Pros and Cons of High capacity HDD drives? 12TB+

Comixbooks

Comixbooks

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So instead of spending money on a 4TB drive I'm thinking buying at 12-14TB drive might prove to be better. Since I figured out how to quite down my HDD drives with the Youtube video I found a month ago.

1. Will these bigger drives still fit in my 3.5" slot in my case?

2. Do they make a ton of noise?
 
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My gripe about them is if they go it’s a lot of data to rewrite unless you’re running a Mirror drive and that gets expensive at these capacities. They’re not loud though, I typically use the shucked Easystores at that capacity.
 
I don't know that I would go out of my way to buy extra huge drives that you might not utilize. Factor in whatever you think you need/want size wise, then double it. Then buy 2 of them so you can mirror them. 2 x 3.5 drive bays. If you don't have 2 3.5 bays open, you can always get a huge usb external drive and do backups that way. But it's a process to set the backup schedule or remember to do it manually.

As far as sizes go, you can get 5-6tb 7200rpm for about a hundred. And trust me 5tb is nearly infinite space if you use it as a game/steam drive. But it depends on your workload/what you want to do. If you're going to rip lossless blurays or something like that, aim bigger.

Edit - oh just looked a few things and prices have gone up, probably because tariffs and covid. Figure $150 each?
 
I recently shucked a WD 14tb Easy Store to use in my desktop to store the Steam games I'm not currently playing. It's the same size as a standard hard drive and is actually a bit quieter than the WD Black 4TB it replaced.
 
Fixall said:
I recently shucked a WD 14tb Easy Store to use in my desktop to store the Steam games I'm not currently playing. It's the same size as a standard hard drive and is actually a bit quieter than the WD Black 4TB it replaced.
Click to expand...
How much did you save compared with buying just the bare drive?
 
x509 said:
How much did you save compared with buying just the bare drive?
Click to expand...

14TB Easy Store/Elements drives go on sale for ~$210 on occasion. Normal pricing is $260.

Regular OEM HDDs in that capacity are closer to $350-400 depending on the model. There are those Ultrastar DC drives for $250, but I don't think WD will honor any warranty on them.
 
x509 said:
How much did you save compared with buying just the bare drive?
Click to expand...

The 8GB I shucked for my wife's computer was $139.99 and the 14TB was $189.99. Both are working flawlessly.

bb.PNG
 
I think 6 of my 7 spinning hard drives are shucked, the other one is a 8+ year old 3TB HGST that I just want to die already but it somehow still hasn't ever thrown a single smart error.

My most recent one was that Easystore 14TB and its doing fantastic, my two second most recent drives were the 12TB model that was on sale a year prior.
 
I finally bought a 12 TB wd easystore.

I usually just buy 4TB drives but with my library of games I am running out of space. I guess with today game sizes you need at least 8TB... well for me anyways ..

The 12TB drive is my backup drive to offload stuff. I am afraid of losing a full 12 TB drive. I mean if I store things on 4 TB drives it is less likely to die in one go.
 
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