Western Digital Se 4TB Review

When all the dust settles, it’s clear to see that the WD Se drive is considerable jump over the WD Red drives, as expected. Not only from a performance standpoint, but also from a consistency standpoint, which I believe is a result of the additional features and functionality built into the Se drive. From a cost standpoint, the WD Red drive is available for 35% less then the Se drive (which currently costs 25%  less then the Re drive). In some cases the cost of a WD Red drive may be more appealing then the performance, depending on the workload, but all factors should be taken into consideration. If your data usage is primarly random reads/writes, with the higher access times, the WD Red drives would perform much slower then the WD Se drives. Additionally, due to previously mentioned vibration limitations, if your looking for more then 5 drives in a single enclosure, the WD Se drives would be your better choice.

I know it’s hard to get excited about spinning drives these days, with SSD performance taking the spotlight, but I believe that Western Digital really hit a sweet spot with the WD Se drives. With similar performace to the Re drive, but a lower cost per gigabyte, enterprise consumers now have a lower cost alternative. Additionally, SOHO/SMB consumers have a more reliable and higher performing alternative over the WD Red drive without the full enterprise price tag. The WD Se drive really completes the WD product portfolio and offers the consumer more flexibility in choosing a drive that meets their needs with less trade-offs.

Pro’s:

• TLER support, allowing for a cost effective drive suitable for RAID 
• Same performance of Re conterpart
• Large capacity
• 5-year warranty

Con’s:

• Lower designed in workload rating (but WD had to create some differentiation between the Re and Se series)

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