In fact, if you're a regular laptop user, this is super handy for extending the pitiful storage you find in most machines. It's USB 3.0 compatible too, so you've got a drive that'll plug into most PCs and laptops. That's way better than you'll find on SSDs and actually beats most internal HDDs if you start comparing them. It hits around 150MB/s during both read and write tests, which is about mid-range for HDDs, but in terms of price you can get this drive for around $130 (£120), or even go up to 10TB if you're feeling particularly storage hungry. While there's no real point in getting a Seagate with less than the maximum capacity, its speeds are quickly eclipsed by other drives, the 8TB version strikes a nice balance between capacity and efficiency.

It's not exactly the best external hard drive you don't get the best speeds when you're transferring files-although they're not too far behind the WD My Passport-what you get is masses of space and a very reliable drive.

If you need to go big when you leave home, Seagate's 8TB Expansion drive is the way to go. Grab one of these and you'll never cower in fear at a Fortnite or CoD: Modern Warfare update again. Whether you're looking to bolster your gaming desktop PC's storage, something a bit sturdier for your laptop, or you simply want a speedy drive for moving files around, you'll find the best options below. We've benchmarked our way through an exhausting pile of external hard drives to find the best options for modern PC gamers.

And anyone looking for a serious chunk of space is going to need to go down the spinning plater route-need 8TB of storage in a portable block? Knock yourself out. They still offer incredible value for money once you go beyond 1TB. Hard drives aren't completely redundant just yet mind. NVMe SSDs are up to 10x faster than HDDs but are more expensive-check out this HDD vs SSD comparison for the key differences between the two. But an external hard drive, one which houses spinning platters rather than just a scattering of solid state memory chips, will still be cheaper, and means that if you're looking for masses of external storage, the higher capacity hard drives may well be what you're looking for.įor smaller drives, up to 1TB, I'd recommend picking up one of the best external SSDs, just for the straight throughput.

Amazon external hard drive for pc