MyBookStudioEditionIi
Latest
Western Digital's My Book Studio Edition II: 6 TB of low-cost storage
It's a great time to be in the market for mass storage for your Mac. Hardware manufacturers keep coming out with new solutions that either provide more speed (like SSDs) or greater capacity, and the prices keep coming down. Western Digital is now shipping the My Book Studio Edition II, a two-drive enclosure filled with 6 TB (that's right, six terabytes) of RAID 0 storage and a quad-interface (FW800 / FW400 /eSata / USB2.0) for only US$549.99. That price is quite amazing, since the competing LaCie 4 Quadra array sells for almost $400 more. The My Book Studio Edition II takes advantage of WD's 3 TB Caviar Green drives, two of which are nestled into an enclosure. The product comes with a power adapter usable in the US, Canada and most European countries, FireWire 800 and USB cables, a FireWire 800/400 cable and a CD containing a user manual and a selection of software. The My Book Studio Edition II drive comes pre-formatted for Mac OS X and can be reformatted for use with Windows 7. While the array comes set up as a 6 TB RAID 0 stripe set, it's possible to use it as a mirrored pair (RAID 1) of 3 TB drives. For those who are looking for redundant storage, the RAID 1 solution makes a lot of sense. If it's raw storage capacity that you want, RAID 0 is the way you'll want to go -- just be sure to buy a second array for backup purposes. To see how the My Book Studio Edition II array stood up during our tests, turn to the next page. %Gallery-121290%
Western Digital's new My Book Studio Edition II has 6TB on offer, but no Thunderbolt or USB 3.0
If you want a lot of the GBs in not a lot of space, 3TB per disk is about as good as you're going to get. Western Digital has slapped two of its triple-terabyte monsters into a dual-disk enclosure and paired it with eSATA and FireWire 800 interfaces to create the My Book Studio Edition II. There's a good 'ol USB 2.0 hole in there as well, but no USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt for those getting hip with the new connections. Time Machine support is baked in as well as your choice of RAID configurations, all at a cost of $549.99. That's a good bit more than you'd spend if you bought a pair of disks and an empty enclosure, but such is the price of convenience. %Gallery-119224%
Western Digital rolls out new dual-drive My Book World Edition II
Western Digital has already dialed things up to 4TB with its My Book Studio Edition II hard drive, and it's now done the same with its new My Book World Edition II dual-drive storage system. One of the big advantages with this one is that the dual drives are shipped in a mirrored RAID 1 configuration for an extra level of protection, although you can of course reconfigure 'em yourself if you'd prefer twice the space instead. Otherwise, you can expect all the usual NAS-related features, a "cooler, quieter, eco-friendly design," a USB port to add on an extra USB drive, and a nifty capacity gauge to let you see how much space is available at a glance. Expectedly, the top-end 4TB demands a rather hefty $700, but you can also pick up a 2TB drive for a more reasonable $400 if you have less demanding needs.
Western Digital pumps out the My Book Studio Edition II
Confused by all the various permutations of Western Digital's My Book line of external drives yet? No? Well, go ahead and add the My Book Studio Edition II to your stack of flashcards, Mr. Smart Face. Just like the previous 2TB My Book products, you're getting two RAID 0 drives in a quad-interface external case, only this time it's the updated My Book Studio design. WD's also gone and upgraded the drives themselves to GreenPower units, which run cooler and use less power, and Mac users will be pleased to know that everything comes HFS+ formatted. Got that? Expect a quiz in the near future. Available now, we're told, at $349 for 1TB and $599 for 2TB.
