400GB External USB Hard Drive - Western Digital Elements $49.95 AR Staples

[edDV]

400GB External USB Hard Drive - Western Digital Elements $49.95 AR Staples

I just picked up two. Rebate says up to 10 per household. Rebate can be submitted online.

Think of this as a big 400GB flash drive. As with all USB2 hard drives max sustained rate will be ~20-32MB/s. I'll test it after format completes.

Device Manager sees it as "WD 4000AAK External USB Device" and unformatted capacity shows as 372.51 GB (399,979,773,952 bytes)
Formatting the first one now.



http://staples.shoplocal.com/staplessneakpeek/Default.aspx?action=browsepagedetail&sto...id=-2092757669

[hech54]

I just bought one of these here in Germany. It sounds a bit strange but works pretty well.

[edDV]

This one seems quiet while formatting but the aluminum case is getting warm.

I may go back and buy more. 13 cents per GB seems very reasonable.
Who would have predicted this 5 years ago? 1.2TB for $150.

I just noticed that this one lacks the on/off switch shown in the picture.

[VD]

I bought a few of these same drives a few months ago when Staples had them on sale for $79.95. They work great with no problems. Excessive heat is not really an issue. There is an air vent in the front. There is no on/off switch, but the drive will spin down and sleep after a couple minutes of no read/write activity.

Time to go buy some more Western Digitals for $50.

[edDV]

Closer inspection shows the case is silver color but not aluminum. It does toss off heat whatever it is.

I think this product is 90% about thermal design. Much of the cost is in power supply, docs, cables and cardboard. Maybe an extension product would be a bare chassis and drive for $29 ? This would be for those of us with a drawer full of USB drive power suplies and cheap USB cables.

I do have some basic Heat Transfer 101 engineering issues with this design which would indicate side vertical mounting that would shed most heat as a vertical fin. But this unit has rounded plastic end caps that prevent side vertical placement. If the air flow is adequate this may not rise to importance.

[videobread]

Thanks for the top. I picked one up also. Wonder what drive is inside the box?

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/productspecs.asp?driveid=332

[edDV]

I'll open it up someday.

It formatted fine. I already have it 2/3 full and sustained transfer rate is ~ 25 MB/s (200 Mb/s) at mid capacity.

I use these to offload inactive project and archive data so that internal drives can deal with active projects. This allows internal drives to run faster and keeps the number of spinning drives to a minimum.

I think I'll pick up a couple more tomorrow.

[piano632]

So is it IDE or SATA? Can you open the case if you have to? What's the cache size? Inquiring minds want to know!

[lordsmurf]

And I just finished buying a WD MyBook 500GB for $129.
Thanks for the tip, might add another one.

[edDV]

So is it IDE or SATA? Can you open the case if you have to? What's the cache size? Inquiring minds want to know!

USB2 with a sealed case and 1 Yr warranty. After a year I'll break the seal

I doubt SATA.

To perform at 25-30MB/s over USB2 the drive doesn't need to be that fast. 5400rpm and 7200rpm perform the about the same.

I'll try Sisoft Sandra

Sandra reports 29MB/s , 5400rpm, 15ms seek
That's about as good as USB2 drives get.

For write tests they want an empty drive. I'm formatting #2 now.

[hech54]

I just noticed that this one lacks the on/off switch shown in the picture.

That must be a European pic....mine has the switch.

[piano632]

Sandra reports 29MB/s , 5400rpm, 15ms seek
That's about as good as USB2 drives get.

The same model WDE1U4000N elsewhere reports a drive speed of 7200rpm and cache size of 8MB
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/33016494/details/
But we know that Sandra is never wrong

I hate it when you can't open the case. I have an old WD 120GB external made of plastic that seems like it's glued together. I think the best pre-made external I got was also at Staples awhile back - it was a Desk Hammer 320GB USB/Firewire combo in an aluminum case with small fan for $80 after rebate. At least I could open this one - it has a Hitachi drive inside.

[videobread]

Sort of figured they were 5400 rpm, but that is fine for USB backup. Great deal. No where on the box or their site can you find the rpm or cache.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/productspecs.asp?driveid=332

I usually buy 250 gig SATA 7200 rpm 16 cache. My line in the sand is $50. When I see them for $50 I buy.

[ogk]

Some info in German:
Western-Digital 400GB (WD4000AAKS)

Festplatte
- Festplattenkapazität: 400 GB
Spezifikationen:
- Festplattengröße: 3,5"
- Umdrehungsgeschwindigkeit: 7200 U/min
- Cache: 16 MB
- Schnittstellen PC: S-ATA II (300 MB/s)

Hersteller: Western-Digital

[edDV]

I'm not getting SiSoft Sandra to work for write tests. It reports the just formatted disk isn't empty. Maybe Vista is adding hidden files.

I have a Canopus utility called RapTest that qualifies drives for use on the Canopus Raptor hardware.

I've got two of these 400GB WD Elements drives one just formatted and the other with 270GB (73% full).

Both drives read sustained data at 29MB/s (232Mb/s).

The empty drive writes at 29MB/s (232Mb/s).
The 73% full drive writes at 24MB/s (192Mb/s).

