HDD Prices Today
Current market prices for consumer, NAS, and enterprise hard drives — sorted by $/TB. Includes Seagate Exos, IronWolf Pro, WD Gold, Ultrastar, BarraCuda, and Toshiba MG-series.
Price trend: HDD prices have largely stabilized since the 2011 Thailand flood recovery. The $/TB sweet spot has moved from 8–10 TB to 18–24 TB drives. Larger drives (>20 TB) often use SMR or helium sealing — check specs before buying for NAS/RAID.
Consumer & NAS Hard Drive Prices
BarraCuda, IronWolf, WD Red, WD Blue — desktop and NAS workloads
Prices are approximate street prices. NVMe IOPS shown are random 4K read. Enterprise drives require compatible server/RAID infrastructure.
Enterprise Hard Drive Prices
Seagate Exos, WD Gold, WD Ultrastar, Toshiba MG-series — rated for 24/7 datacenter workloads
Prices are approximate street prices. NVMe IOPS shown are random 4K read. Enterprise drives require compatible server/RAID infrastructure.
Which HDD should I buy?
Seagate BarraCuda or WD Blue. 4–8 TB hits the $/TB sweet spot at ~$15–18/TB. These aren't rated for always-on use — unplug when not needed.
Seagate IronWolf or WD Red Plus. Vibration compensation and 24/7 ratings matter in multi-drive enclosures. 12–16 TB per drive is the current value leader.
Seagate Exos X or WD Ultrastar / Gold. SAS 12Gb/s preferred for dense arrays. 18–24 TB hits best $/TB at enterprise reliability ratings (550 TB/year workload).
HDD FAQ
Are HDDs still worth buying in 2026?
Absolutely — for bulk storage. At $15–$20/TB, HDDs are 5–10× cheaper per TB than SSDs. They're ideal for backup, media libraries, NAS arrays, archival, and cold data tiers. Where they lose: sequential write speed (180–285 MB/s vs 4,000–7,000 MB/s NVMe), random I/O, and power efficiency.
Consumer vs NAS vs enterprise HDD — what's the difference?
Consumer drives (BarraCuda, WD Blue) are designed for light duty — they vibration-compensate poorly in arrays and aren't rated for 24/7 operation. NAS drives (IronWolf, WD Red Plus) add vibration compensation, 24/7 ratings, and higher MTBF. Enterprise drives (Exos, WD Gold, Ultrastar) add higher sustained workload ratings (180–550 TB/year), SAS options, and longer warranties.
How many TBs do I need for a home server or NAS?
A common starting point is 4× 4–8 TB drives in RAID 5/6 or ZFS RAIDZ, giving 12–24 TB usable. For media servers, 12–16 TB usable handles ~2,000 Blu-ray rips. For backups, buy 1.5× your total data footprint. Always plan for expansion.
What's the lifespan of a hard drive?
Backblaze's fleet data shows most drives survive 4–6 years. Enterprise drives are rated 1.2–2.5M hours MTBF (theoretical), though real-world failure rates vary by model and environment. Always run RAID and offsite backups — HDDs are mechanical and will fail eventually.