When will 4TB RED drives become available?

[glugglug]

In the US please... although it looks like EMEA might be getting first? Saw a German site with this as well:

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=15915

 

[Red Squirrel]

The reds have terrible DOA rate, I'd personally give them more time before considering them. The idea behind them is great but they're just too new.

If you're going to get some, stress them very hard before putting them in production and have a couple spares on hand.

 

[taq8ojh]

What's DOA?

 

[Demo24]

What's DOA?

Probably dead on arrival.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I haven't personally read any glaring news about the Reds being DOA. I bought one based on SPCR, and it's probably the best drive in my system in terms of mixing noise and transfer rates. The only problem I've heard relates to how expensive they are; my 3TB Barracuda 7200rpm was $90, while I should have bought more than one 3TB Caviar Red when they were $120.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Last I heard closer to the end of 2013. So looks like they'll be getting here on schedule. I'm sure WD will charge arm and a leg for them. As much as I distrust Seagate, I cannot justify paying 2x premium that WD will charge for 4TB RED compared to ST4000DM000.

Sadly my hard drives are getting full. I'll probably have no choice but to buy another hard drive before the end of the year...

 

[taq8ojh]

I haven't read about such thing anywhere either. Not even rumours of any kind, let alone some serious claims backed by numbers.

 

[MrX8503]

The reds have terrible DOA rate, I'd personally give them more time before considering them. The idea behind them is great but they're just too new.

Evidence?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Evidence?

Just general. People talking on forums etc. Check [H], where people buy 10-20 of em. Gives a better idea than someone buying just 1-2. Also check reviews. I know those are to be taken with a grain of salt mind you, but they seem to get more cases of DOA than other drives.

 

[KentState]

I also do not see the DOA issue with the reds. If anything, they are doing very well, along with having a much better warranty. I was getting the 3TB Seagate drives, but for the small price difference, the warranty was worth it. I also found that they run much cooler and quieter.

 

[Zxian]

I bought eight WD 3TB Reds for my server, and I've bought another four 2TB drives for other purposes. None have been DOA, and my two warranty experiences with WD are better than those from Seagate or Hitachi.

Reds may cost a little more, but they're significantly quieter than the alternatives. If you can't hear your drives spinning at idle right now, your system is too loud to notice the noise level difference anyways. I used to work at SPCR and their testing methodology for noise is pretty much unparalleled on review sites (mostly because the general populace doesn't care as much).

 

[blastingcap]

I got four WD30EFRX drives. None of them were DOA. I avoid Seagate like the plague... their behavior re: 7200.11 alone should deter anyone from buying, and then you add how they shortened warranties down to 1 year (why, unless you think there is a material difference in RMAs between offering 1 year and 2+ year warranties?). Toshiba HDDs are probably okay since they are descended from Hitachi, but the jury is out. Their website and tech support are a mess though.

 

[Elixer]

Just general. People talking on forums etc. Check [H], where people buy 10-20 of em. Gives a better idea than someone buying just 1-2. Also check reviews. I know those are to be taken with a grain of salt mind you, but they seem to get more cases of DOA than other drives.

For what it is worth, I have noticed the same chatter. If you look at newegg/amazon "reviews", lots of RMAs are being done.
I know someone who got 20 of them, and 12 failed on day 0-60. (DOA to started to have bad sectors).

It sure don't seem like the quality is there, or perhaps QC issues with these reds, and they are basically blue drives with a different firmware.

Blacks or the RE drives seem to be more reliable.
Seagate is worse, but that isn't anything new.

 

[fuzzymath10]

I think there are many other factors as well, not just the inherent reliability of the product. With my personal (i.e. not statistically relevant) sample size, I have had better luck with in-store pick up compared to online vendors. I have also had better luck when they are run in non-overclocked systems with good cooling and power supplies.

I have an RMA'd refurb of the Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB. DOA from newegg in December 2007, promptly received replacement, ran off and on until 2010, and then ran 24/7 for the past ~3 years. It has made it past the generous 5-year warranty that drives were offered back then.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

Will the 5 platter 4TB Reds be available the same time as the 4 platter 4TB Reds? Will they have the same product code? That's great.

 

[glugglug]

I saw a lot of chatter about DOA reds when the 3TB ones first came out, but it seems to have died down, so I'm hoping whatever problem there was is fixed, and maybe that could be why the greens and reds are taking so long to arrive? Both for 2TB and 3TB, green drives were available before blacks....


I've had bad luck with both Seagate and Hitachi in the past (original IBM Deathstar). I'm planning on upgrading my PC after Haswell comes out, and it is also my whole-home DVR with 6 tuners streaming to 3 TVs, so I need a ton of storage for it. Currently have 1 2TB green drive dedicated to recordings (which gets full often), another 2TB green used for photos/videos (both from my camera & downloaded)/installer archives/music/kids TV shows that never get deleted, and SSD for OS. More 2TB drives in an external eSATA enclosure for backups.


The reds weren't around when I built the current system. I figure they would be a better fit since I would be using multiple of them and never shut down.


I was considering using Windows 8 storage spaces to make a ridiculously huge logical drive and never have to delete recordings, but read bad things about both the performance and the stability of that. A coworker swears by FlexRAID, and has a 24-drive system with it.

 

[tweakboy]

Wow, 4TB, that is a lot of p*rn.

 

[idlebyte]

I love the WD greens, 1.5 and 3. I had heard such horror stories with these things and raid but I have nothing but good feelings. I think it boils down to the raid card, I'm using a Highpoint Rocket Raid 4321 and it's been worth every cent. I recently expanded to a second chenbro SAS expander and started buying Reds (only 2 so far) and haven't had an issue with them. I also picked up a 4TB seagate when newegg was doing one of its sales to test the controller and it did online expansion without issue for 2 different volumes (1x3TB and 1x1TB) simultaneously...

