Top internal and external HDDs to buy –

With streaming and cloud storage becoming the norm, the era of local storage seems to be over. Don’t be fooled, because that is far from it. Local storage devices are still very relevant. If you are looking for the best value for money, hard drives are the way to go. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up the best internal and external hard drive options available.

Buy the best hard drive for your needs

Choosing the best hard drive for your needs is no rocket science, but there are a few things to consider. First, you need to narrow down your use cases and priorities. If you want a ton of data storage but don’t want to physically take it with you, a nice, high capacity hard drive is the way to go. For more storage-intensive purposes such as NAS or monitoring, hard drives with high endurance specifications are better suited.

However, if you want to move around with your data, external hard drives offer this convenience. External hard drives are available in different variants so that you can make a selection based on the intended use and portability.

The best hard drives (internal and external)

Best internal hard drives

• The best hard drive for most people, the Seagate Barracuda offers a solid balance between price and performance.
• The WD Black Performance is the best hard drive for gaming systems, offering appropriate aesthetics and performance.
• The Seagate Ironwolf NAS is the ideal hard drive for network-connected storage systems and mass storage.
• The Toshiba X300 Performance is a quiet, energy-efficient, performance-oriented hard drive.

Best external hard drives

• The Seagate Ultra Touch is a sleek external hard drive that will do well for most people.
• The WD Black P10 is the best external hard drive for storing PC and console games.
• The G-Technology G-Drive is a solid external hard drive solution for professionals and content creators.
• The WD Elements Desktop is the best external desktop hard drive, but it offers extra performance and the need for a dedicated power supply.

Best internal hard drives

Internal hard drives are a great way to add more memory to your computer or to build a dedicated storage system. Whether you want to add a little space for your games and other media, or want to back up a lot of data, an internal hard drive can do it all. Here’s our round-up of the best internal hard drive options out there.

Seagate Barracuda: The Best Hard Drive For Most People

Seagate Barracuda is a trusted hard drive name and has been the drive of choice for years. It’s great value for money, combining speed with high capacity storage options. The Seagate Barracuda range also has proven reliability and features Seagate’s tiered caching that improves read / write performance.

The Seagate Barracuda range is available in three options. The Barracuda family has 2.5 “and 3.5” form factors with capacities of 5 TB and 8 TB, respectively. The Barracuda Pro range offers higher capacities of up to 14TB. It also comes with higher permanent transfer and write restrictions and a five year warranty compared to the two years you get with the Barracuda.

WD Black Performance: The best hard drive for gaming systems

Western Digital markets the WD Black brand for gamers. WD Black Performance makes the list the best hard drive for gaming. WD promises a lot of things with this one, like optimizing performance for gaming, up to 256MB of cache, and a dual-core onboard processor to aid the performance.

The WD Black Performance HDD is available with a capacity of up to 10 TB. There is also a Mobile range in the same line-up in a 2.5-inch form factor. The capacity for the WD Black Performance Mobile range is only up to 1 TB with a maximum cache of 64 MB. All WD Black Performance hard drives come with a five year warranty.

See also: SSD vs HDD: Which is Better?

Seagate Ironwolf NAS: The best hard drive for network-attached storage systems

As SSDs get cheaper and cheaper, hard drives are the ideal solution for mass storage. Seagate Ironwolf NAS is the best hard drive you can buy for mass storage purposes. These drives are geared towards NAS (Network Attached Storage) and have features such as drive health monitoring and reliability and scalability optimizations.

The Ironwolf series is available in two levels. The Ironwolf NAS series offers capacities of up to 12 TB, while the Ironwolf Pro NAS series offers up to 18 TB. You get up to 256MB cache options. The Pro series offers a better mean time between failures and a five year warranty versus the two years you get with the Ironwolf.

Toshiba X300 performance: Quiet and energy-efficient hard drive

Toshiba is a veteran of hard drive storage. The Toshiba X300 is one of the company’s most popular hard drive lineups. According to Toshiba, the hard drive goes well with anything you throw at it, be it gaming, memory-intensive professional work, or any use that depends on memory. The X300 has two storage actuators, a helium-sealed housing for less noise and better energy efficiency.

Toshiba also includes its proprietary caching technology with the X300 with a buffer of up to 512 MB. In terms of capacity, these drives are highly dense. You get capacities from 4 TB and up to 16 TB.

Best external hard drives

External hard drives are intended for portable storage, but there are a few options depending on their purpose. You can opt for a 2.5-inch form factor drive if you want to focus on portability. On the other hand, there are options with the 3.5-inch form factor if you don’t mind a little weight and want more storage capacity. Here are our best external hard drive tips.

Seagate Ultra Touch: A stylish external hard drive choice for most people

Seagate also dominates the external hard drive sector with this stylish offering. When it comes to external hard drives, there aren’t really a lot of great looking options. The Seagate Ultra Touch comes with a woven fabric case that looks elegant in white and black. You get USB-C and USB 3.0 support, although the port on the drive itself is the good ol ‘USB Micro-B type.

The capacities don’t get you too far, as most portable external hard drives do. The Seagate Ultra Touch is available in 1TB and 2TB. You also get support for passwords and AES-256 encryption. Seagate only offers a two year warranty on this drive, which is a disadvantage.

WD Black P10: Best external hard drive for storing PC and console games

WD Black is the gaming brand of Western Digital and as such ensures a good external game drive. The WD Black P10 bears the Game Drive label. It’s a slim external hard drive with a sturdy case that’s playful enough without being too flashy. It works with both PCs and consoles and is a great choice for game storage.

It doesn’t disappoint with capacities either. You get options of 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB. However, the P10 remains compact despite the capacity options. Go to the warranty page for a three year limited warranty.

See Also: The Best Hard Drives and Solid State Drives You Can Buy for the Playstation 5

G-Technology G-Drive: External hard drive solution for professionals

G-Technology is another WD brand, but it focuses on high-performance, professional-quality storage solutions. The G-Drive is aimed at professional content creators such as filmmakers and Youtubers. It is preformatted for use with macOS and offers easy reformatting options for Windows.

There are two series in the G-Drive range: the G-Drive USB-C and the G-Drive Thunderbolt 3. You can make your selection based on your preferred connection type. The Thunderbolt 3 series comes at a premium, but the capacity options are the same for both. You get options of 4TB, 6TB, 10TB, 14TB, and 18TB. WD also grants a five-year guarantee on the G-Drive.

WD Elements Desktop: The Best External Desktop Hard Drive

WD Elements is a legendary line-up. If you need an external desktop hard drive that won’t move too much, the WD Elements Desktop is a great choice. It has a low key design that should blend in well with your desk configuration. It’s quite big since it uses 3.5 inch hard drives inside. You also need to power it with an external adapter.

However, it offers a wide range of capacity options with a choice between 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, and 18TB. It is amazing value for money too. So, if you are in need of cheap storage and portability is not a top priority, this is the way to go. However, WD only gives a two-year guarantee on them.

See Also: The Best External Hard Drives: What Options Do You Have?

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