Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB

Seagate recently launched its FreeAgent series of external drives. We

evaluated the FreeAgent Pro version with a 750 GB of storage space. There are

several interesting features in this drive. For one, it has ample connectivity

options, which include a USB, FireWire and even an eSATA (External Serial

Advanced Technology Attachment) port. We did wish that they shipped an eSATA

cable with the drive though. The other interesting thing about the drive is the

feature rich software bundled with it, called FreeAgent Tools. This is a set of

tools that let you do automatic backup of files, automatic uploading of pictures

to the online photo gallery, Shutterly, if you have an account with them, and

automatic uploading of data to Seagate's online storage. The latter is a six

month complimentary subscription for 500 MB, after which it becomes paid. We

tested the drive over its USB interface using WinBench 99 on an Intel Core 2

Extreme machine with 2 GB RAM. In Business Disk and High-end Disk Winmark tests

of the Suite, the drive gave 14.4 and 27.3 MBps throughputs respectively with an

access time of 18.6ms. CPU utilization was a whopping 99.5%. Its average

throughput was 32 MBps. Its overall performance is better than other drives with

similar specs (like the Buffalo Drive Station we reviewed in August 2006.

Bottomline: A good buy for those who want something that does more

than mere storage of data.