How to Find the Cheapest NAS Hard Drives: A Complete Price Tracking Guide
NAS drives are expensive – especially when you need 4, 6, or even 8 of them. But with the right tools and strategies, you can save hundreds. Here's how the homelab community gets the best deals.
1. Price Comparison Sites
Geizhals (Europe)
Geizhals.de (also geizhals.at for Austria) is the go-to price comparison engine in Europe. It tracks prices across dozens of retailers. Set up a price alert for your target drive and wait for a drop. The price history graph shows you whether current pricing is good or if you should wait.
Idealo (Europe)
Similar to Geizhals but with a broader retailer base in some countries. Idealo also has a mobile app with push notifications for price alerts – handy for flash sales.
PCPartPicker (US/UK/EU)
Originally for PC builds, PCPartPicker also tracks hard drive prices and has excellent filtering by capacity, RPM, and cache size.
2. Amazon Price Tracking
CamelCamelCamel
The essential Amazon price tracker. Paste any Amazon product URL and see its complete price history. Set alerts for your target price. The browser extension "The Camelizer" adds price history directly to Amazon product pages.
Keepa
More powerful than CamelCamelCamel with international Amazon tracking. The browser extension embeds price history charts directly into Amazon pages. Paid plans unlock advanced features but the free tier is sufficient for most users.
3. Refurbished & Server Pulls
ServerPartDeals (US)
ServerPartDeals specializes in certified refurbished enterprise drives. Enterprise drives like the WD Ultrastar series are built for 24/7 operation and are often more reliable than consumer NAS drives. A refurbished 14TB Ultrastar can cost less than a new 8TB IronWolf.
eBay – Server Pulls
Data centers regularly retire drives that still have plenty of life left. Search for "server pull" + your desired capacity. Check the SMART data (hours and reallocated sectors) before buying. Many sellers include SMART screenshots.
4. Shucking External Drives
"Shucking" means buying an external USB drive and removing the internal drive to use in your NAS. External drives are often significantly cheaper than bare internal drives because manufacturers price them differently.
Popular shucking targets include the WD Elements / WD My Book (often contains WD White Label or Ultrastar drives) and Seagate Expansion (often contains Barracuda Compute drives).
Check r/DataHoarder on Reddit for current shucking recommendations – the community tracks which externals contain which internal drives.
5. Timing Your Purchase
Drive prices follow predictable patterns. The best deals typically appear during Black Friday/Cyber Monday (November), Amazon Prime Day (July), and end-of-quarter sales. Set your price alerts 2-3 weeks before these events.
6. The Right Size Strategy
Price per TB varies significantly by drive size. The sweet spot shifts over time, but generally the 2nd-largest available size offers the best value. Currently, 16-18TB drives tend to offer the best price-per-TB ratio for new NAS drives.
Plan your array! Once you've found your drives, compare RAID configurations.
Open RAID Calculator →Further reading
Best NAS Hard Drives 2026: Top Picks for Every Budget
Refurbished NAS Drives: Bargain or Trap?