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WD My Book Duo RAID With Two HDDs for Home and Office

Scandalous pricing differences between USA and Europe

WD, a Western Digital LLC company, introduced My Book Duo to its line of desktop storage solutions for home and office.

Western

Utilizing two drives, hardware-level RAID and USB 3.0, it delivers capacity and file transfer speeds not available on single-drive solutions. Available in 4TB, 6TB and 8TB capacities, it also comes with software that creates local, cloud and system-level backups for data protection.

From creative pros and expert consumers to everyday content creators – people with large amounts of data will find My Book Duo the fast and reliable way to offload content from their computers, organize it in a single location and protect it with backups, passwords and encryption,” said Jim Welsh, EVP of content solutions and WW sales, WD. “My Book Duo offers super-fast transfer speeds, massive capacity and integrated WD Red drives to provide the ultimate desktop storage solution for all your digital libraries.

Performance
The dual-drive design offers performance with USB 3.0 connection to enable transfer speeds up to 290MB/s. Optimized for small RAID environments, the integrated WD Red HDDs with true hardware RAID increase performance and reduce data bottlenecks. Preconfigured in RAID-0 for maximum performance and capacity, it offers users the flexibility to take advantage of mirror mode (RAID-1) for data protection or use JBOD configuration to use the drives individually. In mirror mode (RAID-1) the drives continuously maintains a second copy of all digital files for real-time backup. One drive is used to store the user’s data while the second drive is used for a duplicate copy. In the event that one drive fails, the user’s data is available from the other drive.

Backup Protection
Software available offers various forms of data protection with local, cloud and system-level backup through WD SmartWare Pro backup software and Acronis True Image software WD edition. The automatic and continuous settings within SmartWare Pro make file and folder backups quick. It offers multiple data protection and access benefits to Dropbox account users. Dropbox data can be backed up to the local HDD and integrated cloud backup to Dropbox accounts with Smartware Pro to provide offsite storage of critical files – creating an extra layer of protection. Additionally users can then access information saved in the cloud with Dropbox web access.

Hardware and Software Security
In addition to the performance benefits of hardware RAID, it is engineered with security in mind with 256-bit AES hardware encryption and password protection to provide hardware and software security.

Features
The solution is designed with a user-serviceable enclosure and a USB hub on the back of the device which allows for connection of mobile phones, tablets and more for charging or data transfer, or to help de-clutter the workstation area.

Additional features include:

  • Interface: USB 3.0 (x3)
  • Drives on board: WD Red HDDs
  • Available capacities: 4TB, 6TB and 8TB
  • Data management: RAID-0, RAID-1, JBOD; independent CPU for RAID volume management
  • Security: Hardware RAID, hardware encryption, password protection
  • Compatibility: NTFS (default) + reformat to HFS + J for Mac
  • Software: WD SmartWare Pro, Dropbox cloud integration, Acronis True Image Software WD Edition, WD Security, WD Drive Utilities
  • Limited Warranty: 2-Year regional warranty

Available at select U.S. retailers and online, the product comes with a two-year limited regional warranty. Recommended pricing is $279.99 (€349,90) for 4TB, $349.99 (€669,90) for 6TB, and $449.99 (€869,90) for 8TB.

Comments

Sometimes US companies are using scandalous exchange rates for their products when sold in Europe.

As of today, $1 is equivalent to €0.73. So you can think that the amount to pay in euro is inferior than in US dollar. My Book Duo is priced at $449.99 for 8TB in USA, which means €328.49 using this rate. The realty is 2.6x more with VAT in Europe: €869,90! 20% more could be considered as reasonable, not 165%.

OK, it costs to ship the product across the Atlantic Ocean and VAT is superior, but this huge difference is not acceptable at all.

The same product is at $434.99 on Amazon.com and, it's even worse, at €882.62, on Amazon.fr.

If you are in Europe and really wants to buy the My Book Duo, search a friend in USA that could come in your country with the product in his luggage. With the difference of price, you can offer him an excellent restaurant in Paris and keep a good amount of money in your pocket. And why not acquiring one hundred units in USA and reselling them through Internet in your country ... WD is pushing grey market with this pricing policy.

The US storage firm eats away at Europe seriously and considers European like vulgar moneybags to better increase margins. If they did the same things on internals HDDs nobody would even want one and everyone would buy Seagate's or Tohiba's products instead.

Model Official price in $ Conversion in €* Official price in € Difference in €
My Book Duo 4TB $279.99 €204.39 €349,90 +71%
My Book Duo 6TB $349.99 €255 .49 €669,90 +162%
My Book Duo 8TB $449.99 €328.49 €869,90 +165%

* at  current rate of $1=€0.73

Corrections on July 4, 2014:

  • Official prices  in euro in Europe mentioned here are for France only. They are much lower in Germany: €459  with VAT for the My Book Duo 8TB.
  • In France, there is levy on the two HDDs included in My Book Duo. For example it's a total of €96 for the My Book Duo 8TB. But even if we add this levy, final price is 105% higher than in USA.

 

 

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