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WD 12TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive $429 Delivered @ Amazon AU (Price Beat $407.55 @ Officeworks)

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Currently the 12TB Western Digital Elements drive is cheaper than the 10TB version.

I managed to get Officeworks to price beat Amazon's $429 price - getting the drive down to $407.55
(Officeworks currently has the price at $529).

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/wd-12tb-el…

This deal is not for everyone… I know there will be some that will throw in comments why Cloud storage or SSDs are better… If you need a ton of storage at your fingertips, this is the best deal currently in the market.

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

Related Stores

Amazon AU
Amazon AU
Marketplace
Officeworks
Officeworks

closed Comments

  • +1

    Considering how poorly Amazon seem to ship bare hard drives, these are a good option to shuck for internal use too.

    Last time I ordered a bare drive, it was in an envelope and the delivery driver dropped it in front of me. Needless to say I sent it back, didn’t even bother opening it.

  • +8
    • -4

      Seagate? Wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

      • +4

        I wouldn't touch WD personally with all of their SMR drives, but you do you. Lots of WD Red for example is SMR, but the Red Pro is CMR. Learnt that the hard way.

        • -3

          I don't do SMR drives either. only CMR. But how is your mistake of buying the wrong item - instead of doing the product research before buying, WD's cause?

          • +1

            @gizmomelb: Because I shouldn't have to look very closely at the model number while cross referencing it against WD's own spec sheets to know it I'm buying CMR or not. They mix in CMR and SMR drives into the same product lines with no clear difference between them, same capacity, RPM, cache, etc. Let's use the WD Blue 3.5" HDD as an example. The WD60EZAX is CMR, the WD60EZAZ is SMR. One letter of difference. Different product line I know, but still confusing to the customer regardless.

            • -1

              @ldd-mn: extremely common to have SKUs with 1 letter different across many products (not just PC components) when they are in the same product line. I find it amusing when people try to handball their mistakes on to others. My avoidance of Seagate is based on 30+ years dealing with replacing them/trying to recover data from them, not because I didn't double check the part number I was buying.

              • -1

                @gizmomelb: And I've had more WD drives fail on me than I've had Seagate. It's just luck.

    • +8

      Yup. I'd go with East Digital's FR drives though for even better bang for the buck - I'm running RAID6 + backups anyway.

      The gold standard of drives on OzB used to be $25/TB. Spend $400 on a 12TB is not a deal, even if we're talking about local stock.

      • Yes indeed… I ordered the new ones last night but saw they had the FR ones, trying to cancel order and rebuy

    • Be honest with yourself. East Digital aren't selling brand new 0 hour drives. I love a bargain, and it's tempting… but far from the same thing.

  • +10

    Man what the hell happened to HDD prices.

    We had an old golden era where prices were going down and capacity was going up.

    Now prices are so damn high, I don't get it.

    • +7

      JB had these for $300 less than 2 years ago, got it with a 'spend $300 get $30 off' voucher. What the hell happened to prices?

      • +1

        Right?

        Amazon had them for $299 as well over a year ago.

        But since then it's been always over $400, sometimes even $480.

        Outrageous.

    • something to do with crypto mining?

      • nah that's only really GPUs, and that gold rush is over for the moment

        • No, you can do Chia mining/farming using HDDs

          • +2

            @ldd-mn: Yeah but does anyone care?

            Surely that's not big enough to boost HDD prices so high

            • @Odin: Nah probably not

            • +1

              @Odin:

              Yeah but does anyone care?

              Yes us. Its still use heavily, google it. Prices are based on supply and demand.

              Plus when internet gets faster, everyone want to backup the internet.

              • +1

                @boomramada: Second part, I find personally-true.

                I'm on a self-imposed HDD ban. Lasted around 5-7 years. Cheap streaming & drawers full of drives helped. But all that spinning rust is dying, and Netflix/others tying-up VPN deals… massive cheap drives are VERY attractive to use my 100-250Mbit (superloop speed boosts) on.

    • +3

      End of last year there was a WD 20TB of same series for not a lot more than this.

      That aside, I think I'd buy and pick up from Officeworks rather than have an Amazon driver cartwheel it across my patio.

    • +2

      AI stands for 'all increased'.

    • +1

      Technology hit a wall, capacities haven't really increased for years.

