Western Digital 16TB WD Gold Enterprise Class Internal Hard Drive Review: A Powerhouse for Enterprise Storage

Up Dated 2/18/2025: --- No Problems with the 16TB WD Gold in my Synology NAS DS416Play AND my Synology NAS DS1520+. I also have them in 2 Synology 5bay Expansion Units DX517 connected to my Synology NAS DS1520+. No error codes everything works great. I use the DS416Play for file backups. I use the DS1520+ and both of my Synology 5bay Expansion Units DX517 set up as 3 Volumes for my PLEX Server. ----- "YES Synology updated there Compatible Drive List for at least the Drive List for my Setup." ----- My be yours as well?? ----- But really -- What a GREAT setup. I also have a digital antenna in my attic connected to a Silicon Dust FLEX 4K that is connected to my router. So though PLEX SERVER I get "ALL my Local TV Channels" and ALL In Full HD & a lot more TV channels from Plex Live TV. All sent wirelessly to all my TVs. NO MORE cable tv bill.

I bought 6 of these Western Digital 12TB Gold drives as replacements for 6 x 6TB Western Digital Red drives, as it was time to upgrade the size of my RAID 5 array and these Gold drives were one of the few on a list of compatible larger capacity drives for my now aging Synology 1813+ NAS. The WD Red drives served me very well, were quiet, and I had no complaints about them at all, so this was really a decision based solely on price (at the time of purchase, the 12TB Gold drives cost $229 each) and capacity. The equivalent Red drives were about $30-50 more a piece than the Golds at the time of purchase, so I went with the Golds. The conversion took about a week's time of removing a 6TB drive and letting it rebuild the array on the Gold drives (each Gold drive was formatted completely and then had a full SMART scan done on them, none of the 6 drives had any errors or defects). However, once I converted to having all 6 of the 12TB Golds in my array, I immediately noticed an uptick in the noise level, even during normal operation. The sound of these drives when they seek or perform any kind of scan and/or data scrubbing (all the drives generally aren't going unless data scrubbing or a full SMART scan is running) is much louder than the Reds. I expected an uptick in noise due to them being "Enterprise" (a.k.a. designed for a datacenter) and 7200RPM, but I was surprised at how audible the sound is. The attached video I took to give you an idea of the noise level. The amibiant sound can be ignored (fan hum and sound of a network switch) but the "cachunk"-ing you hear is all the seeking of the drives. I recorded it with my phone on top of the NAS directly in contact with it, and then from about a foot away from the NAS so you can get a sense of the sound. This was taken during normal operation (watching a video off the NAS from a single workstation). When it's doing data scrubbing you can hear my NAS from the hallway outside the room it sits in. Luckily it sits in an office and not in our bedroom or somewhere guests would normally be. However anyone who may have their NAS or server in their bedroom or near a workstation you use frequently would likely get annoyed by the constant sound of the seeking of these drives. If this sits in your basement or a closet somewhere, you'd probably have less of an issue of the sound. It also may be because I use a NAS rather than a server that might have more sound dampening built into it. Other than the noise, however, the performance of these drives is great. Not really a noticeable improvement over the Reds, but the price per TB and the extra warranty is awesome. I still highly recommend these drives, just be wary of the increased noise level, especially if you are moving from a non-Enterprise 5400/5900RPM drive to something like these.

Great product. Had a little bit of an issue with USPS not being communicative, but these guys rock. Faster than expected delivery time. Make sure to keep an eye out! 10/10 recommendation.

These drives perform excellently and last, even under high thermal conditions. I recommend this drive to anyone who wants storage media that will last a lifetime without error.

I do feel a bit deceived here - Please be aware what you are getting into. I had a drive fail after just a few months - will now have to wait 2+ weeks and pay for my own return shipping to get it replaced from SabrePC, if they even approve the return - not great. These do not seem to actually be new drives - when you run the Serial Numbers on the Western Digital website, they have Warranties that expired on Nov 2021. You'd be better off buying Refurb from a more reputable website, much cheaper that way too, and at least an honest sale.

I've been lamenting the death of the Raptor line for some time now; but I think I know what happened to that firmware after buying this. It's not running at 10,000 RPM, but it sure performs like it does, and it's very quiet. You will likely have to initialize this the old fashioned way, which I did. It's not going to be just "plug and play" in the modern sense; more "plug and play" in the 2002 sense; but that's fine. It's easy to do and takes less than a minute. In that process, you know precisely how it's set up, which is a rarity with modern components. Don't worry, anyone can do this. It's not a headache; it's just something a new generation may never have done before. Performance is absolute insanity. I never thought a 7200RPM drive would shunt data around like this. I wouldn't have believed it if you told me. It's stupid fast. It's fast enough to edit 4K 10bit without moving the data to solid state. Edit right off the HDD if you want. Gaming? Absolutely. Watch those load times drop, and have a drive that will last a long time. Enterprise drives (the Raptor line was indeed enterprise) last a long time. I've got drives that are forty years old and still moving data. I've got similar WD drives that are twenty years old and have never been parked. The first Velociraptor drive ever released is ten feet from me right now and happily doing it's thing; clear top and all. I stood in the front of the line AT the release event AT the convention and and purchased it right there when the clock ticked over to release date. It still works. This thing feels like a refined Raptor (the improved 2.5 version of the Velociraptor) in use. It's not just for data centers and office complexes. This is for whoever wants a blisteringly fast hard drive that's got a long warranty and legendary reliability and longevity. Gamers, content creators, editors, archivists... Whoever you are, if you're looking at this and wondering if you should do it... Here's your answer: Just click "Add to cart" right now and get it over with. You'll end up with one eventually anyway, so just save the cash and buy it now before you have to buy it to replace a poor decision. Your computing life will thank you.

works well.