Tech & Gadgets · Head-to-head
Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS HDD vs Western Digital WD Red Plus NAS HDD
Which should you buy? Our verdict on both, pulled from our full The Best NAS Hard Drives: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) comparison.
The IronWolf Pro is the only drive here whose maker publishes every number that matters, including time-limited error recovery, and it backs them with 5 years and no bay limit. The WD Red Plus gives up workload headroom and two years of warranty in exchange for lower noise and lower cost, which is the right trade in a small home NAS.
Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS HDD
Buy itThe most completely documented NAS drive you can buy, with a 550 TB per year workload rating, a 5-year warranty and no bay-count limit.
- Every capacity in the line is CMR, and Seagate publishes a list you can check the model number against.
- Rated for 550 TB per year against 8760 power-on hours per year, with 2.5 million hours MTBF and a read error rate of 1 per 10^15 bits.
- Seagate states time-limited error recovery and rotational vibration sensors, and puts no limit on the number of bays.
- Spins at 7200 rpm, with typical acoustics of 20 dBA idle and 26 dBA seek on the 16TB to 24TB models, rising to 28 dBA idle on the 30TB.
- The premium over a Red Plus or N300 is real, and a lightly used two-bay NAS will never approach the 550 TB per year rating.
- Higher power draw than the slower 5400 rpm alternatives, which matters in a small sealed enclosure.
Western Digital WD Red Plus NAS HDD
Buy itThe quiet, sensible CMR drive for a small home NAS, and the one whose name you have to get exactly right.
- CMR on every capacity from 2TB to 12TB, stated model by model on Western Digital's datasheet.
- Genuinely quiet: the 2TB is rated 21 dBA idle and 26 dBA seek, and most capacities below 10TB spin at 5400 or 5640 rpm.
- Rated for 180 TB per year with 1 million hours MTBF, which is more headroom than a household NAS is likely to use.
- Western Digital only supports it in systems with up to 8 bays, so it is the wrong drive for a larger chassis.
- The warranty is 3 years, two years shorter than the IronWolf Pro or WD's own Red Pro.
- The read error rate is 1 per 10^14 bits, an order of magnitude worse than the Pro-class drives here, which matters on a long rebuild.
Side by side
| Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS HDD | Western Digital WD Red Plus NAS HDD | |
|---|---|---|
| Our verdict | Buy | Buy |
| Best for | Anyone running four bays or more, or anyone who wants the longest warranty and the fewest unanswered questions on the spec sheet. | A two-bay to four-bay home NAS that lives in a room where you can hear it, doing backups and media rather than constant writes. |
| Price tier | $$$ · premium | $$ · mid-range |
The bottom line
Our overall pick is the Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS HDD - The most completely documented NAS drive you can buy, with a 550 TB per year workload rating, a 5-year warranty and no bay-count limit. Choose the Western Digital WD Red Plus NAS HDD instead if a two-bay to four-bay home NAS that lives in a room where you can hear it, doing backups and media rather than constant writes.
Want the full picture, including the other options we compared and the popular one we'd skip? Read the complete The Best NAS Hard Drives: 4 Compared (and One to Skip).