28TB NAS hard drive buying authority

Seagate IronWolf Pro 28TB ST28000NT000

Verified spec guide ·

The Seagate IronWolf Pro 28TB, model ST28000NT000, is the smallest member of Seagate's 28TB-32TB IronWolf Pro HAMR generation. It is not a generic 28TB capacity page: the buying question is whether this specific NAS drive gives enough extra density over 24TB to justify waiting for stock or paying a launch-era premium.

For a multi-bay NAS, 28TB matters when bays are the bottleneck. Four drives create 112TB raw, six drives create 168TB raw and eight drives create 224TB raw before parity and filesystem overhead. If your chassis has open bays, a cheaper 24TB or 26TB drive can still be the better purchase.

Model
ST28000NT000
Capacity
28TB
Recording
CMR on Seagate's HAMR IronWolf Pro platform
Interface
SATA 6Gb/s
Quick answer

Buy the IronWolf Pro 28TB when you want current-generation Seagate NAS firmware, CMR recording, a 550TB/year workload rating and more density than 24TB without stepping all the way to the 30TB or 32TB price tier. Do not treat the model as automatically better value than 24TB; the live $/TB row has to prove it.

Best fit

IronWolf Pro 28TB specifications

Manufacturer-published values for the exact product family. Retail listings can collapse these details, so match the part number before ordering.

SpecModel number
ValueST28000NT000
SpecCapacity
Value28TB decimal marketed capacity
SpecRecording technology
ValueCMR on Seagate's HAMR IronWolf Pro platform
SpecPlatform
ValueHelium NAS drive with AgileArray, RV sensors, IronWolf Health Management and Rescue service
SpecInterface
ValueSATA 6Gb/s
SpecSector format
Value512e logical sectors on 4K physical media
SpecSpindle speed
Value7200 RPM
SpecCache / buffer
Value512MB
SpecMaximum sustained transfer rate
Value270MB/s maximum sustained transfer rate, outer diameter
SpecWorkload rating
Value550TB/year
SpecReliability rating
Value2.5M hours
SpecWarranty
Value5-year limited warranty; 3 years Rescue Data Recovery Services
SpecPower
Value6.8W idle average; 8.3W average operating; 2.0A typical 12V startup current
SpecAcoustics
Value28dBA idle typical; 32dBA seek typical
SpecOperating temperature
Value10C minimum ambient operating; 60C maximum drive-reported operating
SpecCompatibility note
ValueNAS-focused SATA drive; vendor compatibility still depends on the exact enclosure firmware list.
Current market status

No exact in-stock live row is currently matched for ST28000NT000. Relevant live alternatives are shown so the page does not collapse into an empty catalogue.

Relevant live alternatives ranked by current $/TB

Live prices · updated every 4-5 hours · last checked 3 hr ago · exact model not currently matched in live stock

Best $/TB in this tier
16TB ST16000NE000 CMR at $26.87/TB — $430 for 16TB
16TB ST16000NE000
CMR
16TB · · 300TB/yr · 5yr
$26.87/TB · $430Buy
10TB ST10000NE0008
CMR
10TB · · 300TB/yr · 5yr
$40.00/TB · $400Buy
10TB ST10000NEZ008
CMR
10TB · · 300TB/yr · 5yr
$40.00/TB · $400Buy
8TB ST8000NEZ01
CMR
8TB · 7200rpm · 300TB/yr · 5yr
$43.75/TB · $350Buy
10TB ST10000NE0004
CMR
10TB · 7200rpm · 300TB/yr · 5yr
$55.45/TB · $554Buy
10TB ST10000NT001
CMR
10TB · 7200rpm · 550TB/yr · 5yr
$59.45/TB · $594Buy
8TB ST8000NE001
CMR
8TB · · 300TB/yr · 5yr
$68.06/TB · $544Buy

Workload rating is recorded per part number from Seagate's datasheet for that exact model, not blanketed across the line — two drives of the same capacity can differ because they are different generations. A dash means the figure is not stated for that listing. Recording technology comes from the manufacturer's published CMR/SMR list; a model absent from that list is shown as UNVERIFIED rather than guessed. Rows priced above 3× this line's in-stock median are flagged and excluded from the winner callout and from every median we compute.

Live acquisition math for exact matches

This table is computed from live DatacenterDisk rows when an exact in-stock match exists. It is intentionally blank for unavailable models rather than filled with stale prices.

