INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Whether it's CPUs, graphics cards, hard disk drives, solid state drives, mainboards, peripherals, consoles, media players, LCD screens and pretty much everything in the electronics industry there's one constant that applies to all regardless. When the newest models get released prices of the previous generation ones (and the ones before) take a serious hit. Because of that although currently we even have 8TB external 3.5" Desktop HDDs in the market (even higher capacity models in RAID) what are really popular amongst most consumers are the previous generation 4/5TB models which have become very affordable after having their prices cut more than just once. Toshiba released their latest Canvio Desk line of Desktop USB 3.0 hard drives a while back and again although the top of the line model features 6TB of available capacity today we're taking a look at the 4TB one.

    Toshiba Europe GmbH Storage Peripherals Division, in Neuss, Germany, markets hard disk drives, solid state drives and flash storage solutions. Aiming at consumers and retailers in Europe, its current product range spans from HDDs, SSDs, memory cards, USB flash drives to wireless storage solutions. For over 40 years, Toshiba has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions used by most major IT and consumer electronics brands.

    Just like every single USB 3.0 external desktop model in the market currently the Canvio Desk by Toshiba houses a 3.5" drive inside and more specifically their very own Generic Data Storage MD04ACA4000 4TB HDD. This is a SATA III compatible HDD that features a rotational speed of 7200RPM, 128MB of Cache (ignore the specs sheet), NCQ (Native Command Queuing) and requires up to 11.3W at load. Unfortunately we haven't had the chance to test this drive so we don't know exactly just how good it is in both read & write performance but judging by other Toshiba drives we're certain that it will do fine. The Toshiba Canvio Desk 4TB USB 3.0 HDD gets bundled with easy-to-use backup software (NTI Backup Now EZ) and is covered by a 3 year warranty.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The box of the Canvio Desk 4TB is painted black and red and has a large product picture at the front along with the company name, connectivity and available capacity.

 

 

Two pictures of the product placed both vertically and horizontally are printed on the left side along with some of its main features.

 

 

On the right side we see pretty much the same things as on the left one plus the contents of the bundle.

 

 

A performance comparison between the Canvio Desk 4TB USB 3.0 HDD and a USB 2.0 HDD is placed at the rear of the box.

 

 

Bundled along with the Canvio Desk 4TB are its power adapter, two tips (UK/EU), USB 3.0 cable, Warranty information and cards and the quick start guide.

 

 

THE CANVIO DESK 4TB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were a bit surprised to see that the matte & glossy enclosure used with the Canvio Desk line is actually one of the most compact ones we've ever seen.

 

 

To showcase that we placed it next to the HGST Touro Desk 4TB 3.5" HDD, Silicon Power A80 2TB 2.5" HDD and the Seagate Slim 1TB 2.5" HDD.

 

 

Toshiba has placed their logo on the lower left corner of both sides.

 

 

A small round activity LED (blue) is placed on the lower end of the fascia (or on the far left if you place the Canvio Desk horizontally).

 

 

The USB 3.0 host port and the DC power in are both placed at the rear (unfortunately no on/off switch).

 

 

As you can see the Canvio Desk has 4 rubber feet on two areas allowing the user to position it either vertically or horizontally.

 

 

Horizontal positioning looks nice but i think that due to the perforated sections vertical placement should be better.

 

 

The MD04ACA400 is a 3.5" SATA III HDD that features a rotational speed of 7200RPM and 128MB of cache.

 

 

NTI BACKUP NOW EZ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The NTI Backup Now EZ backup software is stored inside the drive and just as Toshiba claims this is a very easy to use software which allows you to back up your local files onto both the drive and NTI's CLOUD backup service.

 

 

You can also use SkyDrive (both are paid services) and change the drive to that which you'd like to place the backup files on.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one we use with 2.5" external drives and 2.5"/3.5" external docking stations. Naturally we will also be comparing the product at hand with previously reviewed 3.5" external drives so you know what you're getting (we no longer include 3.5" enclosures in our charts). Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write - also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) numbers were recorded into our charts. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with every update installed up to November 12th 2015.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Whenever we test a desktop HDD we always place 3 things above all else. These three things are size, quality and performance and as you can all see just by checking at our charts the Canvio Desk 4TB is right at the top. Of course that alone wouldn’t be enough for us to really like this product but the Canvio Desk is also smaller compared to other similar products (take those by HGST for example) and features a quality enclosure. Unfortunately just like with 90% of the Desktop drives out in the market currently the Canvio Desk doesn’t feature an on/off switch a feature which I just hope we can see more with such models in the future. As for the NTI Backup Now EZ software well it may not be the best of its class and it’s really very “light” on features but it’s very easy to use and simplifies backing up your crucial files.

   Price is also a very important aspect when testing just about everything and thus the current price tag of USD109.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 128Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) for the Toshiba Canvio Desk 4TB is not something many people can pass. Performance, size, quality and price the Canvio Desk 4TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive has it all and that’s why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size
- Excellent Performance
- Capacity (4TB)
- NTI Backup Now EZ Software
- Price (For Some)

 

CONS

- No On/Off Power Button