WD Announces NAS-targeted 'Red' Hard Drives

Rob Williams · 07-11-2012, 12:19 AM

Having released audio-video hard drives in the past (dubbed "AV"), I've long wondered if Western Digital would release a series targeted at one of the most thriving storage markets out there: network-attached storage. Lo and behold, it's happened, making me wish I had jotted that thought down to paper (rather, Notepad... as if I remember how to use paper).

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

Tharic-Nar · 07-11-2012, 01:45 AM

And I'd pick this drive over a Black... why? Yeah, this seems more like a step back than forward to be honest, RE4 and Black already filled this role. I guess they wanted a slightly more expensive Green drive, which doesn't drop connections when it power-saves.

Next they'll probably reduce the warranty on the Black drives to make them cheaper.

Rob Williams · 07-11-2012, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tharic-Nar

And I'd pick this drive over a Black... why?

2TB RE4: $230
2TB Black: $200
2TB Red: $140

Isn't that reason enough?

madmat · 07-11-2012, 11:13 AM

For your additional money over the green drives you're basically picking up 1yr more warranty and an improved MTBF and losing some circuitry. True, the circuitry lost isn't needed if you do RAID. If not, is it going to be a detriment to not have on board error correction?

Rob Williams · 07-11-2012, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madmat

For your additional money over the green drives you're basically picking up 1yr more warranty and an improved MTBF and losing some circuitry. True, the circuitry lost isn't needed if you do RAID. If not, is it going to be a detriment to not have on board error correction?

No circuitry has been removed from the drives, rather it's just that the firmware has been tweaked to reduce this time-out issue with NAS boxes. These are not drives I'd use on the desktop, unless you're connecting it to a RAID controller.

From what I understand, there are ways to mimic the time-limited error recovery (TLER) on Green drives with WD's own tool, but regardless, the Red drives carry the beefier warranty and slightly improved specs for NAS use.

madmat · 07-11-2012, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Williams

No circuitry has been removed from the drives, rather it's just that the firmware has been tweaked to reduce this time-out issue with NAS boxes. These are not drives I'd use on the desktop, unless you're connecting it to a RAID controller.

From what I understand, there are ways to mimic the time-limited error recovery (TLER) on Green drives with WD's own tool, but regardless, the Red drives carry the beefier warranty and slightly improved specs for NAS use.

I wasn't talking about for desktop use, for a NAS box. I've met people that don't do RAID for various reasons such as cost or complexity which is why I asked. For a desktop system I'd use a WD blue drive. Better performance than the green drives and better cost than the black drives. Win/win.

Rob Williams · 07-11-2012, 04:40 PM

I agree on the Blue drives. For NAS use, I don't think the removal of TLER is going to hurt, even if just one drive is being used (it's still going through a RAID, in a JBOD configuration, I guess).

With this announcement I noticed that drive prices have come down quite a bit, but we're still not at pre-Thailand levels. The 2TB Green before the flood was about $90, and now it's $120. That's a LOOOT better than the $200+ that it was after the floods. Still would love to see it go back to "normal".

Rob Williams · 07-11-2012, 08:18 PM

Hmm, I just noticed something. I figured that these were called "WD Red" and not "WD Caviar Red" because they're not desktop drives, but on WD's website, -no- drives are listed as Caviar anymore, or Momentus on the desktop side. I wonder when that change-over happened?

Tharic-Nar · 07-12-2012, 10:14 AM

Ok, so after reading into the drive a bit, it definitely fills a niche and has its purpose. Its performance is mostly on par with Blues and even Black in some cases. After reading into the TLER feature, it makes sense now. When in RAID, like a RAID 5, a normal drive hits a bad sector, it will keep trying to read it, the controller picks up on this long lead time, then declares the drive dead and begins to rebuild that sector. With TLER on the drive, it makes only a few passes, then says the data is corrupt, the controller then rebuilds the sector and everything carries on as per normal, without the drive declared 'dead'. TLER is only on the RE4 drive, but now the Red too.

So, great drive for real RAID (i.e. not RAID 0), not so great for normal system use. The other feature of the drive is its built-in balance mechanism, which allows it to maintain higher performance. The other downside is the higher seek times due to various mechanisms to reduce noise and prolong life.

