Do folks recommend buying a diskless unit and getting WD Red brand disks, or buying it with the disks installed from Synology?
761862
I would buy it diskless. You are assured of getting the drives you want. Some commented that they got WD Green drives with a filled unit. I disagree with John Russo here, I have never seen a NAS that was a better deal when bought as a filled unit.
96350
Good answer. I just wanted to mention for others who may read this that most NAS systems (if that's what you use it in) will do their own disk surface checks during the setup or rebuild.
491983
It could be used but you're probably paying for some features that you don't need. I'd save a couple bucks and get the green or blue. This URL (http://techgage.com/article/western_digital_red_nas_hard_drive_review/) talks about the NAS specific changes they did to the RED line of drives. Hope that helps.
723779
I have 4 ST3000DM0001 and one ST3000VN0000 in a Synology DS1512+ and it doesn't cause any problems. It doesn't add anything to performance either though. The price between the two is only $10 dollars right now, so I would just flip a coin. My long term plan is to replace the DM drives with VN drives as my old drives die.
252680
I'm using 5 of these... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008JJLW4M/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I've had no problems out of them since installing back in June (2013). I think you can format up to 10GB of usable space with Synology's RAID "method". I'm using the DS710+ as my main NAS controller. It has an additional 2x 2TB drives installed in it. I have the entire system connected to an APC UPS via the USB connector. Pretty much all automated shutdown/recover in case of power failure. Bill
346720
The SE edition is better equipped for NAS units, and is TRIM-capable. Using a WD Black in a RAID array is likely to result in timeout errors, and array rebuilds. Otherwise, it's effectively the same drive - only the chipset is changed, not the platters themselves. If you just need bulk storage for a workstation, go with either one. However, if you need storage for a NAS and/or RAID array, the SE is a more effective bet.
1392534
Amazon have been sending me the WD20EARS-00MVWB0!If you do buy it, please buy it thru my Amazon Store, its the same price and I get a small kickback from the sale.http://astore.amazon.com/brisperpag-20/detail/B002ZCXK0IGreat drive btw, use this for my main data partition and for an external backup drive on many servers.
1611104
This is diskless - just be sure to get HD's that are made for NAS (Seegate ST4000VN000, WD WD40EFRX, etc) do not use energy savers or spin down disks, it will cause havoc on your RAID integrity. So plz do read what drives are supported and are recommended. I put the ST4000VN000, in all of my devices, works great.
1451883
This is a set it and forget it NAS. Needs not be re-imaged. And for the price you will pay for this unit, you are better off buying a used case, sticking 4 4TB drives in it and getting a USB flash drive and calling it a night. Thats what I did using Synology's free version of their NAS and sofar its working great. Over 150 days up. I sold this unit last year with over two years of trouble free service. The only reason I sold it was because it was too small for my growing needs. So to answer your question. Not sure. But its also not needed.
1327928
From past experiences with WD I stopped using them several years ago. Seagate or Hitachi would be a better choice in my opinion.
1531894
Yes. The populated version comes with WD Red drives. Should read that in the description.
1611103
No disks are included. I used NAS - specific drives in mine which perform well but you can use standard SATA drives too.
1103289
Short answer...yes. The WD Red Series are meant for use in NAS devices and the WD Cloud Ex2 actually comes with them installed as an option. If you are getting the diskless version then these will also work. Not sure if your concern was more from using smaller size 1TB disks, but that is not an issue. The concern comes more from not exceeding the maximum disk size the controller can address...using smaller capacity drives will not pose a problem.
1654303
Probably not that much, however I would recommend to follow the NAS manufacturer's suggestion, in my case it was Synology from which I bought their 412+ NAS product, and they were recommending WD20EFRX from Western Digital, which was made specifically for NAS Storage.
1314791
Hard drives were not included in the configuration that I purchased. However, you may (probably) be able order the Synology preconfigured with select drives.
1600417
It is confusing/missleading on Amazon. The DS213+ priced at $399 does NOT include disk drives. Amazon have a seperate listing for a DS213+ 2200 with 2 * 2TB drive priced at $799 (showing out of stock on 12/15/12). I am still very pleased with my DS213+ which I fitted with 2 * 4TB drives. It certainly wasn't the cheapest NAS but so far has worked flawlessly.
1331170
Agree with other answers. I have WD Caviar Blacks in my desktop and three WD Reds in the Synology. I can only hear the Synology if everything else in the room is turned off. The Blacks make significantly more noise than the Reds.