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Western 12TB Digital Elements Desktop HDD, USB 3.0 $329.68 + Shipping (Free with Prime) @ Amazon US via AU

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Western 12TB Digital Elements Desktop HDD, USB 3.0 $329.68 + Shipping (Free with Prime) @ Amazon US via AUAffiliate
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LHotross on 03/02/2020 - 13:03 amazon.com.au (2056 clicks)
Last edited 03/03/2020 - 19:36 by 3 other users
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12TB Western Digital HDD
great for Shucking like a clam and putting inside a NAS
Remember if you do that you will need to do the tape mod on the 3.3V pin.
According to Camelx3 the second lowest price the unit has ever had.
From Amazon US VIA Amazon AU: if you want to use it as a standard portable HDD remember you can contact western digital for a US to AU power adaptor.

Update 3/3/2020 — price further reduced to $329.68.

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.
Computing 12TB Computer Peripheral External Hard Drive Western Digital

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closed Comments

  • cnut on 03/02/2020 - 13:04
    +4

    Price in title please.

    I wish I was a low level mod to do some of these things myself.

  • tgame on 03/02/2020 - 13:05

    cnut beat me by 13 sec.

    • Godric on 03/02/2020 - 17:27

      Got me

  • scatman00 on 03/02/2020 - 13:05

    8tb cheaper per tb?

    • Merlict on 03/02/2020 - 13:13
      +3

      A little. Bigger drives can be more convenient though.

      • nezumi on 03/02/2020 - 14:01
        +8

        Agreed, if the price per tb is comparable, then for a NAS/server with limited bays, the bigger drives are obviously more appealing.

      • Danthemanz on 03/02/2020 - 14:38

        Yep, CTO FTW!

      • AustriaBargain on 03/02/2020 - 17:55

        I can only got so many drives into my case.

    • ozbs25 on 03/02/2020 - 13:18

      10TB is a little cheaper still.

      • 4foxache on 03/02/2020 - 14:43
        +3

        Yeah 10TB on special seems to be sweet spot at the moment

  • BanannaMan on 03/02/2020 - 13:15

    Great deal!

  • Skramit on 03/02/2020 - 13:16

    Dont forget 3.5% cashback

    • flyingtrapeze on 03/02/2020 - 17:29
      +1

      with Suncorp selling Amazon giftcard for 3% off, it is worthwhile to open an account for this benefit.

      • Click_It on 03/02/2020 - 19:03

        Does this method effectively stack to 6.5%?

  • Hotross on 03/02/2020 - 13:19

    The drives in these are usually(According to some reddit posts not always though) WD red NAS drives that are labelled white so they are suited to being run all day in a server environment. Also this is personal choice but if you do run a home media server dont run ZFS. You dont need ZFS. look into the tools mergefs and snapraid for data management.

    • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 13:31

      recently been venturing into home servers and have setup unraid as I have a 10tb and 3x 8tb from previous deals.

      are mergefs and snapraid other NAS OSes?

      • Hotross on 03/02/2020 - 13:45
        +2

        I run all of my stuff just from Ubuntu server 18 because honestly it does everything unraid or OMV or FREENAS does but has better support. I cant say it will work on any other NAS oses sorry. A quick google tells me there are no precompiled packages but your milage may vary.

        • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 13:56
          +2

          unraid has been going well for me as it's very easy to use. I haven't had any prior experience with linux

          • mrderrickc on 03/02/2020 - 14:10
            +2

            @impoze: another vote for unraid, been using it for a couple of years now and it has been flawless.

          • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 03/02/2020 - 15:40

            @impoze: third vote for unraid. It rocks.

            Snapshots are coming to unraid soon as well. Under development.

            • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 16:11

              @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: cool, so this mean less parity checks when adding/removing drives etc?

              • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 04/02/2020 - 15:10

                @impoze: Not sure what you mean by checks when adding or removing…you should be disabling parity beforehand - unless you're replacing a faulty drive.

                Instead of constant/regular parity, snapshot will just update the parity once in a specified timeframe. Excellent for lots of cold storage, ie. 20tb of linux ISO movies.

