But this drive is still claimed to be good for 1GB/s data transfers in both directions. In this case, it’s a 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface rather than a 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connection.

It starts with that NVMe SSD, bridged to a USB interface. The Adata SE800 Ultra FAST 1TB really does have quite a bit going for it. IP rating for increased robustness including waterproofing? Check. Just as a word of warning, though: this does require external power and comes with its own power unit, so it's slightly less portable than other drives. 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, or find some more space for your gaming laptop, you'll find the best external HDDs below. We've benchmarked our way through an ridiculous number of external hard drives to find the best options for you. For a serious chunk of storage space, it'll be best to go the spinning plater route-need 8TB of portable storage? Knock yourself out. Beyond 1TB, an HDD isn't completely redundant. NVMe SSDs that go inside your PC are up to 10x faster than HDDs, but are more expensive-check out our HDD vs SSD comparison for the key differences. If you need less space and more speed, I'd recommend picking up one of the best external SSDs, just for the straight throughput of smaller drives (up to 1TB).

But when we say best, it's really the speed we're talking about as gamers. So if you're looking for masses of external storage, the higher capacity hard drives may well be what you're looking for.

An external hard drive with spinning platters (rather than the solid state memory chips in SSDs), will still be cheaper.

2tb external hard drive 2.5