Conclusion

The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB portable hard disk drive is one of the better-designed USB drives we have seen. It is certainly unique in its upgradability. Where else can you find a portable drive that you can upgrade from the standard USB 2.0 interface to something faster, like USB 3.0 or even FireWire?

The Seagate GoFlex system also allows you to buy just the drives (without their USB adaptors) at a lower cost and use them with the same adaptor. If you upgrade to a faster interface like USB 3.0, then all your FreeAgent GoFlex drives would instantly benefit from the upgrade as they can all use the same USB 3.0 adaptor.

However, the use of a separate adaptor does seem to have its drawbacks. It requires you to purchase a separate and rather pricey USB 3.0 upgrade kit to unleash the FreeAgent GoFlex's full potential. Take our advice - even if you don't need USB 3.0 right now, buy the slightly more expensive USB 3.0 version of this drive from the start. It beats saving US$10 (RM 30) on the USB 2.0 model and then paying US$ 20 (RM 60) for the USB 3.0 upgrade kit later.

Unlike what we saw with the 500 GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex, the 1 TB FreeAgent GoFlex was very fast even using the standard USB 2.0 adaptor. It was actually faster than the other HDD-based external drives we tested in the sequential transfer tests, which matters most for portable hard disk drives. It was very poor in random accesses but that's not a particularly important attribute for such drives.

With that said, it is obvious that the 1 TB FreeAgent GoFlex is being throttled by the slow USB 2.0 interface. Once we paired it with the USB 3.0 adaptor, it showed its true mettle, delivering 4x better performance in small sequential transfers and 2.5x better performance in large sequential transfers.

See why we keep recommending you get the USB 3.0 version of the 1 TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable hard disk drive? Even if you don't use or need USB 3.0 right now, your FreeAgent GoFlex drive will be ready to deliver a new level of performance the second you start using a USB 3.0-capable computer!

For the lowest current prices on Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex hard disk drives, click here!

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