        • bpop99 on 03/02/2020 - 15:39

          +1 for Unraid - been using it for the past year. Difinitely the only Linux-based OS that I've not accidentally broken

          • enricosanchez on 03/02/2020 - 20:57

            @bpop99: Another vote for unraid, I have about 150tb of shucked WD drives in unraid for 2.5 years, not one problem, docker is amazing

    • Zorlin on 03/02/2020 - 13:46
      +1

      Re: ZFS, I disagree…

      ZFS has fairly hefty hardware requirements, but it gives you some amazing protections against bit-rot and other fun stuff.

      • Hotross on 03/02/2020 - 13:47

        So does snapraid
        which has little to no overhead unlike ZFS which requires ungodly amounts of RAM and it lacks the ability to easily add disks to your pool. Mergefs and snapraid do not have this problem.
        https://www.snapraid.it/compare

        • Speedster on 03/02/2020 - 14:33
          +2

          ZFS does not require 1GB per TB of storage unless you are using reduplication.

          2GB minimum, 8GB+ recommended

          https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/FAQ#hardware-requirem…

        • CriticalImpact on 03/02/2020 - 15:04

          96TB here and I have 64GB ram and I only use 38GB of ram. That's including the OS, plex and various other services.
          That said, having ECC memory and a UPS for ZFS is probably good to have as well.
          I had my array crash a month ago and was able to pull the data off the array using a tool made to restore data from ZFS arrays but I didn't have ECC ram, a UPS and was running an array through USB.

          Basically, don't do what I did and ZFS is pretty damn good.

          • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 15:16

            @CriticalImpact: how did it crash?

            Looking to getting a UPS now, cyberpower ones look good but they have just released an updated version so not sure when that stock will arrive.

            • CriticalImpact on 03/02/2020 - 16:37

              @impoze: While the array reported that it all the disks were online and working the array metadata was lost. Can't remember the exact error but even forcing a import did not work. In the end I had to use a ZFS recovery tool to get the data back which take maybe a week or more.
              We had a power outage and the server shut off abruptly and when I switched it back on it came up with the error then. It was the array connected via USB.

        • schquid on 03/02/2020 - 15:16
          +1

          It's only de-duplication which utilises a large amount of RAM, and similar to cold pages if another application requires memory the ZFS allocation will be shrunk accordingly, under Linux at least. It follows the model of expand to fill the available space then shrink to accommodate demand. Unsure how the *BSDs handle it. It's also largely useless for most users.

          ZFS is a bad choice if you aren't planning ahead and/or want to buy disks sporadically. It's great when you just want to setup a pool and run with it. I've got 48TB in mine and by the time I fill that up with Linux ISOs it'll be time to replace the entire array anyway.

          • Hotross on 03/02/2020 - 15:40
            -1

            @schquid: Okay but why is it great?
            The tools I've suggested do the exact same thing but allow you to add disks, something a home user will most likely be doing and doesn't require server levels of ram. I have my 24tb in a merge pool with a bunch of docker containers running on it and my server is a older junker laptop with a USB hub and a broken screen with 8gb of ram. Basically it is a cool system but everything great about it can be achieved on other systems with far less knowledge and overhead.

            • Speedster on 03/02/2020 - 21:13
              +1

              @Hotross: Why do you keep saying ZFS requires "server levels of RAM" when the ZoL project state 2GB minimum, 8GB (or more) recommended?

  • Click_It on 03/02/2020 - 13:19

    Are these still using WD White drives inside?

    EDIT: Beaten by 17 seconds :)

  • Skramit on 03/02/2020 - 13:24
    +3

    Also worth noting the 10TB is at a "decent price" (but not all time low) of $280 if the 12TB is too rich for you at $366

    https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07G3QMPB5/

    • vrsac on 08/02/2020 - 19:39

      10TB has gone up to $308 and 12TB dropped to 364.35 making it a much better value.

