Seagate IronWolf Pro: NT or NE, Air or Helium, Against Enterprise Drives

Seagate IronWolf Pro prices on Amazon.co.uk

IronWolf Pro listings on Amazon.co.uk at every size we match, ranked by what a terabyte costs in pounds inc VAT. The table shows 33 listings right now. Best price per TB: £31.50/TB. Cheapest single drive: £145.00. The two rarely belong to the same row.

Three kinds of row need a second look. This page's figures come from Seagate's 2311 and 2206 sheets, which stop at 24 TB, so a 28, 30 or 32 TB listing needs its own data sheet. We have not found a Seagate document for numbers with NTZ or NEZ in them, so we print no figures for those either. And a number with VN in it is not an IronWolf Pro number on either sheet, where every model carries NT or NE.

On recording, Seagate's 2311 sheet is explicit: all IronWolf Pro drives use conventional magnetic recording (CMR). A Recording cell in the table shows CMR only when a document names that row's part number. The same three letters in an Amazon title are the seller's wording.

Seagate IronWolf Pro part numbers, 2TB to 24TB

Seagate's IronWolf Pro sheet DS2129.4-2311US lists twelve standard models, one per capacity, every one ending NT001 apart from the 24 TB:

• 24 TB: ST24000NT002
• 22 TB: ST22000NT001
• 20 TB: ST20000NT001
• 18 TB: ST18000NT001
• 16 TB: ST16000NT001
• 14 TB: ST14000NT001
• 12 TB: ST12000NT001
• 10 TB: ST10000NT001
• 8 TB: ST8000NT001
• 6 TB: ST6000NT001
• 4 TB: ST4000NT001
• 2 TB: ST2000NT001

At 24 TB there are two Seagate documents. The 2311 sheet lists ST24000NT002. A separate sheet, DS2129.5, covers a 24 TB IronWolf Pro with HAMR under ST24000NT031. They are different part numbers on different sheets, and the IronWolf Pro 24TB page sets them side by side.

What every IronWolf Pro NT model shares

Seagate says IronWolf Pro drives are rated for 550 TB a year. Across all twelve NT models on the 2311 sheet, from 2 TB to 24 TB, three ratings never change:

• Workload rate limit: 550
• Drive bays supported: unlimited
• Limited warranty: 5 years

So among NT models the size you pick changes MTBF, drive design, speed and noise, never the rating for how hard the drive may work or the warranty term. That warranty is Seagate's term on its sheet; the Amazon.co.uk listing shows what a seller offers.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 20TB and every other size: NT or NE

IronWolf Pro 20TB shows the trap most clearly, but it runs through the range. Seagate's earlier sheet, DS1914.21-2206, pairs an NE model with the NT001 model at every capacity it lists, 2 to 20 TB: ST20000NE000, ST18000NE000, ST16000NE000, ST14000NE0008, ST12000NE0008, ST10000NE0008 and ST10000NE000, ST8000NE001, ST6000NE000, ST4000NE001 and ST2000NE001. Same name, same capacity, different ratings.

Every NE model is rated for a little over half the workload of the NT001 drive at the same size, for a smaller system, and for well under its MTBF. If a listing prints NE000, NE0008 or NE001, those are the figures you are buying. The newer 2311 sheet lists only NT models.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB to 24TB

The five largest NT models, IronWolf Pro 16TB up to 24 TB, are all helium drives rated at 2,500,000 hours MTBF, with 20 dBA typical idle and 26 dBA typical seek. Two performance rows on the 2311 sheet separate them:

The IronWolf Pro 16TB is the one slower model of the five, at 270 MB/s, and only the 24 and 22 TB carry the larger cache. The 24 TB also idles higher and has a higher minimum operating temperature, set out on the IronWolf Pro 24TB page; beyond those rows, the choice between these sizes is space against price per TB.

IronWolf Pro 8TB, 10TB, 12TB and 14TB: air or helium

Below 16 TB the sheet splits the range by drive design, and the split shows up in noise and MTBF.

The IronWolf Pro 12TB and 14TB idle at 20 dBA, as quietly as the 16 to 24 TB models, while the IronWolf Pro 10TB and 8TB idle at 28 dBA. For a NAS in a room where people work or sleep, that 8 dBA gap is the strongest reason on paper to step up from 10 TB to 12 TB. The 550 rating, unlimited bays and five-year warranty are the same on both sides of the table.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB and 2TB

The two smallest NT models, ST4000NT001 and ST2000NT001, are air drives spinning at 7,200 RPM, rated at 2,000,000 hours MTBF, with 28 dBA typical idle and 30 dBA typical seek. Maximum sustained transfer is 250 MB/s for the IronWolf Pro 4TB and 226 MB/s for the 2 TB. They keep the full NT ratings: 550, unlimited bays and a 5-year limited warranty, so a small NT drive is not a lower-rated drive, only a smaller one. The NE versions at these sizes, ST4000NE001 and ST2000NE001, carry the NE ratings above.

IronWolf Pro 16TB and 24TB against an enterprise drive

At 16 and 24 TB the NT-series IronWolf Pro meets enterprise drives on their own ratings. Seagate's two product manuals use the same wording for both lines: the IronWolf Pro manual and the Exos X24 SATA manual each give a maximum rate of under 550 TB a year. WD rates the Ultrastar DC HC580 for workloads of up to 550 TB a year, and Toshiba rates MG10 and MG11 at 550 TB a year.

Nothing in that table puts the enterprise drives ahead, so the difference is price per TB, which the tables below show. Seagate also prints acoustics and an unlimited bay rating for the IronWolf Pro. Head-to-head pages go further: Exos vs IronWolf Pro and Ultrastar vs IronWolf Pro.

New SATA drives from the Exos, Ultrastar and Toshiba MG lines at exactly 16 TB, the size of ST16000NT001. The table holds 3 listings right now. Best price per TB in it: £23.04/TB.

The same lines at exactly 24 TB. The table holds no listings right now. Best price per TB in it: -. This table is often short, so set it against the 24TB hard drive page as well.

A NAS bay or server backplane decides what fits, not the rating sheet, so confirm the interface and form factor and find the exact part number on the hardware maker's supported list. The 16TB enterprise hard drive and Exos X24 pages go further on the enterprise side.

Sizing an IronWolf Pro array

Every NT model is specified for an unlimited number of bays, so the chassis size is not the limit on paper; the NE models on the 2206 sheet stop at 24. What you still have to choose is the RAID level, and with it the usable space. The calculator works that out from your bay count.