Western Digital WD Red in a standard desktop?

kaukaumooo · 11 Sep 2012 at 19:02

Hi guys, am speccing a new system for CAD, gaming and general use, and am after a HDD around 2TB and around the £100-150 mark.

I saw the WD RED drives and they looked like a bargain, as I've been warned off the Seagate Barracudas (only 1yr warranty), but then there's a lot of talk about how they're intended for RAID and various other things I don't fully understand the significance of in a real-world usage scenario.

As these drives are about a third cheaper than (say) the WD Black, is there anything wrong with putting them in a standard gaming setup as a storage drive, or am I making a big error? (I have a 128GB SSD planned for OS/games)

CaptainCrash · 11 Sep 2012 at 21:01

As far as I can see, the NAS "optimisations" won't hurt regular desktop performance in any way, at least relative to other 5400rpm drives (they'll never be as fast as the Blacks for obvious reasons). I suspect there's a fair dollop of marketing hype involved in any case, although the longer warranty is nice.

If you're just looking for storage space and ultimate spinny-drive performance isn't a requirement, I'm sure they'll be fine.

StevieP · 11 Sep 2012 at 21:22

I wouldn't think the performance would be the biggest issue - the bigger problem is actually getting hold of a RED drive!

I've got a shiny new Synology DS213 sat here just waiting for the RED's to come into stock!!!!

kaukaumooo · 12 Sep 2012 at 01:23

Cheers guys, yeah I wasn't sure cos they mention all about error checking and drive-head parking and all this other stuff which I have no idea if it is really important in day to day etc. Will have a look in a few other places but as I am about to drop £1700 on a new system I want to make sure it's right!

kaukaumooo · 14 Sep 2012 at 14:12

anyone else got any thoughts on this?

welshdragon · 14 Sep 2012 at 21:53

For a storage drive I can't see why a western digital green wouldn't suffice? Ten pound cheaper and actually available to buy in places. For storage I can't imagine you would see much, if any, noticeable performance difference between the two.

I would love two reds but currently running two greens in my nas in raid 1 and touch wood, not a single problem. Performance is fine too