X-bit labs

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition 500GB External HDD Review (page 10)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 01/06/2007 | 11:24 AM ]

Conclusion

This review has shown that any jewel needs a proper setting. However fast a modern external hard disk drive may be, its speed is going to be limited by the widespread interfaces USB 2.0 and FireWire 400. Our tests of the Western Digital WDG1T5000N prove that point.

Using the mentioned interfaces, it has been roughly equal to its opponents, similar products from Maxtor and Seagate (I guess I should be talking about them as about one firm now).

It’s only when you connect the drive via FireWire 800 that it provides a much higher speed. So, I recommend the WDG1T5000N for every user whose computer supports FireWire 800. This will give you a highest practical speed. If you are going to connect your external HDD via other interfaces, you may as well choose any other product (well, you may also be enticed by the stylish design of the WD drive).

I hope the manufacturers will be producing more external HDDs with support of FireWire 800 in addition to other interfaces because HDDs just cry for that – this interface will allow them to show their full speed potential.

The eSATA interface is currently the only real opponent to FireWire 800, but this opposition will make the topic of another review.