WD Easystore 8TB HDD, $169.99

[Docjon]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easystore-8tb-external-usb-3-0-hard-drive-black/5792401.p?skuId=5792401


An external drive that sells cheaper than the internal drives. You can leave it in the USB enclosure or "shuck" it to put it in your machine. The drives are WD Red drives, which, when purchased as an internal drive, carries a 5-year warranty. The folks over at Reddit's r/DataHoarders have a big hard-on for these drives. Not the fastest, but really reliable drives, great for multimedia use.

Follow the Reddit link for info on the drives you'll likely find in the shell, how to remove the shell, and in the case you get one of the white-labeled Reds, you'll need to do a small hack to get it to work inside the computer. Nothing difficult, just involves taping over a pin on the SATA connector.

EasyStore data compendium - everything you might want or need to know:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/co ... m/?depth=4

If you go into Best Buy and pick one up yourself, you can check out the serial numbers and increase your odds/assure that you will get the more desirable drives, ones that don't need the hack and have teh Red label. All the drives are solid, long-lasting drives, but some are a little more desired than others.

I wouldn't mind buying another myself, but perhaps getting one is a greater act of faith that I should act on. Dunno if I should be worrying about data needs a year or two out, I have other things I should concentrate on.

I don't think there's a drive out there I'd rather have than the WD Reds, except maybe the WD Blacks, and they're pricey as hell and I'm not sure how high their storage capacity is.

Reddit Sale notification thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ ... 0/?depth=4

[Paladin]

Gold label are Enterprise class and even better than reds. Well.. a bit I suppose. That is what I use for my main gaming PC.

I also prefer black label for storing things like my video work, they have better performance in writing.

I would buy a black over all of them for overall quality. I just had the Gold from work so used it.

The reds are probably better for reading applications like streaming movies from etc.. They are nice drives, just not as nice for writing files. very solid and reliable though, you won't go wrong.
The reds really are optimized for NAS use rather than day to day use.

Remember all of these things are minimal differences really. ANY WD drive is going to be good and reliable to be honest. They don't make a shit drive.
That is why they have been my brand of choice for many many years.

[Docjon]

Gold label are Enterprise class and even better than reds. Well.. a bit I suppose. That is what I use for my main gaming PC.

I also prefer black label for storing things like my video work, they have better performance in writing.

I would buy a black over all of them for overall quality. I just had the Gold from work so used it.

The reds are probably better for reading applications like streaming movies from etc.. They are nice drives, just not as nice for writing files. very solid and reliable though, you won't go wrong.
The reds really are optimized for NAS use rather than day to day use.

Remember all of these things are minimal differences really. ANY WD drive is going to be good and reliable to be honest. They don't make a shit drive.
That is why they have been my brand of choice for many many years.

Thanks for verifying much of what I said above. Good heads-up on teh Gold drives. Damn, I'm not sure I even heard of those- exactly how expensive ARE THEY?

Still love teh Blacks. Have a 7-year-old Black in my system now, and there's a 9-year-old one I pulled just because it's 9-years-old. Still worked fine AFAIK.