Quick version
Without a doubt, the 1TB Western Digital My Book World Edition is the easiest to use NAS I’ve ever tried. There’s virtually no setup, it’s remotely accessible and works flawlessly on both PCs and Macs.
Features (In my opinion)
• Easy to setup – Both Macs and PCs will recognize the drive on the network within minutes of powering it on.
• Remote access – With WD’s Mionet remote access system you can pull content off your drive from anywhere in the world.
• USB 2.0 port – Plug in any USB drive to instantly expand your network drive and share information. FireWire would have been nice, too.
• Media Server – store and stream content from a central location to your Xbox 360, PS3 or DLNA device.
• Unobtrusive – compared to the Iomega StorCenter ix2, the MBWE is much, much quieter and looks better.
Setup
Step 1. Connect MBWE to your home/office router.
Step 2. Power on the MBWE.
Step 3. Unload all your media onto the MBWE.
Step 4. Enjoy.
It really is that easy if you’re on a Vista or Leopard/Tiger machine. I don’t have anything running XP at home or the office, but WD provides software to make it easy for you folks too.
Performance
The MBWE claims to have best-in-class performance with its eco-friendly 7200RPM GreenPower drive, which claims to be environmentally friendly, but it’s always on. I moved a 350MB file from my laptop to the network drive wirelessly (802.11b/g) that took a little over two minutes. I then transferred 1.65GB worth of RAW images and that took about 13 minutes. If you’re planning on moving your entire movie collection over then it’s going to take quite bit of time, so start early in the evening and let it run wild while you sleep.
Extra
I don’t like backing up because the initial setup takes more time than I’m willing to devote, but WD’s packaged Anywhere Backup software is painless. After the initial setup, everything gets backed up instantaneously. If something accidentally gets deleted, you can easily go back and restore through the Anywhere Backup software. Easy peasy!
Oh, the white light on the front of the MBWE acts as a capacity gauge among other duties.
Questionable
Where the MBWE struggles, however, is its web-based interface. That’s not to say it’s horrible – it’s actually well laid out and easy to navigate, but enabling and disabling folder accessibility isn’t very easy to do. Unlike the Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive that Doug reviewed a couple months ago – where you just flip the toggle switch between “everyone” and “secure.”
But if this is just going to serve as a media hub at home then it’s nothing to really worry about. If it’s going into the office then you’re going to want to sit down with the manual and tinker with the web portal.
Conclusion
Western Digital’s My Book World Edition creates an instant hub of entertainment at home or a centralized depot of information for the office within seconds of powering on that also makes backing up painless and easy. If you’re looking for something that’s easy to use and relatively affordable for the size then look no further. But if you’re looking for something that’s RAID-1-able then opt for the 2TB version.
MSRP: $230 for the 1TB model, $450 for the 2TB model.