I've just recently purchased my third home NAS drive (an upgrade/replacement for the first NAS, which I've out-grown). As before, I wanted to use Western Digital Red drives, because they are designed for 24x7 operation in a NAS.
My last NAS was equipped with WD Red 6Tb models (5400rpm) and this time I elected to upgrade to 12Tb, helium-filled drives, selling for just shy of £400 each. I wanted 16 drives in total - 8 for the new NAS, 8 for the old (I use RAID6 and wanted 2 spare drives for each 6-bay NAS). I decided to split the order in to 4 - with 4 drives in each - to split the risk in case of transit damage (you don't want to put all your drives [or eggs!] in one box, because if that suffers damage in transit that you cannot see, you run the risk of all your drives failing at the same time...).
Please see attached pictures of 2 of the drive deliveries received so far. As you can see from the images, the drives turn up sealed in original packing material from the factory, but with ABSOLUTELY NO SHIPPING PROTECTION WHATSOEVER. These drives will have been thrown around in the back of vans, on trains, who knows what, subject to unknown shock treatments.
I've already had to return one batch of 4 drives to Amazon; one of them had a dented top plate and the other 3 failed when I added them to my NAS - clear signs of significant transportation damage. I've asked Amazon repeatedly, through the customer support and returns procedures, to have expensive items packaged more safely. Suffice to say, nothing has changed.
These are AWESOME drives and a recommend them unreservedly. However, if you need to buy them mail-order (and to be fair to Amazon, they use multiple different couriers so there is no way of knowing who is going to abuse them in transit), you must
1. Split your order in to multiple batches - don't order one bulk load
2. Split your orders over several days - to avoid the risk that all parcels get put in the same lorry and subject to the same damage
3. Photograph the outside of the shipping box (e.g. smartphone camera) before opening it, ESPECIALLY if you see signs of transit damage
4. Check your drives with painstaking care when you receive them - and be prepared to reject any that don't look like they are behaving perfectly out-of-the-box
5. Put labels on or otherwise mark each drive so that you know which order it was shipped with - that way, if you have a problem with a drive failing, you will immediately be able to work out which other drives came in the same packaging...
6. Be ready to demand replacements or refunds. The only way Amazon and 3rd party resellers are going to learn to pack orders properly will be when people insist on it.
Whew!
With that out of the way, here's a review...
The WD Red drives form something along the lines of a "Prosumer" range of hard drives. These are easily a step up from regular retail drives (say the Green range), but perhaps not quite as robust as their Enterprise range. They are priced a little bit more than competitors from companies like Seagate (who have the IronWolf range), but they perform MUCH better. Don't take my word for it; web search for the "Backblaze" review of hard drives - that is the definitive reference for drive performance... These 5400rpm drives may not have the rotational speed of the 7200rpm "Pro" siblings, but are priced accordingly - and offer almost-as-good performance. In fact, you can offset the speed difference by selecting a good RAID configuration and using a good NAS.
For:-
1. Very well made; truly excellent, reliable build quality
2. Very quiet in operation, moderate but not excessive heat output when running hard
3. Excellent long-term data retention; my oldest Reds now 7 years old and going strong, ZERO faults
Against:-
1. Pricey in comparison to the competition.
Sum-Up:-
You get what you pay for. If you are using these to preserve "your digital life" (in my case, tens of thousands of irreplaceable photographs and hours of recorded video content) then what price data integrity??? Put simply, if you are storing data that is materially or sentimentally valuable to you, then you would be crazy to go with anything less than the best drives you can afford.
There is a newer model of this item:
Western Digital WD30EFZX WD Red Plus 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" HDD
£130.01
(534)
Usually dispatched within 7 to 8 days
£130.01
(534)
Usually dispatched within 7 to 8 days
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From the manufacturer
What are the benefits of NASware 3.0?
- Gives you an unrivalled NAS experience
- Enhances compatibility
- Improves Reliability
- Optimizes HDD for 24x7 NAS environments
The Right Choice for Network Attached Storage
WD NAS hard drives are the essential solution for NAS applications. These drives are cool and quiet, and offer optimum compatibility in 24x7 NAS systems with up to eight bays.
