As a motion GFX artist, I have a 2014 Lacie 5Big as my main RAID storage. It's 20TB total, with 16TB RAID5 (12TB total after RAID) across 4 drives, and the 5th drive being a hot swappable Time Machine backup and RAID backup slot. The 16TB RAID I backup critical data to an 8TB drive, less critical work I backup to a 4TB drive, and I have another 8TB Time Machine backup of my workstation (M1 Max MacBook Pro). I also have a DS118 which I use for syncing google drive for client delivery and Plex.

As it's 11 years old, I was thinking it's time to update my main storage, and use the old Lacie as a RAID backup. I thought a NAS as I now run a mobile workstation rather than a desktop workstation like I did from 2013 to 2022.

As I've enjoyed the DS118, I always imagined I'd get a 5 or 6 bay Synology NAS once they were updated, but the latest releases have taken so long, and been poorly received, there may be much better options now.

Any advice appreciated.

Hello,

I watch your Youtube channels and I like your Nas specialities. I am very frustrated with Synology because they have changed their sales strategy to third party hard drives, really stupid of them and they are going to lose customers. Already synology hard drives are horribly expensive!

Already I look in the list of third party compatible hard drives and I have a doubt that they no longer update their list of third party hard drives. I can't find any of the models on the IT component sites. I'm afraid that if I buy hard drives that aren't in the tier HDD list, there will be alerts all the time. I like the Dsm system. I looked at another brand Qnap TS-473A-8G or QNAP TS-673A-8G, what did you think? Qnap is very open to third party hard drives but I don't really like their system.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards

Aurélien

Hi, Im currently looking for a NAS data backup usenet plex server + local AI +home assistant

May need 2 seperate sys for NAS & Local LLM

Can use a m.2 sata expansion board or a pcie m.2 / sata expansion board

Bare minimum:
12GB ddr4 RAM
1*M.2 nvme
2* sata for hdd
Attach mic
2.5GbE
2* USB 3.1
N105

Preferred specs:
2* lddr5 ram slots
2-4 pcie 4 m.2 nvme
M.2 e-key or wifi/BT
3+ SATA for HHD
1-2 PCIE 3x4 to 4×8 or 1 pcie 3/4x4-8 +1 pcie mini
Attach mic
3 usb 3.1 10gps
N105

Currenly found: the friendly elec CN3585 nas kit 4 * m2 for $150:
Gmtek g9 N150 12gb soldered ram $199;
Cwwk 8;
MIC730AI-2003T jetson agx xavier 1*mPCle (Signal: PCle+USB) 1*PCle x8 slot (x8 link) sata 3 adapter with 256 sd for $300;
Rogue x2 connect tech carrier board+jetson agx xavier 32gb 1*m.2 m key 1*pcie 3x8 slot only 1gbe no idea how to attach mic
And anything else you may recommend.

Hello,

Thanks for the great content. I’ve noticed that when it comes to Thunderbolt DAS solutions, there’s often no mention of whether the device actually uses PCIe tunneling or if it’s just relying on UASP like a regular USB device. This may seem like a small technical detail, but it makes or breaks a TB NAS.

Proper TB solutions do typically use PCIe tunneling, which allows them to attach a full SATA controller (via a PCIe-to-SATA bridge) directly to the host system. This allows the OS to see the SATA devices as if they were attached to an internal PCIe SATA controller... and this means full AHCI, RAID and SMART support, no USB-like abstraction or limitations, the OS uses the exact same driver stack as an internal PCIe SATA controller for maximum performance and reliability.

Including this in your reviews would add a lot of value and help clarify things for users trying to compare and decide on products.

Looking for an additional HDD for my desktop PC. It's to store 4k video, so large sizes ideally.

I have a Seagate EXOS X20 20TB, and its noisy. Audible when reading data; especially noticeable when the room is quiet.

Unfortunately I understand that most large server drives are noisy. Small drives, under 10TB are impractical for me. So what are my ideal options, when looking for a large drive, that is not very expensive, but also has relatively lower noise.

I have an existing mini-itx pc, with sfx PSU. I'm looking to build a home storage system, to manage my wife's photos and our films (some light gaming too).

Space is an issue where we are, with living in a flat, what are good nsa mini-itx cases, that support ssds, with support for gpus?

I am not a fan of patch cables within the case, for psu. So, if that could be avoid would be a great bonus.

Thanks in advance.

Note that this is a cross-post from Reddit r/zfs (I would link but am not allowed).  The NAS Compares YouTube channel is what helped me make my decision to purchase a UGREEN (thank you!).

I have a relatively new UGREEN DXP2800. This model has the onboard 32G EMMC storage, 2 NVME slots, and 2 SATA bays.  From a hardware standpoint, I:

• Disabled the EMMC storage and watchdog in BIOS
  
• Populated one of the NVME slots with a 1TB Samsung 990 for the OS
  
• Populated the two SATA bays with 6TB WD Red drives (WD6005FFBX-68CASN0)
  
• Upgraded the single SO-DIMM RAM from 8G to 16G (Crucial DDR5 4800)
  

What is the best setup and how to setup a Plex Media Server. I would like to share video files outside my network with family. All my videos are mkv hevc 1080p or lower. No 4K files. Up to 5 people at a time. I setup a windows 10 computer as a Plex Media Server and I have issues with it. I wanted to create a NAS Server system. Thank you

I have a DS1522+ with four 6TB drives in RAID5 (about 4 years of use). The system is now at 85% capacity (time to think about expanding).
I see two possibilities:
1. The obvious: a 6TB hd.
2. A larger hd (thinking of a future expansion).

I know that in both cases the gain in TB will be the same. But it seems to me that the second option is more advantageous in terms of future increase.
Am I right?

I need a Motherboard that will support 6 to 8 hard drives.A graphics card, maybe 128 to 256 GB error correcting memory, low power consumption. This is what I have found so far. A2SDi-4C-HLN4F but with the number of drives I require and the need for trans coding it falls short. Any help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.