So Seagate sends out a FreeAgent Xtreme 1.5 External Drive and I figure this better be good if they toss Xtreme on the side of the box. Well, I open up the box to see a sleek black case with a white light front and center. The back has ports that supports 1 eSATA (48-60MB/s), 2 FireWire 400 (30-36MB/s), and 1 USB 2.0 Mini (28-32MB/s) and the FreeAgent Xtreme drive comes with 7200 RPM and a Cache of 16MB. Finally the Xtreme comes preloaded with Seagate Manger for easy back ups on 2K, XP, Vista, Mac OS X.
Initial round of testing, I start by doing a simple backing up of a ghost system using the Seagate manager and it did it in no time. Now, I had to really put the drive to the test so I had to do something that would check its speed. I made multiple Primary and logical partitions and sent files from one partition to the other. Next I took split files and copied them to 3 partitions at the same time. Finally I unzipped a file from one partition and put it in another while having the Temp file in a third. The Xtreme handled every oddball task I can come up with beautifully. It dwarfed similar drives I ever owned up to this point.
What's in the box:
- FreeAgent Xtreme Drive 6.89" x 1.33" x 6.77"
- 4 rubber grommet
- Vertical stand
- USB 2.0 A to Mini-B cable
- FireWire 400 6-pin cable
- Wall wart power supply
- Quick start guide
The Bang:
It's a quiet and very stylish external drive with a nice glossy black finish; anywhere you put it, it will grab attention. It also gives you the ability to stand it up or lay it down. Finally It's fast…I mean FAST!!! I've tested a few TB drives and this one put to shame similar drives I own.
The Slack:
Where is the off switch? I like having that control just to save on electricity. I thought the case was a little too big for a 1.5 TB. I own a number of 2TB and they aren't as big. The Stand is too small and I didn't feel comfortable leaving it vertical with out me being around.
I've used Seagate's FreeAgent Xtreme 1.5TB External Drive in a variety of ways - mostly things that a normal person wouldn't do and it has turned my old 2TB into a paperweight. Plus I like the fact that it comes with a software bundle, ready to back up your system in just a few clicks. The FreeAgent Xtreme series comes in a variety of Capacities: 500GB, 640GB, 1TB, and 1.5TB. And in the end I give Seagate's FreeAgent Xtreme 1.5TB External Drive a TOV 5 out of 5 for going beyond my expectations.