- Network attached storage hard drives with up to 8TB capacities
- Designed for personal, home, and small business NAS systems up to 8-bays
- NASware 3.0 for optimal performance and compatibility
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|
|
|---|---|---|
Experienced in Network Attached StorageNo matter which NAS enclosure you decide to purchase, you can trust that WD Red hard drives will have the most comprehensive compatibility list on the market. |
24/7 reliabilitySince your NAS system is always on, a highly reliable drive is essential. With an MTBF (mean time before failure) of up to 1 million hours, the WD Red drive with NASware 3.0 is designed for the 24x7 environment. |
NAS for home or small businessWD Red hard drives enable customers to create their own reliable NAS systems whether it's in the office or at home. |
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|---|---|---|
| WD Red | WD Red Pro | |
| Application | Up to 8-bay NAS systems | Up to 16-bay NAS systems |
| RPM Class | 5400 | 7200 |
| Ideal for | Personal Home and Small Office NAS | Medium to Large Business NAS |
| Cache | 16 MB - 64 MB | 64 MB – 128 MB |
| Highest Available Capacity | 8 TB | 6 TB |
| Interface | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s |
Compare with similar items
 | WD Red 1 TB NAS SSD 2.5 Inch SATA | Western Digital WD Red Plus 2To SATA 6Gb/s 3.5p HDD | Western Digital WD20EFAX WD Red Plus 2 TB SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" HDD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | (26009) | (1881) | (455) | (1038) |
| Price | From £117.43 | £75.97 | £101.50 | £175.00 |
| Sold By | Available from these sellers | Amazon.co.uk | Cats and Mice | YMISUPPLY |
| Are batteries included? | No | No | No | No |
| Format | Digital | Digital | Digital | Digital |
| Memory Storage Capacity | 3 TB | 1 TB | 2 TB | 6000 GB |
| Read Speed | 147 MB per second | 560 MB per second | 175 MB per second | 175 MB per second |
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 March 2016
My last NAS was equipped with WD Red 6Tb models (5400rpm) and this time I elected to upgrade to 12Tb, helium-filled drives, selling for just shy of £400 each. I wanted 16 drives in total - 8 for the new NAS, 8 for the old (I use RAID6 and wanted 2 spare drives for each 6-bay NAS). I decided to split the order in to 4 - with 4 drives in each - to split the risk in case of transit damage (you don't want to put all your drives [or eggs!] in one box, because if that suffers damage in transit that you cannot see, you run the risk of all your drives failing at the same time...).
Please see attached pictures of 2 of the drive deliveries received so far. As you can see from the images, the drives turn up sealed in original packing material from the factory, but with ABSOLUTELY NO SHIPPING PROTECTION WHATSOEVER. These drives will have been thrown around in the back of vans, on trains, who knows what, subject to unknown shock treatments.
I've already had to return one batch of 4 drives to Amazon; one of them had a dented top plate and the other 3 failed when I added them to my NAS - clear signs of significant transportation damage. I've asked Amazon repeatedly, through the customer support and returns procedures, to have expensive items packaged more safely. Suffice to say, nothing has changed.
These are AWESOME drives and a recommend them unreservedly. However, if you need to buy them mail-order (and to be fair to Amazon, they use multiple different couriers so there is no way of knowing who is going to abuse them in transit), you must
1. Split your order in to multiple batches - don't order one bulk load
2. Split your orders over several days - to avoid the risk that all parcels get put in the same lorry and subject to the same damage
3. Photograph the outside of the shipping box (e.g. smartphone camera) before opening it, ESPECIALLY if you see signs of transit damage
4. Check your drives with painstaking care when you receive them - and be prepared to reject any that don't look like they are behaving perfectly out-of-the-box
5. Put labels on or otherwise mark each drive so that you know which order it was shipped with - that way, if you have a problem with a drive failing, you will immediately be able to work out which other drives came in the same packaging...
6. Be ready to demand replacements or refunds. The only way Amazon and 3rd party resellers are going to learn to pack orders properly will be when people insist on it.
Whew!
With that out of the way, here's a review...
The WD Red drives form something along the lines of a "Prosumer" range of hard drives. These are easily a step up from regular retail drives (say the Green range), but perhaps not quite as robust as their Enterprise range. They are priced a little bit more than competitors from companies like Seagate (who have the IronWolf range), but they perform MUCH better. Don't take my word for it; web search for the "Backblaze" review of hard drives - that is the definitive reference for drive performance... These 5400rpm drives may not have the rotational speed of the 7200rpm "Pro" siblings, but are priced accordingly - and offer almost-as-good performance. In fact, you can offset the speed difference by selecting a good RAID configuration and using a good NAS.
