Oddbean new post about login | logout Any NAS recommendations?
I recommend sourcing quality parts and building your own
I have two Synology NAS (4 bays) and one Unraid server I built myself… the Synology systems are so nice from a plug and play perspective. Also run my PLEX server on the Synology which has been awesome. DS423+
Pretty happy with my 6 bay Asustor running Truenas.
Synology if you want easy mode (and SHR is great for expanding disks over time). TrueNAS scale if you’re comfortable building a server and forgoing a bit of flexibility with the storage pool, with the benefit of some great open source functionality. TrueNAS would end up being cheaper, but it’s worth looking into SHR in my opinion before making a decision. https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/RAID_calculator
A small Linux server, two external HDDs with software RAID. Seriously. I used to use Synology NAS even though I had to use an NFS mount to run my own install of nextcloud. I eventually threw it out when I had multiple drives fail at once. So much fewer issues, and easier to configure , with a simple Ubuntu box.
same but with OMV as OS
Coincidentally, also turris omnia or maybe turris MOX (configurable one). I'm not sure from the top of my head if MOX has something more for NAS but I think so.
My synology 4 bay has served well, but its going to depend on what you are after. Frankly I appreciate the work it does in the background to keep my data whole, ive had enough trouble losing my kernel on linux and other bizarre issues to trust my own computer skills with doing it the hard way; I slot in a new drive, I assign it to the main pool through the UI, and it does everything else to configure it for raid 5.
I have no doubt everything you said is correct, and it is underpowered if you need to do anything more than streaming videos in their native format (transcoding is a total waste of time), but depending on what you need it for its not a terrible pick. Its proved to be as/more reliable for me than anything else I have.