- Best External Hdd 2018
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- Best External Hdd 2016
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Hard drives are most important part of computers well gaming for very long time and it is tough to choose the best hard drive for gaming. There are different types of HDD available according to storage speed and rotation speed. For gaming purpose, the solid state drive took place on HDD. Still, the HDD has advantages over SSD and are the price per GB is low and it is long lasting. The performance of HDD is good over who is not using super fast SSD.
Toshiba makes this hard disk highly performer and in the reasonable price. There is no major issue arise in the performance. Toshiba makes this hard drive all-rounder performer for gamers and professionally. The low failure ratio makes it preferable for gamers and becomes a best hard drive for gaming of 2018. Shop for external HD at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. The Best External Hard Drive Deals This Week. WD Elements 8TB Desktop External USB 3.0 Hard Drive — $144.99 (List Price $179.99) WD Elements 4TB Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drive — $89.99 (List Price.
In this article, we will discuss that which hard disk is right according to use. And have the confusion about what is a difference between them? You will find an answer in this list of a best hard drive for gaming in 2018.
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We divide this list into 2.5 inch and 3.5 inches and according to their performance, format and extension and where they can be used.
A 2.5 inch hard drives used in most laptops and consoles as their smaller size. Due to its smaller size, there are some drawbacks like lower capacity, slow rotation speed and less cache memory.
Top Best Hard Drive for Gaming
2.5 inch HDD For Gaming | WD Blue – 250GB, 320GB, 500GB |
WD Black – 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB | |
Seagate Barracuda – 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 5TB | |
Toshiba L200 – 500GB, 1TB | |
3.5 inch HDD For Gaming | WD Blue- 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB |
WD Black – 500GB, 1TB, 2TB , 4TB, 6TB | |
Seagate Barracuda – 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB | |
Toshiba P300 – 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB | |
Toshiba X300 – 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, 8TB |
2.5 inch Best Hard Drive For Gaming
WD Blue – Reliable Best Hard Drive For Gaming
The WD Blue is famous in its variant. WD Blue has up sides like have less power consumption, high storage capacity and speed. The technology used in it to no touch between the read head and disk make it quite and make is preferable for a laptop. This makes it long lasting. This becomes a best hard drive for gaming.
The Blue model is not only that have long-life, and they are only famous for gaming purpose only. The downside of this model has limited storage capacity. This model is not easily available in the more storage capacity.
Pros -less price, quite operation | Cons -high capacity models hard to find |
WD Black – Solid Performer and Best Hard Drive For Gaming
Second in the list is from the same manufacturer WD. WD Black has 7200 rotation speed and has a cache memory of 32MB, both are higher than WD Blue. Because of high cache memory, it makes a read and writes operations fast.
There are different models available which have storage capacity from 250 GB to whooping 1TB and all models are readily available. It uses the same technology like blue have to make it more powerful.
The WD Black is a little bit expensive but the storage capacity and cache memory are high and it is good for gamers and professionals. The high price has benefits of performance and reliability. The WD Bleu become a best Hard drive for gaming in 2018.
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Pros -more catch memory than blue -rotation speed is high | Cons -high rotation speed makes it louder |
Seagate Barracuda – Gaming HDD With High Cache Memory and Space
The Seagate Barracuda has a storage capacity of 500 GB to % TB with the rotation speed of 5400 rpm which is very high in 2.5-inch HDD. Multi video poker. It has a high cache memory of 128 MB.
This HDD has a higher risk of failure and not so much reliable than the other ones. The Seagate hard drives have a higher failure rate and have warranty issues according to online customers.
But is still highly recommended for data storage and have a low price per gigabyte. This hard drive produces less noise but still have a chance of going wrong during operations.
Pros -high storage space -high cache memory, less noisy | Cons -Chances of failure |
Toshiba L200 – Toughest Best Hard Drive For Gaming
The well knows Japanese brand Toshiba made affordable storage hard drive. L200 comes with 500 GB and 1 TB options with catch memory of 8 MB and have a rotation speed of 5400 rpm.
