Western Digital My Book 3.0 - 1 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive with Pci-Express card

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!!

I purchased this unit as a portable way to backup files across my home network. The drive was very easy to set up and did a fine job with data storage (something which should be a given when reviewing a hard drive). However, less than a month after my purchase, the mini-USB connector snapped off the hardware as I was removing the USB cable -- very little pressure was applied, and I'd only removed the cable one or two times in the past. I now have an expensive paperweight filled with data, and no way to get it off.

EDIT: After disassembling the casing and hooking the drive up as an internal SATA drive, I was able to save my data. The way the mini-USB connector was attached to the bridge board was very obviously poorly designed and may have been soldered by a monkey. Rather than come up with a better approach, Western Digital had a 1/2 inch metal shim screwed next to the spot. Unfortunately this doesn't make the connector any more stable -- it just adds a perfect fulcrum for generating torque and snapping it off with normal use.

I purchased a 1TB my book 3.0 and used it for about a month and a half until the connector pulled of the PCB. This seems to be a recurring problem with these drives. Fortunately I backed it up the night before this happened but I did add more files the next day. I decided that getting the content off the drive was more important than dealing with the warranty so I took it apart to re-install the connector. I am an electrical engineer with access to a microscope and experience re-working fine pitched electronic assemblies so temporarily fixing the connector isn't much of a reach. I am also experienced in inspecting electronic assemblies for causes of failure.

I found that the connector came off due to cold solder joints. The connector is soldered to the PCB and several locations to provide support. Unfortunately the pads are connected to the ground plane and there isn't sufficient thermal relief requiring a significant amount of heat to make a good solder joint. The solder joints on my drive were never heated enough so they broke with very little force applied. The poor soldering in combination with the stiff cable provided were the cause of the failure. The poor quality of workmanship makes it inevitable that many other users will have the same problem.