By: Jonathan Kwan
January 15, 2016
While APH Networks is probably not the first -- or even the second, third, or fourth -- website to visit if you are looking for relationship advice, I think we had some great points posted in the opening of my Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB review back in June 2014. Since the Western Digital Red WD60EFRX 6TB we are reviewing today is an improved and larger capacity version of the WD40EFRX as mentioned, what better thing is there to do than to post an updated version of our excellent relationship advice in this review introduction? Recently, I was talking to my fellow editor Aaron Lai about what to look for in a person, and we ended up deriving what we call the "LPSE formula" (By the way, for future reference, APH Networks is the first place where this term first appeared). "LPSE", in this context, stands for "looks", "personality", "spirituality", and "emotional appeal", in no particular order. I am not going to go into elaborate detail into what each term mean, since they should be quite self-explanatory. But the point is, all of these elements are important in a person you are looking to be in a relationship with, no matter how subjective it may be to you. If one or more of these criteria score poorly, your best bet is to look for someone else instead. As it turns out, LPSE can also be applied to evaluate what products we buy, if we redefine the acronym. LPSE, in this context, will then be "looks", "price", "speed", and "efficiency", in no particular order. Back in 2014, we gave the WD40EFRX an APH Recommended, one of our most prestigious awards, because it was well-rounded LPSE-wise. Well, maybe except for looks, which did not matter, since it was an internal hard drive. Today, we will take a look at the WD60EFRX, which is the 6TB model with the latest NASware 3.0 firmware. Will it take home another APH Recommended? Read on to find out how it fared! Because, you know, LPSE.
Our review unit of the Western Digital Red WD60EFRX 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; namely, the WD6001FZWX 6TB I reviewed back in November, as well as the Red Pro WD6001FFWX 6TB I covered last month. Using UPS Express, everything arrived quickly and safely to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Since the benchmark results for all three drives were included in the last two reviews already, there should be absolutely no surprises when it comes to 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 WD60EFRX 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 WD60EFRX 6TB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Specifications
Model number: WD60EFRX
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): 175 MB/s
Cache (MB): 64
Rotational speed (RPM): IntelliPower
Reliability/Data Integrity
Load/unload cycles: 600,000
Non-recoverable read errors per bits read: <10 in 10^14
MTBF (hours) for 8-16 bay NAS: 1,000,000
Limited warranty (years): 3
Power Management
12VDC-/+10% (A, peak): 1.75
Average power requirements (W)
- Read/Write: 5.3
- Idle: 3.4
- Standby/Sleep: 0.4
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: 25
Seek (average): 28
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%): 1.65/0.75
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
