Home NAS Builder
RAID for home NAS builders: RAID 5 vs RAID 6 vs RAID 10 explained
Use RAID 5 for a 4-drive home NAS with 4 TB or smaller drives. Switch to RAID 6 for 6+ drives or 8 TB+ drives. Pick RAID 10 only if you need max random write speed for VMs or databases.
Home NAS builders face a real trade-off between capacity, safety, and performance. RAID 5 with four drives gives you 75% of raw capacity and tolerates one failure. RAID 6 with six drives gives 67% and tolerates two. RAID 10 with four drives gives 50% but doubles random write speed.
Why this matters for you
The deciding factor is rebuild time. With 4 TB drives, a RAID 5 rebuild takes 8-12 hours and stresses every remaining drive. With 8 TB or larger drives, rebuilds stretch past 24 hours, and the chance of a second failure during rebuild rises sharply. That's why RAID 6 is the safer pick for arrays with 6+ drives or any drive larger than 6 TB. RAID 10 avoids the parity penalty entirely but costs you 50% of raw capacity, which hurts on a home budget.
Verdict
Use RAID 5 for a 4-drive home NAS with 4 TB or smaller drives. Switch to RAID 6 for 6+ drives or 8 TB+ drives. Pick RAID 10 only if you need max random write speed for VMs or databases.
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