In this review, we are going to take a close look at the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) hard disk drive, and find out how well it performs!
Updated @ 2023-11-09 : Updated with operating temperature results, and minor changes. Originally posted @ 2023-10-05
Synology Plus Series (HAT3300) NAS Drives
The Synology Plus Series (HAT3300) hard disk drives are designed to populate their Network-Attach Storage (NAS) systems for homes and small businesses.
These Synology Plus Series drives are designed for light-to-intermediate use. Based on the Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology, they are similar to the WD Red and Seagate Iron Wolf range of NAS drives, with a 1 million hour MTBF and 180 TB per year workload rating.
The main advantage of these drives is that their firmware can be automatically updated using the DiskStation Manager (DSM) in Synology NAS systems.
4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) Price
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) hard disk drive commands a slight premium over comparable drives like the 4TB WD Red (Price Check) and the 4TB Seagate IronWolf (Price Check).
Retailing at about $90 as of 3 October 2023, it works out to a cost of $22.50 per TB. Here are some online purchase options:
The Synology Plus series offers storage capacities of 4TB, 6TB, 8TB and 12TB. With the exception of the 12TB model, all drives in this family are air-filled, and have a 5,400 RPM spindle speed.
The baby of this family, which we are reviewing today, is the 4TB Synology Plus drive, which has a model number of HAT3300-4T. Here are its key specifications:
Specifications
4 TB Synology Plus
Model
HAT3300-4T
Capacity
4 Terabytes
Form Factor
3.5-inch
Drive Design
Air
Recording Technology
Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR)
Interface
SATA 6 Gb/s
Cache
256 MB
Rotational Speed
5,400 RPM
Max. Data Transfer Speed
202 MB/s
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
1,000,000 hours
Workload Rating
180 TB / year
Power Consumption
Idle : 3.96 W
Random Read : 4.85 W
Random Write : 4.85 W
Operating Temperature
0°C to 65°C
32°F to 149°F
Non-Operating Temperature
-40°C to 70°C
-40°F to 158°F
Operating Shock
80 Gs (2 ms duration)
Non-Operating Shock
300 Gs (2 ms duration)
Operating Vibration
10 Hz to 22 Hz: 0.25 Gs, Limited displacement
22 Hz to 350 Hz: 0.50 Gs
350 Hz to 500 Hz: 0.25 Gs
Non-Operating Vibration
5 Hz to 22 Hz: 3.0 Gs
22 Hz to 350 Hz: 3.0 Gs
350 Hz to 500 Hz: 3.0 Gs
Acoustics
Idle : 23 dBA
Seek : 27 dBA
Size
20.20 mm high
101.85 mm wide
147 mm long
Weight
490 g
Warranty
3 Years
4TB Synology Plus HDD Unboxing + Hands-On
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) hard disk drive comes in a large cardboard box, with a window to let you peek inside.
On opening the box, you will see that the drive is well-protected. It’s sealed in an anti-static bag, placed within a plastic enclosure, and further protected from shock and vibration by two large foam inserts.
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) hard disk drive is designed for the light-to-intermediate usage requirements of personal and SMB (small and medium business) NAS systems. Here are its key features:
Manufactured By Seagate
Synology does not make this hard disk drive, which was manufactured by Seagate. Think of this as a Seagate IronWolf hard disk drive that was customised to Synology’s requirements, and with custom firmware for Synology.
Under The PCB
In the following video, we took a look under its PCB, and here was what we found:
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) comes with a large 256 MB SDRAM cache, courtesy of a Samsung K4B2G1646F memory chip. This is a DDR3-1866 SDRAM chip with 16 memory banks, and a peak transfer rate of about 466 MB/s.
It also uses a Seagate Dillon motor drive controller, which features ST Microelectronics’ proprietary Smooth Drive pseudo-sinusoidal digital drive technology. The drive controller itself has a thermal pad to help keep cool, by transferring heat to the drive chassis.
Finally, this NAS drive has two sensors on its PCB, which allow it to better detect shock and vibration events, and dynamically adjust the flying height of the read/write heads to avoid head crashes.
The 4TB Synology Plus is backed by a million hour MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) rating, and is rated for a workload of 180 TB per year.
That works out to 15 terabytes per month, and is about par for the course for consumer-grade NAS drives.
Easy Firmware Updates
Unlike third-party NAS drives from Western Digital or Seagate, you can easily update the firmware of the 4TB Synology Plus hard disk drive using DiskStation Manager (DSM) in Synology NAS systems.
This is a convenient feature for those who use Synology NAS systems – you won’t need to remove the drive, or use a separate computer, to update its firmware.
Low Power Consumption
Power consumption is pretty low, at just under 5 watts. Even if you run this drive 24/7, it will only consume 42.5 kW per year.
Real world usage will be significantly lower, since NAS systems are designed to power down drives during periods of inactivity.
4TB Synology Plus Operating Temperature
We monitored the surface temperature of the three hard disk drives while idle, and during their benchmarks. The following chart shows their operating temperature range, from idle to maximum load.
Please note that instead of giving you the absolute numbers, we are showing the temperature delta, which is the difference between the actual temperature and the ambient room temperature.
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) appears to run slightly hotter than the 4TB WD Red, but significantly cooler than the 6TB WD Red. This is good news, because it can get really hot inside the NAS enclosure!
4TB Synology Plus CrystalDiskMark Performance Results
Let’s take a look at the 4TB Synology Plus hard disk drive’s sequential read and write performance, compared to the 4TB WD Red, and the 6TB WD Red drives.
Sequential Read Performance
With a queue depth of 1, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum sequential read speed of 215 MB/s.
This is about 6% over its rated transfer rate of 202 MB/s, and puts it 20% ahead of the 6TB WD Red drive, and 39% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
When queue depth increased to 8, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum sequential read speed of just under 217 MB/s.
This is about 7% over its rated transfer rate of 202 MB/s, and puts it 20% ahead of the 6TB WD Red drive, and 38% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
Sequential Write Performance
With a queue depth of 1, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum sequential write speed of 214 MB/s.
This is about 6% over its rated transfer rate of 202 MB/s, and puts it 29% ahead of the 6TB WD Red drive, and 42% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
When queue depth increased to 8, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum sequential write speed of just over 214 MB/s.
This is about 6% over its rated transfer rate of 202 MB/s, and puts it 24% ahead of the 6TB WD Red drive, and 42% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
Now, let’s take a look at the 4TB Synology Plus hard disk drive’s random read and write performance, compared to the 4TB WD Red, and the 6TB WD Red drives.
Random Read Performance
With a queue depth of 1, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum random read speed of 670 KB/s.
That puts it 6% ahead of the 6TB WD Red drive, and 15.5% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
When queue depth increased to 32, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum random read speed of 2.08 MB/s.
That puts it on par with the 6TB WD Red drive, and just 4% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
Random Write Performance
With a queue depth of 1, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum random write speed of 1.85 MB/s.
That puts it 23% behind the 6TB WD Red drive, but 44.5% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
When queue depth increased to 32, the 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) delivered a maximum random write speed of just over 1.8 MB/s.
That puts it 24% behind the 6TB WD Red drive, but 43% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
4TB Synology Plus ATTO Benchmark Performance Results
Let’s take a look at the 4TB Synology Plus hard disk drive’s peak read and write speeds, compared to the 4TB WD Red, and the 6TB WD Red drives.
