Looking at getting additional storage for my computers (desktop & laptop). Considering these:

Seagate Central 3TB Personal Cloud Storage

WD My Cloud 3TB Personal Cloud Storage

Anyone have any experience w/either of them or a similar product?

The other option is to add an external USB drive to the desktop box and share it out on the network.

I know I can get a more reliable RAID type of setup but for a similar size capacity I'd be looking at around $500. I'm trying to keep it under $200.

I'm fairly agnostic when it comes to the manufacturer, though I seem to use Seagate more than WD. And I tend to view the really negative reviews as being the product of a greatly uninformed purchaser who didn't research what he was looking for or failed to read the directions. The people who don't like something tend to scream the loudest. There are a couple of other brands I have looked at but these two are the top contenders in this class of device.

Both of the network drives have their own unique features and failings, so it's fairly easy to compare them to my needs in some respects, and in the end they come out about even overall.

As to purpose, it's primarily for backup with some file sharing functions between systems. I have no interest in remote access from offsite so the true "cloud" features/failings are not that important to me. I'm willing to sacrifice RAID reliability since it is primarily a backup solution and cost is a factor as well. My reasoning is that if either the primary drive or the backup drive dies, I can replace it and still have a good copy of the data. I also differentiate between backups and archiving. This is not for archival purposes.

All that said, the NAS aspect is sexy and all, but an external, direct connect drive shared from the desktop is also a viable option. I currently have a samba share on the desktop system that works nicely and may be the ultimate solution. There is no room in the box for an additional drive. The cheap NAS solution has just caught my eye a bit.

id go with seagate (wife works for them). ;-)

Yep, most likely a Seagate, but the real question is network or USB3 connection.

OK, going for the schmexy stuff. The Seagate Central 3TB Personal Cloud Storage won out here. Went for that over the direct connect USB drive because I decided I wanted something independent of either of the two primary systems. Also came across a similar Seagate product but it's designated as "Business" cloud storage. The specs look pretty much the same and I'm guessing the components are mostly the same and that they use the "Business" tag to justify the $30-$40 price difference.