Western Digital on Tuesday announced the debut of  WD Red NAS hard drives specifically designed for home and small office NAS (network attached storage) systems with one to five drive bays. Compatibility-tested with top NAS box manufacturers and optimized for power efficiency and high performance in NAS conditions.

“Until now, customers had to choose between using desktop or high-end server drives for their home or small office NAS systems – neither of which were both cost effective for consumer solutions and fully NAS compatible. WD saw this challenge as a perfect opportunity to design a better solution so we developed WD Red drives, an optimized product for this rapidly growing segment,” said Melyssa Banda, senior director of product marketing for WD.

WD Red hard drives are now shipping in 3.5" form-factor with 1TB, 2TB and 3TB capacities. The hard disk drive use Serial ATA-6Gb/s interface, 64MB cache as well as variable "IntelliPower" revolutions per minute spindle speed (which is widely believed to be 5900rpm). The WD Red drives consume from 0.6W to 4.4W of power.

The WD Red line features NASware technology, designed to improve reliability and system performance, reduce customer downtime and to simplify the integration process. This new product line addresses the unique environment of NAS and the growing demand for affordable, reliable and compatible storage that reduces customer total cost of ownership. WD Red hard drives also feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology, which significantly improves the overall drive performance and reliability. In an exclusive for WD Red customers, WD is offering free premium 24x7 dedicated support and a three-year limited warranty.

“The network attached entry level storage market is poised to grow at an 86.2% 2011-2016 CAGR. WD's new WD Red hard disk drives offer a unique combination of product features and customer support for users seeking to expand the capacity of their entry-level network attached storage solutions,” said to John Rydning, IDC's research vice president for hard disk drives.

WD Red hard drives integrate seamlessly with WD NAS solutions and are qualified to work with a wide array of WD OEM partners. An updated list of WD Red-qualified products and manufacturers is available on the WD web-site.

WD Red hard drives are available now at select resellers and distributors. Manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the WD Red 1TB drive is $109, the 2 TB drive is $139 and the 3 TB drive is $189.

Tags: WD, Western Digital, NAS, HDD