[SOLVED] Best deal on 4TB or larger hard drives?

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hbenthow

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I want to buy some hard drives. I need at least two (the first for main use, the second as a backup for the first). Ideally, I'd like to pay $150 or less for each of them. I'm mainly looking at internal drives, but if there are some external ones that are as good, I'm open to suggestions. I'd like them to store as much as possible (at least 4TB, but the more the merrier).

I also want them to be reasonably fast (I want to play and edit 1080p video on them, and move large files back and forth). I want them to be reliable (ie, have a good chance of lasting for years).

At first, I was considering some 4TB Seagate Barracudas due to their low price (I have two 2TB Barracudas, which have been working beautifully for about 4 years). However, the reviews that I've read make them sound inferior to the 2TB ones. Apparently, the 4TB ones run at 5400 RPM (as opposed to 7200 RPM for the 2TB ones), which makes them slower.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
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Nemesia

Nemesia

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hbenthow said:
Those feature good storage size and good speeds, but I don't know how reliable or compatible they are. The WD Red and Seagate Ironwolf ones are labeled as NAS drives and the WD Gold one is labeled as enterprise. I don't know whether those would function correctly in a regular PC.
Click to expand...

A NAS drive connects in the same way a standard desktop drive would. Why it is branded as a NAS drive is because it was engineered with use in NAS enclosures in mind. A lot of this has to do with the firmware that is used on the drive. A NAS drive is designed to be up and running 24/7, so its priorities include constantly being ready to go at a moment's notice, like in a cloud storage environment where you might have a number of users who want to access any information held on the drive at any given time, and not have to wait a long time for access.

NAS drives, as mentioned, are rated for 24x7 use, and also designed to push bigger workloads year round. For example, a standard Seagate BarraCuda drive is rated to handle 55TB of data a year, whereas a standard Seagate IronWolf (NAS) drive is rated to handle 180TB a year, bump up to the IronWolf Pro, and that is rated for 300TB per year. So how hard the drive is going to work does come into play as well. There is also the warranty to consider. A standard BarraCuda drive comes with a 2-year warranty, whereas a standard IronWolf drive comes with a 3 year warranty, and the IronWolf Pro comes with a 5 year warranty. One reason that some users prefer to buy NAS rated drives is that warranties can be longer for them.

NAS drives are also designed to handle more vibration than your standard desktop drives, the reason for this: Imagine a NAS enclosure with, say, 4-8 huge 8TB or 10TB drives all stored right next to each-other in that enclosed space. Hard drives used in this capacity tend to have the potential to "beat up" on each-other just with the raw force of all of those spinning platters and the operations taking place on them, causing performance and longevity issues. So the firmware on NAS drives is designed to account for, protect against issues with, and manage these vibration considerations. Some NAS drives actually have what are called RV (Rotational Vibration) Sensors on them as well for this same reason. If your priority is noise reduction, a NAS-optimized drive is probably not going to be your best option. They're very good at what they do, but they are not exactly known for being the quietest type of drive around.
 
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hbenthow

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Nemesia said:
A NAS drive connects in the same way a standard desktop drive would. Why it is branded as a NAS drive is because it was engineered with use in NAS enclosures in mind. A lot of this has to do with the firmware that is used on the drive. A NAS drive is designed to be up and running 24/7, so its priorities include constantly being ready to go at a moment's notice, like in a cloud storage environment where you might have a number of users who want to access any information held on the drive at any given time, and not have to wait a long time for access.

NAS drives, as mentioned, are rated for 24x7 use, and also designed to push bigger workloads year round. For example, a standard Seagate BarraCuda drive is rated to handle 55TB of data a year, whereas a standard Seagate IronWolf (NAS) drive is rated to handle 180TB a year, bump up to the IronWolf Pro, and that is rated for 300TB per year. So how hard the drive is going to work does come into play as well. There is also the warranty to consider. A standard BarraCuda drive comes with a 2-year warranty, whereas a standard IronWolf drive comes with a 3 year warranty, and the IronWolf Pro comes with a 5 year warranty. One reason that some users prefer to buy NAS rated drives is that warranties can be longer for them
Click to expand...

So, other than possible noise issues, NAS drives are even better than regular ones in terms of durability and the ability to process large files? Is the same true for enterprise drives?
 
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Nemesia

Nemesia

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hbenthow said:
So, other than possible noise issues, NAS drives are even better than regular ones in terms of durability and the ability to process large files? Is the same true for enterprise drives?
Click to expand...

You don't have to buy NAS drive either you know. Normal 4TB HDD will do the job since you have a backup drive.

Having a backup of your important files is the most important thing. The moment you have your files on more than one drive it makes it harder to lose everything.

Seagate barracuda or western digital black or NAS drive. It really doesn't matter :)
 
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hbenthow

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Nemesia said:
You don't have to buy NAS drive either you know. Normal 4TB HDD will do the job since you have a backup drive but they are almost the same price.
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I noticed that the cache size of the Seagate Ironwolf drive in the comparison you linked to is only 128 MB. Does that make much of a difference?

Also, what are your thoughts on the three drives compared below?

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/dGHRsY,2PYLrH,Q7kj4D/

Would the WD Black or Red Pro drive be better, considering that they're the same price? How noisy is the Red Pro likely to be?

Also, how noisy would the 6TB Ironwolf NAS drive probably be?
 
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Nemesia

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WD Blue HDDs are mainly used for general purpose storage, they are great all-rounders, and an average user can’t go wrong with Blue.
WD Green is basically same as Blue, but it lacks a bit of performance. However, it is the most eco-friendly HDD, and it’s quite cheap.
WD Blacks are for pure performance including gaming, media, and content creation. Also one of the most expensive HDDs.
WD Red is a NAS drive. It’s optimized for NAS systems.
WD Purple is for surveillance. Advised for 24/7 operation.
WD Gold, probably the most premium of all. Made for a multitude of Datacenter-specific applications.

Here is what I would do. I would get a Western Digital black 4TB 7200RPM. The one you linked to me.

And a 5400RPM drive for your backup. You're not gonna edit from your backup drive right?
 
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hbenthow

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Nemesia said:
Here is what I would do. I would get a Western Digital black 4TB 7200RPM. The one you linked to me.

And a 5400RPM drive for your backup. You're not gonna edit from your backup drive right?
Click to expand...

I don't intend on editing from the backup. However, wouldn't a slower drive mean slower backups (I use FreeFileSync to back many files all at once)? Plus, I like the option of hot-swapping one drive for the other if one goes bad. Then again, a 5400 RPM 4TB Seagate Barracuda is only $90, which is an attractive price for a backup. I'm not sure.

SkyNetRising said:
Seagate Barracudas are all SMR drives (2TB+). I'd avoid those.
Click to expand...

What is the difference between a CMR and SMR drive?
 
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hbenthow

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There's currently an Amazon Warehouse deal on a 6TB Western Digital Black drive for only $156.39. Amazon Warehouse sells items as "used" even though they are brand new because the packaging is damaged. Does anyone know if it would still come with the warranty?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis...k+6tb+internal&qid=1609700673&sr=8-1&dchild=1

Also, which of these two hard drives would be preferable, considering the $10 price difference?

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/JWm323,Q7kj4D/
 
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