[trhouse]

I hope you guys have better luck with your WD external USB drives. I had an 80 GB Western Digital external USB drive that I used with a laptop. It was a few years ago and about $129 at a Microcenter store. The unit failed three times within the warranty period. WD did replace them but with refurbished units. They all failed. The drive was a standard WD800 Caviar drive.

This is the same drive used in the Pioneer 531H, but it is reliable in the recorder. I suspected poor heat flow contributed to these early failures. I gave it away instead of spending more time on it. Here are a few photos of the insides and outside of the enclosure.





The original drive looked just like the one on the cover of the box but the last one which lasted the longest had a different design but the same p/n. None had an on/off switch.

[piano632]

I checked my local Staples and found out that the 400GB WD is only available at selected stores, so don't go out of your way to find one because it may not be there.

[edDV]

I stopped by Staples to get more. You have to ask at the counter now and you get one at a time so I got a third. Nice to get total 1.1TB for $150 after rebate.

Here they are stacked on top of an older WD 60GB back and front.






If you remove the rubbery booties you can see the rear connectors and air hole, and two screws to take it apart. One screw is covered by a seal. The front is a grill.






PS: Remember when Terraserver came out and we were all imagining a room full of drives?

[VD]

Other forums are reporting that the drive inside is SATA II, WD Caviar SE16, P/N: WD4000AAKS, 16 MB cache.
I did not open my drive to confirm this.


Here are the specifications of the WD Element:

Model
Brand Western Digital
Series Elements
Model WDE1U4000N

Performance
Interface USB 2.0
Capacity 400GB
RPM 7200 RPM
Average Seek Time 8.9ms

Physical Spec
Form Factor 3.5"
Dimensions 8.1" x 4.9" x 1.5"
Weight 2.3 lbs.

Manufacturer Warranty
Parts 1 year limited
Labor 1 year limited

[rhegedus]

Nice to get total 1.1TB for $150 after rebate.

And I just finished buying a WD MyBook 500GB for $129.

Damn!

I paid $200 for mine just over 2 months ago - prices are dropping fast.

[edDV]

Nice to get total 1.1TB for $150 after rebate.

And I just finished buying a WD MyBook 500GB for $129.

Damn!

I paid $200 for mine just over 2 months ago - prices are dropping fast.

Don't feel bad these deals seem to appear only in medium size distribution channels (e.g. Fry's or Staples) when a manufacturer wants to dump a limited supply of product without creating excessive demand. Fry's is often "out of stock". Staples always adds "might not be available in all stores". Staples is much better paying off on rebates if you get one.

[Salva Veritate]

Hey, I missed the boat on this particular offer (went today and the guy there checked all the stores within 20 miles), but I've realized that an External HD would help me out a lot. Can someone give me advice on what is considered low priced? Like I found an External HD at Staples that was 320 GB for $80, is that a good price?

I'm just looking for cost-efficient, basic models. Nothing fancy and nothing with too many extra features, just storage space.

[lordsmurf]

Nothing in the local store.

[handyguy]

There is a topic on this in the hot deal forum at fatwallet.com & people list what stores have them.

[edDV]

USB Enclosures have dropped in price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000090092&bop=And&Order=PRICE
Read the reviews carefully. Also avoid fast hot running drives in these cases. USB limits transfer rate to about 30MB/s (240Mb/s) so fast drives are not necessary and will cause heat dissipation problems.

If you want a fast external drive consider external SATA but also go for a case with better thermal design and adequate power supply.

If you build your own consider $10-30 (after shipping) for the USB case and then add the cost of the drive. If you see a quality assembled unit on sale for less than you can build one, you have a deal. The unit above at $49 AR price is way below the sale price for a 400GB bare Western Digital drive.

If that is a 7200RPM drive in there, you could double its speed by taking out of the USB2 case and moving it inside the computer case on ATA or SATA.

[piano632]

Here is a decent alternative:

It's a 500GB SATA drive in a USB/eSATA case with small fan for $120 and free shipping. If you haven't used Google checkout yet, you can get another $10 off. If you aren't picky about what brand of hard drive you get...most people are reporting it's a WD inside, but also some are Seagate and Samsung.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203268361&adid=17654&dcaid=17653

[KBeee]

$120 for 500GB doesn't sound such a good deal as $50 for 400GB

[edDV]

$120 for 500GB doesn't sound such a good deal as $50 for 400GB

But it is eSATA and will transfer more than twice as fast. If that is what you need.

I use these external USB2 drives as file parking lots. That frees the internal drives for active projects. External eSATA drives run as fast as internal drives.

30MB/s is still plenty fast for most editing projects. As the drive fills peak transfer rate drops to ~20MB/s or lower if the drive is fragmented. It handles simultaneous read and write for DV format. I also got a near empty single drive to capture two DV streams without drops. This was for a Core2Duo desktop. A notebook with single internal drive may not support these rates.

[KBeee]

I was considering the external drives as storage to free up the internal drives, rather than as "working" drives, but I see your point of thinking "outside the box"

[Salva Veritate]

$120 for 500GB doesn't sound such a good deal as $50 for 400GB

But is it a good deal compared to other drives? What about $80 for a 320 GB drive, is that a good deal?