I’m building a NAS and trying to decide between drives. I’ve never done this before, most of my data is on google drive and a few externals. I bought a few drives on BF deals and trying to decide which ones to keep.
Costco Seagate 14TB External ($149.99) pros:
- Actually new
- Costco “unlimited” return policy/warranty (will most likely be around longer than goharddrive, and if a drive dies I can swap it for a new one within a few hours)
- Possibly quieter? I haven’t shucked them yet but I’ve heard these use ironwolfs and they’re quieter than exos
Ebay Refurb 18TB ($169.99) pros:
- more space per drive
- better cost/TB ($9.44 vs. $10.71)
- 5 year warranty (without possible guilt of taking advantage of costco)
Given these choices, which would you more experienced data hoarders choose? I have space in my case for 8 drives and won’t need that many for years if ever.
Also, trying to decide whether to use ZFS or not. I like the idea of bitrot protection and extra speed once I eventually upgrade to 10gbe, but am very concerned about noise from running the whole array 24/7.
Someone else already mention serverpartsdeals, I’ll go ahead and add on to that. They have manufacturer recertified HDDs as opposed to seller refurbished drives. Avoid refurbished drives. I have a dozen drives from them ranging from 8-18TB and yet to have one fail, the older 8TB drives being maybe 8 years old now. Reach out to them and find out if they are going to have any more holiday sales - I’ve found better deals better than Black Friday on electronics well into December.
Good point, I didn’t realize there was a difference. I’ll check out that deal.