Best choices for home use expansion

[AVB]

I currently have ten 3TB drives in a one Vdev RaidZ2 pool. I can fit 12 drives in my box if needed. While I am not out of room yet I can see it coming in the next 18 months or so. My question is: to make future growth the easiest should I reconfigure to three 4 drive RaidZ1 Vdevs so I can do autoexpansion in the future moving each Vdev slowly to 5 or 6TB drives. Or should I look into a larger box and just add another 4,5 or 6 3TB drive Vdev to my current pool? I have an old tower that will hold 16 drives although 6 would be internal and not easily accessible. This is pretty much just a media streamer and backup server. Money is a big consideration in this too.

 

[SweetAndLow]

With the 12 bay case do 2vdevs with 6 drives in raidz2.

With the 16 bay case do 2vdevs with 8 drives in raidz2.

These options will give you a good balance between available space, protection and performance.

 

[jde]

^
This

 

[AVB]

So I'll need six 5TB drives to start with. Well that will take a year so the timing works out. Thanks!