5 Comments

1. rbhatta

   Posted on July 30, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   Review by rbhatta for Western Digital My Book 3.0 – 1 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive with PCIe Adapter Card WDBABP0010HCH-NESN
   Rating:
   Western Digital My Book 3.0 1TB reviewed here is a speedy USB 3.0 external drive which is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 hosts. It is very sturdy external HDD enclosure with good ventilation, The noise level and Physical appearances is identical to other WD My Book series that we have been used to with an exception that front LED is a small bright White LED and the rear USB connector is replaced with USB 3.0 Micro-B connector and also has a Push button power switch.

   If you would like to use the full potential of this external drive you need to install the included PCIe adapter (For Desktop PC’s only) to get a theoretical transfer speed of 4.8 Gbps which is a ten-fold theoretical increase in speed compared to USB 2.0 which has a theoretical speed of 480 Mbps.

   Bear it in mind that while the Theoretical speed of 4.8 Gbps is the interface speed that does not mean that the reviewed My Book external drive is having same speed, the drive inside is still WD SATA 1TB HDD with 3.0 Gbps link speed.

   Here are some test results in brief:

   When using USB 3.0 Interface
   
   (*) Access Time: 15.44 ms
   
   (*) Max Read Speed: 111.08 MB/sec
   
   (*) Cached Speed: 149.48 MB/sec

   When using USB 2.0 Interface
   
   (*) Access Time: 15.59 ms
   
   (*) Max Read Speed: 26.20 MB/sec
   
   (*) Cached Speed: 40.79 MB/sec

   Please see my posted images for full details of USB 3.0 vs. USB 2.0 speed results and other package contents. Hope this will be useful to you for making a decision

   PROS:

   [+] Fast read/write speed with USB 3.0 possible almost in par with eSATA
   
   [+] Includes PCIe USB 3.0 card with 2 USB External Ports
   
   [+] Sturdy and well ventilated Enclosure
   
   [+] Nice Packaging with 3 Years warranty

   CONS:

   [-] There is no USB 3.0 solution for Laptop users presently as the PCIe adapter is for Desktop PCs only. (Unless of course you have a laptop with USB 3.0 interface)

   Western Digital’s venture into USB 3.0 speed and interface is a great move and will prove itself once newer laptops and PCs start including USB 3.0 as standard. But not to worry, this device will continue to work at USB 2.0 speeds as well.

   Excellent future proof buy! – Go get one!

   *** Update FEB 03, 2010 ***

   I opened My book 3.0 External enclosure to see the internals, I am surprised to see that we have a new 1 TB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache drive inside.

   Amazon does sell Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD2001FASSwhich has 64MB cache, But I was pleasantly surprised that this 1TB drive inside My Book 3.0 has 64MB cache! – Wow!

   See the pictures that I have posted on Amazon product page, the drive has these markings

   SATA /64MB cache
   
   WD1001FAES – 1.0 TB drive

   64MB Cache! – Wow! No wonder this drive screams especially when used with USB 3.0 PCIe Interface.

   I was impressed by the simplicity of connections inside the external enclosure, No wires! Even the LED is a Light Path from the board! — Super!!
2. Eric S. Olstad

   Posted on July 30, 2010 at 6:16 pm

   Review by Eric S. Olstad for Western Digital My Book 3.0 – 1 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive with PCIe Adapter Card WDBABP0010HCH-NESN
   Rating:
   This is a seriously fast hard drive. Color me impressed. Western Digital is really moving up in my book.

   OK, so on it’s face, this seems like your basic 1TB external hard drive. It has its own power supply, which many will find to be cumbersome, but for this level of performance I think it’s worth it. However, this is not your basic 1TB external. For one, it has a superfast USB 3.0 interface, and it comes with its own USB 3.0 expansion card if your motherboard doesn’t already have one (and at the time of this writing, there are less than a handful of new motherboards that do). The expansion card requires a free PCI-E slot.

   Setup:
   
   I tested this on Windows 7 Ultimate x64. Windows did not automatically find drivers for the USB 3.0 expansion card, but the WD package includes a driver disc. The drivers aren’t just sitting on the disc, you have to run an installer on the disc. The installation requires no restart, which is great, because that’s always a little scary when installing strange new hardware. After the card is installed, you can just plug the drive in and go. What’s nice is that Windows views the drive as an actual hard drive and not just removable media — a minor point.

   Performance:
   
   Using TeraCopy (which is fantastic file copy alternative), I was able to get between 94 and 101 MB / sec write speeds! That’s super fast. By comparison, my WD Caviar Black RE3 1TB drive only does around 63 MB/sec write speeds, and I thought that was nice! I haven’t tested read speeds, but I expect them to be pretty high. USB 3.0 has a 4.8 GB/sec limit so the bottleneck here is certainly not the bus.

