Western Digital 10TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD102PURZ

WD makes a great product, but be wary of buying it from "We Love TEC. " It arrived with an open package, as if it had been installed previously, and no packing or support, flopping all over the place during transit. br>Hard drives are extremely fragile. To put it mildly, it's ludicrous!.

Oaklyn Goodman

| Jul 03, 2021

This drive is made to write continuously without spinning down. This is most common in video recording systems where video is dumped to disk on a regular basis. This comes at the expense of seek and random access times (reading multiple files from different areas at the same time is slow). Take a look at the WD RED drives if you need backup, media storage, or network storage. They'll work better in those situations and are much less expensive. br>br>In comparison to many other drives, this one is exceptionally quiet. There are no audible spin-up sounds or loud clicking noises. This drive is significantly quieter than the WD RED drives that I have next to this system for network storage. I also have some Seagate NAS drives, but they're so noisy that I can't use them in a living room. br>br>Anyway, this is a great drive; I installed it in a generic low-cost Network Video Recorder (Hisilicon Hi3520D) and it works perfectly; most low- to mid-range DVR/NVR systems use this chip family and the same software, so this should work with them all. The drive has been saving 4x 1080p streams 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the past few weeks, and it has performed admirably. br>br>However, in a small enclosure, the drive can get quite hot, and most NVR systems lack adequate ventilation. After cutting a hole in the top of the recorder, I simply bolted a 140mm fan to it. This keeps the drive at around 30 miles per hour. Rather than 60c, use 40c. 80, as well as cooling for the NVR's processor (which was scorching hot and didn't even have a heat sink). If your NVR doesn't have a dedicated 12v connector for an optional fan, you can always use the 12v barrel connector or the 4 pin HDD connector to get power.

Desmond Morrow

| Oct 25, 2021

It lists an older (2014) model of this drive alongside the same New Generation improved model for some reason. What's worse is that the user comments are mixed together, so any issues with the original drive will appear right at the top of the list, potentially misleading the user. It's critical to check the tiny print at the top of each comment to see if the user is referring to the Old Generation or New Generation style. I'm referring to the improved New Generation style, to be clear. If you're unfamiliar with the differences between a general-purpose hard drive and one designed for video security, let me begin with a simple comparison. This is not a textbook definition by any means, but it is a good starting point. br>br>HOW IT WORKSbr>br>Computers write and read data to hard drives in tiny chunks scattered randomly across the disk, causing the recording/playback heads to jump from place to place. In a computer, the speed with which data can be accessed is crucial. Video surveillance recorders, on the other hand, record and read data in a manner similar to that of an old-fashioned tape recorder. The recording/playback heads only need to jump to another spot on the disk when you want to play back an event on an old-fashioned tape recorder, which is pretty much what the cameras are seeing in real time. This is so bizarre- The non-priority of access search time is far less important than the priority of non-priority of access search time. Stop doing the grunt work of recording consistently 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without fail. The two processes are completely different types of work. COMPARISON: br>br> BRAND A VS. BRAND B: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? BRAND Bbr>br>When it comes to specialized video surveillance hard drives, there are two major brands. Because many other video security manufacturers believe you'll never know what's inside, they install the cheapest no-name generic hard drive they can find, my NVR is one of the most respected out there for users with a lot of experience. Kudos to them because many other video security manufacturers believe you'll never know what's inside, so they install the cheapest no-name generic hard drive they can find. I've been buying this brand of security system for years and have been very satisfied with it, so when I needed to upgrade my drive capacity from 2TB to 4TB, I wasn't sure if switching to a WD brand drive would make any difference. According to engineers, the two brands' design philosophy differs slightly, with each considering certain design parameters to be the slightly better option. br>br>IS THERE A DIFFERENCEbr>br>Because the NVR software, firmware, and other factors play at least as important a role in performance as the hard drive, I wanted to improve these things: 1. br>br> 2. Noise from the vehiclebr> br>br>br>br>br>br>drive heat Stuttering (when the image jumps or drops a few frames, usually during playback)br>br>I took real-time measurements of the operating temperatures of both drives. Using a precision instrument, life use was replicated under identical conditions. The original drive had a speed of 97 miles per hour. The temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit, with a WD of 91 degrees Fahrenheit. 6 F. The difference of 6 degrees is notable, but not significant. Similarly, I measured the sound level of each drive with a calibrated sound level meter; the original drive measured 47 dBA. The WD had reached 46 degrees. Almost identical at 9 dBA. br>br>Because stuttering is sporadic, the last condition is more difficult to quantify. In my opinion, any differences in a typical use scenario should be classified as atypical: was I experiencing fewer or more instances of stuttering, or was it about the same? I tried to make my comparison without favoring one brand over the other because I don't care who's name is on it. The WD was purchased primarily to increase my recording capacity and, as a result, the number of days it could record events for. That is to say, in real life, In real-world use, I have to lean slightly toward the WD because it has fewer instances of jumping, stuttering, or frame dropping in my system, and it does seem to handle a few second backspace more smoothly than the original drive; perhaps another way to put it is that the WD seems to be playing nicer with the NVR's software/firmware than the brand the manufacturer originally spec'd. br>br>WILL IT IMPROVE MY SECURITY SYSTEM?br>br>In a word, no. We can categorically state that the brand or type of hard drive you use will not improve the image resolution (picture quality) of your system. Any differences in operating temperature and noise level are too close to be significant, and both brands are optimized for video security, so abnormalities like stuttering are just that, and are not entirely attributable to the hard drive. br>br>BOTTOM LINE SATISFACTIONbr>br>BOTTOM LINE SATISFACTIONbr>br>All things considered, the WD is consistently a few dollars more expensive than the other brand, and I'm not a big fan of paying more if I don't have to. So, based on the few things I can measure and one that I can only perceive, I have to say that I like this drive and believe I made the right decision.

Sutton Krause

| Dec 05, 2021

I've bought a lot of these WD purple hard drives for recording video from our cameras over the years. I've always had good luck with these and they've been reliable up until recently, but I've had three drive failures in the last few months, all of which were less than a year old. I am pleased that WD has replaced them, but I am concerned that the quality has deteriorated. I'm hoping it was just a coincidence. . . br>br>Update - yet another flop I attempted to open a support case with WD regarding this, but have received no response after more than a week. I'm going to give this a two-star rating now.

Bellamy Serrano

| Jun 17, 2021