ST2000DL003 Compatibility?

The drive is new technology, with connection speed of up to 6Gb/s, it would have a higher price than a corresponding 3.0Gb/s drive such as the ST32000542AS. (Both are LP drives).

Consider the 6.0Gb/s ST32000641AS which is a 7200 RPM drive for $170 and the previously mentioned ST32000542AS is only $90.

This is true, however when comparing the sustained write performance between the ST2000DL003 and the ST32000542AS units there is a difference of 49MB/s, that will be noticeable.
ST2000DL003 = 144MB/s
ST32000542AS = 95MB/s

If it was just for pure capacity, the older 512b sector drive would be fine.
My take on this is, Seagate will phase out the older 512b ST32000542AS drive and replace it with the ST2000DL003 drive.

As for 7200 RPM vs 5900 RPM performance, the ST2000DL003 actually has better sustained write performance than does the ST32ST32000641AS
ST32000641AS = 138MB/s
ST2000DL003 = 144MB/s

Right now the there is only approx. $20 price difference between the two LP drives. (not including shipping)_

No drive over a gigabit network will record that performance since anything over 112MB/s is theoretically impossible. (1000Mb/s divided by 8 = 112MB/s.) You would have to have available a 10Gb/s network which would be very unusual outside a corporate installation. So why pay more for a drive that is not on the list when the higher transfer speed cannot be utilized?

Also the ReadyNAS does not have SATA III ports, so buying drives using the bleeding edge SATA III is a waste.

I would advise sticking to the compatibility list.

All very good points, and well taken.

As the ST32000542AS has a sustained transfer rate of 95 MBps, and the theoretically max you will see with a 1GB link is 125Mb/s, I would expect to see better performance with the ST2000DL003, if only up to 112Mb/s.
In the past to get any kind of higher performance, required you to purchase the Enterprise 7200 rpm drives at a much higher price premium. If I can get better throughput at a small(ish) price increase, I'm all for it and willing to wait for it to be certified.

This was never supposed to be a this drive is better than that drive thread or why would one choose a 6Gb/s interface over a 3Gb/s when the NAS only supports 3Gb/s...

As originally stated: "Any word on when they might be tested"
How and when are drives selected to be tested?

I ordered three of the ST32000542AS only to be told by the online retailer that they couldn't get hold of any more stock. They offered me three of the ST2000DL003 at the same price.

These are for a ReadyNAS Ultra 2-bay. All I need to know is will they work given that in my case they will be the same price.

The problem is that until someone tries them or they show up on the HCL, no one knows. Even if someone is successful, you still won't know 100%. In the U.S, both Newegg and Amazon have them. From your forum id, you may be in Australia so you may be limited to Amazon.

Amazon doesn't have a local store in Australia so you can't purchase electronic stuff like hard drives from them.

If you are in Australia take a look at a website like staticice.com.au

Thanks mdgm.

Unfortunately it looks like the online stores are struggling with stock levels around this 542AS in Australia.

Had a look at a couple of other options on the HCL but it seems that it is in need of a significant refresh as there are a number of new drives released by the HD vendors that haven't found their way onto the list.

It takes time for NetGear to test drives thoroughly and if necessary work on compatibility fixes and retest drives. NetGear will update the compatibility list when they are satisfied that drives are compatible and not before. Also note, that NetGear has to wait for drives to appear on the market, then as supply improves buy a large quantity of the disks (need lots of drives to test allowing for disk failures and testing on multiple units) so it can take a while before disks are able to be added.