What my comment boils down to:
If you have the cooling (RPC-4224 here) and a decent controller without constant high loads, get the 4TB. If you have a fear of temperatures, environment, or cheap controller crashes; get the reds. I believe the firmware is more raid friendly but I'm totally blanking on the source, rumors until corroborated.

-Idle

E1/16 HITACHI HTS72323- 320.07 GB
E1/17 ST3000DM001-9YN1- 3.00 TB
E1/19 ST3000DM001-9YN1- 3.00 TB
E1/20 WDC WD30EFRX-68A-WD-WMC19 3.00 TB <-Red
E1/21 ST3000DM001-9YN1- 3.00 TB
E1/22 ST3000DM001-1CH1- 3.00 TB
E1/24 WDC WD30EZRX-00M-WD-WCAW 3.00 TB <- 3TB Green
E1/35 ST3000DM001-9YN1- 3.00 TB
E2/1 ST31000528AS- 1.00 TB
E2/2 SAMSUNG HD103UJ-S13PJ1BQ 1.00 TB
E2/3 SAMSUNG HD103UJ-S13PJ1BQ 1.00 TB
E2/4 ST31000525SV- 1.00 TB
E2/5 WDC WD30EFRX-68A-WD-WCC1T 3.00 TB <- Red
E2/6 ST31000528AS- 1.00 TB
E2/7 WDC WD10EARS-00Y-WD-WCAV 1.00 TB
E2/8 Hitachi HDT72101- 1.00 TB
E2/9 WDC WD2500YS-01S-WD-WCANY 250.92 GB
E2/10 WDC WD2500KS-00M-WD-WCANK 249.98 GB
E2/11 WDC WD2500KS-00M-WD-WCANK 249.98 GB
E2/12 ST3250410AS- 249.98 GB
E2/13 WDC WD30EZRX-00D-WD-WMC1T 3.00 TB <- 3TB Green
E2/14 ST4000DM000-1F21- 4.00 TB <- Seagate 4TB
E2/15 ST3000DM001-1CH1- 3.00 T
E2/16 ST31000525SV- 1.00 TB
E2/18 WDC WD15EARS-00Z-WD-WMAVU 1.50 TB <- WD Greens
E2/19 WDC WD15EARS-00Z-WD-WMAVU 1.50 TB
E2/20 WDC WD15EARS-00Z-WD-WMAVU 1.50 TB
E2/21 WDC WD15EARS-00Z-WD-WMAVU 1.50 TB
E2/22 WDC WD15EADS-00P-WD-WCAVU 1.50 TB
E2/23 WDC WD15EARS-00Z-WD-WMAVU 1.50 TB
E2/24 WDC WD15EARS-00Z-WD-WMAVU 1.50 TB

 

[thehooride]

Just general. People talking on forums etc. Check [H], where people buy 10-20 of em. Gives a better idea than someone buying just 1-2. Also check reviews. I know those are to be taken with a grain of salt mind you, but they seem to get more cases of DOA than other drives.

I purchased 8 3TB Reds; 4 from NewEgg with just bubble wrap and peanuts protecting them and 4 from B&H packed in individual serialized brown boxes. All 8 of them have been been 24/7 for over a week without a hitch.

 

[finbarqs]

just get the RE drives... 4TB RE ftw!

 

[Pariah]

I know someone who got 20 of them, and 12 failed on day 0-60. (DOA to started to have bad sectors).

A failure rate that high is not from a manufacturing defect. Either the guy got a bunch of drives from the same shipping case that UPS threw against the wall, or there is something wrong with the server he is putting the drives in.

 

[chandra.hp]

Question... which drives are more preferable for RAID configurations (RAID 1 or 5)? Are WD Red's preferable? If yes are there any particular reasons why?

I would like to purchase two 4TB drives and mirror them via RAID1 and also use them for NAS purpose. What sort of drive is best for this? Do I need to go with WD Blacks?

 

[Zap]

I cannot justify paying 2x premium that WD will charge for 4TB RED compared to ST4000DM000.

You're probably thinking of the WD Blacks. Reds don't seem to be 2x the cost, but more like 1.5x the cost. :whiste:

For what it is worth, I have noticed the same chatter. If you look at newegg/amazon "reviews", lots of RMAs are being done.
I know someone who got 20 of them, and 12 failed on day 0-60. (DOA to started to have bad sectors).

Is it the "quality" of the drive, or the "handling" of the drive?

FWIW here is a 1.5TB WD Green that I ordered from Amazon. This is the actual drive and packaging that I received. Luckily the drive was fine (one of the rare times I will fully test a drive before using) but I wouldn't doubt that some of the drives shipped this way end up DOA or failing in first month or two.

 

[yours truly]

The WD Red 4tb has landed:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7258/battle-of-the-4-tb-nas-drives-wd-red-and-seagate-nas-hdd-faceoff


They've started to appear in the UK. Just bought a Seagate 4tb nas drive but would have preferred WD.

 

[MrX8503]

Question... which drives are more preferable for RAID configurations (RAID 1 or 5)? Are WD Red's preferable? If yes are there any particular reasons why?

I would like to purchase two 4TB drives and mirror them via RAID1 and also use them for NAS purpose. What sort of drive is best for this? Do I need to go with WD Blacks?

If you're going to RAID, you want NAS drives. In this case WD Red. Those drives support TLER. Plus they're meant got all day operation, low heat, and low power.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control