The Seagate Exos X16 and X18 typically offer the lowest $/TB for new 16TB drives, often around $10-12/TB. WD Ultrastar DC HC550 is similarly priced. Refurbished enterprise drives can drop below $10/TB. External drives like WD Elements 16TB sometimes beat internal drive pricing and can be shucked. Check our table above for current best prices—they fluctuate frequently.

16TB is often the sweet spot for best $/TB, along with 14TB and 18TB. These capacities hit the optimal point where manufacturing efficiency maximizes value. Smaller drives (8TB and below) have higher $/TB, while larger drives (20TB+) carry a premium for newest technology. The exact best value shifts with pricing—currently 14TB-18TB typically offer the best ratios.

Both are excellent enterprise drives with similar reliability and performance. Seagate Exos often has slight price advantages and good availability. WD Ultrastar (formerly HGST) has a legendary reputation for lowest failure rates. Both offer 5-year warranties and 550TB/year workload ratings. Choose whichever is cheaper at purchase time—you can't go wrong with either for NAS or server use.

Absolutely! Enterprise drives like Exos and Ultrastar are perfect for home NAS. They're actually overbuilt for home use — designed for 24/7 data center operation with 550TB/year workloads (home use is typically under 50TB/year). Main considerations: they may be slightly louder than consumer NAS drives, but offer superior reliability and often better $/TB. Many enthusiasts prefer enterprise drives for serious home servers.

A 16TB drive can hold approximately: 3,200+ DVD quality movies (5GB each), 320+ Blu-ray quality movies (50GB each), or 200-260 4K UHD movies (60-80GB each). For TV shows, you could store 1,000+ seasons in good quality. For a Plex server, 16TB provides years of content for most users. Multiple 16TB drives in RAID significantly expands this capacity.

Yes, 16TB drives from major manufacturers are very reliable. This capacity has been available for several years, so the technology is mature. Backblaze's annual reports show 16TB enterprise drives (Exos, Ultrastar) with annualized failure rates often below 1%. These drives are designed for demanding 24/7 data center use—home and small business use is well within their capabilities. Always maintain backups regardless.

For pure storage, one 16TB drive is usually better value with lower $/TB and using only one drive bay. For RAID 1 (mirroring), two 8TB drives give you 8TB usable with redundancy. For RAID 0 or JBOD, two 8TB drives equal 16TB but risk losing all data if one fails. Best practice: use a single 16TB for capacity and maintain separate backups rather than relying on RAID alone for data protection.

Warranty varies by type: Enterprise (Exos, Ultrastar): 5 years. NAS Pro (IronWolf Pro, Red Pro): 5 years. Standard NAS (IronWolf, Red Plus): 3 years. External drives: 2-3 years. Enterprise and Pro drives justify their slight price premium with longer warranties and higher reliability. When comparing prices, factor in the warranty value—a 5-year warranty provides significant peace of mind for valuable data.