Western Digital PiDrive and Enclosures for RPi
#1
These new products look like an interesting option for the RPi fans out there.

A 314GB USB HDD for the RPi for $34
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...GB_PiDrive

and a $10 case to contain it all
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...e%2C_Black

I wonder how the PiDrive compares to a microSD in terms of speed.
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#2
Doesn't really work for Kodi ! But that is a great price for using Pi for a PC Smile Nice looking case !
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#3
(2016-03-14, 22:06)Rickt1962 Wrote: Doesn't really work for Kodi ! But that is a great price for using Pi for a PC Smile Nice looking case !

Why shouldn't it work for Kodi?
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#4
(2016-03-14, 22:06)Rickt1962 Wrote: Doesn't really work for Kodi ! But that is a great price for using Pi for a PC Smile Nice looking case !

(2016-03-15, 10:47)ulTimaS Wrote:
(2016-03-14, 22:06)Rickt1962 Wrote: Doesn't really work for Kodi ! But that is a great price for using Pi for a PC Smile Nice looking case !

Why shouldn't it work for Kodi?

I second that. Why shouldn't it work with Kodi?
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#5
You also missed a lot of the other products in this new "PiDrive" and "WD Pi Enclosure" series which are all interesting for both Kodi and Linux desktop/server I think:

WD PiDrive Kit for $79.99 with a 1TB "PiDrive"
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...iDrive_Kit

314GB USB HDD for the RPi for $34
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...GB_PiDrive

WD Pi Enclosure(s) are $10 cases to contain a Raspberry Pi 2/3 and a "PiDrive or other harddrives
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...e%2C_Black
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...e%2C_White
WD Pi Enclosure

WD 2.5" SATA-to-Raspberry Pi Adapter Board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...pter_Board

Media Stick for Raspberry Pi Compute Module
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...spberry_Pi

WD PiDrive Cable Kit
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di..._Cable_Kit

WD PiDrive Cable
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...rive_Cable

Media Stick Cable
http://store.wdc.com/store/wdus/en_US/Di...tick_Cable
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#6
(2016-03-15, 10:52)Thanasis159 Wrote:
(2016-03-14, 22:06)Rickt1962 Wrote: Doesn't really work for Kodi ! But that is a great price for using Pi for a PC Smile Nice looking case !

(2016-03-15, 10:47)ulTimaS Wrote:
(2016-03-14, 22:06)Rickt1962 Wrote: Doesn't really work for Kodi ! But that is a great price for using Pi for a PC Smile Nice looking case !

Why shouldn't it work for Kodi?

I second that. Why shouldn't it work with Kodi?

Thirded, why wouldn't it? Seems like a good price, if it can be used as a boot drive...
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#7
LOL Let me back step a little LOL Most of us use Kodi for 2 things either simply streaming or using it off your personal library from a server. Its small and can be hidden behind the TV. And is super fast booting from a SD card.

If you want to add a traditional Hard drive to it you will need the larger case and its no longer small. So you can run Kodi from it.......But most people that set up a small PC will want more power.

You just stepped over the line from being a cheap option for TV's that have CEC to a Slow PC for hobbyist with a small Hard Drive running Kodi
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WD MyCloud 24TB over Netgear network | 6500 movies and 40,000+ TV Show episodes
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#8
Which still makes no sense. A lot of people that use RPis for Kodi also use a HDD connected.

Not to mention that the WD 314GB Pidrive is a WD slim drive and the case is still small enough it can be hidden easily behind a TV, it's only 8"(L) X 4 ¼" (H) X 2 ¼" (D), which I would call "large".
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#9
I have one of these (I was one of the beta testers for it), and can confirm that it works fine with Kodi. We were testing it with BerryBoot, which does put some limitations on things (it only offered OpenElec 6.0.1, although that's now up'd to 6.0.3 but due to how it operates it's not currently possible to do an update to the image itself via the normal tar file method). But there should be no problem I would expect setting it up as a normal dedicated OE or OSMC installation, with the boot from the SD card and everything else being pulled from the PiDrive.

