Best External Drive for your Chromebox

Chrome doesn't only run on laptops.

Chromeboxes make great computers for plenty of people. In households where there are kids, they're the perfect desktop computer for homework, and attached to your TV they bring the internet and everything that comes with it to your big screen. But you might need more storage to get the most from one.

Chromeboxes aren't laptops. Chances are you're not tossing one into a backpack and setting it up at Starbucks; instead, it sits quietly behind a screen of some sort and is always ready. That means there is no reason to try and get by with 16 or 32 GB of storage. Most models are easy to take apart and upgrade if you're the DIY type, but adding more storage for your stuff is as easy as plugging in a cable.

While any USB powered hard drive will work, we like these options.

Western Digital My Passport

Simple and cheap is what plenty of people are looking for when it comes to file storage. I'll add in dependable and say the WD My Passport is the best bargain external hard drive you can buy. It's a spinning disk drive so you won't be breaking any read speed records, but it's perfect for storing photos or music or video. If you plan to install Plex on your Chromebox this is your cheap storage option.

It's available in 1TB to 4TB options and starts around $60. They also come in a handful of different colors if it's sitting somewhere it will be seen. You'll be able to store plenty of stuff on the cheap with this one.

See at Amazon

Samsung T3

This is the other end of the spectrum. High-capacity and fast SSD drives are not cheap.

If you need a big boost in storage for your Chromebox but need to have SSD speeds, the Samsung T3 drive is one of the best ways to make it happen. They use Samsung's own 3D V-NAND to bring read/write speeds of up to 450MB/s over a USB 3.1 connection, are future-proof with a USB-C port, and aren't much bigger than a credit card. You can store and retrieve all of your stuff really fast if that's what you need.

All this comes at a price. The 250GB model starts about $120, and as size climbs higher so does the price tag until you get to the $700+ 2TB option.

See at Amazon

Anker 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure

This enclosure from Anker will let you use almost any 2.5-inch drive as a USB 3.0 device that can plug right into your Chromebox.

Slide it open and drop any 7.5 or 9mm 2.5-inch drive inside, slide it shut and you're ready to plug it in. You don't need any tools and it only takes a few minutes — there is no need to have anxiety about building "computer stuff" because it really is this easy.

For less than $20 you can use one of your old hard drives or something like this 500GB Samsung 850 EVO to have those fast speeds without such a high price.

See at Amazon

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