Whatever, the Golden Disk is no gallery exhibit - it's a working desktop hard drive of 500GB capacity and equipped with a fast, 7200rpm disk connected over a USB 2.0 link.

To assay the Golden Disk, we used Register Hardware's standard drive test: we copied a 1GB folder containing 100 10MB files to the drive. We then duplicated the folder on the drive itself before copying it back to the host computer, in this case a 1.83GHz Core Duo-based MacBook Pro. All the tests were conducted half a dozen times and the timings used to calculate an average.

LaCie Golden Disk Speed Tests

Speeds in MBps
Longer bars are better

You can see from the results chart that the Golden Disk acquits itself well against Seagate's 750GB FreeAgent Pro, and by and large beats the lesser, bus-powered FreeAgent Go. In short, it delivers decent performance, but it's no market leader.

The LaCie drive is priced at £119 - not too much more than the £105 you can pick up FreeAgent Pro of the same capacity, that's not only slightly faster but also includes eSATA and Firewire connectivity as well as USB 2.0. A USB-only 500GB FreeAgent will set you back around £95.

Not popular with Cybermen...

We expect the Golden Disk's street price to be lower than £119, but you'll still be paying a premium for the gilt look. And why not? There's no rule stating that external drives have to look plain and grey. If you want the best possible bytes-per-buck ratio, there are plenty of low-cost, no-style products out there.

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• Netgear Storage Central Turbo SC101T network storage box
• Sonnet Tempo SATA Express 34 ExpressCard eSATA adaptor
• SanDisk Cruzer Pro, Enterprise secure USB Flash drives
• Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750GB external hard drive

But if you want an external hard disk that's a little out of the ordinary - and it's clear from Seagate's attempt to push the FreeAgent series' looks, just as Western Digital has done with its MyBook range, that many consumers do want more stylish hard drives - it's hard to think of a more glitzy, more ostentatiously auric drive than the Golden Disk.

Verdict

Only you, good reader, can say whether you think LaCie's Golden Disk is a sovereign solution or tasteless tat. What we can say is that it's a decent performer, so paying a premium for that snazzy casing doesn't mean you have to put up with shoddy hard drive.

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