More importantly, besides transfer rates, is a reference to how the USB interface operates. Is it as a hardware USB drive device, or (as happened before) via a network drive mapping via USB Ethernet stack?

Based upon prior systems with both USB and Ethernet connectivity it will probably be the latter, but technical confirmation (and hopefully speed tests) of both methods of connection would certainly help.

There is substantial info on this NAS device in the July issue of Maximum PC magazine. they also have some speed tests et al.

It cannot handle NTFS formatted drives, as it, like virtually all home user NAS units use a Linux kernel to function. So FAT 32 is what it uses. It can read from NTFS devices, but it cannot write to NTFS.

The 2 TB unit is selling on the street for as low as $200+

Does or can it run NFS and does it have Gigabit ethernet?

I have a situation at work if the answers are yes and yes.

The one thing I hate the most about NAS's besides the price is the fact that you have to install their software to use or even see the device and you can do so much more with a actual computer humming in your closet.

Soundwave rules!

WD apparently changed the MSRP for the 2TB My Book just prior to launch. It'll now cost $400, or $50 more than originally indicated in the review. We've updated the text to reflect the new MSRP. The higher price tag doesn't change our overall conclusions on the drive, though.

I had one of the first edition of the My World Book drives. I like western digital stuff but the World Book is absolute garbage. Constant hardlocks never did get it to back anything up. You couldn't run fast enough to give me this drive..

Transfer rate! Transfer rate!
This is a major item that is missing from the mini-review as already mentioned several times in the comments.

Can be as easy as to just grab a large file (1GB+) and copy it to the device. Then copy the file from the device to another PC. Obviously over a GB network.

Transfer rate is often a major difference between these types of solutions and a basic server. If this device can get anything close to a simple (non-RAID) server, I'll be first in line to get one.

Western Digital superior, Seagate inferior...

Does this thing power the drives down during idle? I can never really get good information on this.

Anyone know of a good case that will hold an ITX board and 4 harddrives? The ones Newegg has only hold 1 HD.

Ya no. FreeNAS .7 RC1 is out and it's begging for a spare old computer and a little ZFS RAID-Z action :D

Adi

As you command, Megatron!

If this is anything like the previous MyBookWorld incarnations, it'd be akin to a steaming pile of garbage.

I've got an older MBW 1.5TB drive that can't get above 2MB/sec transfer, no matter what. You can plug an external USB drive in, but there is no file management interface to treat it like a separate drive (for when you just can't stand the ethernet transfer rates any more and are going to walk a HD across the room). I doubt this one has UPnP support either... last one didn't, not like it'd be a good idea to add useful features to a product... sigh....

I'll stick to my QNAP any day.

You mentioned several times about building Atom based alternatives, but to my knowledge, none of Atom mobos I've seen have built in RAID or even a PCI slot for that matter. How would you go about building an Atom alternative?

I know several vendors have created Atom based small servers, but I haven't seen any motherboards that would let me build my own.

Give me the robot, please.

Nice little product. A simple test of the transfer rate would be nice, not because stellar transfer rates are a big deal for the target market, but just to know that it is not completely unacceptible.

I like it's size and simplicity. I'd potentially pick one up, but I am more inclined to roll my own. The major advantage of this thing is power consumption. Especially to anyone who lives in Cincinnati, where, for some ungodly reason, we pay about twice the national average for electricity, I think.

Edit, I just looked up Cincinnati rates and the results of my search do not match what is printed on my electricity bill, so: a) disregard what I said about Cincinnati electricity rates; and, b) I've got some calls to make and find out what the hell....

Nice writeup, gets the point across, but the article feels naked without some performance numbers and a comparison to competing products.

This article is useless without transfer rates, ethernet speeds, even a specs table!! Come on...

I abhor the white shiney look. It's not that it's white, I have nothing against eg. the looks of the Xbox 360, but when it's shiney aswell. It sort of looks cheap and pretentious at the same time. Yuck.

Which is wierd, 'cause when I was a kid, I thought the Stromtroppers were ultra-cool. :-)

How much does the "premium service" cost? (mentioned in the third-to-last paragraph) The same as MioNet usually costs (i.e., $80/year -http://www.mionet.com/get/buy.aspx)? Or do My Book customers get a packaged discount, or something like that?

If someone was going to build their own NAS instead of using this, what backup software is suggested?

Edit: I missed Adi's suggestion for FreeNAS. Any others?

is being able to open MYBook like this new? I didnt know they could do this, I like it.

Soundwave is looking awesome as ever, you should get you're self one of these... http://www.flickr.com/photos/28507814@N06/3622999879/

Can it be accessed directly without Mionet?