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admin
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 Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject: WD Intros My Book Studio Edition II Drives |
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WD Intros My Book Studio Edition II Drives
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Posted by: Glenn
WD today introduced its My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems. According to the company, the new external drives are designed to seamlessly work with Mac computers and provide an ideal blend of power savings and high performance.
"WD developed the My Book Studio Edition II external drives to satisfy the needs of Mac enthusiasts and creative professionals who require extra-fast performance, but also want it to be as environmentally friendly as possible," said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. "Configured with RAID 0 out of the box, photographers, graphic artists, videographers, and others who require large amounts of storage will experience high performance combined with power savings and quiet operation when they use the new My Book Studio Edition II storage system."
Formatted for Mac computers, these new storage systems feature: extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0); factory-shipped in RAID 0 (Striped) configuration [RAID 1 (Mirrored) configurable]; cool, eco-friendly operation with WD GreenPower drives that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode; designed without a fan to run quietly; 5-year limited warranty; automatic and continuous backup software; capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system; intelligent drive management features, including automatic power-up, Safe Shutdown and LED status and activity lights ; user serviceability, enabling owner to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside; and elegant silver metallic finish that perfectly complements other Mac products.
Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new My Book Studio Edition II external drives are available in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB. Prices start at $349.
http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/924.html
Last edited by admin on Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Cypher
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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I have one of these which I bought at Christmas (the 500GB model) and unless they have changed things I wouldn't say it was seamless.
It has worked well but it does sometimes seem to have a mind of its own and refuses to turn off. A couple of times I've found it has got really hot, usually after unmounting. It seems to get its knickers in a twist and doesn't know what to do, instead of powering down it seems to just stay on and for me starts to over heat, even pressing the power button and holding it in its refuses to switch off and I have had to resort to pulling the power lead out.
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aquaman
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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| I like all of the new MyBooks. I have four of the old style Premium Edition and two of the new Home Edition. I think the new ones are just about better in every department. They also run cooler and make less noise. I could very easily see myself buying of these new duals down the road. It looks so easy to swap out the drives. I think they changed up the design some. |
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MacRat
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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Funny how they are going by the name "WD" now.
Maybe it has to do with the market starting to equate the name "Western Digital" with cheap, low quality crap. |
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Ben Tex
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| Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| MacRat wrote: | Funny how they are going by the name "WD" now.
Maybe it has to do with the market starting to equate the name "Western Digital" with cheap, low quality crap. |
I used to be a Western Digital hater, but I think they've come a long way over the last few years. The Scorpio drive in my Mac mini has performed well beyond my expectations. It's definitely quieter than the Seagate it replaced. I also think they are doing a decent job with the MyBooks and Passports. At least when it comes to styling and pricing. |
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Yvan256
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:04 am Post subject: |
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| MacRat wrote: | Funny how they are going by the name "WD" now.
Maybe it has to do with the market starting to equate the name "Western Digital" with cheap, low quality crap. |
It seems like all companies have ups and downs. I've had pratically all brands of hard drives, and most of them have failed at some point.
Just because a brand was previously good doesn't mean it will continue to be good, and vice-versa.
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MrBabou
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Funny I read this news, as I just bought a 500Gb MyBook Home Edition two days ago... Works great, and it was nice to see it was already formatted (although I did reformatted it with the Apple format). But this new one has RAID!!! and Firewire 800, although this would be useless on my Mini, which only has a Firewire 400 port (right?). And of course, the silver brush finish is a nice touch for a more Mac-familiar sight  |
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mazilis
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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I'm currently using two of the WD My Book Studio Edition 1TB drives. The first is on my iMac and is home to my iTunes library. The second I just purchased last week and is connected to my Time Capsule via USB. I'm using it for additional Time Machine backups. Now that I have 1.5TB on my iMac (700GB used) and 160GB Mini (only 30GB used), the 1TB Time Capsule filled up very quickly and started deleting past backups to make room for new ones.
Now that the 2TB Studio Edition II has been released, I'll return the 1TB drive.
My experience with the My Book series has been a good one for about the last year. I don't have any hesitations about using them.
-Mike
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Pleiades
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Yvan256 wrote: | | Just because a brand was previously good doesn't mean it will continue to be good, and vice-versa. |
Quite true. I wrote this in another thread and I think it holds some water still.
| ClunkClunk wrote: | I don't think any of us on 123MM deal with a large enough quantity of drives to create a statistically significant sample, unless someone dealing with 15,000 hard drives a year is slipping under the radar.
Hard drive brand and preference is very much like car brand and preference. There's no doubt that there's lemons every once in a while (IBM 75GXP Deskstars), but the vast majority come down to statistically irrelevant sample sizes, and personal experience.
Google did a hard drive survey about 10 months ago, and while quite interesting, they unfortunately declined to name drive brands or models in their information. I really wish they did, because Google is one of the few companies I trust to provide at least an attempt at unbiased information, and still have the size to provide statistically relevant studies. |
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aquaman
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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I'm pretty sure the single drive Studio Edition won a big external drive shootout in Macworld magazine a couple issues ago. They didn't seem to have any issues with the quality.
| MrBabou wrote: | | But this new one has RAID!!! and Firewire 800, although this would be useless on my Mini, which only has a Firewire 400 port (right?) . |
The Mac mini or MacBook won't support the higher speeds, but FW800 is backwards compatible with FW400. It appears that WD even includes a FW800 to FW400 cable in the box. |
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g5g5
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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Not much to add. I just wanted to say that I'm a happy owner of two MyBook drives. I think they are really nice drives for the money.
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Last edited by g5g5 on Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:05 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mazilis
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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| aquaman wrote: | | I'm pretty sure the single drive Studio Edition won a big external drive shootout in Macworld magazine a couple issues ago. They didn't seem to have any issues with the quality. |
Yes it did.
http://www.macworld.com/article/131917/2008/02/drivesroundup.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/131837/2008/02/mybookstudio1tb.html?t=223
After searching the Interwebs for initial reviews and pricing I decided to order a 2TB Studio Edition II (edit:oops, I originally put 2GB). It should be here tomorrow. I'll report back once I've got her up and running for a bit.
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Last edited by mazilis on Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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g5g5
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| mazilis wrote: | | 2GB Studio Edition II. |
Isn't that a bit small? 
Congrats! Let us know how you like it.
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mazilis
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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Damn! I hate it when I do that.
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g5g5
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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| mazilis wrote: | | Damn! I hate it when I do that. |
It's an easy typo to make. I think we are so accustomed to typing GB for all of our stuff. I don't own anything that is TB yet. 
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