Excellent point, my good man! Come, let’s continue this fascinating discussion in my study over a glass of Port and some fine cheesed doodles. I’d also like to show of one of my most recent acquisitions, Western Digital’s new My Book Premium Edition drive. Quite the little 400 gig stunner, I must say.

Now, you’d be hard pressed to... what? Oh, SORRY! YOU’D BE HARD PRESSED TO SPOT IT ON A SHELF ASIDE FROM IT’S TWO CONCENTRIC BLUE CIRCLES. AND THEY’RE NOT JUST THERE FOR SHOW, OH NO, THE INNER ONE ACTUALLY LETS YOU KNOW THE CAPACITY OF THE DRIVE AT A GLANCE! YOU KNOW ME, TECHNOLOGY IS GREAT, BUT TECHNOLOGY AT A GLANCE IS TRULY WHAT SEPARATES THE MEN FROM THE APES AND YOUR MORE ASTUTE WATER CHESTNUTS.

AH, YOU’VE NOTICED THE DIN, HAVE YOU? WELL, YOU’D PROBABLY THINK THAT WAS MY DUAL G5 HUMMING AWAY AT SOME PROCESSOR INTENSIVE TASK. THAT ASSUMPTION WOULD BE WRONG; HOWEVER. I’VE ALWAYS FELT THAT THE G5 WAS FAR TOO LARGE TO BE SO QUIET... NEVER GOT THE HANG OF ALL THAT UNDERSTATED POWER. SURE, IF YOU GOT BOTH PROCESSORS GOING FULL TILT, YOU’D BE IN FOR A TREAT, BUT IN A CHILLY CLIMATE CONTROLLED ROOM SUCH AS THIS ONE, MY STUDY THAT IS, YOU’D BE HARD PRESSED TO REALLY MAKE THE BUGGER WAIL PROPERLY. WHICH IS ANOTHER REASON WHY I’M SO IN LOVE WITH THIS MY BOOK. HOLD ONE MOMENT, LET ME SHUT IT DOWN.

SEE? Oh, dreadfully sorry about that ol’ chap. See? The My Book easily kicks up plenty of racket to simulate the most taxing of computer events. I must say I DID have my doubts initially. Even their own website touts the “ultra quiet, cool-running hard drive” with nary a mention of a fan at all. There was also mention of turning itself on and off with your computer which didn’t really ring true with my desire for cacophony. However, those blue lights won me over even though the software included for Macs consisted of only a driver to control the inner capacity light and... did I mention the inner capacity light driver?

I unpacked it, set it up, installed the driver and beheld it’s understated blueblack elegance. Imagine my wonderment and delight when it started whining to beat the band! With my G5 in idle mode it easily bested that veritable auricular layabout for noise production. I DID have a fear that, after the OS kicked in and spun down the drive, it would again fall into dead silence leaving the breathy woosh of my G5 as my aural companion. Joy of joys, it continued to produce sounds of raw guttural power without transferring nary a file and with the 400 gig drive inside spun down!! Finally, a sound worthy of the power trapped within the G5 with just the addition of a hard drive from Western Digital! Truly, my study is one of prodigious power... or at least now it SOUNDS like it.

Reading back over their web page, it struck me that, although there is no mention of a fan, there WAS an oblique reference to “cool-running” which should have tipped me off to fan-ish accouterments. How blind was I not to see!! And the “ultra quiet” hard drive? Indeed, the drive IS quiet, but that doesn’t speak for the CASE! I see now that I was needlessly worried, ol’ chum. Needlessly worried to a point!