While taking backups of your data is crucial on NAS systems, we need to ensure we use reliable hard drives that last longer and deliver good storage performance. We got a chance to try out the WD Red Plus Internal NAS HDD, and here are our thoughts about the drive.
The WD Red Plus series 3.5-inch hard drives are designed for small to medium-size NAS environments. The device features a dimension of 146.98 mm x 101.6 mm x 1.028 mm and weighs 750 grams. WD offers the Red Plus in several storage options, which include 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 10TB, and 12TB options, and we got the 6TB model for review.
The drive with its SATA connections features a transfer rate of 180 MB/s speeds. The internal hard disk is capable of 5400 RPM speeds, and the cache is 256 MB. For the higher storage options such as 10 TB and 12 TB options, the cache is 512 MB. In terms of endurance, the 6TB drive can handle up to 180 TB of data per year and 1 million hours of MTBF. Unlike traditional consumer desktop hard drives, the Red Plus drive also features Rotation Vibration (RV) sensors that anticipate noise and vibrations and counteract disturbances that can be caused in multi-bay NAS systems.
WD mentions that the Red Plus can be configured as RAID-optimized on NAS systems with up to 8 storage bays. We tried the hard drive on some NAS systems, including older models such as the Synology DS218j, and the drive worked great. We also tested the drive on our testbed using AS SSD and CrystalDiskMark apps for benchmarks. Here are the scores below.
The drive also comes with Western Digital’s NASware technology that helps to fine-tune the parameters of the drive to increase the reliability and performance on NAS devices. These drives are also designed to be power efficient and run cooler than previous models on NAS systems.
Verdict
If you are looking for a reliable internal hard drive to backup your important data, then the WD Red Plus 6TB HDD is a good choice. The Red Plus series is designed and optimized to work well with NAS systems, and it can be configured with up to 8 bays. The drive features a disk speed of 5400 RPM and has an average transfer rate of 180 MB/s.
Users can choose different storage versions, starting from 2TB models and all the way to 12TB versions. The built-in cache is 512MB, and the NASware technology helps to optimize the performance and other parameters of the drive while operating on NAS systems. The drive also consumes less power and produces less heat in NAS systems. And the endurance can go up to 180 TB per year.
