1TB NAS Hard Drives - Live Prices

2 NAS drives tracked from $93.00/TB. Prices updated every 4 hours.

Best $/TB
$93.00
Average $/TB
$137.50
From
$93.00
$/TB โ–ฒBrand / ModelCapInterfaceTechCacheSectorWtyPriceCond.90DBuy
๐Ÿ‘‘$93.00
โ†“ vs 30d avg
WD
WD Red Legacy 1TB WD10EFRX
WD10EFRX
Refurb ยท CMR ยท
1TB
SATA-6G
CMRโ€”โ€”โ€”$93.00REFURBBuy โ†’Detailsโ–ผ
$181.99
โ†‘ vs 30d avg
WD
WD Red Legacy 1TB WD10EFRX
WD10EFRX
CMR ยท
1TB
SATA-6G
CMRโ€”โ€”โ€”$181.99newBuy โ†’Detailsโ–ผ

What 1TB costs in a NAS today

We can currently price 2 in-stock 1TB NAS drives from WD. The best rate is $93.00 per terabyte, against a $181.99 median across the same capacity - a spread worth noticing, because at this size the gap between the cheapest listing and the middle of the market is real money rather than rounding. The lowest ticket price on a single drive is $93.

The listings split 1 new and 1 recertified, and for a NAS that distinction carries more weight than it does in a desktop. An array runs its drives continuously, so the warranty behind each one is a live concern rather than a formality - new carries the manufacturer's, recertified carries a reseller's, and the discount is the compensation for that difference. Our recertified guidance covers what to check before a drive goes into a pool.

What 1TB drives actually build

A NAS buyer is choosing a configuration rather than a drive, and the number that decides it is usable capacity after parity. At 1TB per drive that works out as follows, before filesystem overhead and before you leave the headroom a pool needs to stay healthy:

4-bay
RAID 5 ย 3TB
RAID 6 ย 2TB
RAID 10 2TB
$372 for the drives
6-bay
RAID 5 ย 5TB
RAID 6 ย 4TB
RAID 10 3TB
$558 for the drives
8-bay
RAID 5 ย 7TB
RAID 6 ย 6TB
RAID 10 4TB
$744 for the drives

Those totals are drives only. The enclosure, the memory and the drive bays you leave empty for a future expansion are separate costs, and the last of those is the one people forget: filling every bay on day one means the next upgrade is a full replacement rather than an addition. Our RAID planner works through the configurations properly, and replacing drives with larger ones covers the upgrade path when you get there.

Recording technology at this capacity

All 2 in-stock 1TB drives we can verify use conventional recording, which is what an array needs. Shingled drives overlap their tracks to gain density, and the cost of that is rewrite behaviour that can turn a RAID rebuild into a multi-day event or make it fail outright. At this capacity the stock we track is clean.

Is 1TB the right rung?

At 1TB rebuild windows are short enough that single parity remains defensible in a small array, which is the main practical advantage this rung has over the larger ones. The trade is the opposite one: more drives for the same total capacity means more bays consumed, more power drawn, and more units that can fail.

The general rule is that cost per terabyte improves as you go up the ladder until it does not, and where it stops improving moves with the market rather than sitting at a fixed capacity. Comparing the live rate on this page against the neighbouring rungs is the only reliable way to find that point on the day you are buying.

Frequently Asked Questions

The cheapest in-stock 1TB NAS drive we track works out at $93.00 per terabyte. Prices refresh every few hours, so the table above is the current answer rather than this sentence.

3TB in RAID 5, 2TB in RAID 6, and 2TB in RAID 10, before filesystem overhead. RAID 6 costs you one more drive of capacity and buys the ability to survive a second failure during a rebuild.

Every in-stock 1TB listing we can verify is conventional recording, which is what an array needs. Any shingled drive that appears is badged SMR in the table.

They are widely used for exactly this, but the warranty comes from a reseller rather than the manufacturer, and drives bought together from one batch can age together. Verify on arrival rather than on the listing, and consider mixing sources across the array.

Going up a rung usually improves cost per terabyte, but only up to a point that moves with the market. Compare the live rate here against the neighbouring capacities before deciding โ€” at 1TB the advantage you have is shorter rebuilds.