This hard drive is truly value for money with a high build quality and reliability and is highly resistant to external shock which is very important for mobile hard drives. It is good in performance and become best hard drive for gaming.
Now we will discuss 3.5 inch hard drives for desktops. 3.5 inch hard disks have more memory at higher rotation speed than 2.5-inch models. The price of these hard drives varies according to their manufacturer and storage capacity.
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Pros -Shock resistance, reliable | Cons -The speed of operation is little bit slowly |
3.5 inch Best Hard Drive For Gaming
WD Blue – Better Performer Best HDD For Gaming
Now start the 3.5 inch hard drives with WD Blue. This time WD comes with better performance than 2.5 inches. The storage capacity is from 500 GB to 6 TB. There are two rotation speed options available which are 5400 and 7200 rpm. The cache memory is 64 MB which increases the performance.
There are different models available according to storage capacity which allows a user to choose from and had available with reasonable price. These hard disks store more data which allows gamers to store more and more games. This hard drive is preferable for desktop as well for gamers.
Pros -Different models available according to storage, good performance, Reliable | Cons -Warranty issues |
WD Black – 128 MB Cache Gaming HDD
Now let’s talk about WD Black. This hard drive has the same specification as WD Blue. Only they have 64 and 128 MB cache memory options. But don’t judge a book by its cover. It is high power machine in the small box. https://playing-real-money-you-can-poker-angry-win-online-nbwd-slots.peatix.com. The storage capacity and rotation speed are same but in the performance and built with the higher quality standard it is far better than the WD Blue.
The price is high but it is affordable for gamers and professionals who seek speed in performance and reliability. If you are a normal daily user you cannot find any difference between Blue and Black variant. According to its specification, this becomes a best hard drive for gaming in 2018.
Pros -High performer, More reliable | Cons -price is high, not suitable for daily users |
Seagate Barracuda – Affordable Gaming HDD
As we discuss above in Seagate Barracuda this time it has data storage capacity is extended up to 12 TB. The cache memory has three different models available. For easy access and better performance to data has the support of 7200 rpm.
In the high capacity model of 8 TB and 12 TB, the size is same but storage is high. The strongest side of the hard drive is their high capacity of data storage. They have same chances of failure like 2.5 inch has.
Seagate Barracuda 3.5 inch is identical to 2.5 inches but has higher storage capacity, high cache memory and better performance. But there are failure issues that cannot be neglected.
Pros -high memory cache, affordable price | Cons -not reliable |
Toshiba P300 – Value For Money Hard drive
We have marched towards to end of a list. The P300 is desktop variant of L200 which is 2.5 inches hard drive. The P300 has much more than L200 in the memory support of up to 3 TB. The cache memory is also improved and rotation speed is 7200 rpm.
This hard drive is famous than L200. The better performance and highly reliably make it famous. Toshiba makes this hard disk highly performer and in the reasonable price.
There is no major issue arise in the performance. Toshiba makes this hard drive all-rounder performer for gamers and professionally. The low failure ratio makes it preferable for gamers and becomes a best hard drive for gaming of 2018.
Pros -value for money buy, more reliable, great performer | Cons -Not easily available like others |
Toshiba X300 – Premium & Best Hard Drive For Gaming
Last of the list is Toshiba X300. The storage capacity of hard drive starts at 4 TB and goes up to 8 TB. It has same rotation speed but the cache memory is as high as 128 MB. The high storage capacity makes it more useful in different fields.
The Toshiba X300 has same performance like P300. This hard drive is powerful and fast for gamers and professional uses. The only downside is the price is quite high for daily users. The specifications are satisfied the requirements of the gamers turn into a best hard drive for gaming of 2018.
Pros -fast operations, reliability, high storage capacity | Cons -Price is quite high |
After analyzing the list there are some important considerations when buying a best hard drive for Gaming
There are different types of hard drives available. But it depends on the user that which is appropriate for a particular application. Here we discuss that which hard drive is good for gaming or for extra storage purpose.
