July 10, 201213 yr Anyone see this, what do you think? Who is going to test them first? http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/10/wd.red.claims.higher.reliability.performance.in.nas.devices/ WD adds Red drives designed for network attached storage WD Red claims higher reliability, performance in NAS devices Western Digital is bringing out hard drives designed specifically for network attached storage devices. The WD Red range is a new line of storage aimed purely at the NAS market, claiming improved reliability and system performance in comparison to desktop and server drives in such devices. The drives boast NASware technology, which improves the device compatibility with NAS devices, improved reliability with higher operating temperature thresholds, error recovery controls, and protection against vibrations caused by other nearby drives. Users of WD's My Book line will be seeing the drives used in future iterations of the external storage, with the My Net routers certain to receive the same treatment. The WD Red drives are on sale now, with the one terabyte drive retailing for $110, 2TB for $140, and $190 for the 3TB drive.
July 11, 201213 yr Just saw that this morning and thought to check limetech forums to see if anyone here had already bitten the bullet. As for me, I just went and bought 5 x 3TB greens yesterday If only I waited a bit, I might have been game enough to give them a go. Not to worry... always next time. Given that most people use Greens in NAS or NAS like scenarios (i.e. as datastores) is there really much use for having Green drives anymore if the RED can do everything and more? I wonder if anyone would be able to extract the secret firmware from the Red drives and port them over to the Greens.
July 11, 201213 yr Just found this review: http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_red_nas_hard_drive_review_wd30efrx
July 11, 201213 yr I wonder if anyone would be able to extract the secret firmware from the Red drives and port them over to the Greens. The press release (that's all I have) says physical changes from Green, so I suspect loading the firmware is in the "very" bad idea column. Making a whole new product line is a huge undertaking. With Seagate announcing the end of Low Power drives, WD stepped up to take that share as RED are widely believed to be 5900rpm drives, but the release does not confirm that. The original thread is over in the "Disk Drives" section http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=21370.0
July 13, 201213 yr In the process of planning a new build (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=21431.0) and saw this post. Im thinking about giving them a try. I found the 2TB's for $130 (it's about a $10-$20 premium over the green). I figure i can pay back all the help i have found on this forum with a real world review. Stay Tuned.......
August 2, 201213 yr Given the fact that UnRAID has spin down, will the POH (Power-On Hours) 8760 Hours/Year really mean that much? There are definitely other great aspects to these drives such as the lower power consumption and cooler operational temperatures but in terms of reliability, are these WD Red drives really positioned to be the next big thing for unRAID users? Don't get me wrong, these drives appear stellar. I'm just wondering with the way that unRAID operates if we stand to gain much in terms of reliability / longevity of our drives.
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