Western Digital Introduces WD RED and RED PRO 10TB Drives

Western Digital just announced a new addition to their popular RED series of NAS drives which now also are available as 10TB versions. The new capacity increase is for both the consumer version, RED, as well as for the SMB version, the RED PRO series.

WD uses the same HelioSeal technology in these new drives as they do on their enterprise-class drives. It allows the company to increase the capacity of the RED and RED PRO drives by 25%.

“In July 2012, we introduced the WD Red line to address the unique performance, compatibility and scalability challenges facing home and small business NAS customers,” said Brendan Collins, vice president, devices business unit at Western Digital. “Five years and over 16 million WD Red family hard drives later, we continue to advance the platform, bringing our innovative HelioSeal platform and other advanced technologies that allow customers to meet their evolving private cloud needs.”

RED vs RED PRO

The difference between the RED and RED PRO drives isn’t that obvious, but they each have their intended area of operation. The normal RED drive is built for systems with up to 8 drive bays while the RED PRO is built for systems with up to 16 drive bays. Every drive creates vibrations and those vibrations can affect performance and possibly damage drives. Smart sensors and the 3D Active Balance Plus technology help prevent that.

The RED series is also a more silent choice, so don’t go for the PRO series unless you need it. The RED series features an internal spindle speed of 5400RPM while the RED PRO series comes with a 7200RPM speed. That makes the PRO drives quite a bit louder where the normal series is as silent as possible. A faster spindle speed will give better performance results and lower access times, so it’s a tradeoff.

WD RED & RED PRO 10TB Feature Highlights

• HelioSeal: Bringing Western Digital’s fourth generation, exclusive HelioSeal technology in 10TB capacity to the NAS storage market.
• 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology that improves overall drive performance and reliability.
• Seamless integration with Western Digital’s My Cloud Pro Series NAS and My Cloud Expert Series NAS systems. These systems are designed specifically for the creative community. They enable a seamless transfer of content between devices in any location, whether users are shooting remotely or editing at home.
• NASware 3.0 is the latest version of WD’s original NASware technology. It is designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce customer downtime, and to simplify the integration process.
• Optimised performance class – 5400 RPM class for SOHO environments, 7200 RPM class for up to 16 bay NAS systems

Pricing and Availability

The new WD RED and WD RED PRO 10TB hard drives are available now at select retailers and distributors. The WD RED 10TB NAS hard drives feature a three-year limited warranty and a $494.00 USD manufacturer’s suggested retail price. The WD RED PRO 10TB drives feature a five-year limited warranty and a $533.00 USD MSRP.