WD Se 4TB Enterprise Hard Drive Review

[PAGETITLE=Introduction & WD Se Synopsis][Top Ad] Last summer, WD released its first-ever hard drive series dedicated to NAS use, called Red. These drives target users who require both large storage and high reliability under a RAID setup, but don't necessarily need top performance (though, as we discovered, the Reds do perform quite well). Since the series' release, it seems the drives hit their mark; many NAS users I know have already implemented them into their setups. With Red, the SOHO and SMB markets are covered - but what about a similar option for the enterprise? As this article has no doubt given away, that void has just been filled. Introducing WD's Se enterprise series. The target market for Se is "bulk" storage: high-end NAS and "scale-out" architectures (where storage is added over time). As we'll discuss later, Se drives can serve the SOHO / SMB user as well, but that's not WD's main focus given the existence of the Red series. However, as Red doesn't feature a 4TB model, nor offers enterprise-level features, some could find Se to be a more attractive option. Se becomes the third entry to slot into WD's current enterprise lineup, sitting underneath Re, a "durable" option, and Xe, a "performance" one. WD considers the Se to be "scalable", as its main job is to hold lots of data and remain reliable for those who don't have incredible throughput requirements. Using a tier system to help explain the exact target for the Se drive, WD puts both Se and Re in the same tier 2 level, with Xe occupying tier 1. Interestingly, the company teases both a tier 0 ("future SSD") and tier 3 ("future HDD"). The lower the tier number, the higher the performance, the greater the cost, and the smaller the storage. If I had to guess, tier 3 will end up being WD's first ~5300 RPM 4TB+ series for mass-storage environments with a cloud focus. Like the Re series, Se features support for TLER, StableTrac, RAFF and other enterprise-level features, some of which we'll talk about shortly. None of WD's desktop drives include these features - not even Red. WD's 2TB Red, 4TB Black, 4TB Se & 4TB Re Performance-wise, Se drives align quite well with Re, although Re is better designed to handle a greater annual workload (550TB/year vs. 180TB/year). Also, while Se looks to be the "Red of the enterprise", it carries a full 5-year warranty - don't mistake this as a "budget" series. Density Speed Warranty Usage Price VelociRaptor 250GB - 1TB 10K RPM 5-year Enthusiast ~$230 (1TB) Re 250GB - 4TB 7.2K RPM 5-year Enterprise ~$390 (4TB) Se 2TB - 4TB 7.2K RPM 5-year Enterprise ~$310 (4TB) Black 500GB - 4TB 7.2K RPM 5-year Performance ~$280 (4TB) Blue 80GB - 1TB 7.2K RPM 2-year Consumer ~$65 (1TB) Green 500GB - 3TB ~5.3K RPM 2-year Storage ~$100 (2TB) Red 1TB - 3TB ~5.3K RPM 3-year NAS ~$110 (2TB) All drives are available in SATA 6Gbit/s flavors with 64MB of cache.Pricing is based on stable trends across two major etailers. At its initial price-point of $310 (USD), the Se 4TB costs $80 less than an equal density Re model, and given the primary difference between the two revolves around total throughput, that cost-savings is undoubtedly going to be attractive to those who simply need lots of reliable storage. With the help of the slide below, we can get a much clearer idea of what WD expects its users to do with its Re and Se drives. While both carry almost identical specs overall, the primary difference is that the Re drives are designed to handle 3x the total annual throughput (mentioned in another slide). Also, its mean-time before failure (MTBF) rating has been decreased from 1.4 million hours to 800,000. To the Se's favor, its peak power draw has seen a decrease from 10.4W to 9.5W, versus the Re. This might mean little for a home or small office, but to WD's target "bulk" market, it could mean the difference of thousands of dollars wasted on energy costs annually (we're talking about mass storage @ 24/7, after all). So to reiterate: the main difference between Se and Re is that the latter is more durable, spec'd to handle 3x as much data throughput over its lifetime. On the next page, we'll take a look at the reasoning behind the Se series, as well as explain its enterprise features. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Understanding WD’s Se Series & Enterprise Features][Top Ad] Most hard drive launches require just a couple of slides and a bit of documentation, but WD went a step further with its presentation for the Se series. It's clear that the company is treating Se as a rather big deal, because it's positioning itself as an authority on bulk storage. As mentioned before, Se is targeted at the NAS and scale-out markets, and the company has data to explain where we're headed storage-wise. Given we were not told otherwise, we assume the data seen below is the result of WD's own research. For the scale-out market, it's predicted that total exabyte (1.048 million terabyte) shipments will jump 6 - 7x between 2012 and 2020, with the cloud being the biggest cause. For that purpose, SSDs