The test system used in this review was an HP dc7900. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz memory, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB SATA hard drive, NVIDIA Quadro FX570 256MB PCIe graphics card, Intel 82567LM-3 gigabit network card and Patriot SuperSpeed USB PCIe host card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Enterprise.
To test the performance of the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0, HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.43 and HD Tune Pro 4.01. These benchmarks were first run with the included USB 2.0 adapter and then with the optional USB 3.0 adapter.
CrystalDiskMark 3.0:
First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark tool measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its random read and write speeds using blocks 512K and 4K in size.
Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk - USB 3.0
Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk - USB 2.0
The GoFlex Desk performed very well when using the optional USB 3.0 adapter. In our tests, the drive reached speeds as high as 116 MB/s when reading and 105 MB/s when writing.
HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:
Next, I used HD Tach to test the GoFlex Desk's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.
When using the USB 3.0 adapter, the GoFlex Desk had average read and write speeds of 94.3 MB/s and 90.5 MB/s, respectively, as well as a burst speed of 129.8 MB/s. The drive wasn't nearly as fast when using USB 2.0 though. Compared to what we saw with USB 3.0, the GoFlex's Desk's average read and write speeds dropped by nearly two-thirds.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.43:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the GoFlex Desk's sequential read and write speeds. The test was run using blocks ranging in size from 0.5KB to 8192KB and the total length set to 256MB.
 Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk - USB 3.0 |
 Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk - USB 2.0 |
When tested with ATTO using the USB 3.0 adapter, the GoFlex Desk's read speeds topped out at about 120 MB/s and its write speeds at 100 MB/s.