For:-
1. Very well made; truly excellent, reliable build quality
2. Very quiet in operation, moderate but not excessive heat output when running hard
3. Excellent long-term data retention; my oldest Reds now 7 years old and going strong, ZERO faults
Against:-
1. Pricey in comparison to the competition.
Sum-Up:-
You get what you pay for. If you are using these to preserve "your digital life" (in my case, tens of thousands of irreplaceable photographs and hours of recorded video content) then what price data integrity??? Put simply, if you are storing data that is materially or sentimentally valuable to you, then you would be crazy to go with anything less than the best drives you can afford.
Style Name: HDD 3.5 InchColour: RedCapacity: 6 TBVerified Purchase
Fantastic NAS Drive - Beware Shoddy Packaging
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 March 2016
I've just recently purchased my third home NAS drive (an upgrade/replacement for the first NAS, which I've out-grown). As before, I wanted to use Western Digital Red drives, because they are designed for 24x7 operation in a NAS.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 March 2016
My last NAS was equipped with WD Red 6Tb models (5400rpm) and this time I elected to upgrade to 12Tb, helium-filled drives, selling for just shy of £400 each. I wanted 16 drives in total - 8 for the new NAS, 8 for the old (I use RAID6 and wanted 2 spare drives for each 6-bay NAS). I decided to split the order in to 4 - with 4 drives in each - to split the risk in case of transit damage (you don't want to put all your drives [or eggs!] in one box, because if that suffers damage in transit that you cannot see, you run the risk of all your drives failing at the same time...).
Please see attached pictures of 2 of the drive deliveries received so far. As you can see from the images, the drives turn up sealed in original packing material from the factory, but with ABSOLUTELY NO SHIPPING PROTECTION WHATSOEVER. These drives will have been thrown around in the back of vans, on trains, who knows what, subject to unknown shock treatments.
I've already had to return one batch of 4 drives to Amazon; one of them had a dented top plate and the other 3 failed when I added them to my NAS - clear signs of significant transportation damage. I've asked Amazon repeatedly, through the customer support and returns procedures, to have expensive items packaged more safely. Suffice to say, nothing has changed.
These are AWESOME drives and a recommend them unreservedly. However, if you need to buy them mail-order (and to be fair to Amazon, they use multiple different couriers so there is no way of knowing who is going to abuse them in transit), you must
1. Split your order in to multiple batches - don't order one bulk load
2. Split your orders over several days - to avoid the risk that all parcels get put in the same lorry and subject to the same damage
3. Photograph the outside of the shipping box (e.g. smartphone camera) before opening it, ESPECIALLY if you see signs of transit damage
4. Check your drives with painstaking care when you receive them - and be prepared to reject any that don't look like they are behaving perfectly out-of-the-box
5. Put labels on or otherwise mark each drive so that you know which order it was shipped with - that way, if you have a problem with a drive failing, you will immediately be able to work out which other drives came in the same packaging...
6. Be ready to demand replacements or refunds. The only way Amazon and 3rd party resellers are going to learn to pack orders properly will be when people insist on it.
Whew!
With that out of the way, here's a review...
The WD Red drives form something along the lines of a "Prosumer" range of hard drives. These are easily a step up from regular retail drives (say the Green range), but perhaps not quite as robust as their Enterprise range. They are priced a little bit more than competitors from companies like Seagate (who have the IronWolf range), but they perform MUCH better. Don't take my word for it; web search for the "Backblaze" review of hard drives - that is the definitive reference for drive performance... These 5400rpm drives may not have the rotational speed of the 7200rpm "Pro" siblings, but are priced accordingly - and offer almost-as-good performance. In fact, you can offset the speed difference by selecting a good RAID configuration and using a good NAS.
For:-
1. Very well made; truly excellent, reliable build quality
2. Very quiet in operation, moderate but not excessive heat output when running hard
3. Excellent long-term data retention; my oldest Reds now 7 years old and going strong, ZERO faults
Against:-
1. Pricey in comparison to the competition.
Sum-Up:-
You get what you pay for. If you are using these to preserve "your digital life" (in my case, tens of thousands of irreplaceable photographs and hours of recorded video content) then what price data integrity??? Put simply, if you are storing data that is materially or sentimentally valuable to you, then you would be crazy to go with anything less than the best drives you can afford.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 July 2013
Style Name: HDD 3.5 InchColour: RedCapacity: 3 TBVerified Purchase