Peak Read Performance
The ATTO Benchmark shows that the 4TB Synology Plus drive delivered a peak read speed of just under 205 MB/s, putting it 12% ahead of the 6TB WD Red, and 36% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
Peak Write Performance
The ATTO Benchmark shows that the 4TB Synology Plus drive delivered a peak write speed of just over 205 MB/s, putting it 25% ahead of the 6TB WD Red, and 48% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
Peak Read IOPS
The ATTO Benchmark shows that the 4TB Synology Plus drive delivered a peak read IOPS of just under 64.75K, putting it 50% ahead of the 6TB WD Red, and 65% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
Peak Write IOPS
The ATTO Benchmark shows that the 4TB Synology Plus drive delivered a peak write IOPS of just over 61.25K, putting it 46% ahead of the 6TB WD Red, and an incredible 81% ahead of the 4TB WD Red.
4 TB Synology Plus Review Conclusion
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) is, without doubt, a fast NAS hard disk drive. Our benchmark results show that it consistently outperforms the 4TB and 6TB Western Digital Red drives.
It may be sold at a slight price premium, but its better performance and the ability to conveniently upgrade its firmware (rare as that may be) directly using the DiskStation Manager (DSM) makes it a no-brainer choice for Synology NAS users.
If you are planning to use a Synology NAS system for your home or SMB use, you would be well-served to purchase the Synology Plus drive to populate it. We definitely think it deserves our Reviewer’s Choice Award!
4 TB Synology Plus : Where To Buy?
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) hard disk drive retails at about $89.90 as of 3 October 2023, it works out to a cost of $22.50 per TB. Here are some online purchase options:
The 4TB Synology Plus (HAT3300-4T) drive also comes bundled with certain Synology NAS systems.
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Tech ARP is now 20 years old! To celebrate, we partnered up with many of the world’s TOP BRANDS to thank you all for your loyal support with a TWENTY-WEEK GIVEAWAY! 😲 😲 😲
Tech ARP Is 20 Years Old & Going Strong!
Time sure FLIES when you are having fun! Twenty years ago, Ken, Chai and I got together to rebrand Adrian’s Rojak Pot as Tech ARP. We were having trouble explaining what rojak was, and that pot did not refer to marijuana / cannabis! 😂😂😂
That was in the good old days of sawing off pipe end caps to turn into CPU water coolers, and modifying SLAB (sealed lead acid batteries) into the world’s first power bank for our PDAs (remember those?).
Those sure were CRAZY DAYS! 😂😂😂
Somehow, we worked our way to the forefront of motherboard technology with our seminal BIOS Optimization Guide, which later got published as Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier : The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide for PCs.
I don’t know how I did it, but somehow, we did all those crazy stuff while I was still in medical school! CRAZY days indeed!
Over the years, we moved from strength to strength, with Ken hand-developing our own backend, and Chai nurturing our budding forums.
Somehow, we persevered and by the miracle of surviving the passage of time, Tech ARP is Malaysia’s oldest tech website!
Today, we are still pretty much the same team, with Falcone, Dashken, Carolyn, Hui Xin, Alyssa, Kar Hoe and Brian Chong helping us out here and there. Thank you, guys!
The Tech ARP 20-Week Giveaway
To thank you all for sharing our crazy journey over the years, we have prepared a 20-week giveaway contest. Actually, a series of twenty weekly giveaway contests.
We worked with many of the world’s TOP BRANDS to bring you all some goodies. We are also sponsoring some of these giveaways ourselves. Here are some of the brands that will be sponsoring their own giveaways here soon :
[adrotate group=”2″]
Acer – Special Edition Laptop!
AMD – AMD Ryzen CPUs!
BenQ – MONITOR!
Cooler Master – CPU coolers, gaming keyboards and more!
Dell – POWER COMPANIONS, speakers and more!
Edifier – Headphones!
GIGABYTE – Motherboards!
TP-LINK
Western Digital – SSDs + HDDs!
Where possible, we are opening up the giveaways WORLDWIDE. But where our brand partners wish to restrict their giveaways to certain regions or countries, we will notify you of that.
All we ask is that you use your genuine personal Facebook account in our Facebook contests. We will automatically disqualify anyone who uses a Facebook account that is primarily used for contests.
Crowdfunding Tech ARP
As we have been for the last twenty years, Tech ARP is a crowdfunded website. We do NOT charge for our articles. So if you wish to help us out, please feel free to donate to our cause. Thank you!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 1 Giveaway
To kick things off, we are giving away the following prizes for the first week!
The Awesome Prize : Microsoft Lumia 950 Smartphone + Microsoft Display Dock + Tempered Glass Screen Protector
Cool Prize #1 : TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Cool Prize #2 : TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Cool Prize #3 : Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger with two USB ports
Cool Prize #4 : Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger with two USB ports
Contest Period :31 August to 7 September 2018
Eligibility :WORLDWIDE *
* Tech ARP will pay for standard shipping, but you may opt to pay for expedited or express shipping services.
Everyone definitely wants The Awesome Prize, but we want to know which of the Cool Prizes you prefer – the Groovi Ripple, or the Olike QC 3.0 car charger.
So post a comment in our official Facebook post on the Week 1 Giveaway, and tell us which you prefer :
a) TP-Link Groovi Ripple, or
b) Olike QC 3.0 Car Charger
BONUS :Liking and sharing our posts, or commenting and tagging your friends, will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
[adrotate group=”2″]
At the end of the contest, we will randomly select FIVE contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the five verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Awesome Prize winner will be randomly selected from that pool.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
Week 1 Giveaway Winners!
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 1 Giveaway!
Mohd Fahmi wins the Microsoft Lumia 950 Smartphone + Microsoft Display Dock + Tempered Glass Screen Protector!
Faridah Akmal wins a TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker!
Alister Lok wins a TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker!
Mohd Khairul Zaman wins an Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger!
Ivan Ng wins an Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger!
Winners, please send your full details to contest @ techarp.com.
Full Name : Full Address : Mobile / Contact Number : Email Address :
LAST CALL : Those who do not submit their details by 12 PM, Friday, 19 October 2018 will forfeit their prizes.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 2 Giveaway
This week, Dell will be giving away prizes worth more than RM 2,000 / $500!
The Awesome Prizes : Dell PW7015M Power Companion (2 units)
Great Prizes : Dell AE215 Speaker System (2 units)
Meet the Dell Power Companion – a handy device that powers select Dell notebooks and ultrabooks, as well as up to two smartphones, tablets or other USB-enabled devices, ensuring users can be more productive on-the-go.
Lightweight and compact, and featuring a 12,000 mAh 4-cell battery that provides reliable power, this compact power solution is designed to deliver in-bag charging so you can stay powered without adding bulk to your bag.
The Dell 2.0 Speaker System (AE215) provides high quality sound experience that fits neatly into almost any desktop setup. With premium sound professionally tuned by award-winning Waves Maxx Audio and a compact and modern design, the speakers deliver a surprising amount of full, deep bass without adding clutter to your desk.
In addition, the Dell AE215 speakers also feature a headphone jack so you can plug in your favourite headphones for a private listening experience without interruptions.
