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Comment by dharmab | Hacker News Reader

Optimal price per GB is somewhere in the 14-20TB range these days.

Yes, this. Price/GB is probably the most important metric to consider, since the other metrics are either impossible to know (e.g. new drive reliability), hardly differ between products (e.g. power usage), or aren't particularly relevant for long-term archiving (e.g. read/write throughput, random seek latency).

Though for archiving purposes, I would steer clear of SSD's. While the overall (claimed) reliability of SSD's is similar or better than HDD's, the failure mode is completely different: where HDD's tend to develop read errors over time which gives you enough warning to plan a replacement of the disk, the SSD's I've had just brick themselves after X time, which means the data loss is sudden and total, rather than gradual.

I've also had SSDs become unreadable through normal means in as little as 3 months without power. Spinning disk is still the way to go for offline consumer archival.

> Price/GB is probably the most important metric to consider,

Sooner or later you will start hitting the physical space limit of the computer case. So if one wants to stick to "single PC" setup, it might be worth just picking the largest disks available, event if slightly more expensive per GB.

Yes, but if you check out what's available to a consumer right now, you have 18TB and 20TB drives, which are about $10 per terabyte, then 22TB jumps to $13+ per terabyte. If you insist on 24TB, you're looking at $23+, so more than double the price per terabyte. My beat up full sized ATX computer case I got on Craigslist can hold 10 HDD, so I'd go from 200TB to 240TB? 20% increase in capacity for an extra $3500 doesn't seem worth it for storing Gilmore Girls episodes because my wife swears she's gonna rewatch it!

Even a basic NAS can hold enough drives to store enough content for you and your family to enjoy for multiple lifetimes. My media PC is literally some 10 year old case I had lying in the closet and it can hold around 8-10 drives depending on form factor.

I think you forgot the "Price" part of "Price per GB"

I don't understand? If you're asking about prices, those vary by country, so use a site like PCPartPicker to find current prices.

You started to say what the optimal Price per GB is, but then only gave a GB. I don't understand what you're trying to say.

They're saying the best price/GB is found in drives of size 14-20TB.

16TB Seagate Exos are hard to beat on value so long as you have a spare room to put the NAS in (those babies are loud!)

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