Recently we covered a WD solution for consumers that allows them to take their storage up a notch by six terabytes, but what about the professional scene where small to large businesses are looking for something a little more reliable? Obviously WD has everyone covered in this sense, and their answer this round is the My Book Pro.
As of September, buyers have had access to the new Pro series My Book drives both online and off, which feature an external solution of up to 12TB. The options include 6, 8, 10 and 12tB. The one we got to test out was the 6TB model to see just how well it performed against the consumer 6TB My Book.
First before anything, we took it apart to see what ticks inside the beast. What separates it from the other external solutions. While the consumer My Book series features WD Green drives inside (average modern day drive speeds teamed with the low-energy cost to power them), the Pro models contain WD Black drives. The Black series cost a bit more in energy but offer greater read/write speed performance. Which would explain the port solutions on the back. There are a total of two drives inside, each 3TB in size and 7200 RPM.
Through RAID configuration, the two 3TB drives are combined as one 6TB storage solution (“with our powers combined”) that offers some pretty good speeds that result in quick file access times. You can of course configure it to be RAID 0, 1 or JBOD (“just a bunch of drives”). RAID 0 is what allows the two drives to perform as one single drive, and RAID 1 would result in two 3TB drives, one mirroring the other in case one were to fail.
The outside of the unit is simple. The front offers a power button and two USB 3.0 ports for connecting, syncing or charging nearby devices (ie, smartphones, tablets, keyboards, mice, thumbdrives and so forth). The rear side of the unit features two Thunderbolt 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port–with the DC input for power just underneath them.
Of course what you’re looking for is “how well does it perform?” and “How fast is it?. Worry not, as the My Book Pro delivered near SSD speeds (and by that, we mean near top SSD speeds) for us in our trials. We were getting read speeds of over 400MBps and write speeds of up to (and over) 350MBps. This is perfect for business and other types of prosumers looking for both speed and capacity in one, for a lot less than it would cost to get this much capacity with SSDs.
Keep in mind that speeds can differ slightly depending on the files you are transferring (ie, file size and quantity), as well as the source or destination drive you are copying to or from and what connection you are using to connect it to your computer or network with. If you are copying from a source that is slower than the My Book Pro’s write speed, then you will get no more than what the source drive can read at. To get the best speeds from this drive, you will want to make use of the USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt 2 ports. Anything less will result in a drop in transfer speed. (ie, USB 2.0). It does come with both the Thunderbolt and USB cables in the box.
Some formatting is required when initially connecting the My Book Pro to a Windows computer, but it doesn’t take any time at all before you are up and moving with it.
Our Conclusion
So there you have it, a simple external solution for those serious in mind. Plenty of space, and plenty of speed. Perfect for using as a backup solution or a shared drive of sorts. These aren’t priced at what you will find the consumer My Books at. They currently will run you $599 for the 6TB model and up to $899 for the 12TB model. The price is the only thing holding it from a “perfect score”, but it still comes close despite that.
Additional Images:
Specifications:
Compatibility
- Thunderbolt 2: Mac OS X 10.8.5 or later, Windows 8.1 64-bit or later
- USB 3.0: Mac OS X 10.7 or newer, Windows 7 or later
- Formatted HFS+ journaled for Mac OS X
- Requires reformatting for Windows operating systems
- Backward compatible with first-generation Thunderbolt systems
Package Includes
- Dual-drive Thunderbolt™ RAID storage system
- Thunderbolt 2 cable (1-meter/39.4”)
- USB 3.0 cable
- Power supply
- Quick install guide
Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.
