Storage is one very important part in our everyday digital life. As time moves and technology advances, storage capacity grows bigger and bigger, as well as our demand for storage. Today, let’s take a look at Western Digital’s WD RE 4TB Enterprise class hard drive, model WD4000FYYZ. This is not the WD Black 4TB or the WD Red NAS drives. The WD RE is built for highest level of reliability and performance for 27×4 operations. Find out more details in my review below.
“Ideal for enterprise servers and storage, video surveillance, and other write-intensive applications, WD RE 7200 RPM Enterprise SATA hard drives offer up to 4 TB capacity, 64 MB cache, 4th generation vibration tolerance and 5-year limited warranty.”
Aside from being able to perform faster (compared to typical hard drives) in 24×7 conditions, the WD RE 4TB is build with cutting edge technologies like:
- Dual Processor – Doubles the processing power to maximize performance.
- Vibration protection – Enhanced RAFF technology includes sophisticated electronics to monitor the drive and correct both linear and rotational vibration in real time.
- Dual Actuator Technology – A head positioning system with two actuators that improves positional accuracy over the data track(s).
- Stable Trac – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations.
- Multi-Axis Shock Sensor – Automatically detects the subtlest shock events and compensates to protect the data.
- RAID-Specific, Time-Limited Error Recovery (TLER) – Prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error-recovery processes common to desktop drives.
- NoTouch Ramp Load Technology – This technology ensures that the recording hear will never touch the disk media.
WD RE 4TB WD4000FYYZ Specifications
For comparison, I have also added the specifications of the 3TB and 2TB models.
| Specifications | 4TB | 3TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model number | WD4000FYYZ | WD3000FYYZ | WD2000FYYZ |
| Interface | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Formatted capacity | 4 TB | 3 TB | 2 TB |
| User sectors per drive | 7,814,037,168 | 5,860,533,168 | 3,907,029,168 |
| Native command queuing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Form factor | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch |
| RoHS compliant | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Performance | |||
| Data transfer rate (max) | |||
| Buffer to host | 6 Gb/s | 6 Gb/s | 6 Gb/s |
| Host to/from drive (sustained) | 171 MB/s | 168 MB/s | 164 MB/s |
| Cache (MB) | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| Rotational speed (RPM) | 7200 | 7200 | 7200 |
| Average drive ready time (sec.) | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Reliability/Data Integrity | |||
| Load/unload cycles | 600,000 | 600,000 | 600,000 |
| Non-recoverable read errors per bits read | <10 in 10 | <10 in 10 | <10 in 10 |
| MTBF (hours) | 1,200,000 | 1,200,000 | 1,200,000 |
| Limited warranty | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
| Power Management | |||
| Average power requirements (W) | |||
| Sequential read | 9.7 | 9.7 | 7.6 |
| Sequential write | 9.5 | 9.5 | 7.4 |
| Random read/write | 10.4 | 10.4 | 8.9 |
| Idle | 8.6 | 8.6 | 6.2 |
| Environmental Specifications | |||
| Temperature (°C) | |||
| Operating | 5 to 55 | 5 to 55 | 5 to 55 |
| Non-operating | -40 to 70 | -40 to 70 | -40 to 70 |
| Shock (Gs) | |||
| Operating (2 ms, read/write) | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Operating (2 ms, read) | 65 | 65 | 65 |
| Non-operating (2 ms) | 300 | 300 | 300 |
| Average acoustics (dBA) | |||
| Idle mode | 31 | 31 | 31 |
| Performance seek mode | 34 | 34 | 34 |
| Physical Dimensions | |||
| Height (in./mm, max) | 1.028/26.1 | 1.028/26.1 | 1.028/26.1 |
| Length (in./mm, max) | 5.787/147 | 5.787/147 | 5.787/147 |
| Width (in./mm, ± .01 in.) | 4/101.6 | 4/101.6 | 4/101.6 |
| Weight (lb./kg, ± 10%) | 1.66/0.75 | 1.66/0.75 | 1.66/0.75 |
WD RE 4TB WD4000FYYZ Benchmarks
Now that we have seen the features and specifications of the WD RE 4TB enterprise hard drive, let’s take a look on how well does this drive perform. Below are benchmarks results I collected using HD Tune Pro 5.0, AS SSD Benchmark, CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 and ATTO Disk Benchmark. For reference and comparison, I have also included the benchmarks that I got from the WD Velociraptor 1TB and a Samsung 830 128GB SSD.
