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Trying to decide if I should aim for 16 or 24 TB of usable storage on my NAS build which will be used as media server for movies/tvs shows (plex), music, all the stuff on my icloud (between the 5 members of my family we currently are using about 1tb).
Going to build my own server - not buying prebuilt.
Don't want to go overboard but also want to future proof.
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If you’re already at 1TB of iCloud data and plan to offload media (Plex, music, etc.), I’d strongly recommend aiming for at least 24TB of usable storage. Here’s why:
• 4K movies and high-bitrate TV shows will eat through space faster than expected.
• Plex benefits from keeping a larger, organized local library.
• Family storage tends to grow over time — photos, backups, videos, etc.
• Drives are often cheapest per TB at the 8TB–12TB range, so getting 3 x 12TB or 4 x 8TB gives you good balance and RAID options.
You don’t need to use it all upfront, but planning for 24TB means you’re future-proofed for several years and won’t need to rebuild or expand the array too soon.
Here’s a general direction I’d suggest:
• Case: Fractal Node 304, Jonsbo N2, or Cooler Master NR200 (ITX with room for 3–5 drives)
• Motherboard: Mini-ITX board with Intel N100/N305 or Ryzen 5 5600G (iGPU = useful for Plex)
• RAM: 16–32GB DDR4 (non-ECC is fine for home use)
• Boot Drive: 128–256GB SATA or NVMe SSD (for OS)
• HDDs: 3x 12TB or 4x 8TB NAS drives (IronWolf, WD Red Plus, or Toshiba N300)
• OS: TrueNAS SCALE, UnRAID, or OpenMediaVault
• PSU: 400–500W Gold-rated PSU (modular preferred)
• RAID: ZFS RAIDZ1 or RAID5 for balance of speed/redundancy
