Western Digital My Book 3.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)
Western Digital My Book 3.0 1TB reviewed here is a speedy USB 3.0 external drive which is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 hosts. It is very sturdy external HDD enclosure with good ventilation, The noise level and Physical appearances is identical to other WD My Book series that we have been used to with an exception that front LED is a small bright White LED and the rear USB connector is replaced with USB 3.0 Micro-B connector and also has a Push button power switch.

If you would like to use the full potential of this external drive you need to install the included PCIe adapter (For Desktop PC's only) to get a theoretical transfer speed of 4.8 Gbps which is a ten-fold theoretical increase in speed compared to USB 2.0 which has a theoretical speed of 480 Mbps.

Bear it in mind that while the Theoretical speed of 4.8 Gbps is the interface speed that does not mean that the reviewed My Book external drive is having same speed, the drive inside is still WD SATA 1TB HDD with 3.0 Gbps link speed.

Here are some test results in brief:

When using USB 3.0 Interface
(*) Access Time: 15.44 ms
(*) Max Read Speed: 111.08 MB/sec
(*) Cached Speed: 149.48 MB/sec

When using USB 2.0 Interface
(*) Access Time: 15.59 ms
(*) Max Read Speed: 26.20 MB/sec
(*) Cached Speed: 40.79 MB/sec

Please see my posted images for full details of USB 3.0 vs. USB 2.0 speed results and other package contents. Hope this will be useful to you for making a decision

PROS:

[+] Fast read/write speed with USB 3.0 possible almost in par with eSATA
[+] Includes PCIe USB 3.0 card with 2 USB External Ports
[+] Sturdy and well ventilated Enclosure
[+] Nice Packaging with 3 Years warranty

CONS:

[-] There is no USB 3.0 solution for Laptop users presently as the PCIe adapter is for Desktop PCs only. (Unless of course you have a laptop with USB 3.0 interface)

Western Digital's venture into USB 3.0 speed and interface is a great move and will prove itself once newer laptops and PCs start including USB 3.0 as standard. But not to worry, this device will continue to work at USB 2.0 speeds as well.


Excellent future proof buy! - Go get one!

*** Update FEB 03, 2010 ***

I opened My book 3.0 External enclosure to see the internals, I am surprised to see that we have a new 1 TB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache drive inside.

Amazon does sell Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD2001FASSwhich has 64MB cache, But I was pleasantly surprised that this 1TB drive inside My Book 3.0 has 64MB cache! - Wow!

See the pictures that I have posted on Amazon product page, the drive has these markings

SATA /64MB cache
WD1001FAES - 1.0 TB drive

64MB Cache! - Wow! No wonder this drive screams especially when used with USB 3.0 PCIe Interface.

I was impressed by the simplicity of connections inside the external enclosure, No wires! Even the LED is a Light Path from the board! -- Super!!

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Product Description

The elegant My Book 3.0 features SuperSpeed USB 3.0 with unmatched speed of up to 10x USB 2.0 for the fastest transfer speed available. Resource intensive video editing, animation, graphic design, and large media files can be saved so quickly that you no longer have to wait for the technology to keep up with your ideas. This My Book 3.0 part number includes a USB 3.0 PCIe (gen2) adapter card for premium performance.

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Product Details

• Size: 1 TB
• Color: Black
• Brand: Western Digital
• Model: WDBABP0010HCH-NESN
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 6.50" h x 1.90" w x 5.30" l, 1.00 pounds
• Hard Disk: 1000GB

Features

• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface
• USB 3.0 PCIe (gen2) Adapter Card Included
• Compatible with USB 2.0 ports
• Ready to plug-and-play with Windows PCs
• Formatted NTFS

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