Storage Capacity
People usually think that with more data storage hard drives are good. But it is not. If there is only one large data storage hard disk and anything happens wrong with HDD all the valuable data lost forever. So it is advisable that store data in the different disks. But the point is there no space for more disks in the CPU. So, buy one extra hard drive for backup.
Rotation Speed
A hard disk’s rotation speed matter with the performance. The higher speed gives better results. The rotation per minute generally known as RPM. There is single write and read arm and disk is moving under it to write the data.
But with high speed, it brings some problems. First one is with high rotation make more noise and generate more heat and also has chances of failure at high speed. That’s why more than 7200 rpm hard drives are not preferable to use.
It is better to use SSD instead to use high rpm hard drives for better performance.
Cache Size
Cache memory is like RAM of an entire system. It saves memory for direct and fast access this makes it fast hard drive speed fast. Higher Cache Size does not important key features to choose a hard drive it is only helpful for some tasks.
Connectivity
Connectivity is more important in performance between different parts in a system. It will boost the performance of the system give best results.
There is no matter with the latest hard drives which all are compatible with the use of SATA 3.0 to connect. If there is an older motherboard with SATA 2.0 it also supports it.
Reliability
In this article, we discuss about the reliability of hard disk. What is the reliability of hard disk and why it is important? There are lots of moving parts in hard drive, so there is more chance to break down. Therefore there is always the risk of failure during operations. It could happen with any model. So it is advisable to take backup of data regularly in external hard drives.
The Different Colors of Western Digital HDDs Indicates
BLUE = Solid performance and reliability for everyday computing.
BLACK = Maximum performance for power computing and gaming.
RED = Increased workloads and reliability particular for NAS.
PURPLE = Designed for Surveillance DVR storage.
GREEN = Parks the heads for power savings.
BLACK = Maximum performance for power computing and gaming.
RED = Increased workloads and reliability particular for NAS.
PURPLE = Designed for Surveillance DVR storage.
GREEN = Parks the heads for power savings.
There are a lot of things to check while picking an External Hard Drive apart from good looks because the data you’re going to store in it might be precious. So that’s why we thought of creating this outstanding Best External Hard Drives 2019 Buyer’s Guide.
People tend to confuse and make wrong choices when picking an external hard drive for various needs.
As said earlier, good looks don’t determine the efficiency of a particular hard drive. Many factors determine the best.
Like USB Interface technology, Rotation Speed of the hard drive, Storage Capacity, Hard Drive Technology and Size of the Hard Drive.
Best External Hard Drives 2019
Not every Hard Drive that made our list fits everyone needs. Some can be expensive, and some can be affordable. Some can be portable, and some cannot and needs an additional power supply so pick according to your needs.
So Here’s the final list of the Top External Hard Drives of 2019
Product | Speed | Ports | Weight |
---|---|---|---|
Samsung T5 Portable SSD | 504 MB/s Read 401 MB/s Write | USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C | 0.1 lb |
LaCie Rugged | 500+ MB/s Read & Write | Thunderbolt + USB Type C | 0.9 lb |
WD My Book | 174 MB/s Read 173 MB/s Write | USB 3.0 | 3 lbs |
Seagate Backup Plus Hub | 165 MB/s Read 156 MB/s Write | USB 3.0 | 2.34 lbs |
CalDigit Tuff | 130 MB/s Read/Write | USB 3.0 | 0.6 lb |
Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC | 110 MB/s Read/Write | USB 3.0 | 0.6 lb |
Seagate Backup Plus | 124 MB/s Read 121 MB/s Write | USB 3.0 | 0.3 lb |
LaCie Porsche Design | 150 MB/s Read/Write | USB Type C | 0.7 lb |
WD Black My Passport | 125 MB/s Read 113 MB/s Write | USB 3.0 | 0.53 lb |
WD Elements | 116 MB/s Read 116 MB/s Write | USB 3.0 | 0.3 lb |
Samsung T5 Portable SSD – Best Ultra Portable External SSD
T5 was a huge success for Samsung. Currently, Samsung is the leading brand in the realm of SSD businessEither Internal or External, Samsung’s SSD’s are the top-notch performance beasts out there.
