Best drives for the Minisforum N5 Pro in Canada
By Devin Chua · Data checked by Owen Nakamura · Updated · Prices checked For the Minisforum N5 Pro fit CMR NAS drives like WD Red Pro or Seagate IronWolf Pro across all 5 bays up to 150 TB raw. Minisforum publishes no drive list and no brand lock for the N5 Pro, so choose on recording method and rating. At 5 × 8 TB the N5 Pro keeps 29.10 TiB usable in RAID 5, about CA$2,860 in drives. Since its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370 (12 cores, 24 threads) pairs twelve Zen 5 cores with Radeon graphics that Jellyfin can transcode on, and has the memory bandwidth to run a local AI model, its 10GbE turns 7200 rpm Pro drives into real speed, though if the N5 Pro sits where people work, quieter 5,400 to 5,900 rpm NAS drives give up little.
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CMR NAS drives for the N5 Pro
Only new SATA drives from families with confirmed CMR recording and a 24/7 rating, in stock on Amazon.ca and within the N5 Pro’s published limits. SMR drives are kept out. CA$/usable TB assumes all 5 bays filled with equal drives in RAID 5.
| Model | Capacity | Recording | Price | CA$/raw TB | CA$/usable TB (5 drives, RAID 5) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Western Digital 20TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD202KFGXNewbest price per TB CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon.ca · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$1,201Buy on Amazon | 20 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,201 | CA$60.03/TB | CA$75.04/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 22TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD221KFGXNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon US · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026 · ships from the US through Amazon.caCA$1,452Buy on Amazon | 22 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,452 | CA$66.00/TB | CA$82.50/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 16TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD161KFGXNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon.ca · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$1,060Buy on Amazon | 16 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,060 | CA$66.25/TB | CA$82.81/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Seagate IronWolf Pro 14TB Enterprise NAS Internal HDD Hard Drive – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage, Rescue Services - FFP (ST14000NTZ01)New CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Deals2You · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$930Buy on Amazon | 14 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$930 | CA$66.43/TB | CA$83.04/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 12TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD122KFBXNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon US · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026 · ships from the US through Amazon.caCA$815Buy on Amazon | 12 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$815 | CA$67.94/TB | CA$84.93/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 4TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 128 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFZZNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon.ca · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$275Buy on Amazon | 4 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$275 | CA$68.75/TB | CA$85.94/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 HD 18TB N300 PRO NAS 3.5 in 7200RPM SATA III TOSHIBA HDWG81JXZSTBNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Canada Direct - Often Ships Same Day! · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$1,253Buy on Amazon | 18 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,253 | CA$69.61/TB | CA$87.01/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 3TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" -WD30EFPXNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Generic Computer · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$210Buy on Amazon | 3 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$210 | CA$70.00/TB | CA$87.50/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Seagate IRONWOLF 6TB NAS 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 256MBNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Compute4Less Corp · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$423Buy on Amazon | 6 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$423 | CA$70.50/TB | CA$88.13/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 24TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD241KFGXNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon US · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026 · ships from the US through Amazon.caCA$1,697Buy on Amazon | 24 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,697 | CA$70.71/TB | CA$88.39/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 HD 14TB N300 PRO NAS 3.5 in 7200RPM SATA III TOSHIBA HDWG81EXZSTBNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by Canada Direct - Often Ships Same Day! · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$992Buy on Amazon | 14 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$992 | CA$70.87/TB | CA$88.59/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Toshiba N300 PRO 8TB Large-Sized Business NAS (up to 24 Bays) 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive - Up to 300 TB/Year Workload Rate CMR SATA 6 GB/s 7200 RPM 512 MB Cache - HDWG780XZSTBNew CMR, SATA 3.5-inch drive for the N5 Pro's bays, within its 30 TB per-bay rating Amazon.ca · sold by OneDealOutlet Canada · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$572Buy on Amazon | 8 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$572 | CA$71.51/TB | CA$89.39/TB | Buy on Amazon |
Quiet drives for a box that lives near you
Noise matters more on an AI NAS than on a closet file server, because boxes like the N5 Pro tend to live where people work: a home office, a living room. Seven-thousand-two-hundred rpm enterprise drives are audibly louder than 5,400 or 5,900 rpm NAS drives when seeking, and 5 of them add up. If the N5 Pro sits near you, favour the quieter NAS lines and keep AI models on the NVMe tier so the disks can spin down between jobs. Size for the long run: at 5 bays, the largest drives you can afford now cost less per terabyte than a second box later.
