Seagate recently rebooted their NAS offerings, completely revamping their 2013 Business Storage lineup and dropping the old software platform altogether. In its place, they adopted the Debian-based NAS OS, development of which was started by L…
Seagate recently rebooted their NAS offerings, completely revamping their 2013 Business Storage lineup and dropping the old software platform altogether. In its place, they adopted the Debian-based NAS OS, development of which was started by L…
Back in July 2012, Western Digital began the trend of hard drive manufacturers bringing out dedicated units for the burgeoning NAS market with the 3.5″ Red hard drive lineup. They specifically catered to units having 1-5 bays. The firmware was tuned for 24×7 operation in SOHO and consumer NAS units. 1 TB, 2 TB and 3 TB versions were made available at launch. Later, Seagate also jumped into the fray with a hard drive series carrying similar firmware features. Their differentiating aspect was the availability of a 4 TB version. Western Digital responded in September 2013 with their own 4 TB version (as well as a 2.5″ lineup in capacities up to 1 TB).
Today, Western Digital is making updates to their Red lineup for the third straight year in a row. The Red lineup gets the following updates:
In addition, a new category is also being introduced, the Red Pro. Available in 2 – 4 TB capacities, this is targeted towards rackmount units with 8 – 16 bays (though nothing precludes it from use in tower form factor units with lower number of bays).
Even though 6 TB drives have been around (HGST introduced the Helium drives last November, while Seagate has been shipping Enterprise Capacity and Desktop HDD 6 TB versions for a few months now), Western Digital is the first to claim a NAS-specific 6 TB drive. The updated firmware (NASware 3.0) puts in some features related to vibration compensation, which allows the Red drives to now be used in 1 – 8 bay desktop NAS systems (earlier versions were officially sanctioned only for 1 – 5 bay units). NASware 3.0 also has some new features to help with data integrity protection in case of power loss. The unfortunate aspect here is that units with NASware 2.0 can’t be upgraded to NASware 3.0 (since NASware 3.0 requires some recalibration of internal components that can only be done in the factory).
The 6 TB version of the WD Red has 5 platters, which makes it the first drive we have seen to have an areal density of more than 1 TB/platter (1.2 TB/platter in this case). This areal density increase is achieved using the plain old Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology. Western Digital has not yet found reason to move to any of the new technologies such as SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording), HAMR (Heat-assisted Magnetic Recording) or Helium-filling for the WD Red lineup.The 5 TB and 6 TB versions also have WD’s StableTrac technology (securing of the motor shaft at both ends in order to minimize vibration). As usual, the drive comes with a 3 year warranty. Other aspects such as the rotation speed, buffer capacity and qualification process remain the same as that of the previous generation units.
The Red Pro targets medium and large business NAS systems which require more performance by moving to a rotation speed of 7200 rpm. Like the enterprise drives, the Red Pro comes with hardware-assisted vibration compensation, undergoes extended thermal burn-in testing and carries a 5-year warranty. 2, 3 and 4 TB versions are available, with the 4 TB version being a five platter design (800 GB/platter).
The WD Green drives are also getting a capacity boost to 5 TB and 6 TB. WD also specifically mentioned that their in-house NAS and DAS units (My Cloud EX2 / EX4, My Book Duo etc.) are also getting new models with these higher capacity drives pre-installed. The MSRPs for the newly introduced drives are provided below
| WD Red Lineup 2014 Updates – Manufacturer Suggested Retail Prices | ||
| Model | Model Number | Price (USD) |
| WD Red – 5 TB | WD50EFRX | $249 |
| WD Red – 6 TB | WD60EFRX | $299 |
| WD Red Pro – 2 TB | WD2001FFSX | $159 |
| WD Red Pro – 3 TB | WD3001FFSX | $199 |
| WD Red Pro – 4 TB | WD4001FFSX | $259 |
We do have review units of both the 6 TB WD Red and the 4 TB WD Red Pro. Look out for the hands-on coverage in the reviews section over the next couple of weeks.
The DS214play 2-bay NAS is turning out to be a popular product for Synology. Sensing a lot of market interest in a version with more number of bays, Synology is launching the DS415play today. It is a 4-bay NAS based on the Intel CE5335 Evansport SoC. With this product, Synology joins Asustor (AS-304T) and Thecus (N4560) as vendors supplying 4-bay NAS units based on the Intel CE5335.
Synology’s approach to Evansport is unique, and we have covered it in detail in our DS214play review. The transcoding capabilities are quite useful and work great for a lot of devices. There are still a few rough edges, but, given Synology’s commitment to firmware features, we are sure things will continue to get better. In addition to the Chromecast support that was a great feature while using the DS214play, Synology’s PR for the 415play also talks about support for Android TV (not surprising, given that they were already working great with Chromecast).
On the hardware side, users not quite satisfied with 2 drives in the DS214play had the option of adding a DX513 to the mix (no option for volumes spanning the two units, though) to get 7 bays in total using the available eSATA port. The DS415play does away with the eSATA port, so there is no possibility of adding in an enclosure to increase the number of drive bays. That said, four bays is probably enough for a large majority of the consumers (considering that 5 TB and higher capacity drives are already in the market).
At $540, it is a bit costlier compared to the Asustor AS-304T. However, the transcoding features and app ecosystem probably warrant the increase in price. QNAP’s TS-451 is already quite close to launch, and I think that will be the main competition for Synology’s DS415play.
The DS214play 2-bay NAS is turning out to be a popular product for Synology. Sensing a lot of market interest in a version with more number of bays, Synology is launching the DS415play today. It is a 4-bay NAS based on the Intel CE5335 Evansport SoC. With this product, Synology joins Asustor (AS-304T) and Thecus (N4560) as vendors supplying 4-bay NAS units based on the Intel CE5335.
Synology’s approach to Evansport is unique, and we have covered it in detail in our DS214play review. The transcoding capabilities are quite useful and work great for a lot of devices. There are still a few rough edges, but, given Synology’s commitment to firmware features, we are sure things will continue to get better. In addition to the Chromecast support that was a great feature while using the DS214play, Synology’s PR for the 415play also talks about support for Android TV (not surprising, given that they were already working great with Chromecast).
On the hardware side, users not quite satisfied with 2 drives in the DS214play had the option of adding a DX513 to the mix (no option for volumes spanning the two units, though) to get 7 bays in total using the available eSATA port. The DS415play does away with the eSATA port, so there is no possibility of adding in an enclosure to increase the number of drive bays. That said, four bays is probably enough for a large majority of the consumers (considering that 5 TB and higher capacity drives are already in the market).
At $540, it is a bit costlier compared to the Asustor AS-304T. However, the transcoding features and app ecosystem probably warrant the increase in price. QNAP’s TS-451 is already quite close to launch, and I think that will be the main competition for Synology’s DS415play.