Review: Seagate Goes Supersonic With Its Gotta-Have-It 500GB FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac
One of the great things that comes with Apple steadily biting off and swallowing little mouthfuls of the PC market is that we get our very own gadgets. Like the regular stuff, but better — Apple-ized for our computing pleasure. Take the The FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac: a portable hard drive that looks as though it was designed by Apple’s own Jonny Ive.
Full review after the jump.
Rating:
Company: Seagate
Model: FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac
List Price: $179.99
Compatible: Most Mac computers; USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800
Buy Now: The FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac is available from Amazon for $148.99 with free shipping.
Seagate’s FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac is just about the most Apple-looking gadget I’ve ever used that doesn’t actually come from One Infinite Loop. Seagate covered all the bases with the drive’s styling by combining the ivory of the Macbook with the silver of Apple’s newer laptops. Actually, it fits perfectly with any Mac. Even the power indicator is a pulsing white light — sound familiar?
The FreeAgent, ready for work in its solid FireWire 800 dock.
The FreeAgent Go Pro is fast. Portable laptop drives like the ‘Go that run at 7200 rpm are still somewhat uncommon, but the speed boost makes them well worth bagging. I ran two tests comparing the FreeAgent to my USB 2.0-equipped Western Digital Passport running at 5400 rpm.
In the first test, I transferred my 2.2 GB copy of “Pirates of The Caribbean” (because more pirates=more fun) from my Macbook to each drive; the pirates docked a merciless 20 percent earlier at the FreeAgent (via FireWire 400) over their arrival at the Western Digital Passport. The second test, duplicating the movie on each drive to test read/write speeds, suggested about a 10 percent advantage in the FreeAgent’s speed over the Passport.
Couple the drive’s raw speed with its FireWire 800 port and the result is a powerful piece of kit for tasks like photo editing or anything that requires constant drive access.
The wee hole on the far left is for the auxiliary power cable, which spins the drive's power-hungry 7200 rpm spindle when used with underpowered USB ports, like those on a Macbook.
The drive’s interior seems to match its well-designed exterior: it runs fairly quietly, and doesn’t seem to get as hot as some other 7200 rpm drives do.
The one real downside is the hassle of having to use an auxiliary power cable in some instances when using the USB port, like on a Macbook — not only clogging up two USB ports for one peripheral, but adding the hassle of carrying around another cable.
A lightly padded, faux-leather case keeps spills and other nastiness off the drive when not in use
Bundled with the FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac is a FireWire 800 dock (that feels more solid than than Seagate’s DockStar), a chic, faux-leather case and more cables than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Bottom Line: Stylish, supercharged drive that’s practically a must-add to the power-user’s quiver.
Blister packs suck the joy out of life. I spent way more time than I'm going to admit trying to bust the FreeAgent Go out of its plastic Supermax prison.
In the box: drive, case, FireWire 800 dock, and more cables than the Golden Gate Bridge: FireWire 800, FireWire 800 to 400, USB, USB auxiliary power cable.
When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path — which explains why he's Cult of Mac's test editor-at-large. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of 
