Advice requested on drives/RAID configuration

Hello! New to NAS but am looking forward to regaining ownership of my data. I purchased a used DXP4800 Plus and am shopping for drives, but I have no idea how best to set this up.

I’m primarily looking to horde as many shows, movies, photos, videos etc. as I can. Ideally I want 20+TB drives but I can only afford 2-3 big drives right now.

Needs:

Maximize storage capacity

Easy expansion in the future

My confusion is mostly with how to set up RAID in a way that is both cost-efficient and not wasteful of storage.

If I get 3 drives, my only option is RAID 5, which I understand is strongly discouraged for large drives due to the risk of data loss.

If I get 2 drives, I would need to buy 2 more in the future and switch to RAID 6/10, losing half my storage for protection

Is RAID 5 really that bad for big drives? Would it be better to forgo RAID entirely, back up any critical files to another device, and accept the data loss if a drive fails?

Tagged: RAID

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Jace Elric

Participant

February 27, 2026 at 9:04 am

For a 4-bay NAS focused on maximizing storage with room to expand, the most practical setup is either three large drives in RAID 5 or two to three drives as single disks with backups for important files. RAID 5 with 20TB drives isn’t inherently unsafe, but rebuilds take a long time and there’s added risk during that process. For mostly replaceable media, it’s a reasonable and cost-efficient balance since you only lose one drive’s worth of capacity. If you’re storing irreplaceable photos or documents, RAID alone isn’t enough — you still need a proper backup. If usable space per dollar matters most and the content can be replaced, running single disks and backing up only critical data is often the simplest and most economical approach.

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