WD80EFAX 81.00A81 firmware runs hotter

I have a Synology DS1817+ NAS that currently has 8 WE80EFAX drives.

The drives with firmware version 81.00A81 consistently run 4-6 degrees C hotter than the drives with firmware 83.H0A83.

And related to this - which is the “current” firmware and is it possible to update the other drives to this current firmware? It seems like random chance which firmware the drives have - I bought two of these drives a week ago and one drive has the 81.00A81 firmware and the other has 83.H0A83.

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Additional information. The drives with the 81.00A81 firmware all have serial numbers beginning VAG, while the 83.H0A83 firmware is in drives with serial numbers beginning 7H or 7S.

Different manufacturing facilities, one of which has an older firmware load?

And even more additional information. Pulling the drives out and looking at them, the drives with serial numbers beginning VAG look like “traditional” WD drives. The 7S & 7H drives look like HGST drives.

And, in fact, the 7S drives have identical power ratings to 7200 rpm HGST drives - 0.4A @ 5V and 0.55A @12V

The VAG drives have power ratings of 0.7A @ 5V and 0.9A @ 12V - nearly double.

And finally, the model numbers are different.

The VAG drives are WR80EFAX-68KNBN0 while the 7S drives are WR80EFAX-68LNPN0

Given the difference in potential power draw (although that’s hopefully maximum power draw) it would seem that different models of WR80EFAX drives pull more power and have higher idle temperatures.

Too bad it’s not possible to order the “low power” drives explicitly. I have 6 of these drives, ordered in pairs from different retailers and I have ended up with 3 of each model.

I bought a 8TB Red HDD WE80EFAX with serial numbers beginning VAG. I use it to replace my WD My Cloud 4TB NAS. It triggered 6 times over-temp Alarm in 3 days (everytime I want to transfer big files). It’s much hotter than any of my 6TB/4TB/3TB Red HDDs.

Really disappointed.

I am having the same exact issue with my WD80EFAX-68KNBN0 with firmware 81.00A81.

For comparison;
1x Seagate Ironwolf 12TB ST12000VN0007: 29c idle
1x Seagate Ironwolf 8TB ST8000VN0022: 35c idle
2x Western Digital 8TB Red WD80EFAX-68LHPN0: 30c idle
1x Western Digital 8TB Red WD80EFAX-68KNBN0: 46c idle <— Not helium anymore?

I know these are rated for 60-65c, but right know my ambient temperature is very cool, around 58f. During the summer this would idle significantly hotter. I don’t even want to know how hot this would get during a raid rebuild. It’s a great space heater, but a horrible NAS drive. WD has made a mistake releasing this to market.

I have the same issue.
2x WD80EFAX-68KNBN0 SN: VAG* - temperature ~50C.
Is it possible to update the firmware to reduce power consumption and temperature?

Same here, I replaced WF40EFRX (32c) with WD80EFAX-68KNBN0 (42c) and the idle temp is +10c higher.

I really need your help, guys. I’m looking for an 8tb NAS drive, and I’ve read a few complaints about air-filled 8tb noise, for example, https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/gyyjk1/most_quiet_8_tb_hdd_wd80efaxjet_engine/
The noise is even more important to me than temperature, and as far as I know, there aren’t that many alternatives for NAS.

@rpb @szdfsg @gizmo88 @ivan @Horvatha80 Do you think the noise issues are random, or does it corroborate with your experience with air-filled WE80EFAX? Are those not only hot, but much much noisy? Should I try my hardest to find a helium one? Or those could be noisy as well? Also, any advice on cold AND quiet alternatives for a bedroom 2-bay synology?

Sorry for the pings. It’s really hard and dangerous to return or replace things due to the covid now, so I’m hoping to get the right hdd on the first try and asking anyone for info who might help figure things out.

If noise is a concern, DO NOT buy Enterprise drives or 7200rpm drives. Air vs Helium filled makes less of a difference. If money isn’t an issue, look for WD Red Plus @ 5400rpm. If you want to save money, shuck some 12TB WD External drives, they have been decent lately.

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Yeah, learned that from experience. I had WD Gold and after getting a NAS just moved it there. Was not a good idea AT ALL, ticking every 5 seconds due to PWL. I’d think pretty much everything should be better, but then I heard about some Reds with that same ticking, and also found some hate regarding the helium ones noise: https://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=69941

Also on reddit many say that current 8tb Reds are in fact 7200rpm despite saying 5400. WD recently acknowledged that What madness is this? WD 5400 rpm 8TB drives sound like faster 7200 rpm spinners – Blocks and Files
Maybe that’s why there’s so much noise complaints for 8tb Red. And I think Seagate 8tb NAS drive is also 7200.

Thanks, I missed the announcement of that new CMR series somehow, it’s great that lower capacity will have an alternative now. But looks like WE80EFAX with supposed noise issues that I was asking about is already being rebranded as a Plus since it’s already CMR. And not really 5400 sadly. And I can’t get much higher in price than that one.

Decent from the noise point? Where I live, 12TB Elements Desktop cost just a bit more than WE80EFAX, which is nice. But some local store comments specifically say that there’s a big chance of noisy vibrating 7200rpm inside. Not sure the risk is worth it, especially if shucking voids the RMA option.

So I’m really confused. Is it even possible at least to find an 8tb drive that surely won’t be ticking every 5 seconds on idle? Cause the more I search, it looks like pretty everything new and high capacity has a chance to turn out 7200rpm and be ticking… And even if not ticking, still much louder than 6tb. What weird times do we live in.

As seems to be the norm I am still confused after a bunch of digging. I just got my 2xWD80EFAX-68KNBN0 S/N VGG* for my qnap 4 bay. I have not opened them yet as I stumbled on this excrement festival after I ordered. The outer label says it is just a Red not Red Plus yet all of the 8TB and up are supposedly plus. Is this temp and noise issue still going? I just want a nice, quiet, lower power 8TB drive that doesn’t have SMR. Is it really that much to ask?

A lot of the small NAS boxes I have seen have awful thermal management. All hard disks make heat as part of their operation.

I prefer rack mounted NAS where some fans can be installed to handle the warmth.

The 30/45/60 disk chassis are pretty tightly packed which has been questioned in data centers but rear fans do remove heat to keep the disks from baking.

Ha.
Look, WD80EFAX Red Plus is 7200 RPM now :confused:
spec >

The WD red disks that are sold to NAS users are best in a RAID5 or RAID6 configuration so that there is tolerance for one or two disks respectively.

Depends on how long resilvering takes and how much you value you data,

Just bought 5x wd plus WD60EFPX in amazon for a DS1522+, the HDs have 81.00A81
It runs pretty quiet and decent temprature 31 only in load.
The nvme also wdred 7000 are at temp of 35/40.

4 days passing files non stop queue from the former Nas Milions of small doc Dev files and photos.

Never went over 31 tem and no noise that I can complain.