The major selling point for them is they’re not overpriced for the performance offered by them.
Unlike other SSD’s Samsung’s gives a better dollar to performance value.
Coming to the product – Samsung T5 which got recently updated with a newer controller and other internals is somewhat slower concerning theoretical throughputs.Best external hard drive for windows backup. But this one offers better 4K IOPS which is a good thing, and we’ll get more about this in the later part.
T5 is the best ultraportable external SSD out there on the market. Hands Down! Weighing at around 0.1 pounds, there’s no alternate found to tackle this.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD offers consistent speeds both in read and write department.- Peak performance of the Drive is 540 MB/s, but in our testing, we’re able to see 504 MB/s Read, 401 MB/s Write
- All Metal design of the drive makes you forget about going for rugged alternatives that offer damage safety
- I would say it’s not just portable because it’s ultraportable. Samsung T5 Portable SSD fits in the middle of your palm. It’s not as long as an M.2 SSD and not as large as a traditional SSD.
- Weighing at 0.1 pounds the drives footprint looks a U.2 SSD Drive enclosed in an ultra-strong case.
- Comes with a USB Type C to C and USB Type C to A cables and offers an optional AES 256-bit hardware encryption
- 3-year warranty period is a major plus point for a super fast SSD at an affordable price.
Best External Hdd 2018
As an SSD consists of no moving parts, you no need to worry about the drive getting hot after long use. It’ll get hot but not as much compared to a traditional external hard drive and also consumes less power while delivering peak performances.
- Ultra Portable – Smallest External Hard Drive with an SSD.
- USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C – Latest Standard for peak performances at 540 MB/s.
- Price is almost similar to an internal SSD despite being an portable drive.
- USB Type C is not adapted to all devices as of now.
- Sequential Transfer Speeds are a little bit slower than the previous model. Not much of a con but if you’re using the drive to only dump large data then this can be one.
Samsung T5 Portable Hard Drive comes in various sizes starting from 250GB up to 1TB. I would suggest picking a minimum of 500 GB drive because having less free storage on an SSD drive might slow the transfer speeds. It’s called as SSD Provisioning, and it’s a whole new topic for another day.
LaCie Rugged – Best Rugged Hard Drive
LaCie’s Rugged made top #2 on our list due to its wide variety connectivity offerings. This drive offers speed, protection and the best compatibilityIt might not be as fast as the Samsung’s T5 but it’s still fast and the customer can pick whatever model he prefers for his needs.
But with greater protection and compatibility comes greater bulkiness.
Yes, this drive weighs a lot compared to #1 nearing to a pound.
LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C Portable Hard Drive can offer speeds up to 500 MB/s with it’s SSD Option and USB Type C port model- Not only it’s Drop, Dust and Water Resistant but it’s also Crush resistant. Maybe that’s why it’s named as Rugged
- Supports Thunderbolt to take advantage of that USB Type C Gen 2 offering and can offer speeds upto 500 MB/s on SSD model
- Offers Awesome compatibility, You can choose either USB 3.0, Type C and Type C with Thunderbolt while buying one
- Best-in-class 3 Year Warranty and lives upto the claims of the brand about its ruggedness
- Has SSD Offering with peak performances of about 500 MB/s
- Water+Dust+Crush Resistant with brand support
- Higher Capacities are available to buy up to 5 TB
- Weighs nearly 0.9 pounds
- Not Good Appealing
If you choose the HDD model in this variant, your speed might be limited to 130 MB/s only.
WD My Book – Best Desktop External Hard Drive
WD My Book is the first and best Desktop External Hard Drive that made it to our list of 10 Best External Hard Drives
Desktop external drives are not portable, and their size is comparatively larger to the portable drives
But this size of theirs gives an edge for them to perform at greater performances at cheaper prices offering larger storage.
