CalDigit AV Pro 2 Review - Review 2022

With a minimum of 3TB of storage, the clangorous CalDigit AV Pro two ($249) is plenty to satisfy the storage needs of pretty much anyone. On a budget? This external hard drive costs 8 cents per gigabyte for the 3TB model we tested—pretty depression, although certainly not the lowest nosotros've seen. Just bought a new Thunderbolt iii-equipped laptop? The AV Pro 2 supports it. Want a ataxia-gratis desk-bound? You'll appreciate the built-in USB hub. In fact, there are really just two categories of users for whom the AV Pro 2 isn't a good fit: power users with tons of games or 4K video footage who demand more than a few terabytes of infinite, and those who don't heed paying extra for the much greater speeds of a solid-land drive (SSD).

Big and Heavy

CalDigit might not exist as well-known as storage giants like Western Digital or Seagate, but the Southern California-based visitor has long catered to media professionals who use Macs and accept enervating storage needs. Given that clientele, the AV Pro 2 is formatted at the factory for the Mac OS Extended file organisation. While y'all can partition or reformat it yourself for use with Windows, it's clear that this is intended to be a Mac-specific drive. Its Apple tree-friendliness is even more apparent when you lot showtime unbox it. At 4.37 pounds and five.8 past 1.viii past ix.five inches (HWD), the enclosure is big and heavy, but it sports a brushed-metal, industrial chic design that won't look out of identify next to a MacBook Pro ( at Amazon) . That's a good affair, because the included Thunderbolt iii cablevision is a piffling more than 1 foot long, which ways you'll need to go along this drive front and center on your desk unless you shell out $30 or more than for a longer string so you can install the drive somewhere out of sight.

The fantabulous Western Digital My Book ($159.99 at All-time Buy) is roughly the same dimensions as the AV Pro ii (6.7 past one.9 by 5.5 inches), merely it'south significantly lighter at simply two.02 pounds. Both of these spinning drives dwarf newer external SSDs, of course, which can seem microscopic in comparing. The Editors' Option Samsung Portable SSD T5, for instance, is just 0.four by 2.3 by three.0 inches and weighs 1.8 ounces.

CalDigit AVPro2 2

The front of the enclosure features a combination power button/status calorie-free and admission to the drive bay. Insert an included minor blackness key into a slot below the access door to release the locking mechanism, which doubles as a handle that lets you pull the bulldoze out of the enclosure with no additional tools required. For those who program to swap out drives, CalDigit sells boosted drives in packages that include the sled and a storage box made out of orange plastic.

In improver to the atomic Thunderbolt 3 cable, the AV Pro 2 comes with a conventional USB cable, which you'll need if you lot're connecting it to older Macs. That gives it a leg up on the Seagate Innov8, which is USB-C merely. Meanwhile, if you lot're using the bulldoze with the MacBook, which has an I/O complement of just a single USB-C port, you'll appreciate the two USB three.0 Type-A ports for connecting boosted peripherals. Unlike higher-end drives such as the Akitio Thunder3 SSD, yet, at that place's no USB-C or DisplayPort laissez passer-though, and so you can't daisy-chain Thunderbolt 3 peripherals or external displays. Finally, the AV Pro ii requires its own power adapter, different the jitney-powered Seagate Innov8. That's both a approval and a expletive: On i hand, yous can utilize the bulldoze to accuse compatible USB-C laptops, including the MacBook and MacBook Pro. On the other hand, you'll demand to notice a spare AC outlet and a place to hide the unsightly black ability brick.

There'south a Kensington lock slot built into the back of the enclosure, but it's really more of a visual deterrent than useful protection confronting information theft, since anyone with a pin tin release the drive locking mechanism.

Our review unit comes with a 3TB 7,200RPM Toshiba-branded hard bulldoze pre-installed, but you can select from among several other hard disk and SSD sizes. CalDigit offers 4TB, 5TB, or 6TB spinning drives, as well as 1TB or 2TB SSDs. Prices climb quickly, however: The base 3TB model retails for $249, while the 2TB SSD model volition set up you back $849. All models come with a standard one-year warranty, although like many drive manufacturers, CalDigit does not offer information-recovery services.

Quick, for a Spinning Bulldoze

Many desktop hard drives spin at 5,400RPM, so the AV Pro 2 offers a bit more than speed thank you to its 7,200RPM drive. CalDigit advertises throughput of 200MBps regardless of whether you lot're using the Thunderbolt three or USB interfaces. That's nearly what we found when we connected the drive to our MacBook Pro testbed using the Thunderbolt three cable. The write speed using the Blackmagic disk testing software was 196MBps, with the read speed clocking in at 190MBps. That's just a hair faster than the Innov8, and significantly better than other spinning external drives like the Transcend Storejet 300 for Mac ( at Amazon) and the CalDigit Tuff, both of which recorded read/write speeds effectually 130MBps.

CalDigit AVPro2 3

Next, we performed a file-transfer test using a i.2GB folder. The AV Pro ii completed the transfer in 7 seconds, the same time as the Western Digital My Book, but significantly slower than the Innov8 (two seconds). Finally, we connected the AV Pro 2 to a Windows 10 figurer and subjected it to the PCMark7 secondary storage test, a proprietary benchmark that simulates reading and writing several different types of files to and from the drive. It achieved a score of 2,306, first-class for an external spinning drive. In comparison, the Innov8 ($349.99 at Tiger Direct) recorded two,115 points, while the My Volume earned a score of 2,000. Smaller portable drives were much slower on the PCMark test; the Toshiba Canvio Connect ($99.99 at Amazon) scored one,450.

The surface of the enclosure became warm to the touch on during testing, although racket from the cooling fan (with a small rear exhaust outlet) was ephemeral.

Sweetness Spot

Mac users looking for a roomy external drive volition want to seriously consider the CalDigit AVPro two for its Apple-friendly format and design, but besides because it hits the sweet spot of price and performance. Sure, there are cheaper external drives out in that location, including our Editors' Option 8TB My Volume, with its $249 list cost that translates to just iii cents per gigabyte. But most of these drives tin can't match the AV Pro 2'southward read/write speeds, which push 200MBps, nor its benchmark scores.

If you've got a fatter wallet and don't need iii or four terabytes of space, though, you'll want to consider an SSD instead. CalDigit offers its AV Pro 2 in SSD configurations if y'all appreciate the industrial chichi pattern and desire the advantage of a built-in USB hub, merely these configurations are very expensive—pushing $900. In that price range, you'd do well to consider extravagantly fast drives like the Akitio Thunder3 ( at Amazon) (which is Windows-just), or take advantage of the much smaller course gene of drives like the Samsung Portable SSD T5, our top pick for portable SSDs.

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