Recording method and stated workload rating are what separate these from desktop drives · review

Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB (WD40EFZZ), 5400 rpm review

Name: Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB (WD40EFZZ), 5400 rpm
Brand: Western Digital
SKU: B0G5YDXKS7

A four-terabyte, 5400 rpm CMR drive with 128 MB of cache, the cheapest drive on this shelf at $194.99 on Amazon.com on October 26, 2026, whose bullets name a warranty without giving its length.

By Jean-Benoit Buisson

What the Amazon.com listing says

The title: WD Red Plus 4 TB, 5400 rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 128 MB cache, 3.5-inch, WD40EFZZ. The bullets: the range runs from 2 to 12 TB; for RAID-optimized NAS systems of up to 8 bays; designed for continuous operation; backed by support and warranty; tuned for NAS with NASware. The description adds increased power efficiency.

The shelf it sits on

Drive	Capacity	rpm	Cache	Recording	Workload	MTBF	Warranty	Amazon.com, October 26, 2026
WD Red Plus	4 TB	5400	128 MB	CMR	—	—	not stated	$194.99, $48.75 a TB
Seagate IronWolf	4 TB	5400	64 MB	CMR	—	1 million h	3 years + 3 of Rescue	$260.00, $65.00 a TB
Ultrastar DC HC310 (renewed)	4 TB	7200	256 MB + NVC	CMR	550 TB/yr	2 million h	not stated	no offer
HGST MegaScale DC (refurbished)	4 TB	5700	64 MB	not stated	—	800,000 h	not stated	no US listing
Seagate IronWolf	8 TB	7200	256 MB	CMR	—	1 million h	not stated	$499.99, $62.50 a TB
WD Red Plus	12 TB	7200	512 MB	CMR	180 TB/yr	—	3 years	$789.00, $65.75 a TB
Seagate IronWolf Pro	14 TB	not stated	256 MB	CMR	300 TB/yr	1.2 million h	5 years + 3 of Rescue	$631.00, $45.07 a TB

The lowest price, and what it leaves out

At $194.99 on October 26, 2026 it is the cheapest drive here and $48.75 a terabyte, $65.01 less than the 4 TB IronWolf. The IronWolf writes down a three-year warranty, an MTBF and a recovery service; this page writes down more cache and none of the three.

Before ordering

Ask the seller for the warranty term, which the page names without giving.

Prices quoted in this text were read on October 26, 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.

Where it holds up, and where it stops

Strengths

CMR, 5400 rpm, 128 MB of cache and SATA 6 Gb/s, all in the title
$194.99 on Amazon.com on October 26, 2026, the lowest price on this shelf and $48.75 a terabyte
Stated for NAS systems of up to eight bays, with WD's NASware firmware

Compromises

A warranty named without a length
No MTBF and no workload rating
The first bullet is the range, 2 to 12 TB, rather than this drive

Specifications

Capacity	4 TB — printed in the title, in the maker’s unit, and reported here in that unit without conversion
Recording method	CMR — printed in the title
Stated workload rating	Not published on the listing — the third bullet names continuous operation and no annual figure in terabytes follows
Rotational speed	5400 rpm — printed in the title
Cache size	128 MB — printed in the title
Interface	SATA at 6 Gb/s — printed in the title
Warranty length	Not published on the listing — the fourth bullet says the drive is backed by world-class support and warranty, without a term
Stated MTBF	Not published on the listing — no figure in hours appears
Stated idle power	Not published on the listing — the description mentions increased power efficiency without a figure in watts
Stated acoustic figure	Not published on the listing — no decibel value appears
Amazon reference	B0G5YDXKS7
EAN	0718037905754
On Amazon.com	Amazon.com had an offer at $195 on October 26, 2026.

Where this unit differs

Put against the median of its own group on this site — not against every network product sold.

Cache size128 MB — printed in the title-50 % against the median of this group
Capacity4 TB — printed in the title, in the maker’s unit, and reported here in that unit without conversion-50 % against the median of this group
Rotational speed5400 rpm — printed in the title-25 % against the median of this group

The questions that come up before an order

Is it CMR?

