Updated 27 Oct 2026 · method 2.0
Four jobs that cover most home builds, and the drive we'd buy for each on spec and Backblaze's numbers. Once shop prices land, each pick becomes the cheapest per TB of the drives that suit the job.
For a Plex library
Backblaze has 26,208 of these running at 0.54% a year, the best record of the big CMR drives we list.
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Amazon for WD Ultrastar DC HC550 16TB (affiliate link, opens in new tab)Affiliate linkQuiet enough for the lounge
If the box sits where you can hear it, this is the biggest of the quieter 5,400 rpm-class NAS drives we list.
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Amazon for WD Red Plus 8TB (affiliate link, opens in new tab)Affiliate linkFilling a 4-bay NAS
Five years' warranty and a 550 TB a year workload rating, which is the strongest paper spec of the NAS lines we list.
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Amazon for Seagate IronWolf Pro 24TB (affiliate link, opens in new tab)Affiliate linkMost space per bay
Of the 24 TB drives it has the best Backblaze record, at 0.50% a year across 9,597 drives.
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Amazon for Toshiba MG11 24TB (affiliate link, opens in new tab)Affiliate linkA drive that Backblaze has failing above the median never wins a pick, and nor does anything the maker has stopped making. You'll find the rest of the rules on the method page.