  • 4foxache on 03/02/2020 - 14:44
    +3

    You don't need a tape mod if you're using these in a QNAP or Synology I believe

    • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 14:53
      -1

      or a molex to SATA adapter cable

      • ozbs25 on 03/02/2020 - 15:25
        +3

        Just gotta be careful with molded adapters. Can short and lead to a fire.

        • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 15:42
          +1

          thanks for the heads up, just did a bit of reading and this vid best demonstrates the issue with the molded adapters

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TataDaUNEFc&feature=youtu.be

        • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 16:02

          just opened up my case as it the pc part was bought 2nd hand and indeed had 2 of the bad adapter designs

          Going to replace them with the better-shielded ones

          thanks!

          • ozbs25 on 03/02/2020 - 16:18

            @impoze: I bought some new ones from Computer Alliance and they were the molded type too. I'm too scared to put them into the computer. I don't know the odds of one catching on fire, but probably better to be safe than sorry as it's not just the cost, but all the data as well. I ended up getting a whole heap of extra sata cables instead.

            • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 16:46

              @ozbs25: just ordered some new ones that are the crimp type.

              I would return the molded tye to CA if you can.

              • ozbs25 on 03/02/2020 - 17:04

                @impoze: Where from? I don't really need any at the moment but I'll keep them in mind.

                I'll have to see where I put them.

    • ThoseDeafMutes on 03/02/2020 - 15:12

      How could I know for sure? I'm tempted but don't want to do mods. I have a Synology NAS.

      • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 15:14
        +4

        should be fine with synology NAS

        the mod is literally a piece of electrical/kapton tape. Not difficult at all

      • ozbs25 on 03/02/2020 - 15:24

        I don't think you'll have problems in a Synology. Everything I have read says it works straight out of the box. I put mine into an older WDMycloud and it was fine too.

      • camshandez on 03/02/2020 - 15:34

        I put a pair of the 10TB whitelabels into a DS218j last month, no 3.3v pin mod needed, worked perfectly.
        Only thing to do with some NAS, is to plug drive into a PC directly over SATA, and clear any partitions first.
        As some NAS won't recognise the drive properly as they come with like 5 small partitions out of the box.

    • No Child Support on 03/02/2020 - 15:24

      I also didn't need a tape mod to put it into my HP Microserver Gen8

    • Whisper Quiet on 03/02/2020 - 15:54
      +1

      Depends on your power supply. Most don't need the mod. If you have 4 pins for the SATA connection on the PSU it's fine. 5 pins means you need the mod. Wish I could pin this for every external drive post.

  • seamonkey on 03/02/2020 - 14:50
    +1

    Gee. 12TB. Failure / warranty replacement would be heartbreaking. Backup gets interesting. Get 2? The failure rate of all HDD is 100%. Eventually. Bought 4.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 03/02/2020 - 15:42
      +5

      lol, the failure rate of literally everything ever invented is 100%. Odd argument there.

      • seamonkey on 04/02/2020 - 14:44

        I said it in jest.. Not an argument I'm making . I say that all the time to relatives that are shocked about the concept of backup. Family photos dear to them. One copy sitting on a 10 year old HDD. Shocked when the HDD files, so I want to reframe their thinking. If it's a critical photo then it's critical you back it up because it will fail.

        • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 04/02/2020 - 15:12

          No need to educate them. Just setup a free OneDrive or GoogleDrive. Install desktop app. Sync it. Tell them to save stuff to that folder.. Solved.

          • seamonkey on 05/02/2020 - 00:45

            @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Should have said. Several HDD.. Many HDD. Few family members that are data hoarders. Your idea is a great one, you haven't though met my impossible family. haha

    • et tu brute on 03/02/2020 - 16:10

      @seamonkey "Eventually bought 4" :)
      At last someone who understands that redundancy is not only a employment term when the boss wants to sack everybody and sends your job to China (pre-coronavirus, post SARS Virus/GFC)

      • seamonkey on 04/02/2020 - 14:45

        Didn't buy any. Was just messing with what I'd said the sentence before. This does look like a good deal though :)

  • tryingtohelp on 03/02/2020 - 15:06
    -3

    I have experienced so many Hard disk failures in last 3 months, I just can’t trust them (Seagate/WD) any more. Not to forget the reduced warranty periods on these drives. Better have cloud than spend hours in recovering important data.

