Rekabs

Choosing The Right File System

Choosing the Right NAS File System: XFS, Btrfs, or ZFS—And Why Your 1-Gigabit Network Matters More Than You Think

When building or upgrading a home NAS, one of the first big decisions you face is choosing a storage format or file system. Options like XFS, Btrfs, and ZFS each come with their own strengths, trade-offs, and quirks. Yet many home server enthusiasts overlook a quiet limiting factor that sits between all these technologies and their users: a 1-gigabit Ethernet line.

If you’re running a typical home network—and most users still are—your wired LAN tops out at ~125 MB/s of theoretical throughput (more realistically 110–115 MB/s sustained after protocol overhead). That ceiling has a surprisingly large impact on which file systems make sense, which performance features matter, and which will be wasted overhead.

Let’s take a deep dive into which NAS format best fits your needs and how bandwidth influences that decision.

Understanding the 1 GbE Reality

Before comparing file systems, it’s essential to acknowledge where your bottleneck will likely be.

A single gigabit Ethernet link provides:

  • 1,000 megabits per second theoretical bandwidth
  • ≈ 940 megabits per second usable after overhead
  • ≈ 110–115 MB/s real-world file transfer speeds

This means:

  • Even if your drives can read at 200 MB/s, your network won’t deliver more than ~110 MB/s.
  • Even if your RAID or ZFS pool can write at 600 MB/s, clients won’t experience those speeds.
  • Features like caching, deduplication, and parallel striping often won’t show their full potential.

With that in mind, the main priorities for a home NAS using 1 GbE usually become:

  • Reliability
  • Ease of recovery
  • Bit-rot protection
  • Snapshot and versioning support
  • Manageability
  • Resource consumption (CPU/RAM)

Raw speed matters far less than many assume.

The Big Three: XFS vs. Btrfs vs. ZFS

1. XFS — The Stable, Fast, Low-Overhead Workhorse

Best for: NAS users who want simplicity, maximum stability, and minimal resource usage.

Why choose XFS on a 1 GbE network:

  • XFS is extremely mature and rock-solid.
  • It delivers consistent performance without heavy RAM or CPU needs.
  • It handles large files extremely well, making it ideal for media libraries.
  • Since your 1 GbE network is the bottleneck, XFS’s already-excellent local performance is more than enough.

Pros:

  • Low overhead
  • Excellent reliability
  • Minimal tuning required
  • Great for large sequential files

Cons:

  • No native snapshots
  • No built-in bit-rot protection
  • No native RAID features (depends on the NAS platform’s abstraction)

Summary:
If you want a dependable, lightweight file system that “just works” and doesn’t chew RAM or CPU, XFS is arguably the best match for a 1 GbE-limited home NAS.

2. Btrfs — Feature-Rich and Flexible, but With Considerations

Best for: Users who want checksumming, snapshots, and a modern FS without ZFS’s RAM demands.

Where Btrfs shines with a 1 GbE network:

  • Built-in checksumming protects against silent corruption (bit rot), which is very important on systems that store large media or photo archives.
  • Snapshots allow quick backups, versioning, and rollback points.
  • Its performance easily exceeds what 1 GbE can deliver in real-world transfers.

Pros:

  • Snapshots and subvolumes
  • Checksumming for data and metadata
  • Compression support (can increase throughput on slower drives)
  • Lighter resource usage than ZFS

Cons:

  • Historically less stable with RAID 5/6 (though RAID 1/10 is solid)
  • Can be slower for heavy workloads
  • More complex than XFS

Summary:
Btrfs is a strong middle ground—modern, feature-rich, and more forgiving than ZFS. On a 1 GbE network, its extra features are noticeable and beneficial, while its performance remains more than sufficient.

3. ZFS — The Heavyweight Champion, but Not Always the Right Fit

Best for: Power users who care deeply about integrity, snapshots, rebuild safety, and large storage arrays.

ZFS is renowned for:

  • Self-healing capabilities
  • End-to-end checksumming
  • Ultra-robust RAID levels (RAIDZ1/2/3)
  • Efficient snapshots & replication

But ZFS also brings demanding requirements:

  • Minimum of 8 GB RAM, though 16 GB is better
  • Heavy CPU overhead with deduplication or encryption
  • Requires careful pool design upfront
  • Once configured, expansion can be rigid

How ZFS interacts with 1 GbE bandwidth:

  • You likely won’t see ZFS’s performance advantages—your network will cap them.
  • ZFS write caching and ARC don’t translate into faster transfers for network clients.
  • ZFS’s biggest strengths—data integrity and resiliency—still shine regardless of bandwidth.

Pros:

  • Industry-leading data integrity
  • Snapshots, clones, replication
  • Strong RAIDZ performance
  • Perfect for large pools

Cons:

  • High RAM usage
  • More admin complexity
  • Expansion is less flexible

Summary:
ZFS is fantastic but often overkill for a 1 GbE-only setup unless you specifically need its data-integrity guarantees, snapshot capabilities, or advanced replication. It’s powerful, but many of its performance benefits won’t be visible across a 1 GbE link.

What Actually Affects Your Transfer Speeds on 1 GbE

Even with the most advanced file system, your file transfer rates will be dictated primarily by:

1. Network bandwidth

This is the #1 limiting factor in almost all home NAS setups.

2. SMB/NFS overhead

SMB especially introduces protocol overhead that caps throughput at ~110 MB/s.

3. Drive speed

Most HDDs deliver 150–200 MB/s sequential—more than enough for your network.

4. Cache drive

Helps with writes (especially small writes), but still limited by network.

5. CPU resources for encryption/compression

On ZFS and Btrfs, compression can actually increase network throughput by reducing the amount of data sent.

Which File System Should You Choose?

Here’s a direct recommendation based on typical home NAS scenarios.

For media servers, Plex libraries, and general storage:

⭐ Choose XFS
Simple, fast, extremely stable, zero-nonsense.

For users who want data integrity + snapshots without heavy RAM usage:

⭐ Choose Btrfs
A modern option with excellent protective features.

For advanced users who prioritize data safety above all else:

⭐ Choose ZFS
Especially valuable if you use 10+ TB drives, care about scrubbing, or plan to replicate datasets.

Does Upgrading to 2.5 GbE or 10 GbE Change the Recommendation?

Absolutely.

On faster networks:

  • SSD pools begin to show real performance differences.
  • ZFS caching becomes transformative.
  • Btrfs compression offers stronger benefits.
  • RAID types (especially striped ones) improve large file throughput.
  • File-system performance can exceed network bandwidth rather than being capped by it.

If you plan to upgrade soon, it’s wise to choose a format that aligns with your future state.

When picking a storage format for your home NAS, it’s easy to get caught up in benchmarks and theoretical speeds. Yet in a typical 1 GbE environment, the network—not the drive array, and not the file system—is the primary bottleneck.

This means your choice should emphasize reliability, data integrity, snapshots, resource usage, and long-term manageability, rather than chasing raw speed.

  • XFS for maximum simplicity
  • Btrfs for features and flexibility
  • ZFS for robust data protection and power-user control

All three are excellent, but your network determines how much their performance matters.

More