Western Digital 4TB Intellipower SATA 6Gb/s 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch NAS Desktop Hard Disk Drive - Red (WD40EFAX)

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.

Price purchased £127.07 The drive information on Amazon the drives are described as only tested for NAS with 1-5 drive bays. However, on a support page it clarifies that the Red series are tested for 1-8 bay NAS and there is also a link to a NAS compatibility list [Amazon won't allow this link]. To find it search for "Compatibility list for the WD Red NAS Hard Drive id=9758" in Google without the quote marks. This appears to have been tested for the latest drives with NASWare 3.0 although I have been using 4 mirrored pairs of NASWare 2.0 drives without any issues. In NAS systems with 24x7 operation vibration is a factor in terms of reliability which is why NASWare 2.0 drives were recommended for drive enclosures of no more than 5 drives. NASWare 3.0 drives improved on the ability to manage the effect of vibration on the drives and this is why they increased rated these newer drives for up 8 drives per NAS enclosure. I had the opportunity to purchase the retail drive at the same price as the OEM drive so I was able t compare what you get in comparison to buying the OEM version of the drive. Looking at reviews of the OEM version of this drive there has been some confusion about whether the extra cost is worth it. To clarify what the differences were I rang Western Digital support. They told me that different countries have different warranty periods. Red series drives in the USA have a 12-month warranty and then you pay a little extra to add the extra warranty. I have bought more than 10 of the Red series of various sizes 3TB, 4TB and 6TB OEM. Each of these drives have registered for 3-year warranties. WD support suggested that Amazon sourced their OEM drives from different countries and that about 50% of them would register as OEM and only have 12 month’s warranty. Amazon identifies that the drives only come with a 12-month warranty unless you pay for more, (not an option for the 4TB drive), so if you register one and it only gives you a 12 -month warranty you have no grounds to complain. So in summary spending the extra £14.00 for the retail version gives you the peace of mind of knowing that you definitely have a three-year warranty. It also comes with drive screws and standard retail packaging. The OEM drives generally come with plastic mounts, on either end, to isolate them from damage to the containing boxes. The retail version plastic support mounts are on the side running the full length of the drive see photos. I think whether you purchase this retail version or opt for the OEM version depends on whether you need a set of screws to mount the drive and more importantly whether you are willing to take the risk that you may end up with a drive which only registers a 12-month warranty. I would suggest that buying OEM drives directly from Amazon, as opposed to buying from a Market Place seller, might increase the chance of getting a three-year warranty and a safely packaged drive. In terms of performance these drives run quietly and quickly. They have a variable speed between 5,400-5,900rpm. So these are not the fastest drives, which are the black series, but seem to perform quickly in everyday use for Desktop (Windows 10 & 8.1), and NAS (Network Attached Storage).

I had a WD Green in my Synology DS212j (though not listed on their compatible website). After 5 years my Raid1 NAS volume went degraded so this was the replacement. The red WD are a good choice for home NAS as provide in theory a longer life before you have to panic about swapping out! It's nice, quiet, and cool, humming away, and if it behaves like my other WD Reds I use in work servers, it'll perform well for a fair few years of punishment. WD support is also industry leading. Using their online warranty checker on any failed disks usually results in the free issue of a replacement. Haven't used it much but definitely worth the extra few pounds. A point of note, it doesn't say anywhere I could see in the description or on the device, but this is 5400rpm. Update Jan 18- the other drive in my NAS went degraded last week so I bought a second one of these. It was unfortunately DOA but within 24hrs Amazon had another one at my door! Enterprise level Prime delivery. Thanks. Replacement works perfectly.

It’s a solid unit, but it needs some extra air flow to keep it cool.

HD funcionando bem, baixo ruído durante sua operação.

Lo he utilizado para ampliar un NAS Synology 1813+ y el resultado es excelente. Anteriormente usaba discos de la serie Green, los cuales son algo ruidosos, pero la serie red no solo hace menos ruido, sino que se mantiene entre 2 y 4 grados menos que los Green, lo que se traduce en una vida mas larga. Ademas de eso el tiempo de spin up es muy pequeño, por lo que pueden pasar de stand by a on casi de inmediato. Teniendo en cuenta que la diferencia de precio con la serie Green no llega a los 20€ creo que merece mucho la pena. Con el formateo se queda en 3726 GB.

