Tired of waiting around for USB 3.0 external drives to hit the scene? Me too. Well, I was until I stumbled across Western Digital’s new MyBook 3.0 external hard drive. The 3.0 addition to the name of course highlights the migration from USB 2.0 to 3.0 internals meaning these new drives will whisk away your precious files at up to 5 Gbps. If you’re keeping note, that’s roughly 10 times more than your standard USB 2.0 drive.
But the drive itself isn’t everything as you need the appropriate hardware on your PC too. On this front, PC manufacturers have drug their feet as well in regards to adding USB 3.0 support. But there’s hope yet.
If you fancy the one and only 1TB MyBook 3.0 and don’t have any USB 3.0 compliant cards/ports on your computer, WD will sell you a kit that includes the drive and a USB 3.0 PCIe card for ~$375 USD. Got your own hardware already? Super. Shave off about $40 as the drive only option will set you back ~$331 USD.
As USB 3.0 proliferates to other manufacturers and devices, expect the prices to naturally fall. It all depends on how anxious you are. Would you drop three and a half bennies on 1TB of USB 3.0 storage or are you happy as a clam, content enough to wait it out for lower prices?
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