Western Digital this week introduced an 8 TB (terabyte) WD ShareSpace network storage system with up to 30 percent faster transfer speeds than previous versions.

"This is really good news if the new WD ShareSpace offers the same speed as the My Book World Edition; it would be a huge improvement from the predecessor," writes Crave's Dong Ngo.

"The ShareSpace is a four-bay storage system equipped with Gigabit Ethernet," writes Macworld's Peter Cohen. "It can be configured in RAID Level 0, 1 and 5 arrays and is UPnP and DLNA-certified, making it compatible as a media server for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles, among other devices. It features an iTunes server for centralized music sharing on both the Mac and PC, but can also work as a networked storage system for Macs and PCs."

"The bad news: since 2TB drives have just hit the market, the 8TB ShareSpace costs a lot," writes ZDNet's Sean Portnoy. "$1,799.99, to be exact. Clearly, that configuration is positioned for small- and medium-sized enterprises. You'll spend much less if you go for the 2TB ($699.99) or 4TB ($999.99) varieties, instead. All three are now available at Western Digital's online store."

Still, Gizmodo's Adam Frucci is sold. "It's pricey, yes, but if you get this thing configured as a RAID array and load it up with all of your music and video, it'd be the ultimate centralised streaming storage box for your home," he writes. "I want one."

More here from Geek.com ... more here from Ubergizmo ... and the press release is here.