What sets the N5 Pro apart
A five-bay NAS built around a laptop-class AI processor: the Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370 with Radeon 890M graphics and a 50 TOPS NPU, two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots to 96 GB with ECC support, one 10GbE and one 5GbE port, and a U.2-capable SSD tier. It is the rare NAS where memory, not the CPU, is the upgrade that matters: fill both slots and local AI runs about twice as fast.
Who the N5 Pro is for
The N5 Pro is a NAS built around a laptop-class AI chip. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370 (12 cores, 24 threads) brings Radeon graphics that Jellyfin can transcode on, twelve cores for containers and virtual machines, and two DDR5 slots that decide how fast a local AI model answers. With 1 × 10GbE and 1 × 5GbE and a U.2-capable SSD tier, the N5 Pro suits someone who wants their storage, media server and private chatbot in one box, and is willing to fill both memory slots.
How the N5 Pro's network shapes the drive choice
The N5 Pro ships with 1 × 10GbE and 1 × 5GbE. Ten gigabit is about 1,100 MB/s; one hard drive gives 150 to 280 MB/s and 5 in an array three to four times that, so here a 7200 rpm Pro drive does turn into real transfer speed. The counterweight is noise: if the N5 Pro sits where people work, quieter NAS drives give up a little throughput for a lot less seek chatter. AI models belong on the NVMe tier either way.
A worked configuration for the N5 Pro
WD Red Pro or Seagate IronWolf Pro in every bay is the recommendation for the N5 Pro. At 5 × 8 TB in RAID 5, the N5 Pro lands 29.10 TiB usable for about CA$2,860 in drives, gives up 8 TB to parity, and survives 1 drive failing. Step the same 5 bays of the N5 Pro up to 16 TB drives and it holds roughly twice that, at the CA$/TB the live table above shows.
RAID 5 or RAID 6 in the N5 Pro?
With 5 bays the N5 Pro gives a real choice. In RAID 5 it keeps 29.10 TiB of the 5 × 8 TB and survives one failure; RAID 6 spends one more drive for two. The trade tips with large drives: after a failure the N5 Pro must read every surviving drive in full to rebuild, which on 20 TB drives runs the better part of a day under peak load. So from 16 TB per drive up, RAID 6 is the calmer choice in the N5 Pro.
One rule holds on every NAS, the N5 Pro included: use CMR drives, not SMR. SMR drives rewrite overlapping tracks and collapse during a RAID rebuild, dragging a repair from hours into days.
Keep calculating
To see how much capacity is left after parity, the N5 Pro capacity calculator is preset to its 5 bays and RAID types. For the N5 Pro, the wider basics of choosing a drive are in the buying guides, and CMR versus SMR explains why SMR drives do not belong in a RAID array. Wondering what the N5 Pro can actually do: Plex, Immich, Docker, local AI? See what the N5 Pro can run.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put third-party drives in the N5 Pro?
Yes. Minisforum publishes no drive compatibility list and no brand lock for the N5 Pro, so any CMR NAS drive up to its rated size works.
Which drives fit the N5 Pro?
The N5 Pro takes any 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch SATA drive; use a CMR NAS family rated for 24/7 duty such as IronWolf, WD Red Plus or Toshiba N300. On its 1 × 10GbE and 1 × 5GbE, a 7200 rpm Pro drive is worth the premium in the N5 Pro.
How much capacity is usable in the N5 Pro?
In the N5 Pro, 5 × 8 TB in RAID 5 gives about 29.10 TiB usable and survives 1 drive failing; the balance is parity.
Can the N5 Pro run Plex with hardware transcoding?
Partly. The N5 Pro's Radeon iGPU can hardware-transcode, and Jellyfin supports AMD graphics fully on Linux (VA-API). Plex, though, says its AMD support is provided "as is" and recommends Intel Quick Sync or NVIDIA, so for a Plex-first household the N5 Pro is better as a Jellyfin server.
Is a Pro drive worth it in the N5 Pro?
For speed, yes: the N5 Pro's 1 × 10GbE and 1 × 5GbE can carry what 5 Pro drives deliver. For a box that sits in a room people use, weigh that against the extra seek noise.
Devin Chua works out which drives, RAM and NVMe cache fit which NAS model at nasdrives.ca, and what the RAID choice means for usable capacity, checked against what is in stock on Amazon.ca.
Data checked by Owen Nakamura, Technical editor (data checking)