I’m planning on using it as an external drive for a few months. I plan on shucking it later when I get around to building my NAS in a few months. So I’m wondering which would be better for that. I’m located in Canada so the prices are all in $CAD.
The 14tb I found for $239.99 at bestbuy and the 18tb is $334.99 at Newegg/Western Digital. Price per TB is $17.14/TB and $18.61/TB respectively.
The seagate is confirmed to have an Exos drive in it, newer production dates past about 09/23 are all getting st14000nm0121 mach2 drives (2 actuator heads, 2 platters). I got one and after tests (put a fan on it while in enclosure, runs up to 60c otherwise) shucked it. I can’t comment on the noise while it’s sitting in the array with the others, but I can tell you that it does seem to run a couple degrees warmer than the last seagate I shucked (an Ironwolf pro).
The WD will probably produce a white label ultrastar. Nothing wrong with them, just not as good of a price/deal. Also consider return policies: bestbuy is easy if it fails the initial tests, you take it back and swap for a new one. Newegg you need to do rma/return shipping, it’s a hassle. WD direct might cover return cost, but it’s still shipping downtime.
The seagate is confirmed to have an Exos drive in it, newer production dates past about 09/23 are all getting st14000nm0121 mach2 drives (2 actuator heads, 2 platters).
Always YMMV!
Best Buy takes shucked returns in store? Bring a bag of parts and get your money back no questions asked?
Thanks, I’ll just get the Seagate then and hopefully I can get that dual actuator.
Did you test the performance of the drive? I’m getting 300MB/s in crystal disk with it still in the enclosure. So I’m wondering if I’m being limited by it.