Western Digital has just announced the next generation of its popular My Book Studio Edition external drives, the Studio Edition II. The new drives come in 1TB and 2TB capacities and use two of WD's GreenPower drives (2 x 500GB or 2 x 1TB) in a factory-shipped RAID 0 configuration.

Western Digital's Green Power drives have been designed for lower power consumption and cool and quiet operation; ideal for an external storage solution.

The drives come with four interfaces - FireWire 400, 800, eSATA and USB 2.0 - and feature a
capacity gauge, intelligent drive management features such as automatic power-up and Safe Shutdown, automatic and continuous backup software and LED status and activity lights.

The good news is that they have been designed with user serviceability in mind, so they can be easily opened if you want to replace a broken drive or add bigger drives at a later date. Both drives are backed by a 5-year limited warranty.

My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now. Pricing for My Book Studio Edition II with 1TB of storage is is £219.99 inc. VAT, while for 2TB it's £429.99 inc. VAT.