Seagate Expansion Desktop 16TB HDD (STEB16000402) $451.57 + Delivery (Free with Prime) @ Amazon UK via AU

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jace88 on 31/01/2022 - 10:48 amazon.com.au (288 clicks)

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Needed an extra drive for my NAS as my existing SHR array was nearly full, and given the STEB16000402 seems to have had good shucking experience with Exos X16 usually found inside, this seemed to be the best deal I could find in the 16TB/18TB range for this use case.

At $28.22/TB, it's not the cheapest it's ever been, but it's not so far off vs pricing over last six months that I would hold off longer given my NAS is already giving me a warning for low space!

Price History at CamelCamelCamel.

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  Neology on 31/01/2022 - 11:03

  How is the Seagate Warranty experience with UK stock?

  • 

    jace88 on 31/01/2022 - 11:11

    AFAIK you're dealing with Amazon rather than Seagate… but if you're shucking, the case is unlikely to survive the procedure fully intact so always make sure you do a full hard drive test beforehand (HDD Sentinel)

  • 

    jaymzrsa on 31/01/2022 - 11:12

    +4

    I just sent 2 back that failed. I had to pay the postage as the pre-paid labels they provided didn't work (Auspost could not get any to scan into the network. Appeared if you tracked them, but they couldn't get the network to accept it. Strange but probably was a temporary issue but I tried 3 separate returns and 3 separate labels and none worked). The receipt was sent to Amazon who refunded the postage immediately. It then took 5 weeks to arrive in UK and Amazon refunded 1 business day after I had received delivery confirmation.

    • 

      chuneeperformance on 31/01/2022 - 12:32

      Have been having this issue past 6 months with Amazon regarding Australia Post labels not being recognised. But they refund afterwards

    • 

      jace88 on 31/01/2022 - 13:11

      In case mine comes to this.. how much was your return shipping cost? And did Amazon already tell you in advance they'd cover the cost if AusPost didn't automatically recognise it?

      • 

        jaymzrsa on 31/01/2022 - 13:19

        +1

        Yup, shipping 2 drives was about 4kg, sent international express and cost $76. They refund a max of $50 to your payment method and then $26 in gift card. Well, that's what they are 'supposed to do'. I say this as they refunded $50 straight then refunded a random order in my history for $26 with the reason 'goodwill'. Got it all back straight away. Below Amazon regarding from the return I had.

        "Once we receive the receipt,we'll help you in processing the refund of the charges.

        If the return shipping charge is more than AU$ 50, we are authorized to refund the shipping of maximum AU$ 50 to the original payment method and the rest of the amount will be refunded to your Amazon Gift Card balance.

        Once the carrier has your return package, it can take up to four weeks for us to receive and process it. If you don't hear from our returns center within 4 WEEKS FROM RETURN DATE, please write back so we can find out what happened with your return."

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  regsofweb on 31/01/2022 - 11:13

  There are sub-models under Exos 16T. Does anyone know the difference?

• 

  settings on 31/01/2022 - 11:16

  I've seen people talk about CMR vs SMR here and from what I gather, CMR is better (I have limited knowledge on the difference).

  I'm looking to get an external HDD for document and media storage (backed up to Backblaze) and can't be fussed with getting a NAS at this stage. Connecting the ext. HDD to a computer running Plex server (not a heavy user). Should I still bother with getting a CMR drive? And/or will this drive serve my need?

  Any advice appreciated, thanks!

  • 

    jace88 on 31/01/2022 - 11:18

    +2

    For normal use cases (i.e. not in a RAID/NAS environment, not in an enterprise data centre, etc), shingled (SMR) is perfectly fine and you're unlikely to notice any difference in day to day use especially if it's just for document and media storage (i.e. you aren't writing and rewriting lots and lots of data regularly).

    On a drive this size though, (i.e. 16TB and larger) you're unlikely to find too many SMR drives. I'm aware that Seagate did just announce their new 22TB drives are SMR, but generally speaking, I think SMR is more prevalent in the smaller capacities particularly 8TB and less. Keep in mind though (for others reading this) you never know for sure what drive is inside these enclosures.

  • 

    Neology on 31/01/2022 - 11:31

    +1

    In a simply explanation, if you need to store data and perform read only tasks, such as media server, SMR is fine; if your task needs read and write frequently, SMR will be a nightmare.

    In general, most of people prefer to get a CMR, as SMR doesn't provide any benefit in terms of performance nor price.

• 

  garetz on 31/01/2022 - 12:27

  +2

  I got one of these for $387.77 on sept 2020. Considering the price hikes this seems like a good deal.

• 

  Skykiwi on 31/01/2022 - 16:59

  Anyone tried checking their shucked drive's serial for warranty on Seagate's website?

• 

  yacman on 31/01/2022 - 20:41

  OP I have been looking into building a SHR array and still am struggling to understand the drive sizes I should opt for.

  I thought your redundancy drive had to be the largest in your drive pool (which means long term expansion is limited if I started with say a 10TB drive).

  Or does it not matter and you could start with say, a 12TB and a 10TB and then once they are full add a 18TB if they are cheap at the time, or 14TB etc?

  • 

    jace88 on 03/02/2022 - 21:28

    Basically each subsequent drive needs to be bigger.

    • 

      yacman on 05/02/2022 - 21:12

      Lucky you sent me this, so starting with 18 would be a bad idea, but if a started with a 12 and a 10 I could add 12 or larger from that point onward?

      • 

        jace88 on 05/02/2022 - 21:14

        Based on my understanding, yes. Just remember if you started with a 12 and a 10, it would be as if both drives were a 10 since there's be unused capacity on the 12 due to SHR - i.e. total of 10TB available (less overheads). If you then added a 12 though, my understanding is you would then be at 10+12 = 22TB available (less overheads).

        Basically rule of thumb is largest drive is the protection/parity size. And you can't expand the array using drives smaller than the largest drive in the array.

• 

  Ragnarok1983 on 31/01/2022 - 20:51

  Decent to shuck?

  • 

    jace88 on 31/01/2022 - 21:25

    Should be an Exos X16 inside but you never know…

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  jace88 on 06/02/2022 - 21:11

  Looks like it's back up to $525.45 (6 Feb 2022). Unfortunately the 14TB also has gone back up too (was $369.68 and now up to $412).

  Next best option on Amazon for a shockable 16TB drive is the WD Elements for $477.35 from Amazon US… but this is quite a bit higher than Camel3's best price of $420 from March 2021.

• 

  jace88 on 07/02/2022 - 13:59

  Mine arrived today (7 Feb 2022) delivered by Australia Post. Came in a brown Amazon-branded paper envelope with zero padding but drive inside was in a shrink wrapped perfect condition box, with the drive itself in a plastic bag inside the cardboard holders. Also came with the full selection of power plugs (including AU). Running HDD Sentinel now but initial results with CDM look good (284.4MB/s read, 279.89MB/s write on sequential queue depth 8)… looks a little bit better than expected so maybe it's not an Exos X16 but rather an Ironwolf Pro? Will find out in a week's time!