We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
Most WD reds are CMR are perfectly fine. Look op the individual partnumber to be absolutely sure, as there are some that are indeed SMR.
I used a shitload of WD 4TBs. The WD40EFRX since 2016 in 24/7 usage. They were my go to's before the 12TB (WD120EFBX) and 14TB (WD140EFGX)
@4.5W, 28dB and CMR, they are cool, quite, fast and durable little disks. They run what seem to be forever.
But do your due diligence beforehand as there is a wide spread in specs even within the same series within WD.
WD Red is three lines since 2020.
WD Red are all SMR and available up to 6TB.
WD Red Plus, introduced in 2020, are the original Red and available up to 14TB
WD Red Pro, introduced in 2014, have always been CMR and are available up to 22TB
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/11obcan/reminder_that_wd_red_nas_is_three_lines_now_wd/
There are plenty of old WD reds that are CMR. Even the links in your links confirm that 🙄
Typically you can get the external HDD cheaper than a internal drive + a enclosure, so I'd just buy it as one unit.
I'd aim for > 10TB as there aren't any drive managed SMR drives of that size I know of.