There`s no shortage of NAS hard drives in the market today (I`m partial to IronWolf drives), but the downside is that they tend to be costly. Even accounting for Black Friday deals, a 12TB Seagate IronWolf costs $270 — that comes out to $22.5/TB.
If you`re in the market for maximizing value, there`s another way. WD introduced the 18TB Elements external drive last year for $515, and right now, it`s on sale for $301, making it a fabulous choice. That comes out to $16/TB, and while there is an external housing to contend with, that`s easy enough to remove, and inside you`ll find a white-label drive that`s on par with the IronWolf and WD`s Red Plus series.
The drive contained within is similar to Western Digital`s data center-focused Ultrastar series. In fact, the 18TB model is identical to the Ultrastar HC550 that retails for $369, featuring a helium-sealed design with 7200rpm, and a 512MB cache buffer. In short, these drives are just as good — if not better — than the ones you`ll...
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