Our friends at Western Digital recently shipped us the new 3TB My Book Studio external drive (Model: WDBC3G0030HAL) for evaluation purposes, and I was happy to give it a try. After running it through its paces, I’ve determined that the drive is a solid performer that should work well in both home and work environments.
Features and Specifications
Western Digital is clearly targeting Mac users with the My Book Studio 3 TB FW800 model. It comes in a cool to the touch aluminum housing that compliments the Mac environment, and the Firewire 800 connections are clearly aimed at Macs since they don’t yet offer support for the faster USB 3.0 specification.
The My Book Studio 3TB model also features:
- Compatible with Apple Time Machine
- Password protection with hardware-based encryption
- WD SmartWare automatic, continuous backup software
- Works out of the box with Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard
- WD GreenPower Technology lowers power consumption by up to 30%
- Quiet, fan-less design
Performance Tests
Although the drive looks great, is very quiet, and runs cool to the touch, the biggest question is – how does it perform? I ran a series of tests on an older 17″ MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz machine with 4GB RAM and a 160GB internal drive.
Testing was performed using Xbench, initially on the machine’s internal drive for a benchmark; then on the My Book Studio externally via both USB and Firewire 800. The tests were a bit startling.
XBench results for the internal hard drive:
Results 32.02 System Info Xbench Version 1.3 System Version 10.6.6 (10J567) Physical RAM 4096 MB Model MacBookPro3,1 Drive Type Hitachi HTS543216L9SA02 Disk Test 32.02 Sequential 43.36 Uncached Write 42.43 26.05 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 27.17 15.37 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 46.19 13.52 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 97.83 49.17 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 25.38 Uncached Write 8.63 0.91 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 65.95 21.11 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 60.73 0.43 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 98.56 18.29 MB/sec [256K blocks]
XBench results for MyBook Studio connected via Firewire800
Results 71.54 System Info Xbench Version 1.3 System Version 10.6.6 (10J567) Physical RAM 4096 MB Model MacBookPro3,1 Drive Type WD My Book 111D Disk Test 71.54 Sequential 93.65 Uncached Write 109.42 67.18 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 117.77 66.63 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 55.04 16.11 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 144.63 72.69 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 57.87 Uncached Write 20.23 2.14 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 192.97 61.78 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 114.56 0.81 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 173.30 32.16 MB/sec [256K blocks]
XBench results for MyBook Studio connected via USB 2.0
Results 43.74 System Info Xbench Version 1.3 System Version 10.6.6 (10J567) Physical RAM 4096 MB Model MacBookPro3,1 Drive Type WD My Book 111D Disk Test 43.74 Sequential 40.58 Uncached Write 50.99 31.31 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 47.65 26.96 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 22.30 6.53 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 76.23 38.31 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 47.44 Uncached Write 18.10 1.92 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 82.80 26.51 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 112.24 0.80 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 123.68 22.95 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Conclusions
Surprisingly, the old internal 160GB drive in the Mac is measurably slower than the external My Book Studio even when connected via USB 2.0. However it measures significantly slower when connected via firewire 800.
If you had an older machine, it could actually speed up your workflow to connect a My Book Studio and move your content to it. Applications such as Photoshop or Final Cut could even use the external drive for scratch disk space and dramatically improve performance.
All in all, it is a sturdy feeling and well-performing external drive and I have no hesitation in recommending it. You can pick one up for about $300 over on Amazon.
