spec me a hard drive for data backup

I'm not concerned with peformance, this isn't a performance model after all. I'm concerned with noise. A feature that helps keep the drive quiet has been removed.

You now seem to be insinuating you've found other ways to compensate for the loss of IntelliPower.

I've seen the spec sheets but they can be wrong, due to copy/paste error or lies, I presume the new spec drives were retested and the green drive specs not just copied over. Also spotted the specs are the same for some of the capacities implying your using more platters than you need to in some models. Can you confirm platter counts for the new drives? That should be in the spec aswell really.

User reports are coming through now and it seems the head parking feature is missing too. Not a problem for me because I always disabled it but it's another change.

No need to apologise for the late reply, as I said I'll get one soon enough and judge the updated spec drives for myself. :)
 
I'm sorry but, I can't really comment on the platter number of different drive models, as it's not Western Digital's policy to share that information.

As for the rest of it - it is as I've already mentioned, all models are now set to the same RPM - 5400, but all the other features remain, so you should expect the same noise levels and power consumption as before.

I'll be looking forward to your personal observations once you get your new drive. :)
 
Do yourself a favour and spend a little more on a WD Black 7200rpm..You'll never regret it.
 
Hey there, MoRT489.

If you've checked the comparison between those drives, then it seems like you've already seen all the differences in terms of technical specs. The WD Red drives have a 3-year limited warranty and run with IntelliPower and have models with up to 64MB cache. The WD Red Pro have a longer warranty period - 5-year limited warranty, they run at 7200RPM and have models with up to 128MB cache.
AS @ed79 has mentioned, the WD Red Pro drives are recommended for NAS/RAID environments with 8-16 drives and the WD Red drive is recommended for NAS/RAID environments with up to 8 drives.
Both models have NASWare 3.0, but the features are where some of the other differences lie. I'm talking about features like the multi-axis shock sensor, StableTracTM technology, extended testing and so on.

If you'd like to check the differences for yourself, you could take a closer look at their features here (just scroll down a bit and click on "More Features"):
WD Red
WD Red Pro

Cheers!
 
Thanks for your reply. At 3TB and 4 TB they are both 64MB cache and I wouldn't be using the NAS features, so it seems the only difference in specs is the Red is IntelliPower speed and the Red Pro is 7,200rpm). Is Intellipower just marketing speak to avoid quality control by not saying all standard drives operate at 5,400rpm? If the potential difference in speeds between drives is "minimal" (which I would take to mean 5-10% difference at most, anything more would surely have a significant effect on write/read speed) then it seems strange not to just call them 5,400rpm drives.

As I'm only interested in is backing up my data, what I really want is reliability and there is a difference between the Red and Red Pro in terms of warranty duration (3yrs vs 5yrs). Is there any difference in the components used or quality control between the two to justify the extended warranty period or is it just a part of the price premium (~£35) to distinguish the Red Pro as a higher-end product?
 
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Well right now the WD drives are specified as a particular class either 5400RPM or 7200RPM, since the WD Red drives still use a different type of technology they don't fall in either category specifically, but you're still free to test them out of course. There should be a link on IntelliPower in on of my previous posts in this thread.

As for the drives themselves. Basically they are equally well built and use the same components. But, there are some additional things for the WD Red Pro drives and I'm not talking specifically about the NAS features. As mentioned in my previous post, I'm talking about - the multi-axis shock sensor (it automatically detects subtle shock events and dynamic fly height technology which adjusts each read-write function to compensate and protect the data); extended thermal cycle burn-in testing (which ensures each drive for extended reliable operation); StableTracTM technology (secures the motor shaft at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize the drive platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations); 3D Active BalanceTM Plus (hardware vibration compensation technology which monitors the drive to correct both linear and rotational vibration in real time, further increasing drive reliability). Those features are not NAS related specifically as they improve the drive's reliability in general. And when you add the longer warranty period, those are the difference between the two models.

On the other hand you should go with a drive that bests suits your budget and needs. So if you're going to use it just for backups, I guess that the WD Red would be the right choice for you, if you don't need the extra features.

Please note that no matter how reliable a drive might be, it's always important to backup your data. I'm saying that because many people think that storing their personal data on a separate drive is the same as backing up and sometimes this leads to tragic results. You know how it is - hope for the best, prepare for the worst. :)

Let me know if there's anything else.
 
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MoRT489 said:
Thanks for your reply. At 3TB and 4 TB they are both 64MB cache and I wouldn't be using the NAS features, so it seems the only difference in specs is the Red is IntelliPower speed and the Red Pro is 7,200rpm). Is Intellipower just marketing speak to avoid quality control by not saying all standard drives operate at 5,400rpm? If the potential difference in speeds between drives is "minimal" (which I would take to mean 5-10% difference at most, anything more would surely have a significant effect on write/read speed) then it seems strange not to just call them 5,400rpm drives.
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IntelliPower is just marketing BS. On each drive an optimised constant speed is supposidly determined and set at the factory, if that is true then it won't be too far away from 5,400 RPM. An IntelliPower drive has been tested and found to run at 5,400 RPM: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article786-page2.html

The rebranded green drives drop IntelliPower but they apparently stay the same, so whatever it was doing if anything has little to no effect.

MoRT489 said:
As I'm only interested in is backing up my data, what I really want is reliability and there is a difference between the Red and Red Pro in terms of warranty duration (3yrs vs 5yrs). Is there any difference in the components used or quality control between the two to justify the extended warranty period or is it just a part of the price premium (~£35) to distinguish the Red Pro as a higher-end product?
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For backups I'd go for the lowest cost per GB drive unless you want the extended waranty which of course doesn't guarantee your data just that the drive is replaced if it dies. More than one backup is a good idea if you want reliability and powering the drives up twice a year is a good idea if their permanently offline static backups.
 
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