by 6 reviews.
Western Digital 1TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD Review: A Reliable Storage Solution for NAS Enthusiasts
When it comes to reliable storage solutions for Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems, the Western Digital 1TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD stands out as a top contender. Designed specifically for small to medium-sized businesses and home office environments, this hard drive offers a blend of performance, durability, and energy efficiency. With features like CMR technology, NASware 3.0 firmware, and 3D Active Balance Plus, it’s no wonder this drive has garnered positive reviews from users worldwide.
Key Features at a Glance
- 5400 RPM Speed
Ensures smooth and consistent performance. - SATA 6 Gb/s Interface
Delivers fast data transfer rates. - 64 MB Cache
Enhances read/write speeds for better efficiency. - CMR Technology
Provides consistent performance, ideal for RAID configurations. - NASware 3.0 Firmware
Optimizes compatibility with NAS systems. - 3-Year Limited Warranty
Backed by Western Digital’s trusted support.
Pros and Cons: What Users Are Saying
Performance and Usability
One of the standout features of the WD Red Plus is its NAS-specific firmware, which many users have praised for delivering better-than-expected performance. A reviewer who built a FreeNAS server noted that the drive outperformed their older WD Black drives, especially when handling small to medium-sized files. They also highlighted the Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) feature, which is crucial for RAID environments, as it minimizes the risk of data loss during drive errors.
Another user mentioned that the drive’s 5400 RPM speed and 64 MB cache were more than sufficient for their home media server and file-sharing needs. They appreciated the drive’s ability to handle continuous operation without overheating or excessive noise.
Durability and Reliability
The WD Red Plus is designed for 24/7 operation, making it a reliable choice for NAS systems that run continuously. A user who has been using the drive for over two months in their home NAS setup reported no issues with heat or noise, even when running the drive non-stop. They also praised the drive’s 3-year warranty, although some users expressed disappointment that it’s not a 5-year warranty like older models.
However, not all experiences have been flawless. One reviewer noted that newer WD Red Plus drives tend to be noisier during read/write operations compared to older models. While this didn’t bother them much, it’s something to consider if noise levels are a concern.
Energy Efficiency and Power Consumption
Energy efficiency is another area where the WD Red Plus shines. Users have reported that the drive consumes minimal power, helping to keep their NAS systems cool and reliable. One reviewer even mentioned that the drive’s 300-second idle timer (configurable via WDIDLE3) contributed to significant power savings, which is a bonus for those running 24/7 systems.
Price and Value
While the WD Red Plus is generally well-regarded, some users feel that the price premium for NAS-specific drives is no longer justified, especially when compared to server-grade drives. One user mentioned that they plan to switch to server drives for their next NAS upgrade, citing better pricing and similar reliability.
Final Verdict: Is the WD Red Plus Worth It?
The Western Digital 1TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD is a solid choice for anyone looking to build or upgrade a NAS system. Its NAS-specific firmware, TLER feature, and 24/7 reliability make it a dependable option for both home and small business environments. While it may not be the fastest drive on the market, its consistent performance and energy efficiency more than make up for it.
However, the drive’s noise levels and 3-year warranty (instead of 5 years) are minor drawbacks that potential buyers should consider. If you’re on a tight budget, it might be worth exploring server-grade drives, which offer similar reliability at a lower price point.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for a reliable, energy-efficient, and NAS-optimized hard drive, the WD Red Plus is an excellent choice. It’s a proven performer that lives up to Western Digital’s reputation for quality and durability.
Specification Western Digital 1TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD10EFRX:
Comments from Amazon:
Pros: Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) for NAS/RAID usage. Price premium much lower/insignificant compared to what it used to be for NAS/RAID drives. Low power/Low temp. Cons: Warranty only 3 years (What happened to the 5-year warranties, WD?) I've seen failures in many drives from Seagate, WD, and other vendors in the past. Hard drives fail. Even SSDs fail sometimes. That's why RAID configurations are so popular. All versions of RAID configuration (except for RAID 0) introduce redundancy, such that if any single drive fails, no data need be lost. Full redundancy can be regained by rebuilding the array with a replacement drive, theoretically keeping your data safe from single single points of hardware failure indefinitely. These NAS drives go one step further in that their behavior is optimized for a RAID environment. In particular, Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) allows them to rely on the redundancy built into the RAID controller and the overall array to handle the sorts of errors which will inevitably pop up at some point. This reduces risks to data that can be caused by the behaviors of regular desktop disks, whose designers optimized them for environments where there is no RAID array backup. I have been running RAID arrays regularly with desktop drives for over 6 years now, and it's been a pretty frequent occurrence where a drive would suddenly have to be rebuilt for no apparent reason. In all likelihood, the reason was just a few bad sectors on the disk, which happens all the time. The total failure rate of drives in a RAID has been a little above normal, but the total rebuild rate without total failure has been very high. Read up on TLER, and you'll understand why that is expected behavior with desktop drives but not with NAS drives. The total drive rebuild process is actually fairly risky to the integrity of the data, considering that in most configurations there is no redundancy while this is happening. Therefore, making sure that a total rebuild doesn't happen unless necessary is a pretty good idea if you want to protect your data. That's why I am upgrading my RAID arrays with these drives. In response to the reviewer who complained that the WDIDLE3 issue affects these drives: I just bought 4 of these drives in the 1TB version from Amazon. (July 2015) All are model WD10EFRX. I ran WDIDLE3 /R to read the current value of the timer on all four of them before connecting them to my RAID controller. All four came set to 300 seconds (5 minutes.) This is a very reasonable value for most NAS/RAID usage, and certainly not as problematic as the 8 second timer that caused the well-known problems on some previous WD drives. If you're using these to mount an OS drive or a drive in Windows, that 5 minute timer will probably never be invoked. If you're using these on a 24/7 NAS or for non-OS storage in Linux like I do, that timer could lead to considerable power savings and reduced average temperatures, the latter of which will probably extend the life of the drive, not shorten it. The only way I could see the 300 second idle timer being a problem is if you're running a script that causes disk access every 6 minutes (or 10 or 15.) i.e. if there's something that regularly forces spin-up right after the disk idle has gone into effect. In that case, WDIDLE3 is included on the ultimate boot CD version 5.3.5 and can be used to disable the timer. An idle timeout of 300 seconds is a pretty good feature in most cases, though. P.S. I have four more 3TB versions of this drive in transit for my NAS (the 1TBs were for my linux desktop) I will check the default WDIDLE3 values on them as well and post here if they prove to be different.