    • [Deactivated] on 03/02/2020 - 15:09
      +2

      Not everyone can use cloud for movies and tv shows for certain reasons. So it leaves us no choice.

    • samfisher5986 on 03/02/2020 - 15:12
      +3

      Cloud only works if you have very little data, or you want to gamble it all on an "unlimited" plan.

      Its always better to have both a local and cloud copy.

      • et tu brute on 03/02/2020 - 16:19
        +1

        @samfisher5986

        "Cloud" backup should only be used as complementary to hard physical off-site backups.

        One thing that gets lost in the discussion about the "superiority' of cloud services is that these Cloud hosting companies are proprietorial and if that company fails, then your data disappears too. Best practice is not to reply upon one host only, but using two hosters and unfortunately, that becomes expensive.

        For me Grandfather/Father/Son principle of physical backup + one cloud service (Amazon S3) works until I can come up with a better system.

        • samfisher5986 on 03/02/2020 - 16:36

          Yup, but places like Amazon S3 are insanely expensive for a lot of data.

          • petry on 03/02/2020 - 19:35

            @samfisher5986: well those american defence contracts don't come cheap you know - and its good to share - unless you're American.

    • theg00s3 on 03/02/2020 - 15:23
      +5

      I don't think your problem is Seagate/WD but not keeping backups. If the data is important, there should be at least 3 copies, two local copies and one offsite copy.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 03/02/2020 - 15:44
      +3

      Hard drives aren't safe or reliable" - Ancient proverb from Anonymous person without a proper backup regime.

      • aussieaubs on 03/02/2020 - 20:13

        Lol - that saying was written on parchment paper only :) and only written once

    • et tu brute on 03/02/2020 - 16:04

      @tryingtohelp… you haven't distinguished what type of wd/seagate drives that have failed so a general statement like this may become false & misleading.

      Generally speaking, standard everyday consumer drives placed into a server environment running 24x7 is almost a guarantee for failure, for a simple reason, they were never built for that purpose or environment. For standard consumer level HDDS, 1 to 3 year warranty is all you will ever receive.

      On the other hand Western Digital (WD) Reds and Seagate Ironwolf series HDDS are designed for server environments and ARE expected to run 24x7, hence the higher selling price, and longer 5 year warranties.

      I have been using WD Reds in a couple of servers for 4 years now with spare replacement drives (still sealed) sitting on the shelf for redundancy purposes (quick swap out). No failures to date hence no swap out so far. They run 24x7.

      The 'White' label HDDs fitted to these WD Element drives (I have 3 of these too), are essentially identical to the 'WD Red' HDDs. Different model numbers, same specs, shorter warranty. They are easily shuck-able and there are plenty of YouTube videos that can show you how if you don't know how.

    • Click_It on 03/02/2020 - 18:59
      +2

      HGST (Hitachi) or even the new Toshiba's are both a step up. But don't expect to get 12TB anywhere near $366 from either company.

      I own 7 HGST drives and they have been amazing on 24/7 since 06/2014. I made the mistake of cheaping out and getting a Seagate for the 8th drive. I now have 7 drives again…

      That all said, these (likely) WD-White drives should be pretty good.

      • sonify on 03/02/2020 - 22:49

        Yep 100% vouch for HGST, had 3 of mine for 4 years as backup drives extremely fast and reliable.

  • wholistic on 03/02/2020 - 15:35
    +1

    Anyone know a good deal on NAS controller unit to go with it?

    Like a QNAP or Synology

    Something easy, not a linux project.

    • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 16:04

      wait for the Synology 918+ deals or QNap 453BE
      these are 4-bay units

      around $600

      • Click_It on 03/02/2020 - 19:02

        I've always had good experiences with Synology, can't speak for Qnap but it's at worse on par with Synology. Qnap always had better CPU's from memory.

