CalDigit AV Pro 2 3TB external drive (USB 3/USB C)

1. Introduction2. CalDigit AV Pro 2 3TB / Box & Bundle3. CalDigit AV Pro 2 / Design4. ATTO/CrystalDiskMark/AS SSD5. Backup / Restore6. Throughput7. Real Life File Transfers8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

The CalDigit AV Pro2 screams quality, from the well-built chassis to the dual lock drive door. Apart from looking good the chassis has a more important function working as one large heatsink to pull away heat from the hard drive.

Although the AV Pro 2 looks like a standard external drive, albeit a well-built one, it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to make it stand out in the crowd. First up, it can recharge a notebook! Using the USB-C port it can deliver a 30W charge to a notebook equipped with a Thunderbolt 3 port while the pair of USB 3.0 Type-A ports powered by the embedded USB hub offer fast charging at 1.5A (7.5W).

CalDigit quotes a transfer rate for the AV Pro 2 at 200MB/s (the SSD option is quoted at 430MB/s) which we could confirm with the ATTO benchmark, the review drive producing a 209MB/s figure for both reads and writes. When it comes to dealing with real life files, the drive didn't break the 200MB/s barrier for either read or writes but got very close in a couple of the tests; both the 100GB file and the 60GB iso image were read back from the drive at 199.6MB/s.

The CalDigit AV Pro 2 can be brought direct from the CalDigit shop for £239 (inc VAT) HERE  (Until October 23rd, CalDigit are offering a free upgrade from 3TB to 4TB)

Pros:

• Build quality.
• Built in USB hub.
• Ability to provide up to 30W charging for laptop.

Cons:

• Pricey.

Kitguru says: CalDigit's AV Pro 2 melds excellent build quality with a huge amount of storage capacity and the abilities to recharge a notebook  and be used as an USB hub.

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