WinBench 99 Version 2.0

Business Disk WinBench 99

The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500 GB portable hard disk drive did badly when it used the standard USB 2.0 adaptor, scoring under 11 MB/s. Even the much older Western Digital My Passport 160 GB drive was much faster than it.

But when we upgraded it with the USB 3.0 adaptor, its performance shot up, coming close to the performance of the Seagate FreeAgent Pro drive, which is based on a faster 3.5" 7,200 RPM hard disk drive.

High-End Disk WinBench 99

Again, the standard Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drive was the slowest drive in the comparison. But upgrading it with the USB 3.0 adaptor pushed it all the way up to third place.

Transfer Rate Range

This chart shows you the range of platter-to-buffer transfer rates from the innermost track to the outermost track. In other words, it shows you the range of disk transfer rates of the hard drives (from minimum and maximum). However, because these drives are limited by the interface they are using, it actually reflects the performance of the drive's interface.

Unsurprisingly, the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex with the standard USB 2.0 adaptor was right at the bottom of the pile with a truly abysmal transfer rate of just 20 MB/s. This is far below what the other drives with USB 2.0 interfaces are scoring - transfer rates of 30-35 MB/s.

However, when we upgraded the drive with the USB 3.0 adaptor, it was like taking off a massive weight - the FreeAgent GoFlex delivered a phenomenally high (for an external drive) throughput range of 46-85 MB/s!

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!