The WD 18TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive is currently $229 on Amazon right now!
Data Hoarder
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Yeah but that's Amazon.com and I'm in Canada. After customs and shipping that ends up being around $370 in CAD which is higher than what websites are offering over here.
what price are you waiting for, also Canadian wondering if i should wait for some other sale.
I ended up getting the 14tb Seagate expansion for $239. There's a 18tb WD easystore that goes for $299 and ends up being a better value. It was out of stock in store at Best buy and I was okay with 14 so I just went with that. So, I guess you could wait for the 18tb WD to go on sale for $299 again. That was the best deal I could find in terms of $/TB.
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.