So I got a 6TB 5400 RPM Ironwolf for my desktop computer for general storage, not a NAS backup-machine. And the reason for that was price – there are Ironwolf discounts all over the internet, and for some reason I’m yet to see a single noticeable (not 5%) discount for a Barracuda drive. To my knowledge, there are two main reason to not use a NAS drive in a desktop PC: 1. The firmware is different and NAS drives handle errors differently. Desktop drives try harder to save the data and aren’t focused on the uptime instead. I can’t tell for sure how important that is, and opinions on the internet differ. But I decided to take the risk. 2. NAS drives are louder.  The second point was especially scary to me, but despite common sense I still purchased the drive, and you know what – it’s not that loud at all. I guess other drives in that lineup can be different, I do not know, but under a heavy load my 5400 RPM Ironwolf is only slightly louder than my 7200 RPM WD Blue. So yeah, it’s slower (at least in terms of RPM, didn't test the exact speeds yet), and still louder, but: 1. Only slightly. 2. I can’t hear it when it’s idle. So for as long as I use it for a "write once, read many" kind of storage, it’s perfectly fine, and I’m keeping the drive. Hope it’ll live a long life.

Hey there, I just purchased a Seagate Expansion 24TB HDD. When I plugged it in it was formatted as ExFat and I ran a speed test using the Blackmagic Speed Test app. It was getting around 240MB/s that way and was practically silent. I think formatted it to APFS and suddenly the speed seemed to decrease (125MB/s) and it was far louder when accessing data/running any tests. Any idea why this may be? Is there a best way to have this formatted? The files I am backing up are mainly for cold storage. I'm a videographer and photographer and this is all backed up storage of files, not the actual editing/working drives. That said, I'd like it to be as optimal as possible. Related: I have an 18TB SanDisk G-Drive Professional and it is formatted as APFS. I am wondering if I've made some sort of terrible mistake by doing that after seeing the Seagate performance as ExFat. The G-Drive takes a while to spin up and when it is accessing files the drive seems quite loud. I'm wondering if this is because of APFS. If so, what format should it be? I've seen notes about HFS, but where is that in Disk Utility as an option? Is that MacOS Journaled? If so, which option should I be choosing for both the G-Drive and the Seagate? ExFat? MacOS Journaled? APFS (though seeming unlikely)? Thanks for your help!