No exact in-stock row is available right now. Use the availability table for nearby live alternatives, then re-check the exact model before ordering.

28TB deployment math

Raw capacity is not usable capacity. This table shows the slot-level math before filesystem overhead, snapshots, reserved space and vendor-specific parity layouts.

Drive count4 bays
Raw capacity112TB
Single-parity usable84TB
Dual-parity usable56TB
Drive count6 bays
Raw capacity168TB
Single-parity usable140TB
Dual-parity usable112TB
Drive count8 bays
Raw capacity224TB
Single-parity usable196TB
Dual-parity usable168TB
Drive count12 bays
Raw capacity336TB
Single-parity usable308TB
Dual-parity usable280TB

Why 28TB exists in the IronWolf Pro line

The 28TB ST28000NT000 fills the practical gap between mature 24TB NAS pricing and the headline 30TB/32TB models. It uses the same current IronWolf Pro platform characteristics that matter for NAS buyers: CMR recording, SATA, RV sensors, IronWolf Health Management support, 550TB/year workload rating, five-year warranty and Rescue coverage.

The key difference is density. A four-bay single-parity layout gains 12TB usable versus four 24TB drives. An eight-bay dual-parity layout gains 32TB usable. Those are meaningful numbers if the enclosure is full, but they are not enough by themselves to ignore price per TB.

NAS and RAID considerations

A 28TB rebuild is still a long full-surface operation. The benefit of CMR is that the drive does not impose host-managed shingled-write rules, but the physics of reading and writing tens of terabytes remains. Use dual parity in larger arrays, keep a cold spare or fast replacement plan, and check that backups are current before replacing several drives at once.

The drive is a SATA NAS model, so it fits the electrical expectations of mainstream NAS bays. Compatibility is still exact-model work. Seagate support lists ST28000NT000 as the 28TB IronWolf Pro model, and the repository's compatibility data already includes the part in multiple vendor lists.

Price discipline

The correct way to price ST28000NT000 is by usable terabyte, not sticker price. In a six-bay RAIDZ2-style layout, the raw 168TB becomes roughly 112TB before filesystem overhead. If the 28TB listing carries a high launch premium, the same budget can sometimes buy a safer layout with more smaller drives.

Use the live table first. If the exact part is not currently in stock, compare adjacent IronWolf Pro listings and wait for the exact row unless you are willing to buy a different capacity.

Final verdict

The IronWolf Pro 28TB is the conservative entry into Seagate's newest high-capacity NAS tier. It is the right answer when you need more density than 24TB, want NAS-specific support positioning, and do not want the compatibility burden of host-managed SMR enterprise drives.

It is not the right answer when the array has unused bays or when 30TB/32TB models are priced close enough that the smaller capacity stops saving money. Let live price per usable TB make that call.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the model number for the Seagate IronWolf Pro 28TB?

The current 28TB IronWolf Pro model covered here is ST28000NT000.

Is the IronWolf Pro 28TB CMR or SMR?

Seagate's current IronWolf Pro data sheet lists the 28TB ST28000NT000 as CMR.

Is 28TB worth it over 24TB?

Only when bays are scarce or the live price premium is modest. In an eight-bay dual-parity layout, moving from 24TB to 28TB adds about 24TB usable before overhead.

Should I buy purely by the lowest price per TB?

No. Price per TB is the first screen, not the whole decision. Match recording method, interface, bay count, firmware support, warranty position and rebuild risk before accepting the cheapest row.

Sources

Specification claims on this page were checked against the pages below on 1 September 2026. Where a widely-repeated figure did not survive that check, we report what the source says now and say so in the text rather than repeating the familiar number.

  1. Seagate Technology - IronWolf Pro support and specification page (Seagate.com, 2026)
    Used for: current ST28000NT000, ST30000NT011 and ST32000NT000 model identities, SATA interface, 7200 RPM class and five-year warranty
  2. Seagate Technology - IronWolf Pro 32TB, 30TB and 28TB data sheet (Seagate.com, 2025)
    Used for: CMR recording, 512MB cache, 550TB/year workload rating, 2.5M-hour MTBF, 3-year Rescue, power, acoustics and sustained transfer rates by capacity
  3. DatacenterDisk Research - Live price and stock database (DatacenterDisk.com, Live)
    Used for: current product availability, live prices, stock state, condition labels and cost-per-terabyte calculations