Top 12TB NAS drives include the WD Red Plus, Seagate IronWolf, and Toshiba N300. All offer CMR technology, 24/7 ratings, and vibration sensors. For best value, consider enterprise drives like Seagate Exos or WD Ultrastar — they're built for data centers but work excellently in home NAS at often lower $/TB than consumer NAS drives.

For 12TB drives, a good price is $10-15 per TB ($120-180 total). Enterprise drives (Exos, Ultrastar) often hit $10-12/TB. NAS drives (IronWolf, Red Plus) typically run $12-16/TB. Refurbished enterprise drives can drop below $10/TB. At 12TB, you're entering the "sweet spot" where $/TB gets very competitive. Check our table above for current best prices.

12TB is excellent for a Plex server. It can hold approximately 200+ Blu-ray quality movies, 600+ DVD quality movies, or thousands of TV episodes. For 4K content (which averages 50-80GB per movie), you'd fit 150-240 4K movies. Many Plex users start with 12TB and expand later. Consider using enterprise drives (Exos/Ultrastar) for best reliability and $/TB in a media server.

Enterprise drives (Exos, Ultrastar) often cost less per TB and have higher reliability ratings. NAS drives (IronWolf, Red Plus) include features like NAS-optimized firmware and may be quieter. For home NAS, both work great—enterprise drives are actually overbuilt for home use. Choose enterprise for best value and NAS drives if you want specific features like Seagate's IronWolf Health Management.

Consumer 12TB SSDs are extremely rare and very expensive. Most consumer SSDs max out at 4TB-8TB. For 12TB+ solid state storage, you'd need enterprise SSDs which cost $1000+, or combine multiple smaller SSDs. At 12TB capacity, HDDs are far more practical — you'd pay 10-20x more for equivalent SSD storage. Use SSDs for speed-critical storage and HDDs for bulk capacity.

Yes! Shucking 12TB external drives (WD Elements, WD My Book, Seagate Expansion) is popular for getting cheap internal drives. These often contain WD Red or enterprise-equivalent drives at 20-40% lower cost. Note: may void warranty, and some drives have the 3.3V pin issue requiring a simple fix (tape over pin 3). Popular among r/DataHoarder for budget bulk storage.

Both 12TB and 16TB typically offer excellent $/TB ratios. 16TB often edges out 12TB on pure $/TB value, but the upfront cost is higher. Compare current prices in our table — the "best value" capacity shifts based on sales and availability. If you have limited drive bays, 16TB maximizes capacity per slot. If budget is tight, 12TB gets you into the value sweet spot at lower total cost.

Quality 12TB drives from major manufacturers typically last 3-5+ years under normal use. Enterprise drives (Exos, Ultrastar) are rated for higher workloads and often last longer. NAS drives are built for 24/7 operation. Backblaze data shows modern high-capacity drives have annualized failure rates of 1-2%. Always maintain backups regardless of drive reliability—all drives eventually fail.