Seagate Expansion 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive STBV3000100
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- Instantly add 3 TB of storage space to your computer
- Simple plug-and-play connectivity via USB cable
- Power supply and USB 3.0 cable included
- USB 3.0 interface for extremely fast data transfer speeds (USB 2.0 compatible)
- Drive is automatically recognized by Windows; no software instillation required
The Seagate Expansion desktop drive provides extra storage for your ever-growing collection of files. Instantly add space for more files, consolidate all of your files to a single location, or free up space on your computer’s internal drive to help improve performance. Setup is straightforward; simply plug in the included power supply and USB cable, and you are ready to go. It is automatically recognized by the Windows operating system, so there is no software to install and nothing to configure. Saving files is easy too—just drag-and-drop. Take advantage of the fast data transfer speeds with the USB 3.0 interface by connecting to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 for additional system compatibility. Software Requirements: Works with Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Mac OSX 10.4.8 or higher. Inside the Box: External desktop hard drive, USB cable, Quick start guide, Power adapter, 1-year limited warranty.
Desktop Hard Drive
Seagate Expansion 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive STBV3000100
List Price: $ 139.99
Price:
Similar to adding an internal drive. Worry about heat. Product info needs to be more than just “It just works”,
The target market of the Seagate Expansion Desktop line seems to be people who want to add a drive, but don’t want to,or cannot, install an additional internal drive, that is, this is a drive they won’t be moving, at least not frequently. For example, a laptop where the extra storage can happily stay behind in the office. Or a small-form-factor PC (mini-PC, HTPC, “nettop”) that doesn’t have space. There are other lines of external drives from Seagate (and others) targeting more transient/mobile uses.
For a range of potential buyers of this drive, the product information provided may be too sketchy. The focus of this review is to fill in some of the missing info, and it is structured to facilitate your skipping details that don’t interest you. Note: At the time of this review, the product information here at Amazon is more than you will find elsewhere, including Seagate’s website (no spec sheets, …).
TRANSFER SPEED:
The drive in the enclosure is the same model used for internal drives in performance desktops (details below).
With USB 3.0, transfers to this drive are slightly faster than the same transfers between the (older) internal SATA drives in my current computer (details below).
The drive has the performance needed to benefit from USB 3.0: In my experiments, USB 3.0 transfers are 60-200% faster than USB 2.0 (details below).
COOLING:
Heat is the enemy and can shorten the lifespan of drives. For a drive that seems intended to be always on, I would have expected cooling to be a significant design feature. The enclosure is passively cooled with holes in the bottom and back. However, this doesn’t seem to be enough to enable real/effective convection cooling (using rising heat to pull cooler air across the radiator). The enclosure is thin plastic (metal would be been a better conductor of heat).
Part of the basic drive is a metal plate that serves as a radiator, and the typical installation positions the drive with the plate on top or to the side to facilitate heat rising off it. Here, the drive is positioned with the metal plate on the bottom to have it close to the vent holes in the enclosure. However, the enclosure’s feet are absurdly thin — the equivalent of 12 sheets of paper thick. Not only does this restrict air flow to the drive through those holes, it also turns the surface that the enclosure sits on into a heat reservoir, further inhibiting cooling. I strongly recommend increasing this gap. For example, I am using the (optional, unused) thick feet that came with another enclosure. And I recommend positioning it where it will benefit from the existing airflow in the room (and avoiding dead spots).
As an experiment, after powering down the drive and allowing it to physically spin down, I flipped the enclosure upside-down — ventilation holes above the drive’s radiator plate — and the temperature dropped quickly (no surprise). Recognize that there aren’t holes on the top of the enclosure for good reason — to protect the drive from spills and to reduce dust reaching it — so you should consider doing this only if you are going to remember to flip it back in a timely fashion.
STATUS LIGHT has poor sightlines:
There is a small blue LED that is lit when the drive is ready to use. There is a slight delay between the drive being powered on and it being spun-up and ready to use. This light is located on the top of the enclosure at the back. I would have much preferred it being on the front of the enclosure — where it is on most similar products — because it would be much less likely to be obscured. I put the disk next to my monitor stand and my sightline to that light is obscured by the monitor.
