Storage solution provider WD has announced the expansion of its Red line of SATA hard drives for home and small office NAS (Network Attached Storage) systems. The company has introduced a 5 TB and first-to-market 6 TB capacity hard drives for NAS-specific storage, as well as launched new WD Red Pro hard drives that address the medium to large business NAS market. WD Red 3.5” hard drives are now shipping in 1 TB to 6 TB capacities; and the new WD Red Pro 3.5” hard drives are available in 2 TB to 4 TB capacities.

Over and above increased capacity, the drives also offer improved bay count support with up to 8 bays, increased product breadth with WD Red Pro, and more features with the latest generation of NASware technology.

WD Red

With the release of 5 TB and 6 TB models, the WD Red line of hard drives provide increased performance with NASware 3.0, an enhanced version of WD’s original NASware technology. The hard drives also feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology, which the company believes significantly improves overall drive performance and reliability. By increasing NASware 3.0 capability, the WD Red 1-6 TB capacity drives are capable of supporting up to eight bay NAS systems with no negative impact on performance. WD also offers free premium 24x7 dedicated support.

WD Red Pro

Ideal for medium to large business environments, the new WD Red Pro line of NAS hard drives supports eight to sixteen bay NAS systems. The design offers reliable, high performance storage powered by NASware 3.0.

WD Green

The WD Green line of hard drives, are also seeing capacity expansion with 5 TB and 6 TB additions for high capacity consumer storage. WD notes that the 6TB hard drives will integrate seamlessly with WD’s My Cloud, My Cloud EX2, My Cloud EX4, My Cloud Mirror personal cloud storage, as well as My Book and My Book Duo external drive solutions and are compatible to work with a wide array of WD OEM NAS partners.

Availability and pricing

Available from Pinnacle Africa, Drive Control Corporation and Sahara Computers in August 2014, the WD Red and WD Red Pro have three and five-year limited regional warranties respectively.

Recommended retail price for the Red 5TB model (WD50EFRX) is R3 000 and R3 700 for the 6 TB model (WD60EFRX). Pricing for the Red Pro 2 TB model (WD2001FFSX) is R2 000, R2 300 for the 3 TB (model WD3001FFSX) and R3 100 for the 4 TB model (WD4001FFSX). All pricing is inclusive of VAT and is subject to current the Rate of Exchange (ROE).

More information about WD Red hard drives including terms of the limited warranty may be found on the company website at bit.ly/wd.