24TB Seagate Expansion External USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive – $240 | Seagate Deals

Depends on your priorities. I have a self-built server with 11 spinning disk drives. (Plus another server that is a backup for the first server with another 8 HDDs). I've been running a server for nearly two decades, so many of the hard drives in my current system were originally in a different system. Sortof a ship of theseus thing. ANYWAY, back in the earlier days when I was younger and money was tighter, I tended to buy external drives and "shuck" them for installation in my server. Really, many of those drives have held up remarkably well - I have a couple still hanging around that have power on time around 9 years at present. IIRC only one failed in less than three years from purchase. Though on average, they're definitely less reliable from premium internal drives.

Buuut, these days, time is short, I'm quite busy, reliability is supremely important, and money is less of an issue than it was. The shucked drives definitely are more prone to failure earlier in their lifespan, which can be a big headache even if caught in time. So now I tend to Ironwolf Pros, WD Red Pros, etc. Other advantage is many of these external drives are 5400 RPM, and a fair bit slower than the 7200RPM internal counterparts. I'm currently working to purchase new internals to cycle out the last few of my old, slow shucked drives.

So, I wouldn't say either option is wrong. Just depends if you're willing to sacrifice reliability and speed for lower cost.

Seagate has earned its recent escalated reputation for TERRIBLE quality and reliability. Mine failed after 1/2 year, but count me among the majority of buyers who experienced meltdown. I'm sticking with WD, not out of some petty loyalty, just because facts are facts.