NOISE:
Caution: I am 60 years old — younger ears will be more sensitive. In the evening in a typical residential setting during large-scale file transfers, I can hear the drive when my ears are about a foot away, but at two feet, I don’t hear it even when I am listening for it. The whir of the drive tends to blend into the fan noise of most computers. The only time I have been aware of the drive has been when using it with my super-quiet computer in very quiet environments, such as after midnight, and even then it was only vague awareness.
SPIN-UP?:
The drive automatically controls power usage (see APM below). User control seems to be solely through the USB connection: The drive powers up when the USB connection is established and powers down when the connection is broken, either by physically disconnecting the cable, by a software “Safely Remove Hardware” operation. There doesn’t seem to be a way to re-connect other than power-cycling or physically “cycling” the USB cable connection (neither of which I find attractive). When the attached computer is powered up/down (including sleep or hibernate), the USB connection is established and broken, so the drive is automatically…
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|Nothing New But The Firmware,
Summary
* Same internal drive as the old version
* Runs just as hot as the old external drive (in my testing)
* APM is now turned off by default – this might be huge, people online have blamed this feature for the grinding noises and premature death of some seagate drives
* Firmware update from CC9D to CC9E (CC9H firmware is available online)
* Looks a little better
* Not worth more than the old version imo
Edit #2: When I used the Serial Number from Crystaldiskinfo to check the warranty (google “Seagate Warranty Checker”) it showed that my drive was under warranty until the end of August 2013. That’s almost 14 months, which still isn’t long, but make sure you check online and do not just assume your warranty is dead after 12 months exact.
I needed another 3tb drive and decided to go out on a limb and spend the extra $10 on this “new version” of the seagate drive.
I will admit that at least the case looks different – its rectangular on the front instead of being rounded off, it has a matte finish instead of the old shiny black look, and the activity light is now blue instead of green. I think it does look marginally better but who buys these things for the looks?
Crystal Disk info tells me that inside lives the exact same drive I found in the “old” model of the seagate 3tb external – a ST3000DM001-9YN166 (in fact some people have pulled even better drives out of the “old” version externals so ymmv)
The firmware on this new drive is version CC9E while the old version did have firmware CC9D.
This case does have small holes drilled on the top of the back panel to act as a “vent” – However
I ran a full stress test on the external and it reached temps of 56*C, a mere 2 degree lowers than the old model I got a few weeks ago, so I do not find that any significant improvement has been made in regards to the heat trap issue of the “old” model.
In conclusion – Nothing has changed on the inside. If you think it looks better than the old one or if you want the new firmware and are too lazy to do it yourself – Only then is it worth a price premium over the old version.
EDIT: APM is now turned off by default, in contrast to the old version of this drive, which could be a huge benefit to some
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|2 TB of space, USB 3 speed,
There is a lot to like about this drive. About 2 terabytes to like actually.
In terms of the drive, the first thing I noticed having had experience with previous Seagate external drives, such as Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive STBU1000100 (Black), is this drive is “massive.” I believe the difference between this drive and the one I linked to above (other than price and drive space) is that the drive inside of this is of the larger desktop hard drive size (3.5″) whereas the other drive is actually one of the smaller laptop drives (2.5″). For me, it doesn’t really matter since I don’t generally travel with external hard drives, but for anyone that does, be aware the size and weight, plus the need for an external power plug, is likely more than you want to carry on an airplane.
The other thing I noticed is what I mentioned above – you can’t power this over USB. This means you have a “wall wart” style power plug for power plus the USB cable for connecting to the computer. If you don’t need to travel, this probably isn’t as big of a deal.
In terms of price, $120 MSRP is quite good for an external hard drive. Just look at the one I linked to above – it’s half the size and about 90% of the price.
Let’s look at performance. On a USB 3 connection, speed is noticeable faster than it is over USB2 connections. If you have a blue USB connection on your computer, use that to access this drive. I haven’t done any true comparison tests, but I’d say it is probably 10-20% faster via USB3. The nice thing is that this drive is backwards compatible with USB2, so if you don’t have USB3, you can still utilize the drive, it’s just not as fast as it could be.
The last part I like to see with external drives is the ability to use other types of connections. If you have a Mac, you may want Firewire. If you have a laptop that still uses USB2, chances are you may have an ESATA connection (which is still slightly faster than USB3).
Overall, the pros outweigh the cons for me. The drive is robust, it works, the price is relatively inexpensive and it’s 2 TB.
Pros:
2 TB of space
Price
Speed
Cons:
Size
Needs external power plug
No ESATA capability
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