WD Gold vs WD RED Pro

[Archaniel]

Hi Guys,

currently it came to my attention, that 8TB Gold Drives are like 60€ cheaper than an ekvivalent 8TB Red Pro drives. Any professional opinion why choose RED Pro over Gold (besides noise, I get that 7200rpm is a bit louder). I plan on going for an upgrade and this would be quite "okish" to say the least (going from 3TB to 8TB eventually)

 

[Archaniel]

oh and to just clarify - I've read those 5 year old discussions, since then we gotten the buzz of CMR/SMR etc etc and quite a lot stuff has moved forward.

 

[jgreco]

The difference between a 5400/5900RPM drive and a 7200RPM drive is generally unimportant in ZFS systems except for the very busiest systems, and on those, you are probably better off spending the cash on larger drives, more RAM, and L2ARC to increase speed, because the speed increase delivered that way will be much greater.

 

[Archaniel]

well the GOLD drives are way cheaper than the RED PRO drives, which is mind boggling. That's why I'm asking. If there is any sane reason why to choose 8TB RED PRO or RED PLUS over GOLD.

 

[Samuel Tai]

7200s tend to run hotter and louder, although for most applications this isn't important. If your case has inadequate ventilation or soundproofing, you may want to opt for the 5400s.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Both GOLD and RED PRO drives are already 7200rpm so the comparison there based on power/heat/noise vs. 5400rpm is kind of moot unless the 5400rpm RED Plus drives are the same price as the GOLD drives.

Between GOLD and RED PRO it's virtually identical though; there's some minor spec-sheet disagreements as far as the rated speed, and the GOLD is listed with an MTBF of 2.5m hours vs the 1m hours of RED PRO but you'd be hard-pressed to tell any real-world differences between them.

Definitely make sure your case cooling is ready to handle the additional thermals if you're going to pack them in there though.

 

[Etorix]

All WD drives are 7200 rpm! Look at the fine prints: "5400" is actually "5400 rpm-class", which is unfathomable marketing speak for drives which really spin at 7200 rpm.

WD Gold are enterprise-class drives. There is no SMR in the range, which is mostly relabelled HGST. If you have a good deal on them, go for it: They are better than Red Plus/Pro anyway. (But HGST/WD Gold HDD have a quirk: They take 3.3V power on one of the pins as "do NOT spin", which can cause some confusion. If that happens, power them from an old-style, 4-pin, Molex power plug with an adapter.)

 

[joeschmuck]

RPM Performance Class by WD

Choosing High Performance Storage Isn’t Just About RPM | Seagate US

Solid state hybrid drives make RPM largely irrelevant

www.seagate.com

 

[ChrisRJ]

I had a comparable situation with Seagate in September 2020. The equivalent (in terms of marketing/product portfolio positioning) of WD Red Pro (Seagte Ironwolf pro) was also considerably more expensive than the Seagate Exos (data center drive, "equivalent" to WD Gold). What you might want to check before buying, is whether or not those are bulk/OEM drives, where you will not get the 5 year warranty, if that is relevant to you.