8TB購入． 4TBと比較すると、発熱が大きい． ファン冷却が必須と思われる．

Ho acquistato 2 di questi hard disk da 4TB ciascuno insieme ad un nas della Zyxel per archiviare la mole di dati presenti su diversi pc, smartphone e tablet sparsi per la casa. PICCOLA PREMESSA Se anche voi avete un quantitativo consistente di foto, video (del vostro matrimonio, dei vostri figli, del vostro viaggio di nozze, o di viaggi in generale, delle serate con i vostri amici ecc) ma anche di documenti digitali, film, ecc.. a cui tenete particolarmente e che per nassuna ragione volete perdere, il NAS è a scelta ideale. Questo dispositivo è importantissimo perchè da un lato provvede a fare quello che dovremmo fare noi regolarmente, ovvero fare il backup regolarmente (fa costantemente una copia di tutto, i maniera automatica) e dall' altro consente di condividere tutti questi file tra tutti i dispositivi presenti in casa (se avete delle foto sul cellulare, le potete vedere anche su un pc o sul tablet e viceversa). L' HARD DISK Anche se apparentemente gli hard disk da 3,5" appaiono tutti uguali fra loro vediamo come rimanendo in casa western digital, di hard disk da 3,5" ne esistono diverse serie; la blue (da utilizzare nei comuni pc desktop), la black (sempre per pc desktop ma che offre prestazioni migliori possedendo un maggior quantitativo di cache e un maggior numero di giri 7200 rpm vs i 5400 rpm della serie blue, quindi un disco più veloce e performante), la serie purple (adatta per sistemi di videosorveglianza) e la serie red (ideale per i NAS). Perchè gia soltanto all' interno di una stessa azienda, ci sono così tante possibilità di scelta? Perchè ogni hard disk è progettato per funzionare in un determinato ambiente di lavoro. Da un pc fisso, ci si aspetta velocità e reattività, magari sacrificando i consumi, l' affidabilità, la rumorosità, mentre da hard disk progettati per un NAS o un apparato di video sorveglianza ci si aspetta affidabilità, consumi ridotti, minor rumorosità, essere utilizzati contemporaneamente da più utenti, sacrificando la velocità. D' altra parte un pc lo si accende lo si utilizza diverse ore al giorno e si cercano le prestazioni migliori, ma un NAS o un sistema di videosorveglianza sta acceso ed attivo per 24h/24 e 7 giorni su 7. In pratica funziona continuamente. Se compro un hard disk non adatto ad essere utilizzato sul NAS avrò consumi maggiori, senza che ve ne sia una reale necessità e rischio che tra un paio di mesi l' hard disk si rompa, perchè messo troppo sotto stress. La serie RED della Western Digital da 4TB con 64mb di cache e 5400 rpm, velocità max di trasferimento dati di 175 Mb/sec, un consumo max di 4 watt, una vita media di circa 1 milione di ore (oltre 100 anni..) è adatta proprio all' utilizzo su NAS. Io ne ho acquistati 2 da 4TB ciascuno, installati su un NAS in raid 1 (su ciascun hard disk c'è la copia speculare dell' altro). CONSIDERAZIONI PERSONALI. Ottimi hard disk, molto silenziosi (ovviamente il nas non va messo in camera da letto) e almeno sulla carta molto affidabili, ma Western digital è una delle aziende leader nella produzione di hardware per storage. Io li ho utilizzati con massima soddisfazione (non la serie red) su pc desktop, e da circa 6 mesi sul NAS (la durata sarà da testare). Il prodotto è arrivato BEN IMBALLATO (a prova di qualsiasi corriere), SPEDIZIONE RAPIDA con PRIME, e GARANZIA di 3 anni. Spero che la mia recensione vi sia stata UTILE.