NAS Storage Build Guide 2026 — 12TB 16TB 18TB 24-Bay
NAS storage build guide 2026 — SMB to enterprise. Hardware + drive selection for QNAP, Synology, TrueNAS, Supermicro.
Capacity Planning
- 4-bay home/SMB — 4x 8TB IronWolf = 32TB raw / 24TB RAID-Z1
- 8-bay SMB — 8x 12TB IronWolf Pro = 96TB raw / 72TB RAID-Z2
- 12-bay SMB+ — 12x 16TB Exos = 192TB raw / 144TB RAID-Z2
- 24-bay enterprise — 24x 18TB IronWolf Pro = 432TB raw / 360TB RAID-Z2