The Dell WM514 Wireless Laser Mouse is a stylish, high-precision wireless mouse with long battery life. Its laser tracking feature allows for smooth tracking on virtually any surface, and provides quick response times and accurate clicking.
There is no greater option for a clutter-free workspace with its compact size, and unrestricted performance that allows mobile professionals to have all of the expected conveniences of a wireless mouse. The WM514 is also designed for comfort, allowing users to work or play for longer periods without the usual stress on the wrists or hands.
Dell’s AX210 offers great sound for a PC desk with little room. These speakers are a true upgrade in audio quality and functionality. Designed to complement any Dell computer, the speakers give users a unified aesthetic at home or in the office.
Whether you’re enjoying the latest movie, playing an action-packed game, or participating in a video conference, you will be at the center of excellent sound.
Contest Period :8 to 21 September 2018
Eligibility :WORLDWIDE *
* Tech ARP will pay for standard shipping, but you may opt to pay for expedited or express shipping services.
Tell us the sequence of the Great, Cool or Nice prizes that you prefer!
If you want a shot at winning the Awesome Prize, you will need to share our contest post in Facebook. If you want more chances to win the Awesome Prize, tag your friendsin our our contest post, or comment or like it.
Two winners will be randomly selected out of that poolto win an Awesome Prize each.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from contestants who correctly answered all five questions, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may try multiple times but can only win one prize. If he/she has already won, a new contestant will be randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Week 2 Giveaway Winners!
Here are the correct answers :
How many cells are there in the Dell PW7015M Power Companion?
– 4 Cells
What kind of sensor does the Dell WM514 wireless mouse use?
– Laser
How many models are in the 2018 Dell Precision 3000 Series Workstation family? See https://is.gd/ZM3mPj
– 4
Which Australian university uses Dell Precision workstations for all its engineering requirements? See https://is.gd/Uwpn5w
– Monash University
What Corning technology is used in the Dell S2719DM monitor? See https://is.gd/5YcTTD
– Iris Glass
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 2 Giveaway!
Dell PW7015M Power Companion Winners
– zy****@gmail.com
– forbi****2k@yahoo.com
Dell AE215 Speaker System – vee***@hotmail.com
– wchian****@hotmail.com
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 3 Giveaway
For the third week, Tech ARP will be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
Awesome Prize #1 : honor Band SS smartwatch
Awesome Prize #2 : honor Band SS smartwatch
Cool Prize #1 : VR Box virtual reality glasses
Cool Prize #2 : VR Box virtual reality glasses
Cool Prize #3 : Kaspersky Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard
Cool Prize #4 : Kaspersky Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard
Cool Prize #5 : Honor Tripod Selfie Stick
Cool Prize #6 : Honor Tripod Selfie Stick
Contest Period :17 September to 30 September 2018
Eligibility :WORLDWIDE *
* Tech ARP will pay for standard shipping, but you may opt to pay for expedited or express shipping services.
SHARE the main contest post, and the prizes you want to win on your Facebook wall. Please make sure it is PUBLIC, so we can verify.
BONUS :Liking and sharing our posts, or commenting and tagging your friends, will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on our many Samsung Galaxy Note9 posts will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
[adrotate group=”2″]
At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TEN contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the ten verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The two Awesome Prize winners will be randomly selected from that pool.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
Week 3 Giveaway Winners!
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 3 Giveaway!
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Isaac Lee Eng Quin
Awesome Prize #2 : Ken-Boon Teoh
Cool Prize #1 : Yee Mee Chan
Cool Prize #2 : Thomas George
Cool Prize #3 : Jireh Phan
Cool Prize #4 : Spectre Phang
Cool Prize #5 : Vicky Loo
Cool Prize #6 : Ilrelda Koh
Winners, please send your full details to contest @ techarp.com.
Full Name : Full Address : Mobile / Contact Number : Email Address :
Note :Please submit your details by 12 PM, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 or you may forfeit your prize! 😀
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 4 Giveaway
For the 4th week, BenQ and Tech ARP will be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
The BenQ EW277HDR Eye-Care monitor is part of a new range of BenQ Eye-Care monitors that feature the new Eye-Care technologies like Brightness Intelligence Plus and Low Blue Light.
BenQ specifically highlighted these HDR monitors (including the BenQ EW277HDR) as the best choices to be paired with the PlayStation 4 Pro or PlayStation 4. Here are their key specifications :
BenQ EW3270U
4K UHD resolution – 3840 x 2160 pixels, HDR
31.5-inch VA panel with 95% DCI-P3 colour gamut
Brightness Intelligence Plus, Low Blue Light, Flicker-free
Would you like to own the BenQ EW277HDR Eye-Care monitor? Here’s how!
Contest Period :24 September to 25 October 2018
Eligibility :Malaysia Only *
* Because it is large and fragile, we require the winner to collect the monitor from us in Selangor or Kuala Lumpur, with Penang as a possibility too. If necessary, the winner may send a representative. We will require a photo to be taken with the winner or representative, with some social media posts.
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Make sure you also use the #BenQPS4Monitor hashtag. You can tell us which Cool Prize you prefer, for example, or why you want to win the BenQ monitor.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use the #BenQPS4Monitor hashtag. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group, using the #BenQPS4Monitor hashtag.
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on our many Samsung Galaxy Note9 posts will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
[adrotate group=”2″]
At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TEN contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the ten verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Incredible Prize winner will be randomly selected from that pool.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 5 Giveaway
For the fifth week, Tech ARP and Dotty’s will be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
Awesome Prizes #1 : 5 x iflix Subscription (1 Year)
Awesome Prizes #2 : 5 x Dotty’s RM 100 voucher
Contest Period :19 September to 29 October 2018
Eligibility :Malaysia Only (for Dotty’s) / Countries that iflix supports *
* The dotty vouchers are only valid in Malaysia. The iflix subscriptions are valid in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Morocco and Uganda.
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Make sure you tell us which prize you prefer using these hashtags – #IWantFREEiflix or #IWantFREEDottys.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use either hashtags. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group, using either hashtags..
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on any of our many Facebook posts will give you a higher chance of winning one of the Awesome prizes!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
[adrotate group=”2″]
At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TEN contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the ten verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Incredible Prize winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
Week 5 Giveaway Winners!
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 5 Giveaway!
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Franco Kailsan
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Liza Lee
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Mohd Fahmi
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Siew Hong Go
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Haqeem Norazli
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Vee Fah
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Steven Khoo
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Chai Ser Loon
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Falcone
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Cyrus Varrus
Winners, please send your full details to contest @ techarp.com.
Full Name : Full Address : Mobile / Contact Number : Email Address :
Note :Please submit your details by 12 PM, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 or you may forfeit your prize! 😀
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 6 Giveaway
For the sixth week, Pocophone be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
Awesome Prize : Pocophone F1
Cool Prize : Mi Band 2
Contest Period :1 November to 14 November 2018
Eligibility :Malaysia only for Pocophone F1, Worldwide for Mi Band 2
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Make sure you tell us which prize you prefer using these hashtags :
– #FreePocophoneF1 and #XiaomiMY, OR – #FreeMiBand2 and #XiaomiMY.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use either hashtags. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group, using either hashtags..
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on any of our many Facebook posts will give you a higher chance of winning one of the prizes!
