Content producers are churning out data in unprecedented volumes, with high-definition images and 4K/8K video content consuming an enormous amount of storage space. Creators typically need to store several versions of their projects, including the initial raw files, edited versions, and the published format.
Catering to this need, Western Digital has launched a new external SSD, the SanDisk Desk Drive, which comes in 4 and 8TB capacities.
External SSDs can operate at incredibly high speeds compared to their HDD counterparts, which means that content creators can not only store, but also edit their photos and videos directly from the drive itself, decreasing the time spent on transferring files, accelerating work efficiency while ensuring that the data is securely stored.
16TB versions planned
“As digital content creation continues to soar, there is an increasing need for high-performing and high-capacity storage solutions to help manage and preserve it. Expanding our SSD portfolio is the first step in offering creators backup solutions that deliver the speed and flexibility they need to unlock their creativity,” says Susan Park, Vice President, Consumer Solutions, Western Digital.
The SanDisk Desk Drive boasts read speeds up to 1000 MB/s, and fast backup capabilities using Apple Time Machine or the included downloadable Acronis True Image for Western Digital backup software. The device also sports a modern Red Dot award-winning design.
Retailing at $379.99/£359.99 and $699.99/£663.99 for the 4TB and 8TB versions respectively, these devices can be purchased now from the Western Digital Store and other retailers.
Western Digital doesn’t intend to stop at 8TB however. Susan Park says, “By next year, we expect to double the capacity of the SanDisk Desk Drive from 8TB to 16TB on a single desktop SSD.”
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Capacities available: 4TB, 8TB, 16TB Size: 99.2mm x 99.2mm x 40.2mm Weight: 268g Enclosure material: Plastic Connector: USB-C Technology: SSD Warranty (in years): 3-Year Limited Warranty Rated R/W speeds (MB/s): Up to 1000MB/s / 900MB/s Software bundle: Acronis True Image for Western Digital backup software
The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB is small and quiet, unlike traditional boxy and large desktop storage drives that are commonplace in workspaces worldwide. It is altogether smaller and more stylish, with an ultrafast internal 8TB SSD and a promise of a 16TB version to be released later this year.
The drive is, in principle, a straightforward desktop drive for use with a single computer with a USB Type-C connection to ensure speed and an external power source provided through a standard AC socket rather than drawing BUS power from the computer’s USB ports.
In use, the drive is simple enough. It is plug-and-play for most computing systems and arrives formatted in the ExFat file system. This means that it’s easy to swap between Mac and PC systems if required; if not, it can be reformatted into one of the more secure options, such as NTFS or APFS, which will also boost the performance and some computing options for those systems.
This drive will really appeal to laptop users who are often limited on internal space. The Desk Drive not only expands the space for large-scale 3D, image, and video projects but also offers transfer speeds through the USB Type-C connection so that it can be used as a working drive as well as for archiving files.
Like any of the best portable SSDs we’ve tested, once connected, the drive will appear as any other external drive. It can be used for file backup with Time Machine on the Mac or Acronis True Image on the PC. Alternatively, it can be used as a straight storage drive with an off-site solution. The beauty here is that the transfer rates are at a speed that the drive and capacity are not only sufficient for archiving your files but also as a viable working drive for large file types such as video, image, and 3D.
As large-capacity storage solutions go, the SanDisk Desk Drive perfectly balances speed, capacity, and price, making it ideal for any home or small office as a fast, reliable storage solution.
SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Price & availability
(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)
The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB has a SRP £663.99 / $699.99, and the smaller 4TB version is available for SRP £359.99 / $379.99. Later in the year, a 16TB version will also be available, although the price is still to be confirmed. The drive is widely available and can be purchased directly from Western Digital
SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Design & build
(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)
The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB is considerably smaller than most desktop hard drives, which makes it easy to place on the desk or neatly under the monitor. The actual design is simple, and with the slightly concaved top rather than flat, it seems perfectly formed for small office items such as paperclips and coins!
The size and shape also make it easy to pick up and move, and at 268g, it has just enough weight to act as a convenient paperweight when not in use. That weight also helps with positioning it around the desk, meaning that while lightweight, it’s not lightweight enough to be easily knocked from position.
Connection-wise, the drive features a single USB Type-C connection directly into the machine and an AC power socket that fits directly into a standard AC wall socket in the same way as any traditional desktop drive. These two cables keep things relatively neat at the back with no mess of extra cables. Unlike some larger drives, there are no additional USB ports for linking, pass-through, or hub features; this is simply a direct external drive for use by an individual at their desk.
