With read speeds that routinely top 200MB/s and a generous 8TB worth of capacity, the Seagate Desktop Expansion does indeed check a lot of the right boxes… especially when the reasonable asking price is taken into account. Simply put if you need a lot of storage, but don’t really care if it is all that portable Seagate Desktop Expansion 8TB does require a long hard look. No matter if you do decide its is right for you or not it is worth your time investigating.
With that said there are a few issues that will not make it perfect for everyone. Firstly, is the aesthetics. Unlike the refreshed Backup Portable variants, the Seagate Desktop Expansion series still relies on way too much plastic. Plastic that may have a ‘diamond tread’ pattern molded into it, but at the end of the day it is plastic. As such it is ‘good enough’ looking that it will not stick out like a sore thumb, but those looking for a drive that offers capacity, performance, drop dead good looks may want to look more towards the higher priced LaCie options Seagate offers.
To be honest, we consider the aesthetic issue to be more of a secondary symptom than a major issue. The real issue is plastic is not a great conductor of heat and this is why Seagate has opted for their 5900RPM Seagate Archive HDD v2 instead of a more high-performance drive. This is unfortunate as it does noticeably reduce write performance and random file performance. This too is another good reason to think about upping your budget and looking more towards performance orientated models. This drive is fairly fast, but most will find it merely ‘good enough’.
Lastly, and a deal breaker for some, is the lack of a on/off power button. These devices really are meant to live most of their lives plugged into a free USB 3 port but only occasionally accessed. By not including a dedicated power button this does significantly reduce the utility of this latest version of the venerable Desktop series. Thankfully a cheap ‘Amazon special’ $5 power bar with a on/off button does take a lot of sting out of this critical oversight.
In summary, as long as you are not looking for a center piece / modern work of art looking external storage device but do need good performance, and great capacity, the Seagate Expansion 8TB model is a very good value. Yes, you will be making comprises in performance and ‘out of the box’ usefulness, but in return will get a pretty darn good external storage solution at a very reasonable asking price. So as long as your wants/needs/desires align with what this external storage solution has to offer it will not disappoint.
The Review
Seagate Desktop Expansion 8TB
For some the great capacity combined with good to excellent performance is going to be winning combination. For others the short warranty, lack of on/off switch, and over-reliance on plastic will be this drives downfall. Either way, Seagate Desktop Expansion 8TB does deserve serious consideration as its asking price is awfully tempting.
