By: Jonathan Kwan
January 9, 2015
In the modern Protestant church, you may notice worship style vary vastly between congregations of different denominations. Now, for those among us who do not attend church, or are not familiar with this stuff, let me start you off with some technical jargon. In the 'high church' model, which you can see in such as the Lutheran tradition, places a lot of emphasis on liturgy. These practices originates from the Catholic Church, which, during the Reformation, was decided it was acceptable to retain everything in the status quo, unless it was against the teaching of the Bible. On the other hand, in the 'low church' model, popular with the modern Evangelical movement, strips away everything -- the distinctive robes, fancy candles, and traditional creeds -- and rebuilds the entire contemporary style of worship from scratch on the basis of the Bible. While neither is theologically incorrect, the end result is pretty different. When we reviewed the Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB in June of last year, what we have seen is a drive built upon the Western Digital Green series, adding to it everything necessary to give it the right credentials to work in the modern small network attached storage. Today, we are going to look at something different. The Western Digital Red Pro WD4001FFSX 4TB is based on the Western Digital RE WD4000FYYZ 4TB enterprise grade drive, stripping away everything unnecessary for deployment in eight to sixteen bay NAS systems in order to keep the price in check. While neither is technically incorrect, the end product is pretty different for people with varying requirements. If the WD40EFRX is designed on the 'low church' philosophy of hard drives, then is the WD4001FFSX an equivalent example of the 'high church' model? Read on to find out what we have found!
Our review unit of the Western Digital Red Pro WD4001FFSX 4TB drive came in a medium sized, brown corrugated cardboard box from the company's American headquarters in California, USA. Using neither UPS, FedEx, DHL, nor Canada Post via USPS transfer, how the heck did these drives arrive at our door? Like last time, the company used CEVA Logistics, who flew it in via Air Canada Cargo before loading it into a big truck here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. With some physical paper and all in the hands of the driver, I used a real pen to sign it off as a proof of delivery. That was, of course, back in 2014... or a few weeks ago, in case you are wondering.
Inside the medium sized, brown corrugated cardboard box was a smaller box, securely placed in the middle a loop of packing paper 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 WD4001FFSX 4TB 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 WD4001FFSX 4TB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Specifications
Model number: WD4001FFSX
Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s
Formatted capacity: 4 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): 171 MB/s
Cache (MB): 64
Rotational speed (RPM): 7200
Reliability/Data Integrity
Load/unload cycles: 600,000
Non-recoverable read errors per bits read: <1 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: 8.6
- Idle: 6.5
- Standby/Sleep: 0.6
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, Features, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Installation, 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
