Western Digital is expanding its line of NAS (network attached storage) drives, with new 5TB and 6TB additions to their WD Red line of SATA drives. And they are introducing a new subset of NAS drives, the WD Red Pro line, which is targeted at small business NAS solutions. The Pro line will start with 2 to 4TB capacities.
One notable aspect of the 6TB drive is the fact that they are using five platters only in the drive, so the density of storage per platter is greater than anything that Western Digital has released in an NAS drive before now.
Both the Red and Red Pro lines will have the latest version of NASware technology, NASware 3.0, which will allow use of 8 bay NAS systems with the Red line, and up to 16 bay systems with the Pro.
The new WD Red drives come with the same 3 year warranty seen in previous drives in this line, and the WD Red Pro will come with a 5 year warranty. Here are the suggested retail prices:
- WD Red 5 TB (model #: WD50EFRX) $249
- WD Red 6TB (model #: WD60EFRX) $299
- WD Red Pro 2 TB (model #: WD2001FFSX) $159
- WD Red Pro 3 TB (model #: WD3001FFSX) $199
- WD Red Pro 4 TB (model #: WD4001FFSX) $259
You can read the announcement from Western Digital here.