Once the drive is in position and connected to power and the desktop, it quickly appears on the Mac desktop or can be accessed through Windows, depending on your system of choice. The drive comes preformatted in the ExFat file system for maximum compatibility but can be reformatted quickly to suit your preferred system. If you use both, you can stick with ExFat.
Once done, the drive can be used as with any other desktop drive or linked into a backup solution such as Time Machine on the Mac or with Acronis True Image for Western Digital backup software, which can be downloaded from the Western Digital website.
SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Features
(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)
The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB offers plenty of storage capacity, with the 8TB version that we’re looking at in this review being suitable for most medium-sized usage individuals who might shoot images and video as part of their workload and need the speed to access those files quickly as well as archive them with the ability to gain access to them at speed without the need to dig through a server. The 4TB version, although smaller, is still a substantial capacity and would be better suited to those working with documents and the occasional use of image and video files. The larger 16TB version would be ideal for videographers in small businesses who just need plenty of storage to back up their projects after an edit or need the additional capacity for working projects.
One of the features that really makes the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB stand out is the fast transfer speeds, with read speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 900 MB/s, making it significantly faster than traditional desktop hard disk drives and many of the other solutions offered by Western Digital at present.
For many users, the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB will also make a perfect solution for backing up all their work through applications such as Apple Time Machine or the downloadable Acronis True Image for Western Digital software. Both of these applications can be used to back up your desktop machine to the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB to ensure that you always have two local copies of your files. Of course, it’s always good practice, especially in a business environment, to have another backup of your files either to a NAS or off-site cloud solution.
One of the most appealing aspects of the Desk Drive is its small size, which makes it far easier to position than many of the more traditional desktop hard drives. The fact that it also utilizes its own power supply means that its performance is more consistent than that of portable external hard drives.
Out of the box, the SanDisk Desk Drive comes in the exFAT file format, which is compatible with both Windows and macOS systems. It uses a USB Type-C connection for connectivity.
Finally, the drive comes with a three-year limited warranty to ensure that your investment is sound for at least a few years.
When it came to testing the drive, the advertised transfer speeds offered a few more options than more traditional HDD desktop drives. So, alongside the speed tests, the drive was used as a working drive for some of the best video editing software and best photo editors available to see if it could facilitate the delivery of large files and complex computing.
Starting with using the drive on a PC with Adobe Photoshop and copying 1TB of image files from an OWC CFExpress Type-B card, the transfer rate was impressive. Files crossed over through the Atlas CFexpress 4.0 Type B reader in a little under two minutes.
In use, the drive worked perfectly for photography, with the speed of downloading the image files from a CFExpress Type-B card to the storage helping to speed up the workflow. A full selection of files from a day’s shoot, some 1200 files, both JPEG and RAW, could be downloaded in a little under two minutes. When opening Adobe Bridge to browse the files, the application and drive worked fast enough for the thumbnails to generate and display in good time; likewise, opening and saving files was seamless without pause or delay.
Switching to the more intensive video workflow and again using 4K video captured on the Canon EOS R5 C, the drive fed the files to Final Cut Pro at a rate that enabled smooth video editing without dropped frames. The machine (MacBook Pro 16-inch M1) started to struggle with projects greater than 10 minutes in length rather than any issue with the speed of the content delivery from the drive.
To back up the real-world tests, where the small drive performed well, the benchmark tests also showed impressive results across the board, with the overall transfer rates exceeding those stated by Western Digital.
When it comes to other features, the SanDisk Desk Drive is somewhat limited – you have access to all the backup features offered by the Acronis True Image software, and this is simple to use. On the drive are installed link files for both Mac and PC, and although these are executable files, they simply take you to the download page on the Western Digital website. Once there, you scroll down to the download link for the Mac or PC version – it’s simple enough, but the downloads page is generic for all of their products, so not all software on this page is appropriate for this drive, which is worth noting.
While Acronis is a great piece of software, and the implementation here is excellent, enabling you to set source and destination locations for your files, this software really is about the backup of files rather than management. When it comes to security the software does enable you to do a clean wipe of the drive, however, if you’re storing sensitive data on the drive there is no default facility to do this other than using a third party software option. For a drive of this type, some type of integral security would have been nice to see.
Likewise, simplicity makes this drive easy to use. As a desktop drive, it will probably be plugged either directly into a hub or the machine it’s being used by. It would have been nice to see an additional USB Type-C port so other accessories or card readers could be daisy-chained into the drive.
However, the pure simplicity of the design and ease of use is what should make this drive so appealing to anyone running a small or home office looking for decent amounts of storage capacity.
Should you buy the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB?