Don’t plan on taking this Hard Drive with you. There’s a reason why it is called Desktop External Hard Drive. To accommodate those 1 or 2 3.5″ bulkier drives the whole device packs some weight
To be precise this drive weighs 3 pounds and needs external power to make it work so not so portable after all
WD My Book Desktop Hard Drive is not portable for sure but the 3.5″ drives are cheaper and faster
- In our tests, we got around 174 MB/s Read, 173 MB/s Write with this Hard Drive.
- It offers Dual Drive option, Where you can get an additional bay to mount extra 3.5″ drive for future upgrades saving the cost of buying an extra hard drive
- Despite being popular to offer 8 TB out of the box, You can get it up to 20 TB directly from the store
- Transfer Speeds are considerably high compared to the competitors
- Has Dual Drive option. An extra HDD bay can be used to expand the storage of the drive in the long run.
- A little bit expensive than competitors
- Can’t charge other devices via USB like some Desktop External Hard Drives.
This drive can work as an auto backup machine using WD Backup Software if you’re on Windows. If you’re on macOS, then it can be configured with Time Machine. The only downside for this External Hard Drive is that it doesn’t Power Deliver to external devices connected via USB
This is not a considerable drawback and having this function might also affect transfer speeds. But people who would love to have this feature might get disappointed.
Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Cheapest Desktop External Hard Drive
In our list of top 10 External Hard Drives, Seagate Backup Plus Hub is one of the cheapest offering with high transfer speeds.
It doesn’t look as elegant as the WD My Book. But, Hey! who cares. It’s going to be sitting around in the home
Seagate over thought about this drive and made the Power Deliver to external devices connected possibly making this ideal at an affordable price point
Like WD My Book, this one also packs considerable weight to it – 2.34 lbs, Definitely not for portable usage
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This drive cost less by 20$ than WD My Book's 8TB Variant with decent transfer speeds.
- In our tests the drive speeds are as follows: 165 MB/s Read, 156 MB/s Write
- Connects via USB 3.0 port and the Seagate Dashboard software can help backup all the data to the drive easy when mounted.
- 2-Year or Variable Warranty on the device
- Cheapest High Storage Desktop External Drive
- 2 USB 3.0 Ports. One can be used to charge other devices
- Only 2 Year Warranty + No second Hard Drive bay
- Transfer speeds are less and No higher capacity variants available directly from the manufacturer
8 TB might look like it’s more than enough. But people who tend to buy Desktop External Hard Drive sure has lots of data needs and believe me 8TB won’t cut it
In the long run and in the era 4K and emerging 8K. 8TB is not going to be enough. If you want to future proof and alongside get a Desktop External Drive then go for WD My Book
CalDigit Tuff USB-C Portable Rugged Hard Drive
CalDigit Tuff is similar to LaCie Rugged when considering protection offered to the precious data drivebut it doesn’t come available with an SSD out of the box unlike LaCie Rugged
The drive comes bundled with a USB Type C and USB Type A cable for backward compatibility. So you no need to worry about your host worrying about not having a Type C port
The drive comes with a Type-C (Gen. 2) Interface Speeds Up To 10Gb/s, Compatible with USB & Thunderbolt 3
- It’s IP57 Certified i.e., Water+Dust+Shock protected. You can immerse the drive in water up to 3.5ft for 30 mins.
- Speeds are not that great. In our tests, the Drive’s peak performance is only around 130 MB/s Read & Write
- This particular drive is a 7200 RPM one unlike other HDD having 5400 RPM. But it still lacks SSD option.
- Rugged Drive: Water, Dust, and shock resistant with IP57 certification
- 7200 RPM HDD for better 4K IOPS, Refer to our Buyer’s Guide at the end part for more details.
- Thunderbolt 3 Support up to 10 Gb/s
- No SSD and Higher Capacities available.
- Overpriced for the current storage option.
