Best 14TB NAS drives
14TB NAS-rated CMR drives by price per TB
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The best 14TB NAS drives are NAS-rated CMR models. 14TB is in the value sweet spot, the size most home and small-office NAS buyers should choose. Choose a CMR drive (WD Red Plus, Seagate IronWolf or Toshiba N300) and avoid SMR for a safe RAID rebuild. The live table ranks current UK 14TB drives by price per terabyte.
Who a 14TB NAS drive suits
14TB is in the value sweet spot, the size most home and small-office NAS buyers should choose. It suits a 2-bay or 4-bay unit for a growing Plex library, photo archive and backups without overpaying for capacity you will not use for years.
14TB is a strong Plex size: a pair or a four-bay pool gives room for a real 1080p and 4K library with headroom to grow over a couple of years.
Where 14TB sits on the value curve
This is the cheapest part of the price-per-terabyte curve. 14TB drives typically give the best value per terabyte of any NAS-rated size, which is why 8TB to 12TB is the most common recommendation. You pay a little more in total than a small drive but far less per terabyte.
At 14TB, WD Red Plus (its largest size), IronWolf and Toshiba N300 compete on value, with Exos often cheapest per terabyte if you can accept enterprise noise. The table shows the cheapest right now.
Usable capacity from 14TB drives
| Use case | Best choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 2x 14TB, RAID 1 / SHR | ~13TB usable | A mirror: survives one drive failure, half the raw capacity. |
| 4x 14TB, RAID 5 / SHR | ~38TB usable | Single parity: survives one failure, about 75% of raw. |
| 4x 14TB, RAID 6 / SHR-2 | ~25TB usable | Dual parity: survives two failures, the safer choice at high capacity. |
The 14TB buying note
The trap here is still SMR avoidance on the cheapest listings, but at 14TB the NAS-rated CMR drives dominate, so simply choosing a Red Plus, IronWolf or N300 keeps you safe. Match drive sizes within a pool unless your NAS supports Synology SHR.
Available NAS-rated families at 14TB: 14TB is the top of the WD Red Plus range, its largest CMR size, alongside IronWolf Pro, WD Red Pro, Seagate Exos and Toshiba N300. If you want to go bigger later you will move to the Pro or Exos ranges, as Red Plus stops at 14TB.
14TB NAS drives, by price per TB
Frequently asked questions
How many 14TB drives do I need for around 38TB usable?
Four 14TB drives in RAID 5 or Synology SHR give about 38TB usable after parity and overhead, with single-drive fault tolerance. Two 14TB drives in a mirror give about 13TB. For two-drive protection, four in RAID 6 or SHR-2 give about 25TB.
Is 14TB a good size for Plex and backups?
Yes. 14TB is in the value sweet spot and suits a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS for a real Plex library, photo archive and backups with room to grow. It is the size most home buyers should pick.
What is the cheapest 14TB NAS drive in the UK?
At 14TB, WD Red Plus (its largest size), IronWolf and Toshiba N300 compete on value, with Exos often cheapest per terabyte if you can accept enterprise noise. The table shows the cheapest right now.
Does a 14TB drive need RAID 6 instead of RAID 5?
Not necessarily at 14TB. RAID 5 or SHR rebuilds quickly enough at this size for most home use. RAID 6 or SHR-2 adds a safety margin if the data is irreplaceable, at the cost of one more drive of capacity.