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16TB WD Easystore External USB 3.0 Hard Drive $254.99 @ Best Buy

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J--

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I have two of these, both came with WD160EMFZ, which are supposedly white label WD Gold/Ultrastar DC HC550 helium drives w/ 2.5 million hr MTBFs.

They also report as 5400 rpm, but perform like 7200 rpm drives supposedly, I'm not really in it for the raw speeds though.
 

Samir

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J--

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Best article on what these drives really are, and the comments expand on it too:
Except that article is only really relevant to that specific drive.

WD continually rotates what goes into each external drive depending on what's on hand, some are helium, some are air, some are CMR, some are SMR. Luckily for those currently looking to buy a 16TB drive, there's only two SKUs right now from WD, and they both trace back to their Gold line.
 

Samir

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Except that article is only really relevant to that specific drive.

WD continually rotates what goes into each external drive depending on what's on hand, some are helium, some are air, some are CMR, some are SMR. Luckily for those currently looking to buy a 16TB drive, there's only two SKUs right now from WD, and they both trace back to their Gold line.
While the drives may be different, there is no way that the consumer line will ever be the 'same' drive as their top of the line Gold/enterprise HGST drives.

There's a reason why these are popular--because they're cheap. But there's also a reason datacenters don't use them--because they're not the same as a real enterprise drive. Make no mistake about that. And the article proves that point as well, hence why it will be valid until the market segmentation no longer exists at WD.
 
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J--

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While the drives may be different, there is no way that the consumer line will ever be the 'same' drive as their top of the line Gold/enterprise HGST drives.

There's a reason why these are popular--because they're cheap. But there's also a reason datacenters don't use them--because they're not the same as a real enterprise drive. Make no mistake about that. And the article proves that point as well, hence why it will be valid until the market segmentation no longer exists at WD.
The part number is printed on the drive!

Surely you've never worked at a company with any sort of ERP system, otherwise you would have never uttered such foolishness. :)

There's tons of different reasons to have the same part w/ different prices: different sales channels, different support channels, different warranty periods, different firmwares maybe (but that's pushing your flashing downstream), etc etc., but having different hardware with the same part number? Yeah, that doesn't happen in the real world.
 
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Samir

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The part number is printed on the drive!

Surely you've never worked at a company with any sort of ERP system, otherwise you would have never uttered such foolishness. :)

There's tons of different reasons to have the same part w/ different prices: different sales channels, different support channels, different warranty periods, different firmwares maybe (but that's pushing your flashing downstream), etc etc., but having different hardware with the same part number? Yeah, that doesn't happen in the real world.
Apparently you have never really worked with hard drives or you wouldn't be uttering such foolishness. :rolleyes:

The label can be the same, lol--yeah and that can be done for a bunch of reasons. Doesn't mean jack anymore. If the part number was that important, then the warranty attached to the part number would be the same because the drives were the same. But they're not and there's further differentiation in the serial number.

No doubt these drives (if not all drives) now start from a common assembly line and then are basically 'binned' based on their quality as is common with technology manufacturers. But just because a grade C drive and a grade A drive share the same parts, they are not the same sum of these same parts. ;)
 

T_Minus

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Less warranty to hit a lower price point is common for the same item though. That's a legit tactic used in many many industries and you wouldn't expect the warranty to be the same because the drive is the same at the lower price.

If you are sure and have proof the same part # as described above is actually a subpar part then please share proof I would like to learn.
 
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Samir

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Less warranty to hit a lower price point is common for the same item though. That's a legit tactic used in many many industries and you wouldn't expect the warranty to be the same because the drive is the same at the lower price.

If you are sure and have proof the same part # as described above is actually a subpar part then please share proof I would like to learn.
The STH article I linked above is about as concrete as I've seen so far. Taking an easystore drive and then comparing it head-to-head with the drive that it supposedly is and getting a measurable delta proves that they're not the same. If it's not the exact drive and one is seeking to find such comparisons on all the potential drives, well, that doesn't exist. But I would not think the strategy would be any different in different capacities--especially when all these drives share common parts and manufacturing.
 

evilpaul

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I shucked 5 12TB WD drives about two months ago. 4 Were from Amazon all WD120EDAZ-11F3RA0 reported in Crystal Disk Info as Reds, 1 from Best Buy (with annoying hex screws I had to go buy a screwdriver to get rid of) WD120EMAZ-11BLFA0 and reported as a White. I didn't save screenshots, but they all performed around the same.
 

josh

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I have two of these, both came with WD160EMFZ, which are supposedly white label WD Gold/Ultrastar DC HC550 helium drives w/ 2.5 million hr MTBFs.

They also report as 5400 rpm, but perform like 7200 rpm drives supposedly, I'm not really in it for the raw speeds though.
Can you check if it supports TLER? I read somewhere they don't have it at all and you can't even turn it on like the smaller drives
 
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Samir

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I shucked 5 12TB WD drives about two months ago. 4 Were from Amazon all WD120EDAZ-11F3RA0 reported in Crystal Disk Info as Reds, 1 from Best Buy (with annoying hex screws I had to go buy a screwdriver to get rid of) WD120EMAZ-11BLFA0 and reported as a White. I didn't save screenshots, but they all performed around the same.
They will. Curious to see the same performance tests STH did on the drives you have to properly quantify this.
 
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evilpaul

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All my drives list it as supported with smartctl -c. The 4 Amazon ones have it disabled by default, the BB one has it set to 7 seconds.
 