The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB is best suited for professionals in creative industries who handle large media files regularly and require quick, reliable access. It’s also a great choice for those needing a robust backup solution for important data, combining speed with large capacity in a user-friendly format. This drive excels in environments where speed and capacity are critical, making it ideal for photographers, videographers, and digital artists.
If you love downloading loads of titles from Xbox Game Pass, then investing in a spacious external hard disk drive (HDD) can be the perfect way to dramatically increase your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S storage capacity without breaking the bank.
Available for just $161.52 at Amazon (was $219.99), the Seagate Game Drive Hub for Xbox offers 8TB of plug-and-play storage in an attractive Xbox-inspired shell complete with LED lighting. With a saving of just over $58, this is the lowest-ever price that we have ever seen on this configuration that smashes the previous record of $174.99 back in April last year.
Not in the US? Scroll down for the best deals in your region, while you can also find more deals in our full Amazon Spring Sale hub.
Today’s best external HDD deal for Xbox
A cheaper alternative to an official Xbox Storage Expansion Card, external HDDs offer fantastic value – but there’s a catch. While you can play any backwards compatible titles freely, any current-generation games must be copied over to the internal storage in order to be played.
While this might be a deal-breaker for some, transferring a game is a speedy process and could be the perfect solution if you want to dip into Xbox Game Pass titles while avoiding time-consuming downloads or completely filling up your internal drive.
Few Xbox storage solutions offer quite as much value as this mammoth external HDD. With 2TB of storage space, this HDD could hold more than 75 separate installations of Forza Horizon 5 at the same time. While you will need to copy some of the latest games to your internal storage in order to play them, this is still a great way to keep an expansive library saved locally. For more on using on external HDD with Xbox, read our detailed comparison of the Xbox expansion card vs external hard drive to see which option would be best for you.
If you’re currently outside of the US, be sure to check out some of the best Seagate Game Drive Hub for Xbox 8TB prices in your region as found by our dedicated deal-finding robots below:
Scroll down for more Amazon Spring sale deals in the US and UK.
Samsung has unveiled its latest innovation, the T5 EVO portable Solid-State Drive (SSD). This new product represents a significant leap forward in SSD technology, offering a remarkable storage capacity of up to 8 terabytes (TB), the largest currently available in the market. With its high capacity, fast data transfer speeds, compact and durable design, the T5 EVO is not just about large storage capacity. It is designed to be a substitute for traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), providing speed, durability, and a compact design that make it ideal for a variety of applications.
The portable SSD uses USB 3.2 Gen 1, enabling it to transfer data up to 3.8 times faster than external HDDs. This translates to sequential read and write speeds of up to 460 megabytes per second (MB/s), a feature that is sure to appeal to users who require fast, efficient data transfer.
The T5 EVO’s design is ergonomic and user-friendly measuring 95 mm in width, 40 mm in length, and 17 mm in thickness, and weighing just 102 grams. It has a black body and a metal ring design makes it easily attachable to a bag or luggage for enhanced portability. The device also boasts a metal body and rubberized surface, providing protection against external shocks and ensuring the durability that users have come to expect from Samsung products.
SSD T5 EVO
The T5 EVO’s large storage capacity is one of its standout features. With the ability to store up to 8 TB of data, it can accommodate large files, high-resolution videos, photos, and games. This makes it an excellent choice for professionals who need to store and transport large amounts of data, as well as for consumers who want to keep their digital memories and entertainment files safe and accessible.
Safety is a key consideration for Samsung, and the T5 EVO is no exception. The device features thermal guard technology to protect against overheating, ensuring that your data is safe even under heavy use. In addition, it supports Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit hardware data encryption, providing an extra layer of security for your precious data.
Portable SSD drive
The T5 EVO is not just a high-capacity, high-speed SSD. It is also designed to be compatible with various operating systems and devices. Whether you’re using macOS, Windows, smartphones/tablets, or gaming consoles, the T5 EVO is designed to work seamlessly with your device. It also features Samsung Magician software for easy drive management, making it a versatile tool for all your storage needs.
The T5 EVO is available in 2 TB, 4 TB, and 8 TB sizes, with prices ranging from $189.99 to $649.99. It comes with a three-year limited warranty, providing users with peace of mind about their investment. With its large storage capacity, fast data transfer speeds, compact and durable design, and extensive compatibility, the T5 EVO is a testament to Samsung’s commitment to innovation and user-friendly design. Whether you’re a professional needing to store large amounts of data or a consumer looking for a reliable and portable storage solution, the T5 EVO is a worthy contender.
Source : Samsung
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