There’s a lot to like about the new WD MyBook Studio. It’s shiny, in the same aluminium design of the iMac and MacBook Pro; it’s pretty cheap considering the amount of storage, and it has an e-ink display that’ll show you information about the drive, even when you unplug the drive.
The MyBook Studio comes pre-formatted for Macs, with out of the box support for Time Machine (although most Mac-friendly hard drives do that too). But the biggest point of interest is the e-ink screen, which shows drive capacity, storage capacity, and can be customised to display relevant information about the drive, like “I love Gizmodo” (which is what I’d put on there if I owned one).
There’s also WD’s standard Smartware software on board, WD’s GreenPower tech for lower power consumption and 256-bit hardware based encryption. It also comes with a three-year warranty and FireWire 800 connectivity.
There are thee capacities available: 1TB for $229, 1.5TB for $299 or 2TB for $399. It’s been a while since I looked at storage prices, but that seems pretty damned decent to me.
[WD]
Namarrgon
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 5:15 PMWell, ‘cept 1TB internal drives are < $100 these days, and I just bought a 2TB external sans e-ink for $235. So you're paying a fair bit for that fancy case.
The e-ink display is a nice idea, but not sure I want to pay $100+ for it.
Brent McMillan
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 10:44 AMYeah that’s the thing about the e-ink ‘feature’. I have my hard drives tucked behind my machine, if I want to check free space etc finder does a faster job than having to look behind my machine.
matt
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 6:22 PMa good companion for a proffesional with a macbook.
not sure about anyone else. does it sereiosly not have esata? or usb3?
the main thing the green power tech loweres is the price for WD, those 2TB drives are like $240 to buy seperately (so GG to Namarrgon for getting one in a box for less!)
add esata and the black edition 2TB and I’d be tempted (you wouldn’t notice the speed difference – which is substantial – between the green and the black without esata)
as for the eink, thats awesome!, wish they would put it on laptop batteries to show the charge!
Anonymous
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 6:25 PMI like it, it’s cheaper than some of their recent Mac-centric drives, and if you have a rack of them then the eInk idea is great.
Dean Shepherd
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 4:27 AMLooks great. My WD MyBook Premium 500gb drive (mid 2007 model) has suddenly just died on me. One possible contender for a replacement I think (subject to a decent price of course). Or maybe an SSD?