   Sound:
   
   The drive is dead silent, and the white LED on the front is not blinding in any way. It resembles the light on a Mac Mini.

   Convenience:
   
   Since USB 3.0 is new, you’re not likely to find it around too much just yet. But you can still plug this guy into regular old USB 2.0. You’ll get around 25 MB/sec write speeds with that. But just the fact that you can do it is convenient. Having to carry around the power supply, however, is not. And you have to be careful with your USB 3.0 cable because there’s only one.

   Price:
   
   I think the price is pretty good for this level of performance and also considering they give you a USB 3.0 expansion card. You’d pay about the same for an enterprise-level, internal WD RE3 drive of this size.

   Negatives:
   
   I wish there was eSATA because then I wouldn’t need a free PCI-E slot or have to open up my computer to install it. But the deed is done, and now I have an extra USB 3.0 port for some other device. Still, eSATA would be nice. Maybe there are USB3 to eSATA adapters…
   
   Only a 2 year warranty?! That’s rough for a 1TB drive. WD internal drives run between 3 and 5 year warranties. But I suppose they’re not willing to put that kind of warranty on an external drive that gets moved around a lot. Still, a longer warranty would instill more confidence that my data is safer. Backing up 1TB worth of data is not easy or cheap.

   Conclusion:
   
   I would absolutely recommend this thing. I was a little skeptical at first, but the numbers don’t lie. This thing is fast.
3. Brad Bortner

   Posted on July 30, 2010 at 6:27 pm

   Review by Brad Bortner for Western Digital My Book 3.0 – 1 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive with PCIe Adapter Card WDBABP0010HCH-NESN
   Rating:
   I’ve tried several eSata drives for the speed, and always found them buggy and prone to causing system instability. This USB 3.0 drive is priced right, very stable, and very fast. Highly recommended…especially since it includes a card for two USB 3.0 ports.
4. Karl Leibensperger

   Posted on July 30, 2010 at 6:59 pm

   Review by Karl Leibensperger for Western Digital My Book 3.0 – 1 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive with PCIe Adapter Card WDBABP0010HCH-NESN
   Rating:
   the PCIe card is not compatable with Server 2008, or so they say. It installs and is recognized, but the HD can not be accessed while it is plugged into the 3.0 card. Western Digital advised me to return it, but I installed in a desktop for the speed boost.
5. Sidarta Tanu

   Posted on July 30, 2010 at 7:58 pm

   Review by Sidarta Tanu for Western Digital My Book 3.0 – 1 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive with PCIe Adapter Card WDBABP0010HCH-NESN
   Rating:
   Easy to install (including the adapter) and very fast transfer rate. USB 3.0 is going to be the new standard.

   Western Digital My Book 3.0 1TB USB 3.0 is a very very fast external hard drive. With speed up to 5 gigabits per second (which is up to 10 times fasters than the USB 2.0 external hard drives). If your PC doesn’t have USB 3.0 port, this package includes the USB 3.0 PCIe Adapter Card. This means, you can still use this drive at 3.0 speed but your PC motherboard needs to have a free PCIe slot. If your PC doesn’t have a free PCIe not (and doesn’t have USB 3.0 port either), then don’t bother to get this hard drive unless you are thinking to upgrade to USB 3.0 capable or PC with free PCIe slot. It will still work with USB 2.0 (backward compatible) but it won’t reach its potential speed unless it is plugged into a USB 3.0 port and why pay the premium price if you are not going to use the 3.0 speed.

   Installing the USB 3.0 PCIe adapter card is also easy (if you never opened a PC before and install PCI card or memory card you might want to ask a friend who know how to do it and do it for you or show you how it’s done).

   Installing the whole package is simple. just follow the instruction:
   
   1. Install the driver (included)
   
   2. Install the USB 3.0 PCIe adapter (if needed)
   
   3. Install the external hard drive (connect with the Ac adapter and connect USB 3.0 cable to the drive)

   Pros:
   
   1. Very fast transfer rate for external hard drive (up to 5 gigabits per second or up to 10 times USB 2.0)
   
   2. Backward compatible with USB 2.0
   
   3. 1 TB which is a lot of space
   
   4. Works on Windows XP, Vista and 7
   
   5. Easy to install (including installing the adapter card if needed)
   
   6. Nice design
   
   7. USB 3.0 PCIe (gen2) adapter card included in the package (with 2 usb port so I can plug in another USB 2.0/3.0 device)
   
   8. USB 3.0 cable included

   Cons:
   
   1. USB 3.0 is still not the standard yet especially on laptops (so not everyone can utilize the full speed of this drive)
   
   2. Requires a free PCIe slot for the USB 3.0 adapter (if your computer doesn’t already have USB 3.0 ports)
   
   3. A bit bulky (compared to many mini usb powered external drives)
   
   4. Uses AC adapter (instead of usb powered)
   
   5. 2-years limited warranty

   Sidarta Tanu