Western Digital, a leader in storage industry, has recently introduced a new color to their hard drives. This time it’s Red, the WD Red NAS hard drives. The new WD Red HDDs are specifically designed for home and small office and Network Attached Storage systems (SOHO NAS Systems) with 1 to five bays. These new Red drives are tested with top NAS box manufacturers to ensure 100% compatibility and optimized for power and performance.
WD Red NAS Features
NASware Technology – This is the secret to WD Red’s technology. This technology is built into every WD Red hard drive. It reduces customer downtime and simplify the integration process, upgrade-ability, and reliability.
3D Active Balance Plus – This is an enhanced balance control technology which significantly improves the overall drive performance and reliability.
Energy efficient and money saving – NASware optimizes power use resulting in significant power savings and lower hard drive operating temperatures.
Premium Dedicated Support – WD is offering free premium 24×7 dedicated support for WD Red NAS drives and a three-year limited warranty.
WD Red NAS Specifications
| Model: | WD10EFRX | WD20ERFX | WD30ERFX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity: | 1TB | 2TB | 3TB |
| Interface: | SATA 6Gb/s | SATA 6Gb/s | SATA 6Gb/s |
| Buffer Size: | 64MB | 64MB | 64MB |
| Rotational Speed (RPM): | Intellipower | Intellipower | Intellipower |
| Host to/from buffer: | 150MB/s (6 Gb/s Max) | 145MB/s (6 Gb/s Max) | 145MB/s |
| MTBF: | 1,000,000 hours | 1,000,000 hours | 1,000,000 hours |
| Operating Temp: | 0-70C | 0-70C | 0-70C |
| Non operating Temp: | -40-70C | -40-70C | -40-70C |
| TLER: | Enabled | Enabled | Enabled |
| Acoutics (idle/seek): | 21dBA/22dBA | 23dBA/24bBA | 23dBA/24bBA |
| Idle Power: | 3.2W | 4.1W | 4.1W |
| Read/Write Power: | 3.7W | 4.4W | 4.4W |
| Sleep/Standby Power: | .6W | .6W | .6W |
| Warranty: | 3 yrs limited | 3 yrs limited | 3 yrs limited |
WD Red NAS Compatibility
The WD Red hard drives integrate seamlessly with WD NAS solutions and are qualified to work with a wide array of WD OEM partners. Below is a list of recommended WD Red-qualified products and manufacturers and has been tested on the following drive bays:
- D-Link DNS-1100-04
- D-Link DNS-1550-04
- D-Link DNS-1250-04 (US only)
- D-Link DNS-1200-05
- D-Link DNS-1250-06 (US only)
- Drobo S
- Drobo FS
- Drobo (2nd Gen)
- Drobo S (2nd Gen)
- NetGear ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus RNDP200U
- NetGear ReadyNAS RNDU400U-100NAS
- NetGear Pro 6 (6 Bay)
- NetGear ReadyNAS Duo
- Promise NS2600
- Promise NS4600
- Promise NS4700
- QNAP TS Series DRive Bays
- Synology DS, DX and RX series
- Thecus N2, N3, N4 and N5 series
- Western Digital My Book Live Duo
*List is last updated on July 2012.
WD Red NAS Hard Drives Pros and Cons
The WD Red NAS has been reviewed already in other popular tech sites. Generally, the new WD Red drives are specifically built to solve NAS storage problems, unlike the typical hard drives. It’s a solution to small NAS system, either for home of office. Below are the common pros and cons about this drive.
WD Red PROS:
- Power consumption is best in its class
- Efficient and energy saving
- Outstanding sequential read and write performance
- 3 year warranty with 24×7 support
- The drive with 1 million hours of Mean Time Before Failure
- Perfect for Small Office and Home NAS Systems
- Quite operation
WD Red CONS:
- The WD Red seemed to have a low random access I/O performance. Similar with WD AV-GP
UPDATE: Cons were eliminated in the latest models of WD Red NAS. Get them below.
WD Red NAS Pricing and Availability
The new Western Digital Red hard drives are already available in local computer stores as well as online stores. Below are the current prices and were you can buy them.
1TB around $69.99
2TB around $98.95
3TB around $134.36
4TB around $200.99
*Prices are subject to change and/or promotions without prior notice.
In the Philippines the WD Red price are as follows; WD Red 1 TB drive (model #: WD10EFRX) is Php4,995.00, the 2 TB drive (model #: WD20EFRX) is Php6,195.00 and the 3 TB drive (model #: WD30EFRX) is Php8,695.00 USD.
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