Note : Use #FreePocophoneF1 if you are residing in Malaysia. It will qualify you for both the Pocophone F1 and the Mi Band 2. Use #FreeMiBand2 if you are residing outside of Malaysia. It will qualify you for the Mi Band 2.
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
[adrotate group=”2″]
At the end of the contest, we will randomly select FIVE contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the five verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Incredible Prize and Cool Prize winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 7 Giveaway
For the seventh week, Western Digital be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
The WD Black NVMe SSD is dedicated for PC gamers who are looking to boost the performance of their gaming rigs.
Featuring sequential read/write speeds up to 3,400/2,800 MB/s, and the innovative Western Digital NVMe SSD storage architecture, it’s where blazing speed and top-tier performance combine to keep up with even the most demanding workloads. Innovative power management and thermal throttling consistently help prevent overheating to deliver smooth, fast performance.
With up to 600TBW, 1.75M hours MTTF and an amazing 5-years limited warranty, the WD Black NVMe SSD is the virtually invincible SSD you can rely on.
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Please let us know if you can self-collect the HDD using the hashtag #FreeHDD.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use the #FreeHDD hashtag if you can self-collect the HDD. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group. Please let us know if you can self-collect the HDD using the hashtag #FreeHDD.
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on any of our many Facebook posts will give you a higher chance of winning one of the prizes!
Collection : Winners of the HDDs must self-collect the WD Red hard disk drives in person, as we want to avoid the risk of damage during delivery. We can arrange to meet with the winners at these locations :
Selangor : Mutiara Damansara
Kuala Lumpur : TTDI
Penang : Seberang Jaya
Warranty : The drives are also provided as-is, without warranty from Western Digital or Tech ARP.
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
[adrotate group=”2″]
At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TWENTY contestants who used the #FreeHDD hashtag.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the twenty verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Cool Prize winners will then be randomly selected from the pool of verified contestants.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Western Digital colour-codes their hard disk drives not to make the drives look sexier, or to help sell more hard disk drives. They created the WD drive colours to help users understand the distinct advantages or use of each drive family. In this article, Western Digital will help us show you how to choose the best drive for your PC.
Every Drive Has A Purpose
There is no better person than Albert Chang, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at WD Asia Pacific, to explain why every drive has a purpose. He also points out a key point that users often forget to factor when consumers purchase a drive – the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).
That’s right. The TCO is often overlooked, because that is ultimately the price you are paying over the lifetime of a drive. So make sure you don’t just buy the cheapest possible drive, because that may result in a high TCO… including the loss of priceless data.
Introducing The Five WD Drive Colours
Here is a quick primer on the five WD drive colours, and how they can help you determine the best drive for your PC.
Now, let’s take a closer look at each WD drive colour, and find out what advantages each drive colour boasts!
[adrotate group=”1″]
WD Blue For Mainstream PCs
The WD Blue (Price Check) family are focused on offering highly-affordable drives with large storage capacities.
The WD Blue family does not just consist of hard disk drives. Western Digital also offers WD Blue SSHDs (solid state hybrid drives) and WD Blue SSDs (solid state drives).
For more information, you can read these WD Blue articles :
The WD Black family (Price Check) is targeted at power users and gamers who want the fastest possible hard disk drives for their PCs.
The WD Black drives offer a much higher spindle speed, a very large cache, and a fast processor. For more information, you can read these WD Black articles :
The WD Red (Price Check) family of NAS drives is specifically designed for the “always on” environment of a NAS enclosure. They run cooler and vibrate less, greatly increasing their reliability and lifespan in NAS enclosures.
The WD Red drives are also optimised for NAS usage patterns (80% reads, 20% writes), so you will be able to access your files faster than with a regular hard disk drive.
For more information, you can read these WD Red articles :
WD Purple drives (Price Check) are designed to handle the high-temperature, “always-on” environment of the CCTV and DVR systems. Regular drives will fail quickly under such conditions.
They are also designed to handle multiple video streams without dropped frames, or gaps in recorded footage… and do this 24/7 without rest!
For more information on the WD Purple, and why it is the best drive for surveillance and CCTV systems, please read :
Qualified for nearline storage use in datacenters, datacenter hard disk drives like WD Gold (Price Check) are designed to offer high storage capacities at maximum performance and reliability while operating continuously 24 hours a day in large drive arrays.
So if you want nothing but the best drive to secure your company’s data, there can be no doubt that the WD Gold (Price Check) is the ultimate storage solution.
For more information, you can read these WD Gold articles :
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
In this review, we are going to look at the first helium-filled WD Red model – the 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) NAS drive!
The WD Red Family
The popularity of Network-Attached Storage (NAS) systems has fuelled a surge in demand for large capacity hard disk drives. This interest led Western Digital to create the WD Red NAS-optimised family of hard disk drives.
The WD Red family of NAS-optimised hard disk drives, with storage capacities from 750 GB all the way to 10 TB. Here is a specification comparison of the five key models:
Specifications
10TB WD Red
8TB WD Red
6TB WD Red
5TB WD Red
4TB WD Red
Model
WD100EFAX
WD80EFZX
WD60EFRX
WD50EFRX
WD40EFRX
HelioSeal Technology
Yes
No
No
No
No
Advanced Format Technology
Yes (512-byte emulation)
Yes (512-byte emulation)
Yes (512-byte emulation)
Yes (512-byte emulation)
Yes (512-byte emulation)
Spindle Speed
5400 RPM
5400 RPM
5400 RPM
5400 RPM
5400 RPM
Cache
256 MB SDRAM
128 MB SDRAM
64 MB SDRAM
64 MB SDRAM
64 MB SDRAM
Maximum Read / Write Speed
210 MB/s
178 MB/s
175 MB/s
150 MB/s
147 MB/s
Average Read / Write Power Consumption
5.7 W
6.4 W
5.3 W
4.5 W
4.1 W
Idle Power Consumption
2.8 W
5.2 W
3.4 W
3.3 W
2.7 W
Acoustics (Seek / Idle)
29 dBA / 20 dBA
29 dBA / 20 dBA
28 dBA / 25 dBA
28 dBA / 25 dBA
24 dBA / 23 dBA
MTBF (hours)
1 million
1 million
1 million
1 million
1 million
Rated World Load (Per Year)
180 TB
180 TB
180 TB
180 TB
180 TB
Warranty
3 Years
3 Years
3 Years
3 Years
3 Years
They all share the following common features :
NAS Compatibility – Advanced firmware technology built into every WD Red drive, enables seamless integration, robust data protection and optimal performance for systems operating in NAS and RAID environments.
Exclusive NASware 3.0 Technology – WD’s exclusive NASware 3.0 technology further optimizes the WD Red for the NAS environment, allowing the WD Red to support small NAS systems with up to 8 bays!
3D Active Balance Plus – This enhanced dual-plane balance control technology significantly improves the overall drive performance and reliability. Hard drives that are not properly balanced may cause excessive vibration and noise in a multidrive system, reduce the hard drive lifespan, and degrade the performance over time.[adrotate group=”2″]
Enhanced Reliability – With a 35% MTBF improvement over standard desktop drives, the WD Red drive is designed and manufactured to be a more reliable and robust solution.
Energy Efficient – Innovative technology reduces power consumption and lowers the operating temperature, resulting in a more reliable and affordable solution for always on 24×7 NAS environments.
Premium Support – Exclusively for WD Red drive customers, a free dedicated 24/7 support line is available in English. Other regional support hours vary.
