Enterprise drives OR NAS drives

[Enquiries]

Hey there Robbie & Eddie, I hope you guys are both doing well.
I’m considering upgrading to bigger drives (no larger than 18TB disks) in my QNAP TVS-872X so I have a quick question.
For 24/7 operation running backups, document access and occasionally serving media would it be best to go with enterprise class drives e.g. WD Gold/Seagate Exos or would it be best to stick with NAS specific drives like WD Red/Pro or Seagate Ironwolf/Pro?
Thank you

[ed]

That’s a good question and one we get a lot when people start moving into larger drive capacities. In your case, with the QNAP TVS-872X running backups, document storage, and occasional media streaming, the NAS Pro drives are usually the best fit.

Drives like Seagate IronWolf Pro or WD Red Pro are designed for multi-bay NAS systems. They have vibration sensors, lower power use, and quieter operation, but still handle 24/7 workloads reliably. Their firmware is tuned for RAID environments, so they recover cleanly if a rebuild or parity check happens.

Enterprise drives such as Seagate Exos or WD Gold are even more durable, but they are made for heavy data center loads with constant read and write activity. They tend to run louder and warmer, and in most home or small office NAS setups that level of endurance is not really needed.

If your NAS was being hit by dozens of users or running virtual machines all day, the enterprise models might make sense. For your use, though, NAS Pro drives will be quieter, more efficient, and still last many years of 24/7 operation.