09 guides
NAS Guides
Reviews, comparisons and buying advice for Synology, QNAP, UGreen, Asustor and DIY TrueNAS builds.
Free NAS calculators and guides
Updated October 2026
Know your usable terabytes before you buy the drives.
Free calculators for RAID, ZFS, SHR and Unraid capacity, NAS power cost and SSD wear — and practical guides to hardware, self-hosted apps, backups and homelabs. Every result shows the formula behind it.
- Layouts
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 · RAIDZ1–3 · ZFS mirrors · SHR · Unraid
- Drives
- Equal or mixed sizes, up to 60 bays
- Output
- TB and TiB, failures survived, wasted space
RAID & ZFS capacity calculatorRAID calculator
Open full calculator →Drives
RAID level
Usable capacity · RAID 6
32TB≈ 29.1 TiB as your NAS reports it
Raw capacity
48 TB
Survives
2 drives
Efficiency
67%
Parity
16 TB
018 TB
028 TB
038 TB
048 TB
058 TB
068 TB
DataParity / mirror
54practical guides to NAS, storage, self-hosting and backup
262primary sources cited — datasheets and official docs
13RAID, ZFS, SHR and Unraid layouts in one calculator
0sign-ups — every calculator runs in your browser
32TB6 × 8 TB · RAID 6
RAID & ZFS capacity calculator
How much usable space do your drives give you in RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, ZFS RAIDZ, SHR or Unraid? Mixed drive sizes included.
Open calculator →$58/yr4 drives · $0.20/kWh
NAS power consumption calculator
How much does a NAS cost to run per year? Enter idle watts, drive count and your electricity price.
Open calculator →16.4yrs600 TBW · 100 GB/day
SSD endurance calculator (TBW & DWPD)
How many years will an SSD last in your NAS? Uses its TBW rating and your daily writes, including cache write amplification.
Open calculator →- 01Best Hard Drives for NAS in 2026 (CMR vs SMR, Sizes & Reliability)Best NAS hard drives for 2026, backed by data: CMR vs SMR (which WD Red to avoid), WD Red Pro vs IronWolf Pro vs Toshiba N300, and the best value capacity.StorageJul 1, 2026 · 5 min
- 02Hard Drive vs SSD for a NAS: Which Should You Use?Hard drive vs SSD for a NAS: cost per TB, speed, noise and power compared, plus when an all-flash NAS or SSD cache is worth it.StorageJul 1, 2026 · 5 min
- 03RAID 5 vs RAID 6 vs SHR: Which Should You Choose?RAID 5 vs RAID 6 vs Synology SHR: compare usable capacity, fault tolerance, mixed-drive expansion, rebuild risk and the best choice for each NAS.StorageJul 24, 2026 · 5 min
- 04SMB vs NFS on a NAS: Which Protocol Should You Use?SMB vs NFS (Samba vs NFS) on a NAS: speed, security, identity and compatibility compared — SMB for people, NFS for machines.HomelabSep 12, 2026 · 5 min
- 05Docker PUID and PGID Explained for NAS UsersDocker PUID and PGID explained for NAS users: UID/GID mapping, bind-mount permissions, Compose examples and fixes for permission denied errors.HomelabAug 11, 2026 · 5 min
- 06Tailscale ACLs for NAS: A Least-Privilege Access GuideUse Tailscale ACLs and grants for least-privilege NAS access: plan users, groups, tags and ports, then test admin, SMB and app access safely.HomelabJul 21, 2026 · 5 min
- 07How to Replace a Failed NAS Drive and Survive the RebuildReplace a failed NAS drive safely: verify backups, find the disk by serial, pick a CMR replacement, survive the rebuild and run a scrub.StorageSep 9, 2026 · 5 min
- 08Proxmox vs TrueNAS vs Unraid: Which Homelab OS in 2026?Proxmox vs TrueNAS vs Unraid in 2026. Hypervisor vs ZFS NAS vs flexible all-rounder — storage, VMs, apps, mixed drives and ease of use compared.HomelabJul 1, 2026 · 5 min
12 guides
Storage
Best hard drives and SSDs for a NAS, CMR vs SMR, RAID 5 vs RAID 6, ZFS and Btrfs, RAM sizing, SMART monitoring and replacing failed drives.
12 guides
Self-Hosting
Set up and compare Immich, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, the *arr stack and more.
11 guides
Homelab
Proxmox, Docker, reverse proxies, Tailscale, networking and home server foundations.
How we work
Sourced. Calculated. Shown.
No spec sheets dressed up as lab tests. Figures come from datasheets, official documentation and public reliability data, and every calculator prints its formula.
How we work →- 01NAS Noise, Heat and Placement: How to Live With It at HomeMake a home NAS quieter and cooler: why vibration is the real noise source, where to place it, safe drive temperatures and what to change first.NAS GuidesOct 3, 2026 · 5 min
- 02How to Set Up Paperless-ngx on a NAS (Docker Guide)Set up Paperless-ngx on a NAS with Docker Compose: PostgreSQL, Redis, the consume folder, OCR languages, matching rules and backups.Self-HostingSep 30, 2026 · 5 min
- 03Btrfs vs ZFS vs ext4 on a NAS: How to Choose a FilesystemBtrfs vs ZFS vs ext4 for a NAS: data checksums, self-healing, snapshots and compression compared, plus why Btrfs RAID 5/6 is unsafe and Synology's Btrfs is not.StorageSep 24, 2026 · 5 min
- 04How Much RAM Does a NAS Need? (ZFS, Docker and VMs)How much RAM a NAS actually needs, by workload: file sharing, Docker containers, Immich, VMs and ZFS. Why the 1GB-per-TB rule is wrong, plus ECC and upgrade advice.StorageSep 21, 2026 · 5 min
- 05Immich vs Google Photos: What You Gain and What You Give UpImmich vs Google Photos: cost, privacy, ML search, maintenance and Takeout migration — what you gain by self-hosting photos and what you give up.Self-HostingSep 18, 2026 · 5 min
- 06Time Machine Backup to a NAS: A Setup That Stays ReliableSet up Time Machine backups to a NAS that stay reliable: a dedicated share and user, a real quota and SMB, with Synology, QNAP and TrueNAS steps.BackupSep 15, 2026 · 5 min