Seagate FreeAgent Go 160 GB
(ST9016031E1-RK)

The same cannot be applied to multi-threaded reading - this model is slightly outperformed by some external storage drives of the same class. Windows caching has no effect again, if you use NTFS.

Seagate FreeAgent Go also demonstrates relatively low results in WinBench 99 Disk WinMark with Windows caching enabled. NTFS makes this drive stand out in quick removal mode.

Seagate FreeAgent Go acts similarly in the High-End test.

There's practically no difference between modes with and without caching in PCmark04 disk test (because of peculiarities of the test itself). And the new storage drive from Seagate demonstrates the best performance among our contenders. Probably owing to the hard drive model.

File Copy Average Performance results in AVI, MP3, JPG and WEB patterns for operations within tested drives (you can evaluate file copy performance from outside a drive by test results of multi-threaded writing and reading) are published on the detailed diagram. The diagram with geomean performance results for copying files does a better job of illustrating differences between the contenders:

Seagate FreeAgent Go demonstrates high file copy performance both with and without caching - owing to NTFS.

Detailed File Archiving (with zero compression) and Extracting Performance results (for example, extraction, installation from a package or archiving/packing files) are published on a separate page. Mean results of drives in these tests are published below.

The model under review shows very good performance again, although the latest WD Passport is still better with Windows caching.

Conclusion

The updated family of mobile external storage drives from Seagate, represented by FreeAgent Go 160 GB, has a number of peculiarities that make it stand out against similar products. Compact dimensions, lightweight, large capacity of the top model, stylish exterior with an original LED, a useful software bundle for comfortable usage of this storage drive in various situations make it a good choice for those users, who are not seeking special features and top performance from such devices. As Seagate FreeAgent Go models use Serial ATA hard drives with perpendicular magnetic recording and a new USB2SATA controller, they look good in benchmarks, where they often outperform main competitors.

We have some gripes with power consumption of the new product (we noticed nothing questionable here though), the lack of a faster interface (this hard drive loses over 1/3 of its transfer rate with USB 2.0), no button to start backup (Seagate has the Maxtor family for it) or even a simple holster to bring it with you. So some users may decide to look for an alternative. But even now Seagate FreeAgent Go looks attractive enough. Its retail price may be the determining factor for consumers.