Best Hard Drives for NAS, Ranked by Price per TB
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This ranking includes only new internal hard drives whose listings explicitly state CMR. SMR, conflicting claims, and unknown recording technology are excluded. Specifications come from listing text, not independent verification; confirm the exact model with the manufacturer before buying.
Filling a NAS is where price per TB compounds: four or more bays multiply every dollar saved per terabyte. This list ranks today's new internal hard drive offers by price per TB — new only, because drives that run 24/7 in an array deserve full warranties.
The ranking re-computes on every snapshot refresh, and each entry shows how the offer compares against typical pricing for its capacity class, so you can time multi-drive purchases to genuine dips.
Seagate Exos X24 ST24000NM000C 24TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 512MB Cache CMR 3.5-Inch Enterprise Hard Drive
$799.99 · $33.33/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #1 at $33.33/TB — 31% below the typical 24TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Seagate IronWolf Pro, 16 TB, Enterprise NAS Internal HDD –CMR 3.5 Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, 7,200 RPM, 256 MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage (ST16000NT001)
$589.99 · $36.87/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #2 at $36.87/TB — 17% below the typical 16TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Seagate 8TB IronWolf Internal NAS Hard Drive | SATA 6 Gb/s (ST8000VNZ04) | 24/7 NAS-optimized HDD. AgileArray, All-CMR, RV sensors for multi-bay, 180TB/year. 3-Year Warranty + 3-Year Rescue
$329.99 · $41.25/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #3 at $41.25/TB — 14% below the typical 8TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3 yr warranty.
Seagate IronWolf 10TB NAS Internal Hard Drive, 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, CMR, RAID Optimized, IronWolf Health Management – for NAS Systems (ST10000VNZ00)
$434.99 · $43.50/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #4 at $43.50/TB — 5% below the typical 10TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Seagate IronWolf Pro, 20 TB, Enterprise NAS Internal HDD –CMR 3.5 Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, 7,200 RPM, 256 MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage (ST20000NT001)
$879.99 · $44.00/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #5 at $44.00/TB — 2% below the typical 20TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Seagate IronWolf Pro 24TB Enterprise NAS Internal HDD Hard Drive – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 512MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage, Rescue Services (ST24000NT002)
$1,059.99 · $44.17/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #6 at $44.17/TB — 8% below the typical 24TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Western Digital 12TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 GB/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD120EFGX
$535.00 · $44.58/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #7 at $44.58/TB. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Western Digital 16TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD161KFGX
$714.99 · $44.69/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #8 at $44.69/TB. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Western Digital 20TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD202KFGX
$897.33 · $44.87/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #9 at $44.87/TB. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
Western Digital 12TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD122KFBX
$539.99 · $45.00/TB as of Oct 20, 12:14 AM EDT
Ranks #10 at $45.00/TB — 1% above the typical 12TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".
How the ranking and deal scores work
Compare live hard disk prices for all matching deals →
What to look for
Check recording technology for the exact model before buying. A NAS brand name alone does not establish CMR. This list requires an explicit CMR claim and excludes listings that also mention SMR; confirm compatibility with your NAS and the manufacturer's specifications.
Buy for the rebuild, not just the build. Bigger drives mean longer rebuild windows when one fails — pairing very large drives with single-parity RAID is a risk; budget for dual parity or backups accordingly.
Mixing capacities wastes space in most RAID setups, which truncate every drive to the smallest member. Buying all bays from one strong deal — the kind this page surfaces — beats accumulating mismatched bargains.
FAQ
What makes a hard drive good for a NAS?
CMR recording, a rating for 24/7 operation, and tolerance for the vibration of sitting next to other spinning drives. Entry NAS-class drives are rated for 180 TB of writes a year with 3-year warranties; pro NAS and enterprise-class drives for 550 TB a year with 5 years. Desktop drives are rated for far lighter duty.
Can I use a regular desktop hard drive in a NAS?
You can, but it's risky. Some desktop drives use SMR recording, which can slow RAID rebuilds drastically — in one ServeTheHome test, an SMR drive took nearly 230 hours to rebuild versus under 17 for CMR drives. Desktop drives also carry lower workload ratings, limited power-on hours, and 2-year warranties.
Do I need NAS-specific drives for a NAS?
NAS-class drives add vibration compensation, 24/7-rated firmware, and 3-year warranties — worth it for arrays of 4+ drives. For a 1–2 bay home NAS, a quality CMR desktop drive is a reasonable economy.
Why does this list exclude renewed drives?
A NAS array multiplies the cost of one early failure across rebuild risk to the whole pool. New drives with full warranties are the sane default; renewed enterprise drives belong in arrays built deliberately around redundancy.
What capacity is the sweet spot for a NAS?
Whatever this ranking says today — the sweet spot moves. Historically the second-largest mainstream capacity tier offers the best price per TB, because the newest largest tier carries an early-adopter premium.
Should all NAS drives be the same model?
Same capacity matters for RAID efficiency; same model is debatable. Some builders deliberately mix manufacturing batches to avoid correlated failures. Matching capacity from this list across two orders a few weeks apart achieves both.