Final Thoughts
When it comes to adding serious storage to your home setup you typically have to go the route of as NAS. But with WD’s newer 10 TB Red drives you can really add some serious storage to your home setup without having to get into the difficulty of setting up a NAS device. 10 TB is sure a lot of space, and since this is the My Book Duo we have two 10 TB drives giving us 20 TB of storage space. Of course if you wanted redundancy you can put them in RAID-1 that way your data is always safe. Redundancy is typically something you don’t find on external hard drives either.
Unlike a NAS that you have to connect to your network, setup, etc. The My Book Duo you just plug into an open USB port in your system. It really is that easy. I also like that WD did include both Type-C to C and Type-C A cables to insure compatibility with all systems.
Once you have the drive connected you are good to go and it will work right off the bat, but you do have the option to install WD Software which is actually really useful. WD Discovery is sort of the central hub where you can install all other apps. WD has their own dedicated security and backup apps that work well and should be all you need to keep your data safe and back it up. On top of that there are other apps you can install to compliment the drive like PLEX, ElephantDrive, and digi.me.
When it comes to perfect you are going to have some very fast transfer speeds. Using a USB 3.1 connection and having the drives in RAID-0 I saw transfer speeds of around 367 MB/s read and 339 MB/s write when testing with CrystalDiskMark. Definitely faster than your typical larger external hard drive.
One thing I really liked that many people might overlook on the My Book Duo is the 2-port USB hub on the back. For my setup I actually have my PC up on a shelf and it is a pain having to get up and plug something in each time. So for me the My Book Duo is sort of a central hub. I have my card reader always connected to it and then I have a port open for my other flash drives and portable SSDs. And since the My Book Duo does use a USB 3.1 connection you don’t have to worry about slow transfer speeds.
At the end of the day the My Book Duo is perfect for someone who wants an easy way to add a lot of storage without having to get into a NAS. The 20TB version we took a look at today is selling at my favorite online retailer for $799. For those who don’t need that much storage the 4TB version is $259.
Overall ThinkComputers gives the WD My Book Duo 20TB External Hard Drive a 10 out of 10 and our Recommended Award.
Pros:
– Available in capacities up to 20TB
– Easy to setup
– Redundancy
– 2-port USB hub
– Fast transfer speeds
– Useful software
Cons:
– None that I could find