Yes. The title prints CMR, which matters in a NAS: a conventional-recording drive does not rewrite neighboring tracks when data changes, so an array rebuild runs at a steady speed.

What warranty does it carry?

The fourth bullet says it is backed by warranty and gives no length. The 12 TB WD Red Plus on this shelf states three years.

Our score

8.4/ 10

The cheapest CMR drive on this shelf, with its mechanical figures in the title. The warranty length, the MTBF and the workload rating are what it leaves out.

Against the rest of the network and storage gear

This network and storage gear share the category and the price bracket. Only what each one states is shown; an incomplete column would mislead.

Model	Price	Capacity	Recording method	Stated workload rating	Rotational speed
Western Digital Red Plus 4 TB (WD40EFZZ), 5400 rpm	$195	4 TB — printed in the title, in the maker’s unit, and reported here in that unit without conversion	CMR — printed in the title	Not published on the listing — the third bullet names continuous operation and no annual figure in terabytes follows	5400 rpm — printed in the title
Seagate IronWolf 4 TB (ST4000VN006)	$260	4 TB — printed in the title. The second bullet also prints 16 TB, which is the ceiling of the IronWolf range and not this drive	CMR — printed in the title	Not published on the listing as a figure in terabytes per year — the first bullet gives an enclosure ceiling of eight bays and several users, which is a deployment limit rather than an annual duty	5400 rpm — printed in the title; the description gives speeds up to 180 MB/s
Seagate IronWolf 8 TB	$500	8 TB — printed in the title and in the second bullet, in the maker’s unit and reported here unchanged	CMR — printed in the title. Conventional recording writes tracks side by side and does not rewrite neighbors when data changes, which is what decides how an array rebuild behaves	Not published on the listing as a figure in terabytes a year — the first bullet gives an enclosure ceiling of up to eight bays and several users, which is a deployment limit rather than an annual duty. Three other drives on this shelf publish a rating	7200 rpm — printed in the title, as on the WD Red Plus 12 TB and the renewed Ultrastar; the 4 TB IronWolf and the 4 TB WD Red Plus here print 5400
Seagate IronWolf Pro 14 TB	$631	14 TB — printed in the title and in the second bullet, in the maker’s unit and reported here unchanged. It is the largest capacity on this shelf	CMR — printed in the title. Conventional recording writes tracks side by side rather than overlapping them, so changing data does not force neighboring tracks to be rewritten, which is what decides how a rebuild behaves in a large array	300 TB a year — stated in the description rather than in any bullet, alongside twenty-four-seven accessibility. It is the duty the drive is specified for and not a quota that runs down. A buyer reading only the bullets would not find it	Not published on the listing — no rpm figure appears in the title, the bullets or the description; the second bullet gives speeds up to 250 MB/s instead. The 8 TB IronWolf on this shelf prints 7200 rpm in its title

What separates the models, in network and storage gear

If price decides: this model, at $195.
Highest Capacity in the table: Seagate IronWolf Pro 14 TB (14 TB — printed in the title and in the second bullet, in the maker’s unit and reported here unchanged. It is the largest capacity on this shelf).

The buyer this one serves, among network and storage gear

A two- or four-bay home NAS where the lowest price for a CMR drive matters most.

What this one costs among network and storage gear

A reference exists on these Amazon stores: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States. Listed is not the same as in stock — availability changes daily.

Details checked on October 26, 2026.

The network and storage gear guides it appears in

Best NAS Hard Drives for Continuous Running

What buyers actually choose

Amazon reports what buyers took in the month before this page was last checked: at least 500.

The figure is a floor, rounded by Amazon, and read through Keepa — it says what buyers picked, not what a maker claims.

Sources

Specifications: the manufacturer sheet for network and storage gear and the matching Amazon product page. Prices and availability: Keepa. Every figure on this page names its source.

What we look at on this network and storage gear