# Seagate GoFlex Slim 320GB USB 3.0 External Storage Review



## The Sorcerer (Jul 3, 2011)

..And so "they" say: Slim is in!

Seagate India sent a GoFlex Slim drive for evaluation. They had a press launch few weeks ago so you can check up on that.

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1059.jpg​9mm Thickness (7mm is the thickness of the drive) ultra thin anodized aluminum casing, USB 3.0, 7200RPM Drive. Let's see how she does.

*Packaging, Specs and First Impression*

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1060.jpg


*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1041.jpg*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1047.jpg

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1061.jpg​The box is made so that people can "wow" at its presence. Seagate did put up the actual size comparison and all the necessary information. Seagate also emphasizes that this drive has cross compatibility with PC and MAC systems. The drive comes with 3 year's warranty.

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1048.jpg​
Nothing much to say here: A short USB 3.0 to mini USB 3 cable, the GoFlex Slim 320gig drive and the usual Warranty/User manual.

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/IMG_1073.jpg​The entire drive is a nicely finished aluminum casing with slimmer-than-usual GoFlex SATA converter.

Moving on...

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/slimspec.jpg​Judging by Physical specs and the RPM, its obvious that its a single platter than with bit thinner-than-usual Areal Density (for a notebook drive). Seagate's specs says that its a premium version of Automatic backup software- for both PC and Mac. The backup software is more like an automatic media backup software rather than the primary drive backup software like the now defunct Seagate Replica backup software.

The drive uses a single platter notebook harddrive Seagate Momentus Thin:

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/cdi.jpg​The hard drive comes with a usable space of 298GB with 16MB cache and SATA 2 7200 RPM drive slapped in with a USB 3.0 interface.

The specification of the Hard Drive is as follows:

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/GoFlex%20Slim/advsp.jpg​
*Software Impressions*
Seagate comes with preformatted NTFS format with cross compatibility with PC and MAC. This is possible only with Mac Installer software within the drive that is basically an NTFS driver. This drives comes with Seagate Dashboard viz. powered by Memeo software. The dashboard is a backup+ encryption utility. These utilities consume about 230MB space so many wouldn't bother deleting it under they *really* need that extra space.

Setup Screenshots:

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/seagatedashboard.jpg

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/1.jpg*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/2.jpg​
Seagate Dashboard Screenshots:

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/3-1.jpg


*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/4-1.jpg​Something that replica lacked: Interface.

Moving on towards drive settings:

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/drv1.jpg*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/drv2.jpg*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/drv3.jpg*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/drv4.jpg*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/drv5.jpg​&nbsp;Seagate so far making an impression that they wanted drive settings to have what its meant to have. Test Drive is a nice touch.

I started with the Instant Backup utility:

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/mem1.jpg


*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/7.jpg

*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/advoptions.jpg​You can't backup Program files and Windows even if you wanted to. One can always dump the data on the drive via Windows explorer.

Its not really a wasted feature as there are people who give way more importance to videos, music and photos compared to their operating systems.

Moving on to Benchmarks

*Benchmarks*
*i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k500/HardwareBBQ/autobackup/TEST.jpg​I would like to thank Gigabyte, Kingston and Western Digital for providing the hardware for our standard test system.


> *Note:* Since the dashboard comes with power saving features, Dashboard was not installed during the time of testing. USB 3.0 is tested via USB 3.0 ports powered by NEC D720200F1 chip with driver version 2.1.16.0.




1.27GB Compressed Data Test
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=132&zx=q3zyi2xxqhyz​...
1.34GB Assorted Photos transfer Test
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=130&zx=sp87jgx4h0uk​...
11.34GB ISO Transfer Test
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=131&zx=v8r87lj028wa​...
You can see the difference clearly. ISO and Compressed DATA are basically compressed in .ISO and .zip format. It takes longer compared on the assorted photo transfer test that is not compressed in any way compared to benchmarks done via Seagate GoFlex USB 3.0 Upgrade kit I reviewed earlier.

Difference between USB 2.0 and 3.0 is obvious and shows clearly. USB 3.0 should have entered the market a long time ago. 
...
AS SSD Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=123&zx=ma62knmhk3l3

*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=120&zx=ez8t68tlhkst​
...
CrystalDisk Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=119&zx=3k82yaq79so7

*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=122&zx=pkc0cwgy53hf​...
ATTO Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=121&zx=4eercx8zmwpp

*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=127&zx=hm2dbgnuu51f​...
HD Tune Benchmark
*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=129&zx=kxo1jv5n2oph

*spreadsheets.google.com/a/hardwarebbq.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApTeq9VLJF0pdGVTeENWV1I1dlV6STNiWkphMTRybmc&oid=126&zx=i587cwykelms​
*Conclusion*
And the price is Rs. 4,500/- MRP/

Here's the thing. You're getting a 1TB GoFlex USB 3.0 for $94.99 (including free shipping) on amazon U.S.- why would you pay so much for a 320gig when you are getting so much space for approx $10 more? 

In India? Judging purely by the current pricing, You're getting a GoFlex 500GB USB 3.0 for Rs. 3,150 and WD 1TB version costs Rs. 4,000. By the way, Seagate also sent a 22mm thick GoFlex 1.5TB drive. Both drives come with 3 years warranty.

The freedom of not using an AC adapter for higher capacity external drives is a godsend for a lot of users who rely on external drive for mass storage. Slim is way too expensive for the space it offers. I am sure Seagate can bring up a 500GB version of 7mm drive. If I can recall, Hitachi has a 7mm 500gig notebook drive as well. My eyes are not used to a mechanical drive being THAT small, but 320gigs is a very VERY small number for a very high price, even considering it with Seagate's Dashboard software.


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## mukherjee (Jul 3, 2011)

Wow...a nice review.....and even nicer insights on the concluding lines.....Wish that a 2gig usb3.0(slim/non slim) arrives soon within 5k!


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## tkin (Jul 3, 2011)

Nice review, price is not justified at all, WD 500GB USB 3.0 drive can be bought for less than 3k now, and those are pretty small(not thin as this though), instead of launching these stuff Seagate should launch normal go flex USB 3.0 drives here.


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## Tenida (Jul 3, 2011)

Great review  
If Goflex 3.0 adapter will be available  in India at reasonable price it will be great


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