By: Jonathan Kwan
October 20, 2017
"I could not start my computer," my supervisor said with a tone of worry in his voice. "Is there any way to retrieve my data?" "Did you back up your data?" I asked him. "No," he replied. Does that seem like a scenario you can relate to? From my colleague Ben's recent article on the Acronis True Image 2018 to my quest to build the 32TB network attached storage system a few months ago, everyone here at APH Networks -- and I would say, across the internet -- will tell you how important it is to back up your data. My theory is if I ever lost my data, I would pay at least a few hundred dollars to get them all back. But if those few hundred -- or even few thousand dollars -- is not enough to recover my terabytes of data should that ever happen, why not pay that money now and ensure I will never lose my data? Of course, there are many ways to keep your documents and memories safe. External hard drives are economical, while always-on network attached storage systems are faster, more convenient, and considerably more versatile in what it can do. As a fan of the latter, earlier this year, I took a look at Western Digital's Red WD80EFZX 8TB NAS hard drive. Although it delivered as promised in every meaningful metric, it was down a couple of terabytes in capacity compared to the excellent Seagate IronWolf ST10000VN0004 10TB. Well, fear not my friends: The Western Digital Red WD100EFAX 10TB brings the lineup back to the game in the capacity challenge. But will it still deliver in speed, power efficiency, and price? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Western Digital Red WD100EFAX 10TB hard drive came in medium sized, UPS branded corrugated cardboard box from the company's American headquarters in Irvine, California. I am a little bit jealous of the weather in Irvine right now, as they are a whole 23 degrees Celsius warmer than us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada right now -- and their current temperature is 23c. Chit chat aside, using UPS Saver, everything arrived in excellent condition for our review today.
Inside the medium sized, UPS branded 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 WD100EFAX 10TB 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 WD100EFAX 10TB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Specifications
Model number: WD100EFAX
Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s
Formatted capacity: 10TB
Form factor: 3.5-inch
Advanced Format (AF): Yes
Native command queuing: Yes
RoHS compliant: Yes
Performance
Data transfer rate (max):
- Interface speed: 6 Gb/s
- Internal transfer rate: 210 MB/s
Cache (MB): 256
Performance Class: 5400 RPM Class
Reliability/Data Integrity
Load/unload cycles: 600,000
Non-recoverable read errors per bits read: <1 in 10^14
MTBF (hours): 1,000,000
Workload Rate (TB/year): 180
Limited warranty (years): 3
Power Management
12VDC ±10% (A, peak): 1.79
Average power requirements (W):
- Read/Write: 5.7
- Idle: 2.8
- Standby/Sleep: 0.5
Environmental Specifications
Temperature (°C)
- Operating: 0 to 65
- Non-operating: -40 to 70
Shock (Gs)
- Operating (2 ms, read/write): 30
- Operating (2 ms, read): 65
- Non-operating (2 ms): 250
Acoustics (dBA):
- Idle: 20
- Seek (average): 29
Physical Dimensions
Height (in./mm): 1.028/26.1
Length (in./mm): 5.787/147
Width (in./mm, ± .01 in.): 4/101.6
Weight (lb./kg, ± 10%): 1.43/0.65
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 9.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark 7
10. NAS Performance, Power Consumption
11. Conclusion