      Manufacturers saw the future of SSD storage and stopped spending r&d money to squeeze tiny improvements. Filling drives with helium, 5 platters in a disk, it was getting ridiculous. These are very expensive manufacturing processes, this kind of complexity is inherently unreliable.

      The latest technology is 'SMR', a downgrade in every respect, to squeeze more capacity from a cheaper product.

      Several years ago major manufacturers closed up shop and merged, HGST bought by western digital, Maxtor bought by Seagate. The HGST factory is still running, their product was better than Western Digital, it wasn't enough to survive in the long term.

      I wrote a comment here a couple of years ago that SSDs would soon be $25/tb and got ridiculed. It should be pretty obvious by now.

      SSDs are inherently cheaper to make than HDDs, they are more expensive today because the factories required to build chips are expensive ($billions) and hence few in number - more competition will inevitably lower prices.

      In short, these companies aren't competing with each other anymore. HDDs will never be cheaper than they are now. The manufacturers are taking everything they can get from the market before going bankrupt. They are in the same position as the legacy ICE vehicle manufacturers.

  • 2x 8tb wd blue would be around $400 tho no?

    16tb across two drives.

  • +5

    I remember picking this exact same model at officeworks for $299 brand new a few years ago. Now somehow $429 is considered a bargain :(

    • +1

      Now somehow $429 is considered a bargain

      *The OP considers it a bargain.

      Amazon says that I bought this exact listed item for $299 on 11 July 2023. The Ozbargain post.

    • I bought one of those $299 ones in store and when I got it home and opened it, the HDD shell had been opened and there was a 1TB drive inside.

  • i got a 16TB recently on amazon for $210, no enclosure though, its been good so far - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GT8RK6K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_…

    • Its aud 492 for two now

  • +1

    Not the best I have seen. Paid $299 about 1.5 years ago through jbfihi after they priced matched.
    Been solid for the time I have had it. I shucked mine and is in my current rig as extra back up drive.

  • Slightly better price of $387.33 but comes from Germany
    https://www.amazon.com.au/Elements-Desktop-External-Hard-Dri…

    • Have you seen how Amazon treats parcels? 📦
      You’d be lucky if this was working once it gets to you. I also understand that you don’t get an AU power plug with this.

  • -3

    Was about 269 on Amazon a couple of years ago. Even if prices have gone up there's no way this should be considered a bargain.

    • +1

      Unless you have a time machine this neg is pointless

    • I did bought it for $269 but if i want it now, this still be the cheapest.

  • What determines the price of external hard drives? Seems like they go up and down rather than steadily decrease over time.

  • I bought the same one from amazon in 2022 and the price was $300.

    • So that deal is pointless now?

      • +2

        only for those without time machines

  • It's a shame HDD prices have increased so much over the last couple of years.
    Some of this is attributed to the AUD being devalued.

    These were some of the prices I snagged WD Elements HDDs in recent years:

    WD 20TB Elements External HDD

    11/22: $475.42 - WD 20TB Elements External HDD (Amazon)
    12/22: $485.71 - WD 20TB Elements External HDD (Amazon)
    03/23: $486.56 - WD 20TB Elements External HDD (Amazon)
    03/23: $480.19 - WD 20TB Elements External HDD (Amazon)

    Other capacities

    07/22: $384.43 - WD 18TB Elements External HDD (Amazon)
    01/23: $299.00 - WD 12TB Elements External HDD (Officeworks)
    03/23: $397.91 - WD 16TB Elements External HDD (Amazon)

  • Seagate 6TB is currently $203.31, so you could buy 2 and you're still beating the Officeworks price for this 12TB drive.

    https://www.amazon.com.au/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External…

    Obviously different product and 2 drives instead of 1 but if we're talking price per TB this is an option.

  • -1

    WD 12TB My Book currently $229 here - https://circonomy.com.au/products/wd-12tb-my-book-desktop-ha…. I just bought some other stuff from them and they offered free shipping on first order over $99 (they said to use code FREE99, didn't work so I emailed them and they sorted it out for me), otherwise you can try code SAVE10.

    ..ooh just checked and looks like they fixed the free shipping so it's automatic now. That said SAVE10 gets you 10% off, which is even better! :-)

    • Good price but might not be new though.

      "We sell a range of products that can be new or professionally renewed, repaired and repurposed; including refurbishing & remanufacturing items that may otherwise be sent to landfill."

      https://circonomy.com.au/policies/refund-policy

      Any idea what grade the one you bought is?

      It's also now out of stock.

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