How much real-world usable storage does 10x 12TB RAID 5 provide?
For QNAP users, this NAS planning scenario estimates 97.20 TB usable after a 10% reserve from 120.00 TB raw.
Why include a 10% reserve when planning NAS capacity?
Keeping free space improves filesystem behavior for snapshots, metadata, and write performance. Full arrays often perform worse and rebuild more slowly.
How many disk failures can RAID 5 tolerate in this setup?
This setup can tolerate 1 drive. Real-world survivability depends on mirror placement, rebuild stress, and drive health.
Should I optimize this 10-drive plan for available space or resiliency first?
For long-lived NAS pools, resiliency first is usually safer. Capacity can be expanded later, while a risky parity choice can force migration sooner.