Western Digital My Book Premium Edition 400GB 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 400GB, external hard disk drive. Compared to other external hard drives on the market, it is expensive at around $290. Connects via either FireWire or USB 2.0 for increased flexibility. This is a 7200 rpm drive and has a 16MB cache.

Pros: Has a 400GB capacity, which is larger than some similarly priced hard drives. Also, this hard drive has a 16MB buffer, which is larger than some similarly priced hard drives. 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: None noted, given available product data.

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

Value: Despite its expensive price, this hard drive has good features for the money.