Western Digital Launches Its First USB 3.0 HDD

Western Digital today revealed its latest addition to the My Book external hard drive series, boasting compatibility with the new, hot & juicy SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. Granted consumers will need a new motherboard with built-in USB 3.0 technology or install a PCI-e card with a SuperSpeed interface, consumers can now store meaty data on an external drive up to 10 times faster than the old and decrepit USB 2.0 interface.

"Consumers no longer have to wait for technology to keep up with their ideas. With the new super speed My Book 3.0 drives, consumers have the speed they need for resource-intensive video editing, animation, and graphic design applications," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group.

Consumers can purchase the USB 3.0 My Book drive in two tasty flavors: a standalone drive or as a kit with an included USB 3.0 PCI-e (gen2) adapter card. Naturally the latter would be ideal for those who don't have an itch (or the funds) to replace the entire motherboard, but want the extra burst of speed. Currently WD is offering the My Book 3.0 drives in 1 TB capacities only, but expect to ship 2 TB drives in the coming weeks.

Want one now? WD has the drives up for sale over on shopwd.com and at "select retailers." The price difference between the standalone and the kit version isn't the huge gap we expected either: $179.99 for the standalone and $199.99 for the drive/PCI-e version.