Storage With Style: WD MyBook Pro Edition

Conclusion

Aesthetically, the unit looks cool sitting on your desk, and the illuminated capacity gauge is a nifty way to display some useful information. The drive's stable and solid base is appreciated; the passive cooling is quiet and effective. Even the price of the MyBook Pro is around $280, which is reasonable for a 500 GB external drive.

Form and function, style and versatility: To be perfectly honest, there's not a lot I can say to dissuade you from purchasing the MyBook Pro. I guess the best I can do is recommend you stay away from the MyBook Essential Edition that comes only with the slower USB 2.0 interface if you require fast date transfer rates.

Author's Opinion

Plain and simple, I like this drive. The aesthetics appeal to me, and the Firewire performance does, too. And anything passively cooled that doesn't make a racket is always appreciated.

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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.

  • 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.
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