Longer Warranty Coverage – The WD Red drive is backed by a 3-year limited warranty for greater peace of mind.
Now, let’s check out the 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) hard disk drive!
A Quick Look At The 10TB WD Red
The 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) hard disk drive came in a sealed antistatic plastic pack. Notably, it lacked the usual sachet of desiccants. That’s because the drive is hermetically-sealed in the factory, and filled with helium. Also notable is their use of two gold-coloured screws to lock the PCB in place.
To remove the drive, just tear off the top or cut it open, and slide out the drive. Be sure to ground yourself before removing and handling the hard disk drive as static can damage it. In particular, you should try to avoid touching the exposed PCB located on the lower underside of the drive.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The 10TB WD Red NAS Drive
Despite featuring a hermetically-sealed chassis, the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) drive looks deceptively like any other 3.5″ hard disk drive. In fact, it even sports the same printed label on the top plate, with an uncovered PCB on the underside.
The label has a lot of important information, like the hard disk drive model, storage capacity as well as its date and place of manufacture. This particular drive was manufactured in Thailand on the 1st of April, 2017. You can also see that the drive uses the Advanced Format Technology to achieve its high storage density.
HelioSeal Technology
The 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) NAS-optimised drive is one of the few hard disk drives in the market to feature the revolutionary HGST HelioSeal technology. It is hermetically sealed at the factory, and filled with helium.
Instead of a breather hole that is present in all “air-filled” hard disk drives, it has two sealed ports that are used to extract air from inside the chassis, and replacing it with helium.
Because helium is only 1/7th the density of “regular air”, it allows for less friction conferring the following benefits :
[adrotate group=”2″]
The lower friction reduces the amount of power required to spin the platters, reducing both energy costs and thermal output.
Internal turbulence is greatly reduced, which makes tracking more precise and reliable. This indirectly allows for greater areal density.
The lower power requirement and internal turbulence allow more platters and heads to be added in the same volume of space.
The completely sealed environment eliminates reliability issues that can occur if breather filters get clogged up with dirt.
The only things stopping helium-filled drives from becoming mainstream are the relatively high cost of helium, and the difficulty in sealing the drive.
SATA 6 Gb/s
This is a Serial ATA drive, with native support for SATA 6 Gb/s. However, it is backward-compatible so you will have no problem using it with older SATA 3 Gb/s controllers.
The SATA 6 Gb/s interface is necessary for optimal performance since the 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) NAS drive boasts a maximum sustained internal (platter-to-buffer) transfer rate of 210 MB/s, and a large and fast DDR3 SDRAM cache.
Like all Serial ATA drives, it comes the standard SATA data (left) and power (right) connectors and is hot-pluggable. That means you can connect and disconnect this hard disk drive to the server, computer or NAS while it’s still running.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
What’s Under The PCB?
Western Digital has a penchant for keeping all surface-mounted components on the reverse side of the PCB – to prevent static damage and to allow for better cooling. The PCB is protected by a thin foam cutout on the chassis side, with a thermal pad to help transfer heat from the HDD controller to the hard disk drive chassis.
Unfortunately, we can’t make out the hard disk drive controller Western Digital used, but we can see that it uses the ST Microelectronics L7232 motor drive controller, which features their proprietary Smooth Drive pseudo-sinusoidal digital drive technology.
The 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) NAS drive boasts a large 256 MB SDRAM cache, courtesy of an EtronTech EM6GD16EWXC-12H chip. This is a DDR3-1600 SDRAM chip with 8 memory banks and timings of 11-11-11. This gives it a peak transfer rate of 400 MB/s.
Finally, the 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) NAS drive has two shock sensors that allow it to better detect shock and vibration events, and dynamically adjust the flying height of the read/write heads to avoid head crashes.
We tested in both Windows 7 and Windows Vista, with the latest updates. We chose to use IO Meter 2008 as well as our “old faithful”, WinBench 99 2.0, with the following tests :
Platter Data Transfer Profile
Business Disk WinMark 99
High-End Disk WinMark 99
Disk Transfer Rate (Beginning)
Disk Transfer Rate (End)
Business Disk WinMark 99 is a real-world simulation based on three office application suites – Microsoft Office 97, Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, as well as a web browser, Netscape Navigator. They are quite dated, but should still reflect the usage patterns of users in an office environment using such applications. The test runs through a script that keeps multiple applications open, while it performs tasks that switches between those applications and Netscape Navigator. The result is the average transfer rate during the script run.
High-End Disk WinMark 99 is a real-world simulation based on AVS/Express 3.4, FrontPage 98, MicroStation SE, Photoshop 4.0, Premiere 4.2, Sound Forge 4.0 and Visual C++ 5.0. However, it differs by running the applications serially, instead of simultaneously. There are individual results for each application but in this comparison, we will be looking only at the weighted average score, which is the average transfer rate during the tests.
Unfortunately, WinBench 99 is not fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, registering a SetFilePointer error in the Disk Access Time test. So, we were not able to obtain any Disk Access Time results.
In addition, it would keep crashing if the hard drive was tested with a single partition. This is likely due to a limit on the size of the partition that is supported by WinBench 99. We came up with a workaround by dividing the hard disk drive into 5 partitions of equal sizes. We then tested each partition individually and averaged the results.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
10 TB WD Red Usable Capacity
The 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) NAS drive has an official formatted capacity of 10 terabytes. We checked that out by formatting it in NTFS using Microsoft Windows 7.
The actual formatted capacity was 10,000,695,029,760 bytes, which is about 695 MB higher than the official storage capacity. With about 494 MB allocated to the NTFS file system, the actual usable capacity was slightly above 10 TB.
10 TB WD Red Platter Profile
The platter profile of the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) NAS drive was pretty good. There appeared to be some use of replacement sectors, but nothing particularly significant.
We also compared its platter profile to that of the 6TB WD Red, which was the last WD Red drive we reviewed. We can see right away that the 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) uses higher density platters, which gave it a very high throughput.
In fact, the outermost tracks of the 6 TB WD Red only equalised the 10 TB WD Red at the 6.5 TB point. Even at its slowest tracks, the 10 TB WD Red was as fast as the 6 TB WD Red at its 5 GB point.
[adrotate group=”1″]
Maximum Surface Temperature
We monitored the surface temperature of seven hard disk drives during their benchmarks. The following chart shows their operating temperature range, from idle to maximum load. Please note that instead of giving you the absolute numbers, we are showing the temperature delta, which is the difference between the actual temperature and the ambient room temperature.
Despite packing 2 additional platters than the 6 TB WD Black, the 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) drive was significantly cooler at full load. It ran a little warmer than the 8 TB WD Gold – another helium-filled drive, but was cooler at idle.
This reduced thermal output (and power consumption) is a key advantage of helium-filled hard disk drives like the 10 TB WD Red drive. When used in large NAS systems with up to 8 drives running non-stop, the lower energy costs of running them, and keeping them cool, will be very significant.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Transfer Rate Range
This chart shows you the range of platter-to-buffer transfer rates from the innermost track to the outermost track. In other words, it shows you the range of disk transfer rates of the hard disk drives (from minimum to maximum).
The 10 TB WD Red NAS drive has an official peak throughput of 210 MB/s, which was confirmed by our tests. In fact, it actually peaked at 217 MB/s. While it was still slightly slower than the 6 TB WD Black, that puts it ahead of most of its competitors.
