Even though SSDs have largely eclipsed mechanical drives in today's PC landscape, they still hold an important position when it comes to mass storage — specifically for archival duties, such as a NAS. Usually, even hard drives can soar in cost when you scale the capacity; that's why scoring a deal can be really enticing in these one-and-done sort of purchases. We've spotted one such offer for you: Western Digital's 22TB WD Red Pro hard drive for just $400 on Amazon, a solid $50 less than its list price.
The WD Red Pro, apart from its obviously gargantuan 22-terabyte capacity, is a very well-rounded hard drive. It's a standard 3.5-inch SATA-based offering driven by a 7200 RPM motor, rated for 550 TB/year workloads. It's optimized for RAID and features a multi-axis shock sensor that detects subtle shock events, allowing it to adjust operations on the fly to compensate for any sudden activity. We've tested the 20TB model of the WD Red Pro and provided a fair review a few years ago; this 22TB version is a slight upgrade — you can expect solid performance when it comes to sustained workloads.
Moreover, the Red Pro features Western Digital's OptiNAND technology, which is similar to DRAM on modern SSDs, a small amount of flash (512 MB in this case) reserved to speed up operations and add longevity. Pair that with a transfer rate of up to 265 MB/s, and this is a fast drive, especially for HDDs. It also uses CMR instead of SMR, offering predictable performance, which is particularly helpful for a NAS that undergoes frequent rewrites. WD backs all that up with a 5-year warranty for added peace of mind. It's a strong package that combines all the features with the right price to form the perfect NAS deal.
If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.