I'm still iffy over the reduced warranty, but hey, at least I know what it's good for now (not just a price war).

07-11-2012, 12:19 AM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	WD Announces NAS-targeted 'Red' Hard Drives Having released audio-video hard drives in the past (dubbed "AV"), I've long wondered if Western Digital would release a series targeted at one of the most thriving storage markets out there: network-attached storage. Lo and behold, it's happened, making me wish I had jotted that thought down to paper (rather, Notepad... as if I remember how to use paper). Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

07-11-2012, 01:45 AM	#2
Tharic-Nar Techgage Staff Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 1,151	And I'd pick this drive over a Black... why? Yeah, this seems more like a step back than forward to be honest, RE4 and Black already filled this role. I guess they wanted a slightly more expensive Green drive, which doesn't drop connections when it power-saves. Next they'll probably reduce the warranty on the Black drives to make them cheaper. __________________ PSU: Corsair 1000HX - Case: Thermaltake Xaser VI Full Tower - CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 @3.8GHz - Cooler: Thermaltake FRIO - Motherboard: ASUS P67 Sabertooth - Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP Arctic 1600 - GPU: 2x AMD Radeon HD 5870 - HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 6Gb/s - Audio: ASUS Xonar DX + Corsair HS1 USB Headset K/B: Corsair K90 - Mouse: Corsair M60 - Monitor: DELL U2410 - Speakers: Corsair SP2500 - Headset: Corsair HS1A - Mic: Blue Yeti USB Microphone - I need Fiber to fix my Irregular Bandwidth Syndrome -

07-11-2012, 11:13 AM	#4
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	For your additional money over the green drives you're basically picking up 1yr more warranty and an improved MTBF and losing some circuitry. True, the circuitry lost isn't needed if you do RAID. If not, is it going to be a detriment to not have on board error correction? __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!

07-11-2012, 04:40 PM	#7
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	I agree on the Blue drives. For NAS use, I don't think the removal of TLER is going to hurt, even if just one drive is being used (it's still going through a RAID, in a JBOD configuration, I guess). With this announcement I noticed that drive prices have come down quite a bit, but we're still not at pre-Thailand levels. The 2TB Green before the flood was about $90, and now it's $120. That's a LOOOT better than the $200+ that it was after the floods. Still would love to see it go back to "normal". __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

07-11-2012, 08:18 PM	#8
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	Hmm, I just noticed something. I figured that these were called "WD Red" and not "WD Caviar Red" because they're not desktop drives, but on WD's website, -no- drives are listed as Caviar anymore, or Momentus on the desktop side. I wonder when that change-over happened? __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

07-12-2012, 10:14 AM	#9
Tharic-Nar Techgage Staff Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 1,151	Ok, so after reading into the drive a bit, it definitely fills a niche and has its purpose. Its performance is mostly on par with Blues and even Black in some cases. After reading into the TLER feature, it makes sense now. When in RAID, like a RAID 5, a normal drive hits a bad sector, it will keep trying to read it, the controller picks up on this long lead time, then declares the drive dead and begins to rebuild that sector. With TLER on the drive, it makes only a few passes, then says the data is corrupt, the controller then rebuilds the sector and everything carries on as per normal, without the drive declared 'dead'. TLER is only on the RE4 drive, but now the Red too. So, great drive for real RAID (i.e. not RAID 0), not so great for normal system use. The other feature of the drive is its built-in balance mechanism, which allows it to maintain higher performance. The other downside is the higher seek times due to various mechanisms to reduce noise and prolong life. I'm still iffy over the reduced warranty, but hey, at least I know what it's good for now (not just a price war). __________________ PSU: Corsair 1000HX - Case: Thermaltake Xaser VI Full Tower - CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 @3.8GHz - Cooler: Thermaltake FRIO - Motherboard: ASUS P67 Sabertooth - Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP Arctic 1600 - GPU: 2x AMD Radeon HD 5870 - HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 6Gb/s - Audio: ASUS Xonar DX + Corsair HS1 USB Headset K/B: Corsair K90 - Mouse: Corsair M60 - Monitor: DELL U2410 - Speakers: Corsair SP2500 - Headset: Corsair HS1A - Mic: Blue Yeti USB Microphone - I need Fiber to fix my Irregular Bandwidth Syndrome -

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