Verbatim Quad-Interface 1 TB

Verbatim's Quad-Interface 1 TB external hard drive is a top-of-the-range offering which has just about every port currently available: USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and 800 and eSATA.  All that's missing is USB 3.0.
 

Specification

The whole thing comes in a top-quality metal enclosure, which either lays flat on your desk or stands upright in the cradle that's supplied.  Its great looks make a very good first impression and it feels very solid.  There's attention to detail, too: the eSATA cable measures 1.4 m, which is long enough to reach ports a long way away.  Not many hard drives include cables this long.

On the inside, there's a Samsung HD103SI disk from the F2 EG series with a capacity of 1 TB.  That's the only size currently available for the Quad-Interface, and it's a shame there isn't yet a 2 TB version, which costs the drive an extra star in this ear.  It has 32 MB of cache and a maximum rotation of 5400 rpm, which doesn't seem much compared to 7200 rpm drives, but it's quiet, doesn't get hot and doesn't use much energy.  And, as we'll see, the performance isn't particularly adversely affected by this choice.

Performance

Note: the figures below were obtained using eSATA.  We don't recommend this disk for use with a USB 2.0 connection, as this limits it at speeds of around 30 MB/s.

Copying large files produced excellent results, easily beating 100 MB/s for both reading and writing files.  Smaller files went less well, but that's less important here because this test is more relevant with the internal hard drive containing your OS than on an external hard drive like this.
 

Performance measured using CrystalDiskMark

The access times are just about average at 15.5 ms and 4 ms respectively for reading and writing.
 

Access times measured using AS SSD

For information, here are the scores for different applications:
 

These tests simulate some processes that you aren't likely to use on an external hard drive, so that's why they don't weigh as heavily in our final score.

Overall, the performance is excellent if you need to store large volumes of data, but this hard drive won't be flexible enough to store, for instance, large programs that you run regularly.  It's entirely possible, of course, but won't be as impressive as on a decent internal hard drive.

Portability

Portability has never been a strong point for 3.5'' external hard drives, and the Quad-Interface is no exception to the rule.  Its size, and most of all, its weight of 1.5 kg, don't make it easy to carry around.  It's worth pointing out though that the power adaptor is included in the main unit, which makes it heavier but easier to transport.  It's always better to have one fewer transformer lying around on the floor under your desk, too.