and high-performance hard drives are not the answer - they're too expensive, and that's not going to change soon in their battle versus mechanical drives. So a drive like the Se, which offers the customer cash savings in exchange for less durability, can prove to be a boon for the market. WD also touts the Se series as being the perfect solution for storage replication where RAID is a less-ideal option. Going that route can improve system uptime, performance, and of course, reliability. That said, those that require huge levels of throughput are still recommended to consider the Re series due to its theoretical increased lifespan. That's scale-out - what about NAS (network-attached storage)? While many of our readers may equate a NAS to being a device that holds 2 - 5 hard drives, higher-end devices can hold dozens. For a lot of customers, Se can reduce the total cost of ownership; we established earlier that the Re series costs $80 more per 4TB drive than the Se, which in a 24-bay NAS amounts to a difference of $2,000. Like the scale-out market, WD sees huge inclines going forward for the NAS market - even with SOHO / SMB use. Based on the chart in the slide below, predictions are that the personal and SOHO market's demand for storage will increase by about 3 - 8x, while for SMB, the difference looks to be closer to 15x. I mentioned before that despite its mass storage focus, the Se series can suit home users just fine if you happen to like all of what it offers over desktop drives (namely, enterprise features) and the NAS-focused Red. As far as WD is concerned, anyone owning a NAS capable of holding 4 or more drives could consider Se, but again, Re would be ideal for those requiring massive annual throughout (unlikely in a home environment, but possible in a small business). That said, WD gives an outline below of what users should consider based on the size of their NAS. Xe always wins for those who require the ultimate in performance, which would only be relevant to those using professional NAS solutions equipped with 10Gbit/s Ethernet. Re is perfectly designed for the enterprise, and Se basically fits anywhere if your needs align with its features. For smaller home / SOHO NAS devices, WD still recommends its Red series, but that currently tops-out at 3TB per drive. WD's Enterprise-level Features. As you'd expect, WD packs many features into its enterprise line. Most of these could be considered irrelevant for home users simply because businesses tend to favor reliability more due to their much heavier usage. Here's a quick run-down of some enterprise-specific features bundled with the Se (and Re, save for the differing MTBF). Time-Limited Error Recovery - This is a feature you may recall us talking about in our look at WD's Red NAS hard drive. In effect, it prevents error correction from getting in the way of a successful write. Multi-Axis Shock Sensor - This is an additional sensor found within the drive dedicated to detecting shocks, and when one is detected, the drive's mechanics help compensate for the sudden movement. Dynamic Fly-Height Technology - For increased stability, the height (or fly height) of the head is adjusted in real-time during each read / write cycle. StableTrac - The drive's motor shaft is secured at both ends to help reduce vibration and better stabilize its platters. Dual Actuator Technology - Utilizing dual actuators - one using conventional electromagnetic principles; the other using piezoelectric motion - the head positioning is fine-tuned to increase accuracy. Likely made possible by this is "NoTouch" technology, which assures that the recording head never touches the disk media. RAFF - Also known as "Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward", this technology allows the drive to monitor both the linear and rotational vibration of the platters in real-time and compensate where necessary. It's never ideal to run any mechanical hard drive in an environment where it can vibrate on a regular basis, but the company's enterprise drives, along with its VelociRaptor drives, can deal with it better than desktop drives. Extended Thermal Burn-in Testing - WD punishes its enterprise drives like no other, both for their thermal capabilities and endurance. If we saw what went on behind the scenes there, we'd probably want to cuddle our drives afterwards. 800,000 MTBF - At some point, most hard drive manufacturers dropped the "MTBF" (mean-time before failure) rating on their drives. To a point, I can understand why, as it's a number most people aren't going to keep in mind. However, WD does include such metrics on its enterprise offerings, such as the Re and Se, and notes that results were achieved through field-testing. As you can see, WD's enterprise drives bleed reliability features, with each one working in unison to increase accuracy, stability, and of course, performance. Speaking of performance, now would be a good time to tackle that, wouldn't it?...

WD Se 4TB Enterprise Hard Drive Review

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Rob Williams