SPCR

WD Reds newest/biggest release is changing toward Helium, seems very similar to HGST Helium enterprise, but this time they are 5400rpm instead of 7200rpm. Would be great if SPCR could get a sample to see how they are noise wise, thinking that WD Green are getting phased, and WD Reds seem to gotto for quiet storage, but since the tech is new i have my doubts into how quiet they really are or even if they are as good as standard none helium drives.

Western Digital Red 8TB Full Review - Consumer Helium Hard Disk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4_QCjvkWeI

Seems they are already available in the mayor retailers,
Newegg WD Red 8TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD80EFZX
Amazon WD Red 8TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD80EFZX

Interestingly seems the new MyBook 8TB comes with the same disk at much lower price but less warranty if any, i believe if you take them out you lose it, still tempted to grab one because of its price,
WD 8TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBFJK0080HBK-NESN

Yeah, they are interesting drives. I'm still waiting for an understandable explanation of why the helium doesn't leave over time. As for the warranty differences, it's probably the cheap PSU in the external drives that fail before the HDD itself.

damn, that book pricing is really tempting...

CA_Steve wrote:Yeah, they are interesting drives. I'm still waiting for an understandable explanation of why the helium doesn't leave over time. As for the warranty differences, it's probably the cheap PSU in the external drives that fail before the HDD itself.

It was explained to me that, unlike a balloon, they are not pressurized above normal atmospheric pressure. - larger gas molecules cant get in to replace the helium, so basically the smaller helium molecules are kept inside by the outside air pressure.
(no idea if thats true or not, but it satisfied me! )

if they do leak, we could always take our drives by the local party store for a helium fill up!

Digital Trends bought a 8TB MyBook and it didn't have the [WD Red] Helium drive....

CA_Steve wrote:Digital Trends bought a 8TB MyBook and it didn't have the Helium drive....

Did I miss something??? They wrote "...it seems likely that any newly produced My Books will ship with WD’s helium-filled Red drives..."

CA_Steve wrote:Digital Trends bought a 8TB MyBook and it didn't have the Helium drive....

Well it had the Helium drive, just was HGST Enterprise 8tb 7200rpm Helium instead of the WD Red Consumer 8tb 5400rpm helium. But thanks for sharing this steve, i was getting ready to buy one, but if it comes with HGST then its a fail for me, i dont want 7200rpm drives.

Yeah, I left out some important bits. Can I blame this damned cold?

Abula wrote:but if it comes with HGST then its a fail for me

Just resell it, in case, you should earn some money too.

CA_Steve wrote:Can I blame this damned cold?

Is it still that cold there in California? Here in Italy the Spring is blooming.

Cold: the illness, not temperature. We're having a beautiful spring here.

More info about the MyBook 8tb

SERVETHEHOME WD MY BOOK 8TB – 5400RPM WD80EZZX WITH BENCHMARKS

If changing the gas in the drive is a big deal, why not have a vacuum? Surely that would give better benefit? It's not like a hard disk could not be built to withstand the forces of a partial vacuum anyway.

edh wrote:If changing the gas in the drive is a big deal, why not have a vacuum? Surely that would give better benefit? It's not like a hard disk could not be built to withstand the forces of a partial vacuum anyway.

floating heads actually require something to float on. the cushion of gas is there to keep the heads crashing into the platter

Installed one yesterday.

Front: http://i.imgur.com/9I2WySC.jpg
Back: http://i.imgur.com/PkEG2iR.jpg
CrystalDiskInfo: http://i.imgur.com/6dsB0DN.png

Initial subjective observations from crouching next to my open system case:

Idle noise: Very low. Probably about the same or lower than my WD Red 6TB, but it's a higher-pitched sound.

Seek noise: Practically inaudible; hard to tell when it's seeking. Had been a bit worried as the spec sheet put the 8TB as the loudest in the Red range for seeks.

Vibration: Roughly the same as my WD Red 6TB, think maybe a bit more. Not bad, in other words.

Main thing I noticed after first powering up the system while listening to how the new drive sounded is a clicking/ticking about every 5 seconds, which continues as long as the drive is spinning. It's like a seek noise, but not a particularly loud one, and to hear it with my Fractal Define Mini's cover on, I have to stick my ear near the front vent. On closer observation, I found my 6TB Red actually does the same thing, but with a barely noticable, lower-pitch noise.

The drive reports higher temps than my 6TB Red, and it feels hotter to my finger as well.

Two of the four bottom mounting holes are in non-standard positions. Only two screws line up with my Define Mini's drive trays, so that's all it's mounted with.

Overall, as far as quite computing goes, my unit seems pleasingly typical of a modern 5400 RPM Green/Red drive despite the 7 platters. My 7200 RPM Hitachis, Seagates and Toshibas are in a different league noise-wise (which is why I only use them as cold backup drives).