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The Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo (8TB) is retailing for S$1,199 which is pretty expensive for a external hard drive.

It comes with dual Thunderbolt ports that allows you to daisy-chain up to six My Book Thunderbolt Duo drives (48 TB using six Thunderbolt Duo 8 TB drives) or other devices such as monitors, media players, and video / audio editors.

In the first part review of the Synology DiskStation DS413j, I talked about unboxing and setting up and in this second part review, I will talk about the performance, backup and CloudStation.

Performance

I am being seeded the Synology DiskStation DS413j alongside with 3x WD Red 1TB hard disk drives for a 3 part review. For the first part, I will talk about the unboxing and setting up of the DS413j.

Since I only have 3x WD Red 1TB and the DS413j is a 4-bay NAS, I went to Sim Lim Square to get another WD Red 1TB so as not to let 1 of the bay goes to waste. I didn’t realized that WD Red 1TB is a pretty old HDD and most of the stores carry 2TB onwards. Luckily Bizgram still has some WD Red 1TB left. So I bought it for S$120.

SanDisk ReadyCache SSD was announced backed in September 2012 and is currently retaining for S$78.

The ReadyCache SSD is a affordable 32GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive (SSD) which compliments your existing 7,200rpm normal hard drive.

I am proud that Singapore made it into the tech news last week with the announcement of the world’s thinnest 2.5″ hybrid hard drive! It is only 5mm thick and is capable of storing 1TB of normal HDD and 32GB of SSD.

One of the main challenges in reducing the thickness of current 7mm hard disk drives by almost 30% without compromising on its performance and stability is its spindle motor design. To achieve a reduction in size, DSI researchers developed a proprietary axial field motor which runs smoother, quieter, more efficiently, lowering power consumption by up to 70% yet at a fraction of the cost of SSDs. The motor’s design has been patented, along with 30 other unique designs for the “A-Drive”. In addition, DSI has collaborated with multinational corporations and local companies, such as Seiko Instruments, Miyoshi, and Unisteel, to develop key components for the “A-Drive”.

On 10th July 2012, SanDisk announced 4 new USB Flash Drives for 2012.

SanDisk Extreme USB Flash Drive

Li Xiang got the Western Digital My Passport (1TB) from Challenger for S$189 (Member’s Price: S$159).

This is the new 2012 edition and WD has dropped the name “Essential SE” and hence the name is just Western Digital My Passport. Also, USB 3.0 is now the standard feature.

Bought the Vantec NexStar SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter from Challenger for S$59.90 (Member’s Price: S$53.91).

As the name suggest, it coverts your internal SATA/PATA HDD to USB 3.0, allow you plug and play the hardisk via USB port.

Got my very first SSD which is the Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB from Newegg.com thanks to Benjamin’s cousin who is in the US.

The usual price of the SSD (on 3rd February 2012) on Newegg.com is US$205 (S$259), however there is mail-in rebate of US$50 (SDG$63). After the mail-in rebate, it cost only US$155 (S$195).