Test setup used are as follows:
Operating System: Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
Motherboard: Asus P8H67M-EVO
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K (default speeds)
Memory: 2x 4GB G.Skill F3-12800CL9-4GBXL (1600MHz) + 4GB Corsair Vengeance CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9 DDR3-1333
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 (GTX660-DC2 Series)
Storage Drive: WD RE 4TB, WD Velociraptor 1TB and Samsung 830 SSD 128GB
WD RE 4TB vs WD Velociraptor 1TB vs Samsung 830 128GB SSD Benchmarks
HD Tune Pro Benchmark
 WD RE 4TB |
 WD Velociraptor 1TB |
 Samsung 830 128GB SSD |
From the screenshots above, you can see that the WD RE 4TB returned with a minimum 84.2 MB/s read speed and a maximum of 171.8MB/s. Average read speed was around 132.7 MB/s. But the WD Velociraptor and the Samsung 830, as expected, yielded a much better result. With an average read speed of 161.6 MB/s and 374.8 MB/s respectively. You might notice that the line from the Samsung 830 benchmark result is not downward sloping. That’s the power of a Solid State Drive vs a hard drive, even if its compared to a high performance high drive. SSDs are way better than a hard drive, not only in terms of speed, but in consistency and stability as well.
AS SSD Benchmark
 WD RE 4TB |
 WD Velociraptor 1TB |
 Samsung 830 128GB SSD |
CrystalDiskMark
 WD RE 4TB |
 WD Velociraptor 1TB |
 Samsung 830 128GB SSD |
ATTO Disk Benchmark
 WD RE 4TB |
 WD Velociraptor 1TB |
 Samsung 830 128GB SSD |
The result is also true with AS SSD Benchmark, CrystalDiskMark and ATTO Disk Benchmark. The Velociraptor proved to be faster than the WD RE 4TB, but the Samsung 830 SSD is way faster and better than the two high performance drives.
You might be thinking that the comparison is a bit off. Well, it’s true, I should have compared the WD RE 4TB with a WD Black 4TB and a WD Velociraptor. Or better yet, I should have compared it with its contender, the HGST Ultrastar Enterprise drive. But I don’t have a WD Black 4TB or the HGST Ultrastar. And I didn’t bother to compare the WD RE with a WD Blue or WD Green since they are no match for an enterprise hard drive. But if you want to see how a typical hard drive fares with a high performance drive, you can see some graphs from my WD Velociraptor 1TB review.
I also noticed that as the drive gets populated specially when there is only a small percentage of storage left, performance tends to decrease with hard drives. The benchmarks above where conducted at 100% free capacity. So most probably that would be their “best” performance.
You might also think that a WD Velociraptor is the better drive here. Well, yes because it is faster. But the WD RE Enterprise drive is not only built for speed and performance, but also for 24×7 demanding operations. They have a much longer Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) compared to other hard drives, meaning they last longer.
Just to give you an idea with the difference in their prices, below are the prices of a WD RE drive, WD Black drive, WD Velociraptor and other brands with 4TB capacity.
| Hard Drive | 4TB | 3TB | 2TB | 1TB | 500GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WD RE Enterprise | $391.14 | $299.99 | $208.25 | ||
| WD Red NAS | $154.92 | $117.58 | $79.99 | ||
| WD Black | $295.73 | $159.99 | $79.99 | ||
| WD Velociraptor | $229.99 | $143.27 | |||
| Seagate Barracuda | $186.82 | $134.99 | $99.92 | $70.92 | |
| (Hitachi) HGST Deskstar CoolSpin | $219.99 | ||||
| (Hitachi) HGST Deskstar | $259.99 | ||||
| (Hitachi) HGST Ultrastar Enterprise | $365.00 See here |
Prices above are subject to change without prior notice, and may be different from your local stores.
Conclusion
The WD RE 4TB is, without a doubt, a great hard drive. It’s not as fast as the Velociraptor or an SSD drive, but it offers a much larger capacity, of up to 4TB. And it’s definitely better when it comes to demanding 24×7 operations, specially for computer systems that seldom goes off, or doesn’t at all. I don’t see any major cons here and I don’t hear any significant noise as well. I guess the only cons would be its price. It’s expensive compared to other 4TB drives. It’s probably not for your typical consumer looking for a larger storage solution, for downloaded HD movies and other media files. But the WD RE Enterprise drive is a class of its own, and I guess that’s the price you have to pay for such a drive.
Price and Where to Buy
The WD RE 4TB Enterprise hard drive is available in major computer stores and online stores. It used to be priced around $599, but now you can get a 4TB for $390. It’s available in 2TB, 3TB and 4TB capacities. You can order now one here.
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