Cubbbix Tools
Essential Tools for Entrepreneurs

RAID Calculator

Compare usable storage across RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10. Visualize drive failure tolerance for your NAS.

Drive Configuration

4 Drives
1 8 16 24

Drive Array Visualizer

RAID Configurations

Recommended Gear

Best Overall Synology DS923+

Synology DiskStation DS923+

(4.8)

4-Bay DIY NAS with Ryzen CPU. The gold standard for home labs.

Check on Amazon
High Perf Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB

Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB

(4.9)

Enterprise-grade reliability for 24/7 NAS operation. CMR technology.

Check on Amazon
Share this tool:
Buy me a pizza

RAID Calculator: Plan Your NAS Storage Capacity

Building a Home Lab or Small Business Server? Our RAID Calculator helps you determine the exact usable storage capacity of your array. Whether you are using a Synology NAS, building a TrueNAS (ZFS) server, or setting up a hardware RAID controller, knowing your efficiency loss is critical.

Don't waste money on drives you can't use. Compare RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 to find the perfect balance between raw space, speed, and data redundancy.

Usable Space vs. Raw Capacity

A 40TB array (4x 10TB) often only gives you 30TB or 20TB of actual space. This "Storage Penalty" is the cost of parity. Our tool calculates this instantly for all major RAID levels.

Data Protection & Redundancy

Fault Tolerance defines how many drives can fail before you lose data. RAID 6 and RAID 10 offer superior protection for critical business data compared to the risky RAID 5.

Synology SHR vs. Standard RAID

If you are buying a Synology DS923+ or similar, you should almost always use SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID). Unlike standard RAID, SHR allows you to mix drive sizes (e.g., 8TB + 12TB) without wasting the extra space on the larger drives.

For ZFS (TrueNAS) users: RAID 5 is equivalent to RAID-Z1, and RAID 6 is equivalent to RAID-Z2.

Frequently Asked Questions

For a 4-bay NAS, the best choice is usually RAID 5 (or SHR-1). It gives you 75% usable capacity (3 drives worth) and protects against 1 drive failure. If data safety is critical, choose RAID 6 (50% capacity, 2 drive failures).
With modern large drives (16TB+), the time it takes to rebuild a RAID 5 array after a failure can be days. During this intense read operation, a second drive might fail (URE), which causes total data loss. For arrays larger than 40TB, we recommend RAID 6 or RAID 10.
RAID 10 is significantly faster, especially for write operations, because it doesn't need to calculate parity calculations like RAID 6. Use RAID 10 for databases or VMs. Use RAID 6 for media servers where storage space is more important than raw speed.
NO! RAID protects against hardware failure (uptime). It does not protect against ransomware, accidental deletion, fire, or theft. Always follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule: 3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite.
Yes. The capacity math is identical. Select RAID 5 for RAID-Z1 (1 parity drive). Select RAID 6 for RAID-Z2 (2 parity drives). Select RAID 10 for a pool of Mirrored VDEVs.

Was this tool helpful?

Comments

Loading comments...

Check Out Other Popular Tools

HTTP Status Checker

Check the HTTP status code of any URL. Analyze redirect chains, identify 404 errors, and ensure your pages are returning the correct status for SEO.

SEO Tools346

Hebrew Assessment Test

Practice Modern Hebrew (עברית) with 20 adaptive questions. Estimated CEFR-style level (A1–C2) plus a downloadable PDF certificate.

Education71

FICO Score Estimator

Estimate your FICO credit score for free using official scoring factors. Understand how payment history, utilization, and credit length affect your credit health.

Finance Tools62