Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
πŸ”’ reliable performance: western digital 4tb wd red smr nas internal hard drive - 5400 rpm, sata 6 gb/s, 256mb cache, 3.5" - wd40efax logo

πŸ”’ Reliable Performance: Western Digital 4TB WD Red SMR NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFAX Review

5

Β·

Terrible

Revainrating 1 out of 5Β Β 
RatingΒ 
1.0
🧰 Computer Internal Components, πŸ’» Computer Components

View on AmazonView on Π―M

Media

(4)
img 1 attached to πŸ”’ Reliable Performance: Western Digital 4TB WD Red SMR NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFAX
img 2 attached to πŸ”’ Reliable Performance: Western Digital 4TB WD Red SMR NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFAX
img 3 attached to πŸ”’ Reliable Performance: Western Digital 4TB WD Red SMR NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFAX
img 4 attached to πŸ”’ Reliable Performance: Western Digital 4TB WD Red SMR NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFAX

Description of πŸ”’ Reliable Performance: Western Digital 4TB WD Red SMR NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFAX

Available in capacities ranging from 2-6TB with support for up to 8 bays. 5400RPM performance class. NASware firmware for compatibility. NAS systems with daily workloads associated with personal and home office environments and idle time available to perform necessary background operations. Supports up to 180 TB/yr Workload Rate Workload Rate is defined as the amount of user data transferred to or from the hard drive. Workload Rate is annualized (TB transferred βœ• (8760 / recorded power-on hours)). 3-year limited warranty.

Reviews

Global ratings 5
  • 5
    0
  • 4
    0
  • 3
    0
  • 2
    0
  • 1
    5

Type of review

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Don't buy it, SMR makes this drive unsuitable for RAID or NAS

WD Red drives under 8TB use SMR and are not suitable for RAID or NAS configurations. Random writes are much slower in SMR. This causes the RAID clusters to fail to rebuild or rebuild. Why should you make a NAS drive with SMR? The profit motive really undermines the whole purpose of the RED drive here.

Pros
  • This is great
Cons
  • No paint required

Revainrating 1 out of 5

WD40EFAX - absolute junk

So it turns out that all of these EFAX drives have a recording technology called SMR. The only thing you need to know about it is that it's incredibly slow. I can't give this back, although nowhere did they advertise that this disc has significantly different (and significantly worse) technology than before. When your WD Red drive announces 256MB cache, stay away!

Pros
  • Decent performance
Cons
  • Approximately

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Beware SMR Scandal: Doesn't Work With FRX

Be aware of the ongoing Western Digital scandal that is secretly replacing the underlying technology of PMR with SMR. SMR drives write slower and cannot re-cluster non-SMR drives. Western Digital tried to cover it up and cover up the truth. Some other hard drive vendors do the same, but WD has applied this to its NAS drives. Not only is this a scam, it actually causes crashes in your NAS. You can search the internet, there are many websites that report this with all the technical information.

Pros
  • Industry Best
Cons
  • Poorly Thought

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Warning. This drive uses SMR technology

It has very poor overwrite performance. Especially if you are using this in a ZFS RAID these drives will likely be removed. In comparison, RAID recovery can take a long time. These drives are generally considered unsuitable for NAS and should not be labeled as such. The bigger problem is that Western Digital (Seagage and Toshiba are also on board) has been building new drives using this cheaper technology without passing on the customer's savings or warning the customer about a performance hit.

Pros
  • Very good price
Cons
  • Good but not great

Revainrating 1 out of 5

BUYER BEWARE! Model EFAX is a SMR actuator

Western Digital is replacing older CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) discs with lower SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) discs. SMR is a technology that allows them to provide higher storage densities by providing more TB capacity on the same number of platters - or fewer platters on the same TB (aka cheaper manufacturing). The problem is that SMR, in addition to higher capacity, comes with much lower random I/O performance than CMR drives offer. SMR drives also have problems removing them…

Pros
  • Absolutely amazing!
Cons
  • Problems Existing