WD RED OR WD ENTERPRISE For my build

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Terry99

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Mar 1, 2012
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I'm looking to add a hard drive to my build, but i need some advise on which drive to choose. I'm looking at the WD red 3tb and the WD enterprise 4tb drives. I'm choosing theses drives because my system is basically setup like a NAS/Server. I stream DVD's, blu rays, videos of my son and pictures from it. So I need something that is going to last 24/7. I will probably even install a server operating system and a raid controller sometime in the near future but for now I just want to install the drive so any advice on these drives would help me out a lot
 
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GOM3RPLY3R

GOM3RPLY3R

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Mar 16, 2013
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In that case, why is WD even mentioned? WD is very inexpensive, but at the same time, not so reliable. They are good, but if your doing something like that with 24/7 on your hands, it may break within the first week of full usage. I'd go with a Seagate Barracuda 3TB or 4TB. They are about 150-200$, but they are extremely reliable.
 
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edogawa

edogawa

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GOM3RPLY3R has it backwards, and full of it saying western digital breaks easily too.

The enterprise drives are pretty expensive for something you want to do, but if you can afford it, go ahead.

The reds are great little consumer raid drives for a NAS.

Western digital red drives come with a 3 year warranty, and if you suspect drive failure you can advanced RMA(you get new drive, transfer data, then send old one in to them).

I've never had a western digital drive fail on me personally.
 
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fudoka711

fudoka711

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Apr 2, 2012
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Yea I agree that GOM3RPLY3R has is backwards. WD is much more reliable and I've also never had a WD HDD break on me. It's Seagate that has the problems, but also costs less. Regardless, both brands are still reliable. I would go for the Red kind unless you do have money to burn for the enterprise version.
 
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Terry99

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Mar 1, 2012
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Do the reds have to run in a NAS box, under a NAS OP cause I would be using windows 7 ultimate for now until I made the leap to that type of operating system. I like the WD drives myself never owned any other hd other than WD and never had a problem with them. I was looking at the TLER that those drives come with I been reading that it is important but i'm not sure. I'm eventually going to run 10 of them off a RAID controller so I definitely don't want to spend more than I have too but if the enterprise drive are that better than I will go the extra distance and get them instead. Are the reds a stripped down version of the enterprise drives or are they a whole nother level
 
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Ed Toussieh

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Sep 11, 2013
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In my experience - after installing 100's of WD and Seagate drives - the former have proven to be WAY more reliable.
Now in your case, the enterprise drives RE & SE have higher MTBFs, run faster (7200 RPM) than the RED (base power 5400 RPM) and have a longer warranty (5 years vs. 3).
Now, they enterprise drives are a little more expensive but even given this, it seems to be a no-brainer what the right choice is.
 
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Ed Toussieh

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Sep 11, 2013
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See this article for a good review of these features:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7258/battle-of-the-4-tb-nas-drives-wd-red-and-seagate-nas-hdd-faceoff
 
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Ed Toussieh

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REDs are designer with TLER which is especially useful in any RAID configuration.

The REDs run at 5400 RPM whereas the Enterprise drives SE & RE run at 7200 RPM - a very considerable difference (25%) which affects access speed.
However, you would save electric power and therefore $ by using the RED because of its lower power consumption and heat creation (the excess heat can of course be a problem inside a case but it can always be mitigated with a good fan and in a dedicated NAS enclosure itself the heat issue is also dealt with by design through fans.)

REDs have a 3 yr. warranty while the enterprise drives (SE & RE) have a 5 year warranty.

There is also the issue of rated workloads: the RED is certified for ~120 - 150 TB/yr (135 TB/yr), the SE for 180 TB/yr and finally the RE for 550 TB/yr.

Finally, price is of course an issue given that a 4TB RED is $200, a 4TB SE is $259 and a 4TB RE is $380.

Given this, the SE may be the best compromise solution in that it offers the faster speed, a 5 yr warranty and a small increase in price relative to the cheap & slow RED.

However, with my heavy workloads, I personally ONLY use the RE drives. Yes, they are more expensive but they provide high speed, they are designed for very heavy workloads (3 times that of the SE and 4 times that of the RED) and have 5 year warranties.
 
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