Design

This is an amazing looking external hard drive. In comparison to just about every other external hard drive I’ve used from any other company, this sets the bar for the best industrial design. The drive perfectly complements any computer, however this drive is setup right out of the box to work with Macs and it appears that they had the design of the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro in mind when designing this drive.

Performance

Right on the box the stated speed for FireWire 800 is “up to 75MB/s.” Whereas I’m used to experiencing half of the speed that’s usually advertised on a product, I was very surprised to see the Read/ Write Speeds of this drive very close to the stated amounts.

I tested this drive using AJA System Test. Again, I was really surprised to see the speeds so close to par. The average write speed for a 8GB file was 74.1 MB/s and the average read speed for a 8GB file was 81.2 MB/s using FireWire 800. The average write speed was 30.6 MB/s and read speed was 36.2 MB/s via USB 2.0. All of these tests were done on my 2011 Quad-Core MacBook Pro.

This drive utilizes an Oxford 934 Chipset, which not only allows it to have such a wide assortment of ports (USB 2.0, eSATA, FireWire 800) but also reduces the necessary CPU utilization on your computer through its internal ARM processor. This is particularly beneficial for professionals, in the media industry, because CPU usage can instead be dedicated to other tasks like rendering.

Other Thoughts

One thing I really liked about this drive is the fact that it has a built-in heat sink. Over the course of using this drive for nearly 3 hours, the temperature not once went above room temperature. The heat sink dissipates all of the heat from the drive really well.

Hitachi calls this a “Professional External Hard Drive” and thus its price-point passes consumer hard drives from other companies. While you can buy other comparable (in terms of storage capacity) drives from competing manufacturers – they will likely lag in performance and durability.

This drive isn’t for everyone. The great performance of this drive and the assortment of data ports are great features but not everyone needs them. This drive is aimed (and marketed) towards the professional and pro-sumer market. While this definitely has the capabilities to store movies, Time Machine backups, and a music library – I think it’s a bit overkill for these simple purposes.

If you’re looking for a quality hard drive that performs very well and complements the appeal of your Mac – this is the drive for you. If you’re looking for a budget hard drive to back up photos or hold your music, I think other hard drives will meet your needs just as well as this drive while saving you a lot of money too.

Convenience Rating: 4 stars
Durability: 4.5 stars
Re-use/Replay Value: 4.5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.3 stars

If your a real Apple fanboy, you are probably picky about appearance.  Thankfully, Seagate released their new Seagate FreeAgent Desk specially for the Mac!  It looks beautiful in my office because the white stand, and modern silver drive almost mocks my iMac, and you don’t feel like it is clutter.  The stand raises the drive about an inch so it can cool through the vent holes, but I found another benefit, if I spill a glass of water, etc. the stand will only get wet, not the drive.  Overall, the drive is a nice size for an external drive, but the stand is not removable! That means that you can’t stack multiple drives on top of each other, or lay it flat.

Specs:

The FreeAgent Desk for Mac measures 7.28″ in H x 1.48″ in W x 5.98″ in L and it weighs  2.2 pounds (1 kg). It is definitely not travel friendly, and if your looking for a compact portable drive, you should pick up the FreeAgent Go instead. It is certainly one of the more upper-class looking drives since it sports a metal and white enclosure.  My un-tech savvy friends thought that Apple made it.  To make the drive even more Apple-like, Seagate added a series of white LEDs underneath the stand that glow when the drive is active. and slowly fade off when the drive is ready to eject, or when the drive hasn’t been in use for a while.  Even the Seagate logo lights up, just like the Apple logo on the Macbook series.  The drive can connect to your computer via Firewire 400 or 800 and USB.

Performance:

Since the FreeAgent Desk can connect to your computer through firewire, transfer speeds are phenomenal. I have a 3 year  old intel iMac, so it doesn’t have any firewire 800 ports, but I tested it while it was connected via firewire 400.  In my tests, the Seagate Desk took 2 ½ seconds to copy a 51.2 megabyte video file.   So technically, if you were connected via firewire 800, the transfer speed should be doubled, but I don’t have any actual test results with firewire 800 to support that claim.

Verdict:

Overall, the whopping 1 TB Seagate FreeAgent Desk for Mac is one of the nicest and fasted hard drives I’ve tested.  It’s nice appearance and design makes it a perfect companion to my iMac, and for  $189, it is a drive that most people will enjoy. My only wish is that Seagate makes the stand removable.

Portability Rating: 4.5 stars
Durability: 4.5 stars
Re-use/Replay Value: 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.7 stars

During MacWorld 2009, Apple introduced iLife 09’ and iWork 09’ which gave users significant features to create videos, music,slideshows, presentations, and documents.  With this and other advances in software, OS, etc. people’s hard drives have been feeling scanty.    As a person who loves photography and video, my hard drive fills up fast, too fast, and to share them with my friends is a nightmare!  So I got the Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac.

Aesthetics

The FreeAgent Go measures 0.69″ in H x 3.15″ in W x 5.40″ in L and it weighs  just 7.76 oz, the 500GB Seagate FreeAgent Go may not be too pocket-friendly ,but it’s thin and light enough to slide into a bag, purse, or backpack with ease. It is certainly one of the more attractive portable drives with its silver and white exterior which looks like Apple made it. Seagate even added a series of white lights underneath the silver layer that pulse when the drive is active, and slowly fade off when the drive is ready to eject. The original FreeAgent Go comes in a spectrum of colors, but the Mac edition only comes in one: Silver. Seagate also offers a free dock that makes it really easy to insert and remove your hard drive, but unfortunately the dock only works for Firewire 800 ports.  If you want to use USB or Firewire 400, you will have to use the included wires.

Performance

The FreeAgent Go is one of the faster portable hard drives I’ve used. Unfortunately, I have a fairly old intel iMac, so it doesn’t have any firewire 800 ports, but I tested it while it was connected via firewire 400.  In my tests, I uploaded a 244.3 MB file to the drive in 24.9 seconds.  So technically, if you were connected via firewire 800, the transfer speed would be doubled.

Verdict

Overall, the 500GB Seagate FreeAgent Go is one of the better portable hard drives we’ve tested.  It’s sleek appearance and size makes it hands down own of the most convenient portable hard drives I’ve tested.  For $159, you’re getting style, very good performance, and a very compact hard drive that anyone will enjoy.