- Poor implementation of ports. For an HDD there’s no need for Thunderbolt support up to 10 Gb/s
You’re halfway through in our list of 10 Best External Hard Drives of 2019, If you want to navigate to any section of the article quickly, you can do from here:
Contents
- 1 Best External Hard Drives 2019
Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC – Best Secure External Hard Drive
Buffalo MiniSattion Extreme NFC external hard drive is not only secure and can be authenticated using an NFC secure cardBut also it’s rugged and has IP3X and IP5X certified standards to protect the drive from Dust, Water, and shocks.
The downside is that its ruggedness is not as perfect as the above-discussed drives.
If you’re here to pick the drive basing on its protection standards. Then it’s better to pick above models than this.
Military spec shock protection including IPX3 standard water resistance & IP5X standard dust resistance to ensure data is safe against the elements
- 110 MB/s Read/Write Transfers speeds over USB 3.0 port
- NFC Smart Card is included to authenticate the drive when needed which safeguards the precious data inside the drive
- 256-AES Hardware Encryption capability works awesome with the Smart Card
- Automatic Backup’s using the buffalo’s proprietary software and has support for macOS’s Time Machine
- 3-Year Warranty and support for the Hard Drive to recover data if anything happens
- NFC Smart Card Support is a great addition to having 256bit AES H/W encryption
- As it is aimed at security as priority, Being rugged gives this drive an edge over competition
- Not detachable USB 3.0 cable might break if usuage makes any wear and tear down the road
- Considering the price point the drives throughputs are not impressive
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As mentioned earlier, this drive is good for people who wants to keep their data very confidential. The NFC Smart Card is the best way. The drive weights 0.6 Pounds not including the smart card.
But you’re planning to buy this looking at its ruggedness features and their certifications. Then Don’t, The drives mentioned above are good at this when compared Buffalo MiniStation Extreme
Seagate Backup Plus – Cheapest High Storage Portable Hard Drive
Seagate is one of the oldest storage makers. This drive Seagate Backup plus is the cheapest High Storage External Hard DriveIn 2019 updated list of Best External Hard Drives, 2 drives from Seagate made into the list and one being the Cheapest Desktop Hard Drive.
You can check here: Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Cheapest Desktop External Hard Drive
This drive offers up to 5 TB of storage out of the box and doesn’t put a hole in your pockets.
Seagate Backup Plus ranges from 1TB and going up to 5 TB at the cheapest price available for a 5TB hard drive which is portable.
- In our test the drive transfer speeds are as follows: 124 MB/s Read, 121 MB/s Write
- 2-Year Limited or variable warranty
- USB 3.0 which is backward compatible with USB 2.0 like all other Hard Drives
- Weight at 0.3 lb with larger footprint which helps in better heat dispation
- For just 3x the price of 1TB you can get a 5TB option with this drive
- Speeds are considerable decent for a 5400 RPM drive
- 2 Year Warranty by Seagate is a bummer
Being cheap puts this drive as one of the product that made to the list of Best External Hard Drives. I would suggest to pick at least a 4 TB model
Because 4 TB is just 2X the price of 1 TB, whereas 5 TB is 3X the price of 1 TB but still it is the cheapest 5 TB Portable Hard Drive
LaCie Porsche Design – Best Premium External Hard Drive
Same as Seagate Backup Plus, LaCie Porsche Design Hard Drive offers storage variants ranging from 1 TB up to 5 TBIt’s the best Premium External hard drive as of now. Premium in the sense the looks of the drive and definitely not the cost.
It costs slightly more when compared to the Seagate’s but offers better throughputs
LaCie Porsche Design Portable Hard Drive comes equipped with a USB Type C connector for modern I/O
- In our tests, the theoretical transfer speeds were around 150 MB/s in both Read and Write operations.