It's a nice compact little drive (for a hard drive) and works well. It's USB3 connected (not that this helps much on a Pi), but the electronics is apparently optimised for the Pi and it draws very little current (one of my fellow testers measured it with an in-line tester at about 200mA playing an uncompressed BluRay).

The PiDrive cable (which I think they are selling separately with the 314GB drive) is also nice, as you then only need one (decent current) power supply to drive both the drive and the Pi itself, as it connects up both.

Can't comment about enclosures as I don't have one, my PiDrive is currently housed in a case made by my daughters from Lego...

Would have commented earlier, but had to check with WD about what I'm allowed to say given the beta testing was under an NDA.
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#10
(2016-03-15, 20:35)Rickt1962 Wrote: Most of us use Kodi for 2 things either simply streaming or using it off your personal library from a server. Its small and can be hidden behind the TV. And is super fast booting from a SD card.

.....But most people that set up a small PC will want more power.
Do you have statistics on how "most people" use kodi? And before answering please understand that the people that frequent this forum does not represent "most people" who use Kodi. I think that it is safe to assume that "most people" who use Kodi actually never posted or even registered on this forum.

Kits like these can be very attractive for recommending to people you think should get a Kodi device and do not already have a NAS/server for storage, like non-techy friends and family members such as example your parents.
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#11
(2016-03-16, 10:37)DarrenHill Wrote: I have one of these (I was one of the beta testers for it), and can confirm that it works fine with Kodi. We were testing it with BerryBoot, which does put some limitations on things (it only offered OpenElec 6.0.1, although that's now up'd to 6.0.3 but due to how it operates it's not currently possible to do an update to the image itself via the normal tar file method). But there should be no problem I would expect setting it up as a normal dedicated OE or OSMC installation, with the boot from the SD card and everything else being pulled from the PiDrive.

It's a nice compact little drive (for a hard drive) and works well. It's USB3 connected (not that this helps much on a Pi), but the electronics is apparently optimised for the Pi and it draws very little current (one of my fellow testers measured it with an in-line tester at about 200mA playing an uncompressed BluRay).

The PiDrive cable (which I think they are selling separately with the 314GB drive) is also nice, as you then only need one (decent current) power supply to drive both the drive and the Pi itself, as it connects up both.

Can't comment about enclosures as I don't have one, my PiDrive is currently housed in a case made by my daughters from Lego...

Would have commented earlier, but had to check with WD about what I'm allowed to say given the beta testing was under an NDA.

Running openelec off the SDcard and put my data like movies on the pidrive would be my use case scenario with this. Either the 314gb or 1tb drive if possible.
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#12
That should work fine.
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#13
(2016-03-15, 20:53)Tinwarble Wrote: Which still makes no sense. A lot of people that use RPis for Kodi also use a HDD connected.

Not to mention that the WD 314GB Pidrive is a WD slim drive and the case is still small enough it can be hidden easily behind a TV, it's only 8"(L) X 4 ¼" (H) X 2 ¼" (D), which I would call "large".

As I said this is a new small drive. And yes people will use a USB portable drive plugged into Raspberry. Time will tell.....We will see how many people jump to this small drive.
One HTPC Windows 7 pro 64x running WMC with 2 HDhomeRun on Comcast 6 tuners with MCEbuddy
WD MyCloud 24TB over Netgear network | 6500 movies and 40,000+ TV Show episodes
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#14
Any word yet on whether this "has" to use the supplied WD HDD?
Yes, I realize that you need the SATA/Power = USB component before you can just connect any bare hard drive, but what if you simply took apart an external hard drive like Seagates new 5TB 2.5" model?
Is there any sort of proprietary magic being used here that would prevent you connecting to your own hard drive, or a higher than 1TB capacity? I currently have a 4TB 2.5" external drive sitting around doing nothing, and I would much prefer to use it rather than go buying more storage at a lower capacity.
Plus, if I wanted to set this up as a home media center KODI/PLEX solution for a family member for Christmas or something, I don't want to be limited to 1TB.
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#15
My travelling Pi zero is routinely used with a 4TB WD My Passport drive. It's got a powered hub board on it, but in the past I've also used the PiDrive cable with it to also power the Pi and all worked fine.

And on my Pi3 Kodi works fine with my PiDrive itself.
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