Both the 8 TB WD Gold and the 10 TB WD Red have 7 platters. The 10 TB WD Red (Lowest Price) use higher density 1.43 GB platters to compensate for the 8 TB WD Gold‘s higher 7200 RPM spindle speed. This proves yet again that HDD performance is not always about the spindle speed… 😉
Business Disk WinBench 99
Even though it’s not optimised for desktop applications, the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) NAS drive did very well in this benchmark, coming in faster than even the 6 TB WD Black.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The small random reads and writes are the most important tests for applications that make a lot of random accesses, so those would be key performance indicators for drives that are used as boot or system drives, but not very important for NAS systems.
With the exception of small reads, the 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) was far superior than the 6 TB WD Red in all other aspects. Most impressively, it was 3X faster at small writes, most likely due to its large, fast cache.
Test
WD Red
(10 TB)
WD Red
(6 TB)
Difference
512 KB Read
27.92 MB/s
18.70 MB/s
+ 49.3%
512 KB Write
31.65 MB/s
20.81 MB/s
+ 52.1%
4 KB Read
0.27 MB/s
0.26 MB/s
+ 3.8%
4 KB Write
0.76 MB/s
0.24 MB/s
+ 216.7%
Random Access Time
Test
WD Red
(10 TB)
WD Red
(6 TB)
Difference
512 KB Read
18.78 ms
28.04 ms
– 33.0%
512 KB Write
16.56 ms
25.19 ms
– 34.2%
4 KB Read
15.24 ms
15.81 ms
– 3.6%
4 KB Write
5.36 ms
17.29 ms
– 69.0%
The access times dropped significantly across the board. The small decrease in the 4KB read access time is more than compensated by the incredibly large decrease in the 4KB write access time.
[adrotate group=”1″]
Random CPU Utilisation
Test
WD Red
(10 TB)
WD Red
(6 TB)
Difference
512 KB Read
28.79 %
0.41 %
+ 6922%
512 KB Write
29.07 %
0.44 %
+ 6507%
4 KB Read
28.83 %
0.38 %
+ 7487%
4 KB Write
28.82 %
0.39 %
+ 7290%
We are not sure what HDD controller Western Digital used for the 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) NAS drive, but they appeared to have decided to focus on performance at the expense of CPU utilisation. This is not a problem for NAS systems because they have a processor that is dedicated to such operations. Such high CPU utilisation though means the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) would not make for a very good desktop drive.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
This is the most important test for the NAS drives because it shows their ability to read and write files sequentially. The large sequential transfer performance is particularly important since many NAS system deal with large files (larger than 512 KB in this context).
Without a doubt, the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) is much faster than the 6 TB WD Red in all aspects. The biggest boost was in small sequential reads.
Sequential Access Time
Test
WD Red
(10 TB)
WD Red
(6 TB)
Difference
512 KB Read
2.43 ms
3.03 ms
– 19.8%
512 KB Write
2.43 ms
3.03 ms
– 19.7%
4 KB Read
0.05 ms
0.08 ms
– 39.2%
4 KB Write
0.06 ms
0.08 ms
– 30.0%
[adrotate group=”1″]
Sequential CPU Utilisation
Test
WD Red
(10 TB)
WD Red
(6 TB)
Difference
512 KB Read
29.84 %
0.96 %
+ 3008%
512 KB Write
29.49 %
1.14 %
+ 2487%
4 KB Read
35.77 %
8.52 %
+ 319.8%
4 KB Write
35.17 %
9.15 %
+ 284.4%
Even in sequential accesses, the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) took up an excessive amount of CPU utilisation. Again, this is not a problem for NAS systems, but will be an issue for those who choose to use this drive in their desktop systems.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Although we don’t know what hard disk drive controller used in the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX), we can see that it is significantly faster than the Marvell 88i1047-NDB2 controller used in the 6 TB WD Red. Its performance was particularly impressive in the 4 KB random write test.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) was much faster than the 6 TB WD Red in all aspects. Its performance was particularly impressive in the 4 KB sequential read test.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Our Verdict & Award
This is our second review of a helium-filled hard disk drive (after the 8 TB WD Gold), and we continue to be impressed. Even from its specifications alone, we can already see a significant reduction in power consumption and noise levels. These are not minor either.
The 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) boasts 11% lower power consumption than the air-filled WD Red models at peak loads, and an astounding 46% lower power consumption during idle! It accomplished this despite packing 2-4 more platters than the other WD Red drives.
The platters of the 10 TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) still spin at a relatively sedate 5400 RPM, but they have a very high areal density, boasting a storage capacity of 1.43 GB per platter. This high areal density gave it a very high throughput, allowing it to beat even the 8 TB WD Gold, which has a spindle speed of 7200 RPM.
Our benchmarks show that it is one of the fastest hard disk drives in the market, beating even high-performance drives like the 6 TB WD Black. This is very impressive performance for a 5400 RPM drive that is optimised for NAS systems.
The downside though is its high CPU utilisation. This is not a problem if you intend to use it in a relatively new NAS system, but it may be a problem if you pack more than two of them in an old NAS system with a slow processor. The high CPU utilisation will also be an issue if you intend to use this drive in your desktop PC.
Despite the high CPU utilisation, its stellar performance deserves our Reviewer’s Choice Award. Congratulations, Western Digital!
[adrotate group=”1″]
The 10TB WD Red Specifications
Specifications
10 TB WD Red NAS Hard Disk Drive
Model
WD100EFAX
Form Factor
3.5 inch
Platter And Head Count
7 Platters with 14 Read/Write Heads
Advanced Format Technology
Yes (512-byte emulation)
Formatted Capacity
10 TB
Native Command Queuing
Yes
Interface
SATA 6 Gb/s
Spindle Speed
5400 RPM
Sustained read / write performance
210 MB/s (maximum)
Cache
256 MB DDR3-1600 SDRAM
Average Power Consumption
Read / Write : 5.7 W
Idle : 2.8 W
Temperature Rating
0 to 65 °C (Operating)
-40 to 70 °C (Non-Operating)
Shock Rating
Operating : 65 G (half-sine wave, 2 ms)
Non-Operating : 250 G (half-sine wave, 2 ms)
Acoustics
Seek : 29 dBA (average)
Idle : 20 dBA
Load / Unload Cycles
600,000
Non-Recoverable Read Errors per Bits Read
<1 in 1014
MTBF (Maximum Time Before Failure)
1,000,000 hours
Rated Workload (Per Year)
180 TB
Warranty
3 Years
Physical Dimensions
101.6 mm (4.0") wide x 147.0 mm (5.787") long x 26.1 mm (1.028") high
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced the 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) and 10TB WD Red Pro (Lowest Price) NAS hard drives lineup with the introduction of 10TB capacity models optimized for use in personal, home and small to medium business NAS systems.
Western Digital has shipped more than 15 million helium-based high capacity drives into multiple applications, including for NAS systems, to date and is continuing to support customers with higher capacities and outstanding reliability. The WD Red line of NAS hard drives allow customers to scale up or down to meet their changing NAS storage needs.
