WD hard drives including Red, Ultastar and Purple

WD Red, Red Plus and Red Pro Drives

The WD Red Series is purpose-built for network attached storage (NAS) applications. Within the RED line, there are three distinct product segments. The standard RED, which offers an economical choice and is available in capacities of 2TB, 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB, utilizes SMR technology. Red Plus is CMR. Both the RED and RED Plus models come with a 3-year limited warranty. On the other hand, the RED Pro variant is CMR drive and is covered by a 5-year limited warranty with workloads comparable to enterprise-grade Ultrastar drives

Difference between WD Red, WD Red Plus, and WD Red Pro

• Recording: WD Red uses SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording), while WD Red Plus and WD Red Pro use CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording).
• Warranty: WD Red and Red Plus come with a 3-year limited warranty, while WD Red Pro offers a 5-year limited warranty.
• RPM: Varies across models, ranging from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM for higher performance in WD Red Pro.

WD Ultrastar drives are renowned for being the most reliable in Western Digital’s lineup, offering an impressive 2.5 million hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), making them ideal for critical enterprise environments where uptime and reliability are paramount. These drives are available with both SAS and SATA interfaces, giving businesses flexibility depending on their existing infrastructure. You can choose sector sizes of 512e, 512n (on select models), or 4Kn to meet specific performance and compatibility requirements. Additionally, the WD Ultrastar series includes SED (Self-Encrypting Drives) models, which offer enhanced security through various encryption options to protect sensitive data.

WD Enterprise Drives Offering:

• WD Ultrastar SATA Drives: High-capacity drives designed for enterprise workloads with a focus on reliability and performance.
• WD Ultrastar SAS Drives: Designed for high-performance, mission-critical applications, these drives offer faster data transfer speeds and enhanced reliability.
• WD Gold SATA Drives: A premium storage solution for businesses needing maximum durability, energy efficiency, and consistent performance in enterprise environments.

With this range of enterprise-grade drives, WD ensures that businesses can find the right solution for their storage needs, whether for large-scale data centers or critical business applications.

WD Purple Surveillance Drives (Purple and Purple Pro)

WD Purple and WD Purple Pro are both designed for surveillance applications, but they cater to different scales of usage, providing distinct features to meet varying needs.

• RPM: WD Purple operates at a speed of 5400-5700 RPM, ideal for standard surveillance setups. WD Purple Pro, on the other hand, runs at 7200 RPM, providing faster data access and smoother performance for more demanding environments.
• Warranty: WD Purple comes with a 3-year limited warranty, suitable for home or small business surveillance systems. WD Purple Pro offers a 5-year limited warranty for professional and large-scale installations.
• Channels: WD Purple supports up to 64 camera channels, making it a solid choice for smaller surveillance setups. WD Purple Pro supports 64 camera channels plus an additional 32 AI streams, making it ideal for advanced AI-powered security systems.
• Annual Workload: WD Purple is designed for workloads between 180-360 TB per year, while WD Purple Pro supports up to 550 TB per year, suited for high-demand environments with extensive data handling needs.

In summary, WD Purple is designed for standard surveillance use, while WD Purple Pro is tailored for more robust, AI-enabled, and large-scale security systems requiring higher performance and greater durability.