Number one hard drive manufacturer and SanDisk pursuer, Seagate has now revealed its fall 2008 FreeAgent offer. Targeting both PCs and Macs, the new external hard drives are set to offer from 250GB to 1.5TB in storage space and do it while looking reasonably hot.
The smallest of the drives unveiled today are part of the FreeAgent Go family of portable HDDs which measure just 29.50 (H) x 84.85 (W) x 61.04 (L) mm and feature USB 2.0 connectivity. The drives work at 5400 RPM (rotations per minute) and are available in four colors themes - black, silver, blue and red. The 250, 320 and 500GB FreeAgent Go drives are priced at $119.99, $149.99 and $239.99 respectively and they can all be paired up with a docking station which costs 30 bucks.
Moving into Mac territory, the 220 grams FreeAgent Go for Mac and the 1kg FreeAgent Desk for Mac both offer USB 2.0 plus FireWire 400/800 connectivity and have their platters spinning at 7200 RPM. The Time Machine-ready 250 and 320GB FreeAgent Go HDDs cost $159.99 and $189.99 respetively while their bigger brothers, the 500GB, 1 and 1.5TB FreeAgent Desk for Mac models have price tags of $169.99, $269.99 and $349.99 respectively.
Last but not least, Seagate has also introduced the 7200 RPM FreeAgent Desk and FreeAgent XTreme 3.5-inch external drives. Coming with only USB 2.0 ports, the 500, 640GB, 1TB and 1.5TB FreeAgent Desk go for $129.99, $149.99, $229.99 and $279.99 respectively. As for the FreeAgent XTreme drives, these have USB, FireWire 400 and eSATA connectivity and they are priced at $159.99, $179.99, $259.99 and $299.99 (same capacities as above). Before you go please note that while most of the new FreeAgent drives are already shipping, the 1.5TB models won't be available until next month.
Seagate FreeAgent XTreme Hard Drives 7200RPM
That there is the grandpappy of those leaked Seagate hard drives, the 3.5-inch, 7200RPM, 1.5TB FreeAgent XTreme. It connects via USB 2.0, FireWire 400 or eSATA, the latter of which transfers files at a blazing 3GB/second. Available in October, the $300 LED-filled drive comes in three more sizes starting at $160 for 500GB. Seagate launched a whole slew of other HDDs too, including 5400RPMers, 2.5" slim drives in four colors and two Mac-ready drives that'll save you the inconvenience of running Disk Utility for $40-$70 more than their PC-counterparts. Catch them more in press release down below.
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — September 15, 2008 — Seagate (NYSE: STX), the world leader in storage solutions, today announced the Fall 2008 lineup of the company's award-winning FreeAgent™ external hard drives. This new generation of the Seagate® FreeAgent™ family includes attractive desktop and mobileoptions, for both Mac® and Windows® operated PCs that make it a breeze to back up, share and protect valuable digital content like photos, videos and music.
Seagate's flagship offering, the FreeAgent Go portable storage solution, is the slimmest external drive available today. At a height of only 12.5mm, the new FreeAgent Go easily fits in a pocket while still including all the advanced shock and vibration protection people have come to expect from Seagate. Another industry first, the new FreeAgent Go is the first external hard drive to offer a docking option, providing a practical way to move from the desk to the road, while leaving the hassle of fumbling with cables and locating USB ports to the history books. With up to 500GB of capacity, the FreeAgent Go bridges the gap between standard portable solutions and desktop solutions with enough storage to carry entire libraries of movies, pictures and music. No longer does one need to sacrifice capacity for portability, Seagate FreeAgent Go provides the benefits and convenience of both in a truly seamless on-the-go package.
"With the amount of content being created and consumed today, the average broadband household will soon need close to a terabyte of storage to account for their personal media collections on PCs, portable devices, and DVRs," said Jane Shields, research analyst, Parks Associates. "With Seagate's coupling of high-capacity, reliable and easy-to-use solutions with attractive designs, the company is helping more people enjoy the benefits that come with backup and sharing of their digital media collections."
"The growth of the 2.5-inch form factor external hard disk drivemarket has been very strong – almost doubling in 2Q08 compared with 2Q07," said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director, Removable Storage at IDC. "This growth is much higher than the overall market and driven by the products' convenient size and connectivity, as well as their large storage capacity and affordability."
