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Seagate is well-known within the cupboard space, constructing not solely the inner drives however enclosures as effectively. Most drives within the Seagate lineup are mass-market client units, whereas LaCie represents Seagate’s skilled line.

Whereas they don’t seem to be essentially as flashy as LaCie, Seagate units are dependable and extra extensively accessible.

Design and connectivity

The Seagate Enlargement is your typical desktop storage answer. It has a well-vented plastic physique, only a hair bigger than the three.5-inch arduous drive it hides inside.

It connects to your Mac or PC utilizing USB 3.1. On the rear of the drive is a typical barrel connector used for the included energy provide and USB Micro-B port.

We aren’t enormous followers of the slim Micro-B connector however they get used steadily with exterior arduous drives. Because the cable is a USB-A cable, chances are you’ll want to make use of a hub or adapter together with your Mac if solely has USB-C ports.

In our case, we simply picked up one of many widely-available USB-C to Micro-B cables discovered on Amazon. We would choose a USB-C cable within the field, however loads of individuals nonetheless depend on USB-A, and substitute cables are simple to return by in a pinch.

The enclosure has a striped look with angled strains alongside the plastic physique. The highest, rear, and backside have hidden vents that permit airflow to the arduous drive. They’re in between the strains that make them near-invisible at a look.

Due to the passive cooling, the drive feels a bit of hole after we decide it up, however that is preferable to a loud spinning fan.

Lastly, silicone ft are on the underside of the drive that hold it simply off the floor of your desk and stop it from sliding round.

Velocity and efficiency

Velocity is not going to impress anybody on the Seagate Enlargement drive. Not as a result of it’s dangerous, however as a result of it’s aiming to be inexpensive.

Spinning arduous drive platters are going to be cheaper than stable state media, particularly while you’re on the lookout for one thing as massive as 8TB.

When you want a backup system or a spot to retailer a wealth of information, then that is what you want.

We hooked the drive as much as our Mac, and the drive was formatted in ExFat by default. As ExFat, it will probably work with each Mac or Home windows PCs out of the field, however you may simply reformat it into the extra Apple-specific APFS or go away it in ExFat for common entry.

Utilizing the Blackmagic Disk Velocity check, we received 177MB/s for our write velocity and 178MB/s for the learn velocity. This is not quick however not terribly sluggish both.

In sensible phrases, we transferred a 1GB file to the Seagate Enlargement in underneath 10 seconds. Once more, for a backup drive, file repository, and on a regular basis duties, this will likely be simply effective.

This may not be ideally suited for a video enhancing scratch drive, nevertheless it’s nice in 95 p.c of different use circumstances. Not everyone seems to be shifting 124GB Closing Minimize libraries with any regularity.

Do you have to purchase the Seagate Enlargement exterior arduous drive?

There’s not at all times a necessity for the flashiest {hardware}. Seagate has a stable drive with a horny look that gives you with 8TB of dependable storage at an inexpensive worth.

You may get sooner drives which have arduous drives in a raid formation or that use SSD, however they’re going to value you notably extra. If in case you have no want for extra velocity, the Seagate Enlargement will get the job accomplished with out breaking the financial institution.

Seagate Enlargement execs

• Strong, dependable drive
• Ample 8TB capability
• Smooth, trendy exterior
• Inexpensive
• Preformatted within the common ExFat file system

Seagate Enlargement cons

• No USB-C cable incldued
• Makes use of full-size desktop drive that take up more room
• HDD speeds

Ranking: 3 out of 5

The place to purchase

You should purchase the Seagate Enlargement 8TB exterior arduous drive on Amazon for $164.99.