10TB WD Red / Red Pro NAS Hard Drive
Designed with Western Digital’s HelioSeal helium-technology, the 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) hard disk drive provides higher capacity and performance to meet the increasing storage needs of always-on, single-to-8-bay NAS systems. The helium-based design enables a 25% capacity increase from the 8TB WD Red NAS storage drive.
With support for up to 16 bays in tower- and rack-based systems, the 10TB WD Red Pro (Lowest Price) hard disk drive delivers the same high performance, reliability and capacity to systems operating in up to 16 bay NAS systems. Here are their key features and specifications of the 10 TB WD Red / WD Red Pro drives :
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 designed specifically for the creative community to enable seamless transfer of content between devices in any location, whether users are shooting remotely or editing at home
NASware 3.0, an enhanced version of WD’s original NASware technology, designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce customer downtime and to simplify the integration process
Optimized performance class – 5400 RPM class for SOHO environments, 7200 RPM class for up to 16 bay NAS systems
The 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) and 10TB WD Red Pro (Lowest Price) drives are finalizing compatibility testing with a number of leading NAS system providers.
[adrotate group=”2″]
Price & Availability
The new 10TB WD Red (Lowest Price) and 10TB WD Red Pro (Lowest Price) hard disk drives are available in July at selected retailers and distributors.
The 10TB WD Red (model #: WD100EFAX) hard disk drives feature a three-year limited warranty and a RM 2,249 (inclusive of GST) / ~US$ 539 manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Get the lowest price here!
The 10TB WD Red Pro (model #: WD101KFBX) hard disk drives feature a five-year limited warranty and a RM 2,449 (inclusive of GST) / ~US$ 589 MSRP. Get the lowest price here!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Network-attached storage (NAS) drives provide fast and secure storage for backup files, or a central repository of shared files that everyone can access. As NAS drives are available 24/7, they offer the convenience of on-call access to data with minimal power consumption. That is why they are now a necessity in many businesses and even homes.
When NAS systems first became popular, they were built around normal desktop drives which were not designed for 24/7 operation. This led to poor performance and reliability. To address this, Western Digital developed the WD Red family of NAS hard disk drives.
Let us show you why you must use NAS-optimised drives like the WD Red drives for your NAS systems, instead of regular hard disk drives.
Reason #1 : Tougher, Cooler & Quieter
Desktop drives are designed to run as solitary drives, so they do not need much protection against vibration. Neither do they need to be particularly quiet or cool. When installed in a NAS enclosure, the vibration and heat from multiple drives running in close proximity greatly reduce their reliability and lifespan, while testing your tolerance for noise.
WD Red drives are designed to run cooler and vibrate less. They also come with technologies that offer better protection against vibration, like 3D Active Balance Plus. That’s why you can pack up to 8 WD Red drives (or 16 WD Red Pro drives) in a NAS enclosure without worrying about killing them… or your eardrums!
Reason #2 : 24/7 Reliability
Desktop drives are also not designed to run 24/7. WD Red drives, on the other hand, are specifically designed for the “always-on” environment of a NAS enclosure.
Just how reliable are WD Red drives? The latest WD Red drives that feature the NASware 3.0 firmware are rated for a MTBF (mean time before failure) of 1 million hours. If you buy 8 of these drives and run them 24/7, you will likely see a single drive fail only after 14 years of non-stop operation.
That’s why Western Digital backs up their WD Red drives with a 3-year warranty. Their higher-end WD Red Pro drives (which support up to 16 drives in a single NAS enclosure) come with a 5-year warranty.
Reason #3 : Optimised For NAS
The performance requirements for network storage is vastly different from that of a desktop computer. Desktop drives will see a rough 50-50 mix of read and write operations over time, and their firmware are designed to support simultaneous read and write operations.
NAS drives, however, will experience far more reads than writes. After all, when you share files (family holiday photos, for example), they are written once but read many times after that. That is why WD Red drives are optimised for a mix of 80% reads and 20% writes.
[adrotate banner=”5″]
Reason #4 : Testing, Testing, Testing
WD Red drives are extensively tested with most, if not all, of the NAS systems in the world. WD Red drives also undergo more extensive reliability tests than regular desktop drives. All these tests not only ensure compatibility out-of-the-box, they also ensure the drives run reliably in the more demanding NAS environment.
Reason #5 : RAID-Optimised
Regular desktop drives are not designed to be used as RAID drives, and lack the RAID error recovery control called TLER (Time-Limited Error Recovery). TLER is designed to increase the reliability and stability of the RAID array. WD Red drives, on the other hand, support TLER because they are designed to be configured as RAID drives.
WD Red Drives
In July 2012, Western Digital revealed the world’s first NAS-optimised hard disk drive designed to run 24/7 – the 3 TB WD Red (WD30EFRX). Since then, they have released many new WD Red drives to meet the high demand for NAS-optimised storage :
Irrespective of which brand you choose to use, understand this – you must use NAS-optimised hard disk drives in your NAS. Your data depends on it!
Support Tech ARP!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
2 March 2016 – Western Digital Corporation today announced the expansion of its award-winning portfolio of performance storage solutions with 8TB capacity drives for NAS, video surveillance and desktop external applications. Increasingly centralized, rich-content, which continues to grow in popularity among enterprises, small business and consumers alike, is driving demand for greater storage capacities.
Launching throughout the first half of 2016, My Cloud personal storage devices (My Cloud, My Cloud Mirror, My Cloud EX2 Ultra), My Book external hard drives (My Book, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo and My Book Pro), WD Red, WD Red Pro and WD Purple hard drives will all be designed with the new high-capacity configuration. Each storage solution offers purpose-driven engineering and HelioSeal helium-technology with the new 8TB drives for maximum and efficient performance in the applications for which each model is designed.
The increase to 8TB or 16TB (with two 8TB drives in RAID 0) capacity applies to the following WD products:
External Hard Drives
[adrotate banner=”4″]My Book/My Book for Mac -– An external hard drive solution that provides complete backup and storage with USB connectivity.
My Book Duo/My Book Pro – Dual-drive external hard drive solutions which provide ultra-fast storage in RAID-0 and complete backup and storage with USB and/or Thunderbolt connectivity and up to 16TB capacity.
My Cloud/My Cloud Mirror – A personal storage device that plugs into your router at home to provide consumers with their very own private cloud.
My Cloud EX2 Ultra – As part of the creative professional series of My Cloud products, the My Cloud EX2 Ultra provides high-performance two-bay network attached storage.
Internal Hard Drives
WD Purple – Engineered for 24/7, always-on, high-definition surveillance security systems that use up to eight hard drives and up to 32 cameras
WD Red – Optimized for personal, home and small business NAS (network attached storage) systems
WD Red Pro – Optimized for small business and enterprise class NAS systems with high performance and reliability.
Availability and Pricing
My Book 8TB will be available in March at select retailers and is distributed by Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for the My Book 8TB (model #: WDBFJK0080HBK) is RM 1,499.00 (~US$ 359).
My Cloud, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo, My Book Pro, WD Red and WD Purple 8TB configurations will be available during the first half of 2016.
Support Tech ARP!
If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
18 February 2016 – Western Digital Corporation today updated its prosumer solutions with My Cloud EX2 Ultra, a high-performance, two-bay network attached storage (NAS) system. The My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS is designed from the ground up for creative professionals and prosumers that need to automatically sync content across computers, easily share files and folders and enjoy multiple backup options so they can create their own personalized digital library with ease.
