WD Red NASware drive review

[dnar]

I found this interesting review of the new WD Red drives (2TB). Quite interesting if your power concious and don't want to use the infamous Green drives. I am trialing a 1TB model in a workstation.

http://www.sotechdesign.com.au/western- ... -wd20efrx/

http://www.sotechdesign.com.au/western- ... e-numbers/

[Onichan]

The article said RED uses more power idle. Though you are only talking about .8w which really isn't much meaningful amount. With 6 drives idle 24/7 for a month you are only talking a difference of 3.456kWh. Anyways I think the main benefits of REDS are the extra warranty and the supposed less vibrations which has shown to effect drive performance and longevity. The increase speed is generally moot in a home NAS as your NIC is your bottleneck and the TLER doesn't help with software RAID. You did say you are using a RED for a workstation so the speed would be helpful in that situation.

The first two reasons I do think are worth spending a bit more for the REDS, but I personally wouldn't spend over 20-25% more over greens which unfortunately is what they were at when they first started coming out.

[davidb]

I built a handful of NAS4Free boxes, and i tried using all sorts of drives. Initially i had to do a build with Green drives, due to the budget i was working with, and after 5 drive RMAs in the first 2 weeks, i convinced the person who wanted the box that they needed to invest in better drives. After returning all the green drives, they were replaced with the desktop line of Barracuda drives. While these drives are still in service, the machine with them has been problematic and i have replaced two drives in the last 6 months (and i see the smart errors growing on others). My next build was right around the time the REDs came out and i managed to get a good deal on them, so i build two N4F boxes using the them. I have not had to replace any of the RED drives, and they are all from the month after they line was introduced. I monitor them there are still no SMART errors on any of the drives. For me, the extra power consumption is worth it if I don't have to break into the box every other month and send a drive back.

tl;dr - The RED drives work very well, would build again.

[takei]

i tried using all sorts of drives.

why?

NOT all drives are suitable to NAS. Didn't you know this? Or have you yet learned this the expensive way? It seems you are still stumbling through happenstance.

Initially i had to do a build with Green drives, due to the budget i was working with,

nope, that won't work. Either budget for success or don't bother.

needed to invest in better drives.
replaced with the desktop line of Barracuda drives.

you thought these to be NAS suitable why?

build two N4F boxes using the [wd red].
I have not had to replace any of the RED drives

drives designed for NAS work in NAS? Is that a surprise?

--

You "can" use any drives in your NAS. But not any drive will allow a stable NAS.

Choice does NOT effect desired results.

[ku-gew]

There are competitors for WD Red:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7062/seag ... competitor
and also an higher version of the WD Red (based on enterprise mechanics and electronics instead of consumer level):
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6986/west ... -nas-units

[Lee Sharp]

I will say that the first time I fired up some REDs I was AMAZED at how quiet they were! That harmonic balancing works!