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J--

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No doubt these drives (if not all drives) now start from a common assembly line and then are basically 'binned' based on their quality as is common with technology manufacturers. But just because a grade C drive and a grade A drive share the same parts, they are not the same sum of these same parts. ;)
Not sure why you're so hell bent on this, but the fact is there's no binning on the 16TB drives because they only are releasing three SKUs, and they're all 2.5 million hour MTBF drives.

Maybe they sell the crappy drives to Seagate? :)


The EDFZ/EMFZ drives have been shown to be 7200 rpm as well, despite reporting 5400 rpm to SMART, both through performance testing and acoustic.
 
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Samir

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Not sure why you're so hell bent on this, but the fact is there's no binning on the 16TB drives because they only are releasing three SKUs, and they're all 2.5 million hour MTBF drives.

Maybe they sell the crappy drives to Seagate? :)


The EDFZ/EMFZ drives have been shown to be 7200 rpm as well, despite reporting 5400 rpm to SMART, both through performance testing and acoustic.
Because this is just 'Internet knowledge' that doesn't have any facts behind it. STH's own test proves that these drives are not the same and the comments in that same article from people experiencing raid issues indicate they're not the same. If you want to believe they are, that's your choice, but the facts are they are not.

Funny you mention Seagate--I've found their enterprise class to be no different than WD/HGST...probably because they're enterprise class.

I'd like to see the data behind the 'proof' that the easystore drives are 7200rpm--their performance in the STH article was even below that of a 5400 genuine red drive.

The origins of 'NAS' drives were consumer drives with a different firmware to not cause raid controller drop outs. Since this origin, these drives have slowly been given some features from the enterprise line of drives and now even share a lot of the same components. But they're not the same drive or datacenters would be saving millions by buying these drives instead. No doubt they're good enough for the consumer and home situations, but when it really counts, the real enterprise drives are where the big money rests its bets, and hence that's where mine are too. YMMV.
 

J--

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Because this is just 'Internet knowledge' that doesn't have any facts behind it. STH's own test proves that these drives are not the same and the comments in that same article from people experiencing raid issues indicate they're not the same. If you want to believe they are, that's your choice, but the facts are they are not.

Funny you mention Seagate--I've found their enterprise class to be no different than WD/HGST...probably because they're enterprise class.

I'd like to see the data behind the 'proof' that the easystore drives are 7200rpm--their performance in the STH article was even below that of a 5400 genuine red drive.

The origins of 'NAS' drives were consumer drives with a different firmware to not cause raid controller drop outs. Since this origin, these drives have slowly been given some features from the enterprise line of drives and now even share a lot of the same components. But they're not the same drive or datacenters would be saving millions by buying these drives instead. No doubt they're good enough for the consumer and home situations, but when it really counts, the real enterprise drives are where the big money rests its bets, and hence that's where mine are too. YMMV.
Keep backpedaling and read my posts more carefully, you'll eventually arrive at what I've been saying all along in this entire thread.
 

msg7086

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While the drives may be different, there is no way that the consumer line will ever be the 'same' drive as their top of the line Gold/enterprise HGST drives.

There's a reason why these are popular--because they're cheap. But there's also a reason datacenters don't use them--because they're not the same as a real enterprise drive. Make no mistake about that. And the article proves that point as well, hence why it will be valid until the market segmentation no longer exists at WD.
Apparently you have never really worked with hard drives or you wouldn't be uttering such foolishness. :rolleyes:

The label can be the same, lol--yeah and that can be done for a bunch of reasons. Doesn't mean jack anymore. If the part number was that important, then the warranty attached to the part number would be the same because the drives were the same. But they're not and there's further differentiation in the serial number.

No doubt these drives (if not all drives) now start from a common assembly line and then are basically 'binned' based on their quality as is common with technology manufacturers. But just because a grade C drive and a grade A drive share the same parts, they are not the same sum of these same parts. ;)
This part is likely correct. They are the same drive in the sense of hardware parts, but not the same drive in the sense of quality.

However quality wise you should note that they are still better made than consumer grade drives, which uses cheaper parts and technology at the first place.

Warranty is not related at all. Warranty is a support service, and you can attach any period of warranty as you wish. For example, my ex company provides lifetime warranty for our servers with Seagate ES.3 drives. Of course, those drives are backed by only 5 year warranty, but we charge more and we self-warrant / self-insure. We replace the drives with brand new ones even after 7-8 years of purchase.

Another example is Seagate Exos drives shucked from expansions. They used to have warranty data on their website but they later revised them. New drives from RMA replacement also have different warranty (inheriting from the replaced drive).

Warranty cannot prove any of your points at all.

I'd like to see the data behind the 'proof' that the easystore drives are 7200rpm--their performance in the STH article was even below that of a 5400 genuine red drive.
You are free to look it up. WD had admitted that they mislabeled some of the 7200RPM and claimed to correctly label them at near future.

The 8TB and above "5400 genuine red drive"s are also 7200 RPM drives.

In fact, WD never actually write "5400 RPM" on their drive specs. It has always been "5400 RPM Class", which has nothing to do with RPM at all.

It's like you buy a car that has "V6 power class" engine. Does it have a V6 engine? Maybe. It doesn't even need to have an engine. It can have an electric motor that produces V6-like power. Don't fool yourself with marketing terms and take that as "facts". You are not talking about "facts", you simply trust whatever they said. Which is reasonable because a regular consumer has no way to actually measure the RPM of a drive. It doesn't have a tachometer.
 
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