These are very good hard drives for your NAS. I have been exclusively using WD Red drives in my NAS’ without any issues. I tend to have very poor luck with Seagate hard drives for some reason, with drives prematurely failing, but not with WD. Not the fastest drive, but perfect for my use of mainly being storage and a media server. I do find the newer drives to be much more noisier when reading and writing than older WD Red drives, which I still have many running without any issue after several years, but it doesn’t bother me.
Lo uso como parte de mi NAS personal, poco ruido, no se calienta, y funciona perfecto para dejarlo montado 24x7; escogí este precisamente porque garantiza soportar el trabajo 24x7 durante 5 años, y el precio se me hizo bastante aceptable. Llevo 2 meses con el funcionado como media server y fileserver en casa, nunca lo apago y espero comprarme otro de mayor capacidad para mantenerlo como respaldo.
super qualité dans mon nas
Produit conforme et livré en un temps record !
Absolut zuverlässige NAS-Festplatte, leise, allerdings nicht sehr schnell. Die aktuellen WD Red Plus Platten sind zu teuer. Die nächsten Platten in meinem NAS werden Serverplatten werden. Diese sind preiswerter und mindestens genauso zuverlässig.
The WD 1TB WDBMMA0010HNC-NRSN drive kit fully met my expectations. I bought this drive to make a RAID1 pair. The drive performed well in my home-built FreeNAS server and provided better network storage performance than expected without any glitches or issues. When compared with 750GB WD Black drives in the same server the RED drives appeared to give slightly better perforance in NAS. Maybe the NAS specific firmware isn't just marketing. For more, read on... I wanted to build a NAS server for windows sharing, iSCSI, and nfs sharing. I had an old 1U "pizza box" server with a core 2 dual CPU and 4GB of ram available plus SATA II (300MBPS) channels. I got one of the WDBMMA0010HNC-NRSN WD-red drives through the vine programs and I bought a second through Amazon to build this NAS server. This drive is the retail package. It came in a nice box with 4 screws for mounting and a little bit of very fine printed material which I didn't bother to read. If a "bare drive" is fine and you don't care about packaging you might want to consider another listing for the 1TB WD Red drives which may be at a lower price for essentially the same thing. The software I used to drive the NAS is the excellent (especially at the price) FreeNAS server. It installs on a USB stick of at least 2GB. My old box had several USB 2.1 ports, so no problem. I configured the drives in a RAID 1 mirrored array using software RAID (instead of the FRAID (fake raid) built into the motherboard chip set. I first built the server with the WD Red drives first and ran some casual tests with windows shares and iSCSI. Using windows network or iSCSI I could saturate my Gigabit Ethernet with no problem. Performance was not an issue. They ran great and I had no complaints over several days of use. This isn't too surprising as many NAS boxes use little Intel Atom processors. Next I did a comparison by replacing the WD Red drives with WD Black 750GB drives I had on the shelf. I didn't see much difference but I felt that copies of lots of small/medium files completed more quickly with the Red drives. Maybe the caching algorithm of drive was just better tuned for NAS on the Red drives. A plus is the Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) which is an important part of drives that are designed for RAID deployment. And having a drive that is designed to be on 24X7 is great. I've switched back to the WD Red drives in my home-built NAS and I'll update this review as I live with the drives and report if there are any problems or notable excellence that stands out. Hope this bit of experience helps someone. Update: Dec 3, 2013 I have recently gotten a Buffalo LinkStation 420 2TB 2-DriveNAS Personal Cloud Storage and Media Server In comparing my home built FreeNAS system (on old core duo hardware) with two of these drives to the LinkStation with 2 Toshiba drives was interesting. The FreeNAS system with the WD NAS drives (both systems with RAID1) ran about 50% faster than the LinkStation. You can check my review on the LinkStation for more information about my comparison. The LinkStation might be a better option to get diskless for a very low price use these drives inside it. The small footprint and low power make it an attractive option. Bottom-line it seems there may be something to the NAS specific firmware of these drives.