Western Digital My Book Premium Edition 320GB External Hard Drive

The good: The MyBook Premium edition is compact, employs an innovative design, has an external capacity gauge, comes with backup software, and is a speedy data reader.

The bad: The MyBook Premium edition is slow to write data, over both USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.

The bottom line: If write speed isn't a top priority, the Western Digital MyBook is a good deal at around $300 for a 500GB drive. It'll look good on your desk or bookshelf, too.

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Description: This Western Digital My Book Premium Edition External Hard Drive is a 320GB, external hard disk drive. Compared to other external hard drives on the market, it is midpriced at around $175. Connects via either FireWire or USB 2.0 for increased flexibility. This is a 7200 rpm drive and has an 8MB cache.

Pros: Has a 320GB capacity, which is somewhat larger than some similarly priced hard drives. By way of comparison, the typical cost of a product with this large a capacity is $260. Connects to your PC via high speed USB 2.0 or FireWire cables. This product can also connect to older USB ports, but the transfer rates will be fairly slow.

Cons: Has a 1 year warranty, which is somewhat less favorable than some similarly priced hard drives. For example, the Seagate Freeagent Pro USB/eSATA External Hard Drive , a 320GB hard drive at around $165, has a 5 year warranty.

Suitability: An external hard drive, suited for convenient plug-and-play with most desktop or notebook computers.

Value: Overall, this hard drive has good features for the money.