        Anyway I'm looking out for a DS1816+ next (6 bay)

  • congo on 03/02/2020 - 15:35

    Was this on sale during the Shopback $50 cashback?

  • kirynflare on 03/02/2020 - 17:58
    +1

    Will a HP N40L be enough to run a NAS with this much storage? I have one stashed aside as a raining day project but not sure if its too outdated now..

    Also lost the key, so not sure if someone knows where to get spares..

    • impoze on 03/02/2020 - 19:55

      why wouldn't it?

    • Hybroid on 04/02/2020 - 00:07

      Yes, if you want it for media playback, you'll need a low profile graphics card (HD5450 will do) and some upgraded RAM with suitable OS. I still use Windows Media Centre on mine. Not sure if the 12TB drive is supported though, should be.

  • timtam-slam on 03/02/2020 - 18:24
    +1

    Cheapest WD-Red 12tb on StaticIce is $658.

  • techhead on 03/02/2020 - 19:34

    Got 2, I just inched into the last 90GB of my 8TB. Photos* and such actually take a lot of space now! Thanks OP..
    *The 3rd party media lives on the server

    • Skramit on 03/02/2020 - 19:37
      +4

      That’s a lot of Linux isos

  • Butt Scratcher on 03/02/2020 - 23:33

    I shucked my first 10tb yesterday. These are surprisingly easy to shuck without damaging the tabs. I will definitely be buying the WD ones instead of the Seagate ones in the future

  • [Deactivated] on 04/02/2020 - 05:57
    +1

    An additional platter making for eight in this drive.
    Reviews of the WD 10TB external models, on a great website -
    https://goughlui.com/2019/12/19/quick-review-western-digital…
    https://goughlui.com/2019/06/02/quick-review-western-digital…

  • Tregetour on 06/02/2020 - 17:12

    this may be a stupid question - but can you schuck these sort of things & install them in a normal computer? trying to work out the best way to turn my PC into a better media centre as i don't really have the expertise to set up a dedicated NAS at this point.

    • [Deactivated] on 06/02/2020 - 22:50

      You can but you need to use or do one of the following:
      - Use a backplane.
      - Cover / remove the third pin on the power input for the drive.
      - Use a molex > sata power cable (crimped recommended for fire safety, some of the cheap moulded ones short)
      - Or you get really lucky and have a PSU that doesn't send the 3.3v signal to the SATA ports.

    • impoze on 07/02/2020 - 00:36

      not that difficult to set up a dedicated NAS.

      Either buy a QNAP/Synology. Affordable 2-bay models which can run plex.

      Or set up Unraid or openmediavault as I've recently done and is very simple to do. Boots off a USB.

  • twang on 07/02/2020 - 16:38

    Has anyone shucked one of these into N54L proliant microserver before?
    does it need power mod?

  • vrsac on 08/02/2020 - 19:36

    I've just noticed that the price has dropped to 364.35. Great price!

  • z0ki on 20/02/2020 - 10:15

    Is this in AUD?

    • impoze on 20/02/2020 - 12:56

      Yes, $366 atm

      • z0ki on 20/02/2020 - 17:12

        Cheers :)

      • SteveBuscemi on 03/03/2020 - 19:14

        Down to $329.68 right now.

  • Skramit on 04/03/2020 - 08:05

    Great price at $329

  • Naed on 04/03/2020 - 09:45
    +1

    Cheaper again to order directly through US Amazon. Even just using the Amazon Currency Converter the price comes to AUD $317.41 delivered. If you order 3 to save on shipping a little you get just under $26/TB, or $311.81 each.

    • elcheapodeniro on 04/03/2020 - 12:42

      Yup got 3 thanks.
      Had to cancel 2x 14b just in time. Cheers

      • AdrianW on 04/03/2020 - 15:17

        I tried to cancel my 14TB, and it was too late. Ordered a 12TB to go with it (won't be using them in my NAS).

  • AdrianW on 17/03/2020 - 17:13

    My 12TB drive just shipped!

    (14TB drive arrived last week).

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