, thanks to the design, one Thunderbolt connection is all you need for multiple drives. You see, the G-Drive ev and G-DRIVE ev Pro slip right into the bays of the G-DOCK. The drives have USB 3.0 connections but, once plugged into the G-DOCK, the DOCK’s Thunderbolt connection takes over.

G-DRIVE

A single volume setup with the G-DRIVE ev offers a transfer rate of 136MB/s. This is true for RAID 1 (Protected) speeds as well. RAID 0 (Performance) speeds go up to an impressive 250MB/s. (Seriously, think about how fast a transfer rate of 250 MB each and every second is!)

G-DRIVE

And if you need more speed the company is also offering the G-DRIVE ex PLUS drives. These START at a speed of 250MB/s and can go up to 500MB/s!

The speeds are impressive in and of themselves, but what really captured my attention when I had a chance to see the units in person was the ability to expand storage as needed. The G-DOCK ev, G-DRIVE ev and G-DRIVE ev PLUS are all made from high quality aluminum. Purchase the G-DOCK ev for $749.95 and you start out with 2T of storage thanks to the included G-DRIVE evs. From there you can buy extra 500GB G-DRIVEs for $149.95 each, additional 1TB G-DRIVEs for $299.95 each and additional 1TB G-DRIVE ev PLUS drives for $249.95 each. And while that may sound pricey at first stop and think about how valuable your data, and your time, are.

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That’s not all G-Technology had to show me when we met last month; since the company also announced their new G-DRIVE Pro yesterday. The G-DRIVE Pro will be available this summer for $699.96 for 2TB and $849.95 for a 4TB drive. That’s a bit pricey for storage, until you realize that the G-DRIVE Pro actually gets SSD-like speeds that clock in at 480MB/s sustained transfer rates. (That’s three times faster than a standard single 3.5-inch desktop external hard drive!) The drive is easily transportable, supports compressed 4K and multiple streams of 2K, HDV, DVCPro HD, XDCAM HD, ProRes 4444 and uncompressed SD workflows and ships with a Thunderbolt cable.

All of G-Technology’s new drives come with a 3-year limited warranty, and you can learn more here.

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.