The Western Digital MyBook 3.0 has a huge capacity of 1TB and features the fastest, and latest, USB3 interface yet still retains the company’s hard disk looks.
What is USB3?
However, I hear you ask what is so special about USB3? Well it’s simple, and you can do the maths, USB 2.0 has a cap of 480MB/s and a theoretical limit of 60MB/s. Okay, it has managed to keep most of us going since its release in 2000 but wait for the numbers first. USB 3.0 has a theoretical transfer speed of up to 4.8GB/s, which if you’ve done your maths right works out to be ten times faster, and considers transfer speeds of up to 3.2GB/s up from 400MB/s. Well what about eSATA and FireWire? Well they’re left standing with USB 3.0 being 1.8GB/s faster than eSATA and 4GB/s faster than FireWire, and of course USB 3.)0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0.
The MyBook is, as are most other hard disks from Western Digital, sleek, curvy and vaguely represents a book’s spine hence the name, get it? The MyBook, true to its name, is designed to be able to be positioned both vertically and horizontally without have to fiddle with any stands.
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Passive cooling can really cause your HD to heat up
Even though there are plenty of cooling vents the MyBook does not incorporate a fan and relies mainly on passive cooling which means that you’ll need to keep it in a well-ventilated area and try to make sure that it doesn’t choke up on dust.
Speedy Performance
The MyBook’s performance is quick and impressive and certainly a step in the right direction. Large files were written at 93MB/s and were read at around about 130MB/s, the smaller files were written at 64.2MB/s and read at 87.1MB/s.
Do not worry, if you’re PC doesn’t have USB3, Wester Digital offers the MyBook 3.0 with a USB3 PCI Express adapter card which is an additional £15 which is inexpensive and is still cheaper than some of the USB2 hard disks.
However, there are a number of anomalies. The MyBook does not come with any extras such as SmartWare backup which is found on other Western Digital external hard disks. The MyBook 3.0 also has a micro USB3 conncetor designed for portable disks, rather than a large full-size USB3 connector. This isn’t a problem since the cable is included and can be easily replaced if lost, but it is certainly unusual.
Extra, extra, read all about it
The MyBook 3.0 may not be bundled with a number of extras that is if you disregard the PCI USB 3.0 Adaptor but with a low cost of a mere 9.7p per GB and boasting fast performance the MyBook is certainly a perfect buy for those looking for performance and storage.