- USB Type C cable helped in the gain of speeds over USB 3.0 hard drives. It also comes with a USB 3.0 Cable for better compatibility
- Highest Storage options available and not too pricey for the premium looks
- Comes with 2 Year Warranty period
- Speeds are good due to USB Type C Support included by the controller in the hard drive
- All Aluminum enclosure gives decent protection
- USB Type C is not fully utilized by the limitation of the drive being an HDD and not SSD
- Over priced 4 TB and 5 TB variants
WD Black My Passport – Popular Budget External Hard drive
WD Black My Passport was the popular choice and the best seller’s choice hard drive since ages.It’s look has been updated in the year 2016, and since then My Passport amazed the competition by consistently being top in the market.
The controller of the hard drive has been upgraded to better performances despite the radical look.
Having a larger footprint helped the drive dissipate more heat than usual and this made the drive run longer with speed throttling
- In our tests the drive ran at a speed of 125 MB/s Read, 113 MB/s Write which is better when compared to previous readings
- Read speed has increased quite a bit along with 4K IOPS. Thanks to the new upgraded controller
- USB 3.0 Port and 3 Year manufacturer warranty
- Speeds have been improved due to large size, new controller upgrade in 2016
- Can get 4 TB drive at 2X the price of 1 TB
- Newer model has larger footprint to carry
- Scratches and Smudges prone. Sharp Edges might harm a bit
WD Elements – Cheapest 1 TB External Hard Drive
Best External Hd 2018 Wallpaper
Final one in the list of Best External Hard Drives is the WD Elements which is the Cheapest 1 TB External Hard Drive right nowWhich is fast enough to make the best 10 list. When it got introduced along with its competitors in 2013.
WD Elements was the fastest contender in sequential read and sequential write
Having larger form factor helped a bit. So that it can dissipate heat well and 5400 RPM HDD can perform well
- As for the benchmarks go the External Hard drives read and write speeds are around 116 MB/s
- The larger size doesn’t make this portable drive weigh more. Weighing at 0.3 pounds the drive is known for its trust of not being corrupted
- Western Digital offers a limited 2 Year warranty on the drive
- Less Weight and somewhat large than usual drives which help in cooling
- Most Trusted Drive yet at cheapest pricing
- The controller hasn’t been upgraded since 2013
- No 256-Bit AES Hardware Encryption
Buyer’s Guide – Best External Hard Drives
This buyer’s guide is intended for all types of customers with all type of needs. Whether you’re here to pick high storage volumes at lower price
Or you’re here to pick the fastest and price is not a factor which you’re bothered. Anyhow, I would strongly recommend everyone going through this guide
As you might already have seen our Best External Hard Drives 2019 Table at the top, In that we’ve listed the speeds of the individual drives after benchmarking them
Nobody likes a slow drive right? So, that was the whole point to benchmark them whether they reach up to our expectations? Whether the speed claimed by the company that manufactured the drive is true or not?
The average speed of most drives that are available in the market is around 110 MB/s Read as well as Write. If you need more throughputs for needs, then select accordingly
Content Creators and Photographers require higher speed drives for fast editing on portable media. And, they also need larger storage drives for storing data at a lower price.
Going for an SSD based External Hard Drive for editing and picking a slower desktop drive will be the best scenario here. Also, connectivity of the drive matters a lot.
So, we’ve made a detailed part of ports selection while picking the portable hard disk here.
Good connectivity always matters. Even if the drive is an SSD Based one and can able to handle speeds at peak performance rate of more than 1 GB/s if it is restricted with a USB 3.0, then the drive speeds will be at USB 3.0’s max
And it won’t be able to attain faster than that limit. So, It’s always advisable to choose a right port used for connectivity while buying a portable hard drive
USB Type C'>USB Type C is the latest connectivity options that are going to be the mainstream option down the option. There are several reasons for that, and the most important one is speed
USB Type C supports Gen 1 & Gen 2 variants with theoretical throughputs of 5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s as of now. Which is pretty impressive.
And the other reason is that USB Type C is sophisticated concerning connectivity, It is reversible, and the USB Type C helps in daisy chaining purposes if you own lots of similar port supported devices with you.
