Product: Western Digital 1TB MyBook Studio Edition WDH1W10000N
Manufacturer: Western Digital
MSRP: $299.99
Lowest Historical Price: $150 [History]
Introduction
It used to be that in order to upgrade your storage capacity, you'd have to rip open your computer case and install a new hard drive. That task proved daunting for many a Geek Squad customer, causing untold amounts of cash to be blown on the simple service of installing and formatting a new hard drive. Enter external hard drives. External hard drives have exploded in popularity in the past few years because they give users an easy way to expand their storage capacity, without the headaches of a Geek Squad or FireDogs (or worse, Fry's tech) visit. Here we check out the Western Digital 1TB MyBook Studio Edition Quad-Interface Hard Drive.
Specs
What was once considered an outrageous amount of storage, 1 Terabyte, can now be bought without an outrageous amount of wallet damage. In fact, this particular drive only set me back $150 on 6/20/08 due to a particularly good deal at Frys (now expired). This drive aims to put simple USB 2.0 only drives to shame: It offers a veritable buffet of interface options including USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA interfaces.
Be aware that this particular model (WDH1W10000N) comes formatted for Apple computers. It is a simple step to format it for Windows, and that's exactly what I did. I've used the drive for over two months now as a media archive drive for all of my photos and videos, and it has been reliable for that purpose.
The enclosure itself is silver, with "Morse code" style ventilation holes to cool the drive without the use of any fans. That means the drive is virtually silent, albeit for hearing the drive itself as it accesses data. It is designed to fit right in with other WD MyBook style drives.
Performance
For performance testing, I used a 743MB file and timed the read/write speeds moving the file between the MyBook and my regular desktop hard drive. The test system is my personal PC as detailed in this earlier review. The FireWire 800 transfer rates were not tested since the test system does not support it.
The chart shows the drive's read/write speed for the test file. As it turns out, the read and write speeds were the same, so they are combined in the chart. The result shows that eSATA has a large lead (by a factor of two) in performance over FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, with FireWire being only incrementally better than USB. If you're using this drive for performance applications where transfer rates are critical, eSATA is the interface you want to use.
Conclusion
I don't have anything bad to say about this product. It is stylishly designed and performs well in all of its intended functions. The quad-interface design gives exceptional connectivity options, and the hard drive automatically spins down to save power when it isn't being accessed. Since it is a targeted Mac product, we haven't seen many discounts for it (certainly none that bring it down to what I paid two months ago at $150), but when it does eventually drop to a more pallatable price I would recommend it without hesitation.
Image Gallery
Manufacturer: Western Digital
MSRP: $299.99
Lowest Historical Price: $150 [History]
Introduction
It used to be that in order to upgrade your storage capacity, you'd have to rip open your computer case and install a new hard drive. That task proved daunting for many a Geek Squad customer, causing untold amounts of cash to be blown on the simple service of installing and formatting a new hard drive. Enter external hard drives. External hard drives have exploded in popularity in the past few years because they give users an easy way to expand their storage capacity, without the headaches of a Geek Squad or FireDogs (or worse, Fry's tech) visit. Here we check out the Western Digital 1TB MyBook Studio Edition Quad-Interface Hard Drive.
Specs
What was once considered an outrageous amount of storage, 1 Terabyte, can now be bought without an outrageous amount of wallet damage. In fact, this particular drive only set me back $150 on 6/20/08 due to a particularly good deal at Frys (now expired). This drive aims to put simple USB 2.0 only drives to shame: It offers a veritable buffet of interface options including USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA interfaces.
Be aware that this particular model (WDH1W10000N) comes formatted for Apple computers. It is a simple step to format it for Windows, and that's exactly what I did. I've used the drive for over two months now as a media archive drive for all of my photos and videos, and it has been reliable for that purpose.
The enclosure itself is silver, with "Morse code" style ventilation holes to cool the drive without the use of any fans. That means the drive is virtually silent, albeit for hearing the drive itself as it accesses data. It is designed to fit right in with other WD MyBook style drives.
Performance
For performance testing, I used a 743MB file and timed the read/write speeds moving the file between the MyBook and my regular desktop hard drive. The test system is my personal PC as detailed in this earlier review. The FireWire 800 transfer rates were not tested since the test system does not support it.
The chart shows the drive's read/write speed for the test file. As it turns out, the read and write speeds were the same, so they are combined in the chart. The result shows that eSATA has a large lead (by a factor of two) in performance over FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, with FireWire being only incrementally better than USB. If you're using this drive for performance applications where transfer rates are critical, eSATA is the interface you want to use.
Conclusion
I don't have anything bad to say about this product. It is stylishly designed and performs well in all of its intended functions. The quad-interface design gives exceptional connectivity options, and the hard drive automatically spins down to save power when it isn't being accessed. Since it is a targeted Mac product, we haven't seen many discounts for it (certainly none that bring it down to what I paid two months ago at $150), but when it does eventually drop to a more pallatable price I would recommend it without hesitation.
Image Gallery
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Perfect for nuisance_sucks to store all his child porn and bacon movies.
Removed by forum Administrator
Perfect for nuisance_sucks to store high-res scans of the complete collection of playgirl magazine.
Perfect for nuisance_sucks to store the home-made videos he took while engaging in obscene homo activities with milf_hunter and m0f0.
Removed by forum Administrator
Removed by forum Administrator
Perfect for nuisance_sucks to make offline archive of every page on bensbargains in which he's pwned into oblivion.
Removed by forum Administrator
It appears Western Digital 1TB MyBook USB/FW/eSATA Drive will be used for nuisance_sucks to jerk off while he is confined to living in the pink troll tent on a garbage dump.
so.... is this thing any good? =D
Anybody knows if you have to open up your computer to install this drive?
"without the headaches of a Geek Squad or FireDogs (or worse, Fry's tech) visit"
IMO, Fry's techs are way better than the Geek Squad or FireDog "techs".
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ga - it's an external. you just connect it to your pc with a cable so it can transfer data to and from it. no need to open up your computer.
pedoph!le nuisance_sucks, there is something called paid vacation. I don't expect you to ever understand if you can't get past 4th grade.
#15 has seen many people on paid vacations ordering items off the value menu while he rings them up.
Can someone please test this by having it connected to two PCs at the same time? Will it blend? I would love it I can just have it always connected to my desktop via eSATA and occasionally connect my laptop via USB.
#16 This goes to show that milf_hunter never had paid vacation. You don't go on paid vacation and order stuff from McDonalds. For example, if you go to Japan, you'd be stupid enough to order from McDonalds. If you don't have the money to go to a better Japanese restaurant, then don't bother taking your vacation in Japan.
You knew very well that the Japanese take vacations in the US, and order value meals while you ring them up.
How many times do you want to get pwned today, milf_hunter? Most Japanese will not eat at McDonalds when they are on vacation here. They have McDonald's in Japan you rodeo cowboy.
Please work harder in your elementary school or the only vacation you're going to get are the ones your parents take you along with, and I know with the mortgage crisis and their dire financial situation, they won't be taking you anytime soon and you'll have to stay in that pink troll tent with pedoph!le nuisance_sucks.