Western Digital WD Red Pro 5 TB Hard Drive Review

Introduction

The Western Digital WD Red Pro 5 TB is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) hard disk drive. Let’s test it and see if is it a good option for a desktop computer.
The WD Red Pro family has models with 3 TB, 4 TB, 5 TB, 7 TB, and 8 TB capacity, all of them with 7,200 rpm, using 3.5” format, SATA-600 interface and 26.1 mm tall. The 8 TB, 6 TB, and 5 TB models have 128 MiB cache memory, while the 4 TB and 3 TB models have 64 Mib of cache RAM.
Being focused to the enterprise network enviroment, the WD Red Pro focus on performance, but also on data protection. They are recommended to NAS units with up to 16 drives and, according to the manufacturer, come with the NASWare 3.0 technology, which helps to protect data even under mechanical vibration.
We tested the 5 TB model, code number WD5001FFWX. As the other models of the same series, it has a five-year warranty.
Figures 1 and 2 present the WD Red Pro 5 TB hard disk drive.

Figure 1: the WD Red Pro 5 TB

Figure 2: the WD Red Pro 5 TB

Figure 3: the WD Red Pro 5 TB

In our tests, we will be comparing the WD Red Pro 5 TB to the WD Black 4 TB, which is a high-end desktop model with similar characteristics. In the table below, we will compare the basic specifications of these products.

* All prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.