As of our best list, There are few devices in the list Best External Hard Drives 2019 which comes with USB Type C out of the box and takes advantage of it
And some don’t because they’re powered by slower Hard Drives. Even if some devices have the port, The manufacturers bundle the device with both Type C as well as Type A connector. So you’re saved here, But only the Type C port is going to utilize the potential
That’s why we’ve mentioned the drive speeds for you to compare and decide.
Thunderbolt'>Thunderbolt is a technology developed by Apple in collaboration with Intel, MacBooks and their Airport devices are supported with this connectivity.
Later, After the introduction of USB Type C, The integration of Thunderbolt made possible using the Type C connector itself. Coming to the metrics
Thunderbolt 1,2, and 3 support the theoretical speeds of around 10 Gb/s, 20Gb/s and 40 Gb/s. As of now, there are no Thunderbolt 3 supported external Hard Drives
Lacie supports Thunderbolt standard, but it also comes with a non SSD based storage capacity at a cheaper price. So, You need to keep that in mind because both of them are needed to support full transfer speeds.
USB 3.0'>USB 3.0 the current mainstream connectivity that we often see in almost every PC & Laptop. Every budget range PC is now being served with a USB 3.0 Connectivity
It is an outstanding improvement over USB 2.0, But the port looks the same as compared to 2.0. So, It was quickly being replaced with Type C connector
Anyhow, USB 3.0 is capable of handling transfer speed up to 5 Gb/s which is a huge leap over its predecessor. And, coming to the connectivity coupled with the Portable hard drives, Every External Hard drive will have USB 3.0 as the default option.
But due to the limitation of drive speeds, the transfer rates are around 100 – 120 MB/s for most of the drives.
Best External Hdd 2016
USB 2.0'>At this stage, you can confidently forget about USB 2.0, Because no drive is being served with it. The maximum throughput of 2.0 is 480 Mb/s which is very low
But it used to be the top connectivity option for decades until USB 3.0 came. Anyway, I thought it’s worth mentioning the legacy port here.
If you’ve picked any eBay or Craigslist Hard Drive, Check the port is not 2.0, or you’ll be facing speed caping troubles. USB 3.0 port is most likely colored blue or in some cases red/green.
But it’ll be colored in almost every drive whereas USB 2.0 isn’t.
Best External Hd 2018 Software
Encryption is one of the must-have features for any storage device. Have you heard the phrase ” Privacy is a myth, my friend! “, well apparently it’s damn true.
So, It’s better to be precautions than to suffer later. Most of the Best External Hard Drives listed in this article possess some encryption.
But you have to pick which level of encryption you’re looking for and how’s it’s going to benefit you. If you’re worried about your precious data from being stolen or tampered, then Encryption is the only way to secure
Samsung T5 Portable SSD has optional password support along with 256-bit AES HardWare encryption and some of don’tSo, it’s better to pick one which has such feature when you’re spending for the longer run
Some manufacturers provide disaster recovery support, Menas they’ll help recover your lost data in cases of malware attacks or accidental mishandling to your Hard Drive done physically or using any programs.
But this can only be attained if you’re still under warranty period. The standard period of warranty offered by most manufacturers is 3 years.
So, Try to get one with a minimum of 3-year warranty unless its features and the price is compelling enough to comprise to get it. Some even offer 5 Year warranty periods to attract users that are cautious about their data
But not all 5 Year warranty drives are good enough to satisfy your needs. The longer warranty might be a trap too to lure you into picking them, That’s why we made the list of Best External Hard Drives 2019
Top Rated External Hard Drives – People’s Choice
# | Preview | Product |
---|---|---|
1 | WD 4TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive HDD, USB 3.0, Compatible with PC, Mac, PS4 & Xbox -. | |
2 | Seagate Portable 4TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, Xbox, & PS4 - 1-Year Rescue. | |
3 | WD 5TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive, Black - WDBPKJ0050BBK-WESN | |
4 | Toshiba (HDTB440XK3CA) Canvio Basics 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black | |
5 | Toshiba Canvio Advance 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black - HDTCA40XK3CA |