Network Attached Storage Drive Recommendations

saxasianguy on 19/10/2021 - 20:20
Last edited 19/10/2021 - 20:21

Since my previous post, I have gotten the Synology DS920+.

I have been looking into drives for it and am currently torn between the Seagate EXOS ST8000NM000A and Seagate EXOS ST16000NM001G.
Either way I will be getting 4 of them.

I can get the 8tb for about $150 cheaper each drive ($1485 for 32tb) and the 16tb for $360 cheaper each drive (~$2400 for 64tb). I plan on having these in raid10
My thought is to get 4x 8tb and in the future, the 16tb may come down in price.
Will be using it mainly to store my RAW photos, video footage, drone footage and tv shows

Any thoughts?

General Discussion

Comments

  • Alan6984 on 20/10/2021 - 09:44

    First, all of this assumes no difference in quality / specs (apart from capacity), so price is the only differentiating factor.

    Right now, unless I had a need for the 64GB of storage, then I would expect to be going with 4 x 8GB = 32GB since the 8GB drives are (usually) much cheaper ($ / GB). The sweet spot recently has tended to be around 6GB to 10GB, but maybe the market has shifted - I only look at drives a couple of times a year myself.

    You appear to be saying that you can get 32GB for $1,485 and 64GB for $2,400, so a lower $ / GB for the larger drives?

    If that is true, then if it were me, I'd go with 4 x 16GB = 64GB unless the extra $1,000 causes cash flow grief right now (in which case I doubt you'd be looking at that as an option anyway).

    In general, I always prefer to minimise the $ / GB over time, as that will usually lead to a lower overall TCO across time.

    Alan.

    • saxasianguy on 20/10/2021 - 11:38

      Thanks for your detailed opinion Alan, I appreciate it. The 16TB drives in NZ usually retail for $999 (according to pricespy) but I can get them for about $630nzd each shipped + ~$50 in GST on the border which still makes them quite cheap

      • Alan6984 on 20/10/2021 - 12:20
        +1

        Fair enough.

        $630 NZD is a very good price - less than rack rates at BH Photo & Video who would come out to about $700 NZD (exc shipping, GST etc) for the 16TB.

        Are you comparing the same source for the 8TB drives (or maybe they don't offer the 8TB)?

        If so, then if it were me purchasing today, I would be going for the 4 x 16TB (lower cost per TB), subject to cash flow as noted previously. Doesn't mean that is right for you of course.

        Where are you sourcing them from? Be aware that you might have warranty issues if not sourced in NZ. My experience over the last 25 years or so, has been that drives tend to fail almost immediately (within days, maybe weeks - presumably due to a manufacturing defect), or last many years (assuming they are not dropped or otherwise abused!)

        Alan.

        PS: I typed GB above in my first reply, but they should all be TB :-)

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