Storage With Style: WD MyBook Pro Edition

Features
By
Published

Test Setup

Swipe to scroll horizontally
System Hardware
Processor(s) 2x Intel Xeon Processor (Nocona core)3.6 GHz, FSB800, 1 MB L2 Cache
Platform Asus NCL-DS (Socket 604)Intel E7520 Chipset, BIOS 1005
RAM Corsair CM72DD512AR-400 (DDR2-400 ECC, reg.)2x 512 MB, CL3-3-3-10 Timings
System Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB120 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB Cache, UltraATA/100
Test Hard Drive I Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3500641500 GB, 7,200 rpm, 16 MB Cache, SATA/300
Mass Storage Controller(s) Intel 82801EB UltraATA/100 Controller (ICH5)Silicon Image SATALink SiL3512Driver 1.2.0.57Promise FastTrak TX4310Driver 2.06.1.310Promise SATA 300TX4Driver 1.0.0.33
Networking Broadcom BCM5721 On-Board Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Graphics Card On-Board GraphicsATI RageXL, 8 MB
System Hardware
Performance c’t h2benchw 3.6PCMark05 V1.01
I/O Performance IOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-Benchmark
System Software & Drivers
OS Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1
Platform Driver Intel Chipset Installation Utility 7.0.0.1025
Graphics Driver Default Windows Graphics Driver

Benchmark Results

Let’s see how the performance of the MyBook stacks up in all three of its Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces.

Data Transfer Diagrams

Latest Videos FromTom's Hardware

The data transfer charts are interesting because they show that the Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces bottleneck the transfer, while the Firewire 800 interface is fast enough to outrun the internal drive once it starts to fill up.

Don Woligroski
Contributor

Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.

1 Comment Comment from the forums
  • About the 'intelligent drive management' I am not that sure. It may be better than drives, which do not power down at all, but it still annoying that you cannot switch off the drive completely. For example the Seagate drives behave the same way, but in addition you can switch them off, so they will stay off when you switch off and on your PC. The WD will power on every time you power on your PC, which I personnally do not like at all.
    Reply