Skip to main content

Western Digital pushes My Book Studio Edition II to 6 TB

Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II (6 TB)
Image used with permission by copyright holder

It’s common knowledge that video editors chew through storage space like chainsaws through styrofoam, and storage developer Western Digital is looking to feed that need with a new 6 TB version of its My Book Studio Edition II external hard drive. Aimed primarily at Macintosh users—because, let’s face it, a lot of high-end video editing gets done on Macs—the drive features eSATA and FireWire 800 interfaces, with the capability to drop down to FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 if needed. And while the drives can be easily reformatted to work with Windows systems, that won’t magically make a USB 3.0 interface appear.

“Thanks to advancements in HD video devices including digital SLR cameras and HD video cameras, the quality and quantity of video content being produced by professionals and enthusiasts alike has grown at an astounding pace,” said WD’s VP of marketing Dale Pistilli, in a statement. “The My Book Studio Edition II drive now available with 6 TB of storage provides creative individuals with the expanded storage and bandwidth they need to effectively shoot, edit, and safely store their video productions without the need to compress their videos or reduce the overall quality of them for the sake of available space.”

The drives are available in 2, 4, and npw 6 TB capacities: the latter two only work with Mac OS X 10.5.2 or newer, or Windows Vista or better. The drives are dual-drive units—yes, that means the 6 TB drive is really two 3 TB drives—and sport a comparatively massive case: about six inches deep and tall, and 3.9 inches across. Customers should also remember to leave room for a separate AC adapter. WD touts the drives as consuming a third less power than a standard dual-drive storage system, thanks to (quiet) fanless convection cooling.

The 6 TB version of the My Book Studio Edition II is available now for $549.99.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
4 CPUs you should buy instead of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is one of the best gaming processors you can buy, and it's easy to see why. It's easily the fastest gaming CPU on the market, it's reasonably priced, and it's available on a platform that AMD says it will support for several years. But it's not the right chip for everyone.

Although the Ryzen 7 7800X3D ticks all the right boxes, there are several alternatives available. Some are cheaper while still offering great performance, while others are more powerful in applications outside of gaming. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a great CPU, but if you want to do a little more shopping, these are the other processors you should consider.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

Read more
Even the new mid-tier Snapdragon X Plus beats Apple’s M3
A photo of the Snapdragon X Plus CPU in the die

You might have already heard of the Snapdragon X Elite, the upcoming chips from Qualcomm that everyone's excited about. They're not out yet, but Qualcomm is already announcing another configuration to live alongside it: the Snapdragon X Plus.

The Snapdragon X Plus is pretty similar to the flagship Snapdragon X Elite in terms of everyday performance but, as a new chip tier, aims to bring AI capabilities to a wider portfolio of ARM-powered laptops. To be clear, though, this one is a step down from the flagship Snapdragon X Elite, in the same way that an Intel Core Ultra 7 is a step down from Core Ultra 9.

Read more
Gigabyte just confirmed AMD’s Ryzen 9000 CPUs
Pads on the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Gigabyte spoiled AMD's surprise a bit by confirming the company's next-gen CPUs. In a press release announcing a new BIOS for X670, B650, and A620 motherboards, Gigabyte not only confirmed that support has been added for next-gen AMD CPUs, but specifically referred to them as "AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors."

We've already seen MSI and Asus add support for next-gen AMD CPUs through BIOS updates, but neither of them called the CPUs Ryzen 9000. They didn't put out a dedicated press release for the updates, either. It should go without saying, but we don't often see a press release for new BIOS versions, suggesting Gigabyte wanted to make a splash with its support.

Read more