The WD NetCenter will ship in June for $399 for a 320-Gbyte model, the highest capacity point in the NetCenter lineup. Capacities will range from 160 to 320 Gbytes. For those who want a little something extra to impress the ladies, the $299 320-Gbyte Extreme Lighted Combo Drives will add a kaleidoscope LED light, but subtract the Ethernet functionality.

In the case of the NetCenter, however, WD is offering a drive that few of its competitors do. Save for companies like Ximeta, drive makers have foregone the network-attached storage market in favor of directly attaching a drive via a USB or IEEE 1394 port, which the NetCenter can do as well.

The WD NetCenter contains a management software tool for mirroring the drive, backing up data, and protecting and sharing folders, as well as the WD EasyLink utility to set up NetCenter as a local drive on any computer on the network. The drive can also assign DHCP addresses. Only a 10/100-Mbit Ethernet connection is provided, however.