Thought it might be worth mentioning... I have a pair of WD
Red's.
Visit the product page.
I was a little apprehensive to go with them for one main reason really. First, WD is somewhat vague about the internal specs and mechanics of their drives, namely the spindle speed. This was most evident in their
Green's and likewise, I had to do a fair bit of research to find out accurate information on the
Red's. There was plenty of debate over the speed being
5400RPM,
5900RPM and then varying speeds of
5400 - 7200RPM.
WD are huge on "branding" their drives to be suited to a specific purpose. It's a very clever marketing strategy and has kept them on top of the game (so to speak). The
Purple's were released just after I purchased my drives so they weren't in the equation, but from what I have learned about them they seem to be a good option and are mechanically suited to be used under NVR conditions. I'm just unsure of their longevity and how they fair with power consumption and heat generation. I would advise doing a bit of reading on current owners reviews, just to be thorough (and placing just a little less value on the "branding" WD has created, to look further at whats beyond it).
With that said, the reason I did end up settling on WD's
Red's was that after confirming the variable drive speed of
5,400-7,200RPM ("
IntelliPower" - Another WD branding) ...offers a fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance... This combined with a healthy 64mb cache handles streaming media with just as much ease as remedial file serving. The next point to highlight is that these
Red's are hybrid enterprise grade manufactured. The materials used, manufacturing process and quality assurance measures are simply not obtainable in any other SOHO market directed drives. The jump in cost to enterprise grade drives is just not justifiable in most SOHO applications, despite the assurance of many times more working hours and lower failure rates.
Having owned the drives for quite some time and thoroughly using them, my experience with them has been a very positive one. They're almost silent, very energy efficient and have a very low heat dispersion. Which is mostly due to the variable spindle speed, build quality and intelligent firmware. These are also important considerations when running multiple drives in close proximity, as vibration and heat will directly affect a drives lifespan.
You can read more about them here:
http://www.cnet.com/news/western-digital-ships-6tb-wd-red-nas-hard-drive-and-all-new-wd-red-pro-lineup/
I can of course only speak of my own experience, and by no means is my intention to push you in any direction towards your final decision, I hope only that this gives you a bit to think about and maybe helps you consider some factors you may not have thought of before deciding on a large expense (and a device you ultimately know you can rely on).
