This 24TB Seagate NAS drive costs the most but offers the best value

High-capacity NAS drives are far from cheap, so it’s often easy to focus on the sticker price rather than the long-term value. I was looking through a selection of NAS drives on sale at Best Buy and Newegg when something occurred to me.

Although the 24TB Seagate IronWolf Pro costs the most upfront at $859.99 down from $911.99, it actually works out at just $35.83 per terabyte, the lowest price in this selection and a terrific option if you’re trying to maximize storage without filling every drive bay.

If 24TB is more than you need, Seagate’s 12TB IronWolf Pro offers a more affordable alternative at $459.99, equating to $38.33 per terabyte. It delivers the same Pro-grade platform while keeping the overall cost much lower for smaller home or business NAS systems.

Western Digital’s WD Red Pro range is always worth considering, and we get a lot of interest whenever the price drops. The 18TB model has been reduced to $784.99 at Newegg, or $43.61 per terabyte.

The slightly smaller 16TB version costs $739.99, which includes a $74.75 (9%) reduction off the usual $814.74, and works out at $46.25 per terabyte.

Both WD drives are great choices for demanding multi-bay storage systems, but neither comes close to Seagate‘s value on a cost-per-terabyte basis.

Looking purely at capacity, performance, and value, the 24TB IronWolf Pro is easily the drive I’d choose.

You get the largest capacity available here, the lowest storage cost per terabyte, and enough space to postpone future upgrades for much longer than smaller drives.

If your budget can stretch to $859.99 for a single NAS drive, then this is the one that makes the strongest long-term case, and I have no hesitation at all in recommending it.

For more picks, take a look at guides to the best NAS devices, best NAS hard drives (including the WD Red Pro) and best NAS and media server distros.