Western Digital, makers of the popular MyBook series of external drives, has just unveiled a new, more energy efficient drive. Here’s the skinny straight from their press release:

WD today introduced its My Book Studio Edition II high-performance dual-drive storage systems which are designed to seamlessly work with Mac computers and provide an ideal blend of power savings and high performance. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available in capacities of 1TB and 2TB.

The new eco-friendly1 dual-drive My Book Studio Edition II external storage systems use WD’s GreenPower hard drives for power savings and cool and quiet operation. The system’s dual-drive, RAID 0 configuration and high-speed interfaces deliver high performance for creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and anyone looking for fast data transfer.

Formatted for Mac computers, these new storage systems feature: extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 400/800, eSATA, USB 2.0); factory-shipped in RAID 0 (Striped) configuration [RAID 1 (Mirrored) configurable]; cool, eco-friendly operation with WD GreenPower drives that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode; designed without a fan to run quietly;

“WD developed the My Book Studio Edition II external drives to satisfy the needs of Mac enthusiasts and creative professionals who require extra-fast performance, but also want it to be as environmentally friendly as possible,” said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “Configured with RAID 0 out of the box, photographers, graphic artists, videographers, and others who require large amounts of storage will experience high performance combined with power savings and quiet operation when they use the new My Book Studio Edition II storage system.”

Demonstrations of the My Book Studio II Edition storage systems may be viewed at Photoshop World Booth No. 604 being held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Apr. 2-4, 2008.

Extra-fast Performance with RAID 0
Lightning-fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces combined with RAID 0 (Striped) yields the speed users need for: fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects; and saving huge blocks of data in record time. With RAID 0, users can have 2TB of storage in an elegant, small footprint design that offers plenty of room to store an entire digital photo library and hundreds of hours of HD movies or digital video (results will vary based on file size and format, settings, features, software and other factors).

Pricing and Availability
My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at select retailers and WD’s online store. MSRP for My Book Studio Edition II with 1TB is $349.99 USD; MSRP for My Book Studio Edition II with 2TB is $599.99 USD.