WD Red Plus: All Eleven Model Numbers, Noise by Capacity and UK Prices

WD Red Plus price on Amazon.co.uk

The table lists WD Red Plus listings on Amazon.co.uk, lowest price per terabyte first, with new and used offers together and the condition printed on each row. Prices are pounds sterling inc VAT. It holds 20 listings right now. Lowest price per TB: £35.90/TB. The plain WD Red line is kept out of this table on purpose, for the reason set out further down the page.

Most rows name a WD model number such as WD40EFPX or WD80EFPX, which is the form WD's data sheet uses. Listings can also carry a retail code beginning WDBC9V instead. WD's sheet documents the WDxxEFxX numbers only, so a retail-coded listing cannot be matched to a row of the sheet from its code alone, and our recording column does not print CMR for it. If the seller can confirm the WD model number printed on the drive label, that settles which row of the sheet it is.

Listings can also appear at 3TB. The September 2025 sheet lists no 3TB Red Plus, so a 3TB listing cannot be matched to it. Read the model number in the listing and check it against WD's own documents before you buy.

WD Red Plus 2TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 10TB and 12TB: the eleven models

Every model in WD's September 2025 table lists CMR, a workload rating of 180TB per year and a 3-year limited warranty, so on those three lines the eleven drives are identical. Where they differ is spindle speed, build and noise, and those are the lines that should decide which model number you buy.

Spindle speed falls into three groups. The 10TB and 12TB models spin at 7,200 RPM. Both 8TB models and WD60EFZX run at 5,640 RPM. WD60EFPX, both 4TB models and the 2TB run at 5,400 RPM. Two model numbers at the same capacity are therefore not always the same drive: at 6TB, WD60EFZX is the 5,640 RPM model and WD60EFPX the 5,400 RPM one.

Only one model is helium-filled, the 12TB WD120EFBX. Its partner at 12TB, WD120EFGX, is air-filled, as is everything else in the range. At 10TB the pair is WD100EFGX and WD101EFBX, and the 101 in the second number is correct rather than a misprint.

WD Red Plus 10TB and 12TB: 7,200 RPM, and mostly louder at idle

WD's acoustics rows show what the 7,200 RPM models cost in noise. Three of the four 10TB and 12TB models read 34 dBA at idle and 38 or 39 dBA in average seek. The 8TB and smaller models read 21 to 25 dBA at idle and 26 to 30 dBA in seek. For a NAS that sits in a living room or a small office, that gap deserves as much weight as the price table.

The exception is WD120EFBX, the helium 12TB. The sheet gives it 20 dBA at idle and 29 dBA in seek: the lowest idle figure in the whole table, from a drive spinning at the same 7,200 RPM as the loud models. If you want 12TB in a quiet room, that is the model number to look for in a listing title, and WD120EFGX is the one to check twice.

Among the slower drives, the 2TB WD20EFPX is the quietest on paper at 21 dBA idle and 26 dBA seek. Between 4TB and 8TB the idle figures sit within 2 dBA of each other, so at those sizes price per terabyte is a fairer tiebreak than noise.

WD Red Plus vs plain WD Red: check for EFAX

WD sells a separate line called simply WD Red, and its product brief lists SMR for four models: WD60EFAX, WD40EFAX, WD30EFAX and WD20EFAX. Red Plus lists CMR throughout. The two names differ by one word, and a listing title can shorten either of them to WD Red, so the model number is the reliable test.

On WD's own documents, the letters after the capacity tell the two lines apart. EFAX appears on the four SMR WD Red models. The Red Plus numbers end EFPX, EFZX, EFZZ, EFGX or EFBX. Plain WD Red listings also turn up at 8, 10 and 12TB with EFAX numbers such as WD80EFAX, WD100EFAX and WD120EFAX. WD's brief lists SMR for the 2TB to 6TB EFAX models, and we have not found a WD document that states the recording technology of the larger EFAX drives, so we make no claim about them either way.

The table on this page follows the same rule: plain WD Red listings are left out, so every row sits on the Red Plus line in our catalogue. If a listing elsewhere says WD Red and gives no model number, ask for it before buying.

WD Red Plus 12TB or a 12TB enterprise hard drive?

At 12TB the Red Plus is up against enterprise drives of the same capacity, and the table above lists new SATA models from the Exos, Ultrastar and Toshiba MG lines. It holds 4 listings right now. Lowest price per TB: £26.26/TB, against £35.90/TB for the Red Plus table, which covers every capacity rather than 12TB alone.

The gap on paper is in the ratings. WD rates every Red Plus at 180TB per year with a 3-year limited warranty. Seagate's Exos X24 sheet includes a 12TB SATA model, ST12000NM002H, and states a 5-year limited warranty and a 2.5 million hour MTBF. Toshiba rates its MG09 series at 550TB per year, about three times the Red Plus figure.

Those are manufacturer warranties printed on maker data sheets. What a particular seller's listing carries is a separate question, so read the listing itself, and read it twice on a used row.

The other side of the trade is size and noise. WD positions Red Plus for RAID-optimised NAS systems with up to 8 bays. On WD's figures, a 5,400 or 5,640 RPM Red Plus at 4TB to 8TB is quieter than three of the four 10TB and 12TB Red Plus models; the helium WD120EFBX is the exception, quieter at idle than any of them. If the plan is 12TB drives in a NAS that sits out of earshot, the enterprise rows are worth pricing against the 12TB Red Plus, because at that capacity the Red Plus is already a 7,200 RPM drive.

Buying WD Red Plus: what to check, from 2TB to 12TB

• The model number. It should be one of WD's eleven: WD120EFGX, WD120EFBX, WD100EFGX, WD101EFBX, WD80EFPX, WD80EFZZ, WD60EFPX, WD60EFZX, WD40EFZZ, WD40EFPX or WD20EFPX.
• The speed you want at 6TB: WD60EFZX is the 5,640 RPM model, WD60EFPX the 5,400 RPM one.
• The build you want at 12TB: WD120EFBX is helium and much quieter at idle, WD120EFGX is air.
• Your bay count. WD positions Red Plus for NAS systems with up to 8 bays.

• Not EFAX. WD lists SMR for WD60EFAX, WD40EFAX, WD30EFAX and WD20EFAX, all plain WD Red rather than Red Plus.

The condition on the row matters too. The table prints new or used for each offer, and the 3-year figure on WD's sheet says nothing about what a used listing includes. Once the model number checks out, compare price per terabyte: across 4TB, 6TB and 8TB WD's ratings are identical, so the cheaper terabyte usually decides it. Before you settle on a capacity, the RAID calculator below shows how much usable space a given number of drives leaves under each RAID level.