Western Digital has several lines of hard drives, and they have given them color names. Black, Blue, and Green. The Red series is the newest line, and is primarily intended for network-attached storage devices. The latest release in this line is called the WD Red 6 TB, because, apparently, it has a capacity of 6 TB.
Western Digital has already released drives in 5TB and 6TB capacities, but the latest series is notable because the new model has this capacity and does not use helium.
It has been found that, to add an extra plate that would allow capacities of 5-6TB to a hard drive, the internals had to be sealed with helium, a gas that has a much lower density than air and prevents the disks from warping.
The WD Red series does not appear to use helium, which suggests that the capacity increase was achieved only by boosting the density per disk.
In any case, the new WD Red series, like the WD Red Pro series, boasts 3D Active Balance Plus technology, for better overall performance and reliability.
The WD Red series is priced at $249 for the 5 TB, $299 for the WD Red series at 6 TB, and $159 to $259 for the WD Red Pro series at 2 TB and 4 TB.
