Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
SanDisk Professional ’s sturdy , jacketed , weatherized ArmorATD USB unvoiced campaign ships with up to 6 TB of capability and is a dear performing artist for the ilk .
Best Prices Today: G-Drive ArmorATD
international 2.5 - inch arduous ride have been stay at 5 TB of capacity for a issue of years , but WD / SanDisk has just released a good deal of fresh 6 TB campaign , including the impressively ruggedise and weatherized SanDisk Professional G - Drive ArmorATD that ’s the subject of this review .
SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD: Features
The ArmorATD is a bulkier - than - usual , extraneous 5Gbps 2.5 - inch USB hard drive available with up to 6 TB of capacity . In this case , bulk is a salutary affair as it provides way for jolt absorption and compaction electrical resistance ( up to 1,000 pounds/454 kilogram ) . Though we do n’t have the agency to test the ArmorATD with 1,000 quid of force per unit area , the construction of the drive leads us to belive the claim . The drive also carries anIP54 rain / dust rating .
Part of the 5.1 by 3.45 by 1.15 - inch ( 13.30 by 8.76 by 2.92 centimenters ) , 13 - troy ounce ( 0.37 - kilogram ) heftiness of the G - Drive ArmorATD is a silicone polymer jacket that covers the border , corners , and end . This includes a confined silicone plug hatch the USB - C port . WD / SanDisk bundles both USB - C to USB - C and USB - C to USB - A cables so you could use it on any figurer .
The warranty on the G - Drive ArmorATD is three year , circumscribed . “ Limited ” with intemperate drives by and large refer to major physical abuse such as dropping it from the Empire State Building , head for the hills it over with a steam roller ( now generally gas- or Rudolf Diesel - powered ! ) , or broil it in an oven .
The ArmorATD with the weatherizing Type-C port plug extended.
SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD: Price
That the ArmorATD was n’t pricier is surprising , give the special fabric involve for ruggedizing / weatherizing . It ’s only marginally more expensive than the WD My Passport Ultra for Mac and ship in 1 TB , 2 TB , 4 TB , 5 TB , and 6 TB relish .
As typical with hard thrust , the price is better per terabyte when you go with the larger capacity . As of the sentence of this writing , the 6 TB ArmorATD is $ 230/£226 , which is about $ 38/£38 per terabyte . However , the 5 TB model is the current sweet spot for price / capacity in our estimate – it was $ 170/£170 , which is $ 34/£34 per terabyte .
SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD: Performance
Being a 2.5 - inch hard drive , the ArmorATD ’s execution is not going to look sexy compared to SSDs . We did practice hard drive for decades and still managed to get along .
The 110 to 140MBps or so that the ArmorATD reads and writes at is plenty fast enough to swarm medicine and audio frequency ( multiple streams ) , record TV , and back up using Time Machine or some such in the background . Note also that the ArmorATD approach 140MBps under CrystalDiskmark 8 on the PCWorld test bed ’s USB 3.2×2 port–10MBps faster than the WD My Passport Ultra for Mac , or the stirringly named “ My Passport , form with USB - C ” drive . ingredient that into your buying computation .
The Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed trial numbers for the ArmorATD are somewhat good than the My Passport Ultra for Mac , and right on equivalence for an external 2.5 - inch hard drive .
The ArmorATD with the weatherizing Type-C port plug extended.
The G - Drive ArmorATD ’s public presentation under AmorphousDiskMark is about average for an external 2.5 - inch hard parkway .
Should I buy the G-Drive ArmorATD?
I ca n’t cerebrate of an external 2.5 - inch hard crusade that outstrips the SanDisk Professional G - Drive ArmorATD in term of hardness , weather - proofing , features , or performance . It ’s no modest fry , but it ’s a travel beast – in the good possible sense .
See how it compares to otherhard drive for Macin our round - up of the sound .
Macworld: How we test storage devices
Macworld runs Blackmagicdesign ’s Disk Speed Test and AmorphousDiskMark 4 with the drive format to APFS . But we also put driving through sister issue PCWorld ’s shelling of tests as follows :
IDG memory board testing presently utilizes Windows 11 , 64 - bit running on an X790 ( PCIe 4.0/5.0 ) motherboard / i5 - 12400 CPU jazz band with two Kingston Fury 32 GB DDR5 4800MHz module ( 64 GB of memory board total ) . Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are integrated to the back control board and Intel CPU / GPU art are used . The 48 GB transfer test use an ImDisk RAM phonograph record taking up 58 GB of the 64 GB of total memory . The 450 GB file cabinet is transfer from a2 TB Samsung 990 Prowhich also runs the OS .
Each test is performed on a fresh NTFS - formatted and TRIM’d push so the results are optimal . Note that in normal use , as a drive fills up , performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching , as well as other factor . This is less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with their far faster NAND .
These are slightly better numbers than the recently reviewed My Passport Ultra for Mac turned in and right on par for an external 2.5-inch hard drive.
caution : The performance numbers show apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacitance try out . SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer fleck to shotgun read / writes across and the amount of NAND available for subaltern caching . Vendors also now and again trade components . If you ever notice a large variance between the performance you experience and that which we report , by all means , let us know .
This is an average performance for a 2.5-inch external hard drive under AmorphousDiskMark.