“We know our My Cloud users, especially creative professionals, need comprehensive solutions as digital storage needs continue to soar as well as the need for ongoing streaming capability,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president, WD Branded Products. “With the My Cloud EX2 Ultra, creative professionals are able to combine high performance with multi-tasking optimization and data protection to create a NAS system that simplifies their workflow and provides peace-of-mind.”
My Cloud EX2 Ultra
My Cloud EX2 Ultra has been upgraded with a powerful 1.3 GHz dual-core processor enabling users to get ultra-fast transfer rates for high performance and smooth video streaming. Users also have access to 1 GB of DDR3 memory, allowing them to multitask with ease and leverage applications for HD media streaming, surveillance and much more.
Several data management and security features allow users to select a preferred method for managing and protecting their movies, photos, music and digital files. Drive management options include RAID 0, RAID 1; JBOD and spanning modes, while data protection options include NAS to NAS, USB, cloud or LAN/WAN backup. The My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS comes preconfigured in RAID 1 mode to help protect data right from the start and is easily configurable into other data protection modes.
High Capacity and Ultimate Reliability
From unpopulated to 12 TB capacities[1], the My Cloud EX2 Ultra provides several capacity options for customers to choose from. Additionally, customers can attach compatible USB 3.0 hard drives to the USB expansion ports on the My Cloud EX2 Ultra to instantly expand their storage capacity. The populated My Cloud EX2 Ultra features the award-winning WD Red hard drives, specifically built for NAS systems to provide non-stop performance within 24×7 environments. WD Red drives are powered by NASware™ 3.0 technology, improving drive reliability and minimizing data corruption in the event of a power loss or disruption.
Easy Sharing with Anywhere Access
With simplified file and folder sharing, users can send customized, private links that allow recipients read/write access to particular files on the user’s My Cloud EX2 Ultra. Whether on a photo shoot, or editing at home, saving creations at full fidelity and sharing with your entire network is a breeze. The My Cloud EX2 Ultra features an intuitive dashboard, so user accounts can be created, features customized and storage can be monitored with ease.
With MyCloud.com web access, or the My Cloud mobile app, users can access their media and manage users from any internet connected device. With WD Sync, users can automatically synchronize their media and files across their computers and their My Cloud device with the confidence that their computer content is up to date and accessible from all devices.
Advanced Features
My Cloud EX2 Ultra includes advanced data serving options including an integrated FTP and WebDAV server, backup server, P2P download server and Microsoft Active Directory support. Additionally, users can download and run a host of third party apps, including, Plex, Milestone Arcus surveillance, aMule, Icecast, Joomla!, Anti-Virus Essentials, WordPress, SqueezeCenter, and more.
Users can also stream videos and photos to connected TVs, media players, gaming consoles and other DLNA/UPnP devices with the included Twonky 7.2 DLNA-certified 1.5 media server, and built-in iTunes support.
Price and Availability
[adrotate banner=”4″]My Cloud EX2 Ultra will be available at select retailers in March and is distributed by Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is RM 799 (~US$ 189) for the diskless My Cloud EX2 Ultra, RM 1,559 (~US$ 359) for 4 TB, RM 2,199 (~US$ 519) for 8 TB and RM 3,049 (~US$ 709) for 12 TB.
The WD My Cloud mobile app currently is available for download for free from the Apple App StoreM and Google PlayT. My Cloud EX2 Ultra comes with a two-year limited warranty on the diskless device and a three-year limited warranty on the pre-configured devices.
[1] System is shipped in RAID 1 configuration, which leaves half of the system capacity available for data storage. System is configurable to RAID 0; JBOD or spanned, which leaves all system capacity available for data storage. Up to 0.1TB may be reserved for non-user accessible storage.
Support Tech ARP!
If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Small businesses often operate in lean teams, with each staff member behaving as a “jack of all trades.” This attitude can be useful for acquiring customers and putting in the extra effort SMBs sometimes need, but it doesn’t work for data management and security.
Cyberattacks are not only a risk to large companies like Target or Sony, but are a costly danger to small businesses as well. According to a report by the National Small Business Association, 50 percent of small businesses experienced a cyberattack in 2014, costing an average of more than $20,750.
Storing, managing and protecting sensitive company and customer data is a cumbersome process that can become even more daunting with an expanding team. With tight budgets and an often non-existent IT department, implementing a strong system becomes even more challenging.
Small businesses need a secure storage solution that offers cloud access with local back-up abilities and is scalable (that is, robust enough to meet their current needs, but also able to grow and adapt to future demands). Here are four steps a small business should take to set up and maintain a strong, fast and adaptable secure storage system:
1. Identify needs and create a plan.
Work with your key decision makers to determine what kind of file access and management the business needs. Does your sales team need access to documents outside of the office, or does your customer service team need to be able to review complete customer records at any given time?
Identify who in the organization needs access to which data, and develop a written plan. The file management plan should include who will manage the content and be responsible for data backups and who has access to the most sensitive information. The plan will also help determine what storage hardware solutions best fit your needs.
2. Set up a scalable storage server.
A network attached storage (NAS) device is an easy and affordable solution that allows designated users to share and access files, media and more from multiple computers and devices. Instead of being tethered by USB cables, users can access data across the business’ personal cloud, via your Wi-Fi network, and still back up data locally.
At a minimum, you’ll want to choose storage that gives you the ability to manage permissions and folder privileges. But to maximize your investment, you should look for a drive that can scale. Some storage drives, like Western Digital’s Red Drive, are built from the ground up to combine easily, so that as your business grows, it’s easy to increase the number of users needing access.
With the WD Red drive, your employees are able to quickly share their files and back up folders reliably. It also comes with software that enables seamless integration with your existing network infrastructure.
3. Optimize systems to maximize performance.
Be sure to keep your entire technology network up to date before, during and after installation of a storage server. Ensuring a healthy ecosystem of your storage, router, and modem units is crucial to delivering services to customers in a timely manner and avoiding bottlenecks in the system.
4. Enable and manage user access.
When storing sensitive company data, restrictions on security and access are your primary concern. Implement a storage system that allows you to grant file access to those that need it, and rescind it for those that don’t. User access should be described in detail in the written plan, so staff know exactly where to place and find the data they need.
Small businesses typically try to grow quickly, which means shifting roles and responsibilities. When new employees come on, and old ones depart, make sure you are able to maintain control of all of your data. When an employee leaves, revoke access immediately, and when on-boarding an employee, take the time to review your policies and expectations when handling company data and information.
5. Develop a good file naming strategy and folder structure.
[adrotate banner=”4″]Keeping your centralized storage system organized, makes it less likely that information will be mismanaged. “Document A” and “Spreadsheet 3” are useless filenames when you are searching through hundreds of documents for one particular file. Use names that are meaningful, but still short.
To help with version control, employ a date and initial system that tells you when and who last updated the document. Descriptive folders will also help you and your team navigate media quickly. Designate folders for financial, sales and operations documents to keep everyone organized.
File storage is only one piece of the puzzle to consider when growing your business, but when properly implemented, can save you and your business thousands of dollars and countless hours. There are a lot of factors to consider, but if you take the time to determine your needs and develop an actionable plan for your company now, as well as in the future, it will give you time to explore your options and make the best choice possible.
Support Tech ARP!
If you like our work, you can help support out work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
