By: Jonathan Kwan
December 24, 2015
About a month ago, we published our review on the Western Digital Black WD6001FZWX 6TB hard drive. As I was scouring the internet, one user commented on the introduction of my article, saying it "takes the cake for the most creative way to segue into a hard drive review". Needless to say, I have to agree. I mean, is that not how all our introductions here at APH Networks work? But since this review is part two of our of our three-part series, I think it only makes sense for me to continue the story presented in the beginning of the Western Digital Black review in question. Shortly after that incident, I told my friend I will open every door for her for a whole year, and every time I do not, I will have to buy her a chicken nugget, payable with a running total upon the expiration of the agreement. The next day, we were walking to my car to go for lunch, and it was then I realized this agreement had some issues. Firstly, all doors included car doors. Secondly, on that particular day, I parked at the principle entrance of the church, and it was the time when everyone was just leaving. Needless to say, this whole door opening thing got a little more attention than I expected initially. From this, we can see as interesting as something may sound, applying to every situation may have unforeseen consequences. While the WD6001FZWX is a speedy near-workstation class hard drive, it does not mean it is ideal for deployment in your NAS. It is not that you physically cannot -- but would not it be better if you add shock protection, vibration protection, error recovery prevention, enhanced compatibility, improved balancing, and extended drive testing to the mix? Say hello to the Western Digital Red Pro WD6001FFWX 6TB. The latest high capacity WD Red Pro is essentially a Black, but made for network attached storage systems. Read on to find out if is the right person for the job!
Our review unit of the Western Digital Red Pro WD6001FFWX 6TB came in a medium sized, brown corrugated cardboard box from the company's American headquarters in Irvine, California. Inside the relatively cubic container were two other products; the WD6001FZWX 6TB I reviewed last month as aforementioned, as well as the Red WD60EFRX, which I will cover in the coming weeks. Using UPS Express, everything arrived quickly and safely to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Once again, benchmark results for all three drives will be included in this review, so there will be absolutely no surprises when it comes to the performance data.
Inside the medium sized, brown corrugated cardboard box was a smaller box, securely placed in the presence of bubble wrap to fill up any remaining space. If you have ever sent Western Digital products back for warranty return, then the small box inside should be quite familiar to you. These flap top boxes open via two tabs on the side, and the meat of it is clipped between two black plastic shells to ensure they travel safely and securely inside. The Western Digital Red Pro WD6001FFWX 6TB was placed inside a sealed anti-static bag for additional protection. To be honest, I have never purchased a hard drive that is not in OEM packaging in the past, so this should be nothing new to most people.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the features and specifications of the Western Digital Red Pro WD6001FFWX 6TB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Specifications
Model number: WD6001FFWX
Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s
Formatted capacity: 6 TB
Form factor: 3.5-inch
Advanced Format: Yes
Native command queuing: Yes
RoHS compliant: Yes
Performance
Data transfer rate (max)
- Buffer to host: 6 Gb/s
- Host to/from drive (sustained): 214 MB/s
Cache (MB): 128
Rotational speed (RPM): 7200
Reliability/Data Integrity
Load/unload cycles: 600,000
Non-recoverable read errors per bits read: <10 in 10^15
MTBF (hours) for 8-16 bay NAS: 1,000,000
Limited warranty (years): 5
Power Management
12VDC-/+10% (A, peak): 1.9
Average power requirements (W)
- Read/Write: 10.6
- Idle: 7.4
- Standby/Sleep: 1.6
Environmental Specifications
Temperature (°C)
- Operating: 5 to 60
- Non-operating: -40 to 70
Shock (Gs)
- Operating (2 ms, read/write): 30
- Operating (2 ms, read): 65
- Non-operating (2 ms): 300
Acoustics (dBA)
Idle: 31
Seek (average): 34
Physical Dimensions
Height (in./mm, max): 1.028/26.1
Length (in./mm, max): 5.787/147
Width (in./mm, ± .01 in.): 4/101.6
Weight (lb./kg, ± 10%): 1.66/0.75
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark 7
10. NAS Performance, Power Consumption
11. Conclusion
