Great to se WDC extend the line with the new models but am I the only one with the bottom of their jaw sitting on the floor after seeing the prices? Maybe somebody at WDC should take a look at HP’s website…
Well the OS does cost them 4 to 500$ more and it is a very sexy 6 bay box :) It is no longer cheaper to buy the box just for the drives LOL
Sorry, Gramps, I’m only seeing the same 4-bay box that we have now. I would love to have a 6-bay box. The main cost increase is the switch from Atom to Xeon, which I think is way overkill.
They’ve effectively taken this product line from $800-1800 to $2100-3500. At that pricepoint I might as well buy an HP Proliant. The value in the Sentinel line is small form factor for the Small Office/Home Office environment/Home Entertainment market. Yes, it’s used in some SMB enterprises as well, but I think WD is pricing the range out of their most lucrative market.
I want a box (preferably with 6 bays so I can do a proper RAID5 with a hot spare) capable of running a Windows OS (which I can provide on my own - or maybe even ESXi) with a beefy enough CPU (such as an i5, or even the Pentium as in the HP MicroServer Gen8), where I can add a reasonable amount of memory (8-16GB). Dual NIC/Dual PS is nice to have, but they’re going overboard with the USB ports. a couple 3.0 ports and an eSata or two would be plenty.
Make it as bare bones as possible so your WD Partners can cusotmize it for each customer.
The DS line just makes me look elsewhere.
Well yes and no. It has two 2.5 inch drives in it that the OS is RAIDed on, one on each side of the box. You have to take the lid off. You are correct actually then it is just 4 *bays*
I agree though. A system builder/techi would probably be attracted to something less expensive. But for the majority of the world who need a video on swaping a drive in the bay, the DS may be a better option 
On the DS you could do a raid 5 with 3 drives and hot spare the fourth. The RAID functions are not automatic/limited like the DX. RAID 10 is also an option
And or if you want bleeding edge, you can use windows storage spaces instead of RAID
