I have a QNAP TS251+ - almost seven years old now. Currently running two WD Gold 1TB drives, mirrored. hitting my limit on storage. Just purchased two new WD Gold 4T drives and looking at upgrade NAS. While I have some tech skills and background, don't want to spend much time on it. 1 camera on my network. Plex Server. General file backup from my Windows PC and my OneDrive. I hesitate to purchase a QNAP right now as their 2 bays seem rather dated. Terramaster? Asustor? have ruled out UGreen for various reasons (also no surveillance app. I can put off increasing my storage and upgrading for a little while longer - so no huge rush. But I wonder if I should wait for a new QNAP 2 bay to come out? I'm guessing this year as it has been three now since they have had a good refresh? Thanks for your help in advance.

Eric

I sent something earlier, this is a continuation. I really like the Synology DS223j from what I read. I like the sofetware, especially Name Recognition. I have now spent a lot of time reviewing the products and I amd begining to think , for the money, the DS224+ sounds good. Will it take an 8 TB per slot? Does it have RAID... and there was something about active backup? Does it have all the software of the DS 223j. A lot of folk do not seem to like the DS224. Is the '+' Better. For the money, is there somethingesle I should consider. A suggestion. When you start your review, can you mention the approx date. You like coffee? I take it you are in the UK. Is there a Tim Hortons nearby?

Watched your revivew betwen Synology DS233j and TerraMaster F2-212. (May have erred on names, but doing this from memory.) Before watching I was ready to purchase the Synology “j”. But then you almost talked me into the TM. What would be a good compromise? I want the software of Synology because of Face rconigtion, and the expansion and back up abilites of the TM.

From Canada

Dave
b.dave@mac.com

Hi all - after running out of Google storage space, instead of paying them a pittance more I've decided to pay a lot more to stand up my own NAS/home server. I've gone deep down the rabbit hole, but am still feeling choice paralysis for a system I want to last a decade. Here's my use cases:

1. File storage and backup (consolidating all my misc external HDDs and setting up automated Time Machine backups for my and my wife's Macs)
2. Photo backup & management (replacing Google Photos and creating redundancy to iCloud photos. I'm OK if this is 3rd party (e.g. Immich) instead of 1st party)
3. Lightweight web server (hosting a personal website that would get very low traffic)
4. VPN hosting for remote access
5. Home Assistant hosting
6. Media Server (I listed this last, because I don't currently have a media library, and won't start building one tomorrow, but I'd like to build one over time... via CD/Blu-Ray rips, of course.    Plex or Jellyfin, start with Audio, then Direct Playback video, then Transcoding as needed)
7. Mail server? (I'd like to have a personal and secure non-Gmail account, but I've been a bit hesitant about this due to security concerns)

My contenders (unless you tell me otherwise):
1. Synology DS1522+: The leading candidate, only held back because it can't do native transcoding, and it's the most expensive. Maybe in a year or so I'd get an Nvidia Shield or similar device as a Plex server and use the NAS purely for media storage, but that just adds to the $$. Attracted to the strong software enabling nearly all uses cases (including mail server) with security and confidence
2. QNAP TS-464: Cheaper than Synology, with transcoding capabilities. I'm relatively tech savvy, though new to NAS, so I'm confident I could figure it out. Would QuTS be seamless enough for my non-technical wife?
3. DIY - Something like the Aoostar WTR Pro, even loaded with RAM is cheaper still. This would make standing up all the services I want a real deep-dive. I'm up for learning, but ongoing maintenance isn't something I want to spend hours a month on...

I'm running an Eero6 mesh network, so limited to 1Gbps for now, but future-proofing would be nice. With any choice I'd probably start by maxing RAM and getting a pair of 10-12TB Ironwolfs (target budget <$1k-1.2k).

I've watched all the NC vids, but a lot can change in tech in a few years. Maybe there isn't a bad choice among them, but help me decide! Thanks!

Dear NASCompares team

My family and our small businesses have been using Synology products for 10-12 years now.
We've hit our next lifecycle replacement point and are in need of more storage space.
I would like to replace our 9x ds916 with 2x DS2422.

Does the DS2422 work with 12x 18tb HC550 and 12x 20tb HC560?

I would like to consolidate and double our existing drives (6x 18tb HX550 and 6x 20tb HC560) into two DS2422 devices for backup and geographical redundancy. As such it is essential to know if our drives will work with the new devices. We got a bit scared off by internet stories of Synology devices no longer working with WS Ultrastar drives. We heard similar stories from the local IT shop where we usually buy our hard drives and synology devices and they suggested we pick qnap.

Thanks in advance

Hello,

First, thank you for all the very useful information.
I describe my situation. I work with photo's. (photo libraries, editing, ...). These are large files.
I have two work stations. My home, where there is ethernet connection (and a wifi 300mbs, 150mbs up) And an external, remote work place where there is only a wifi signal (limited to 100mbs down, 50mbs up).
I want the file acces and transfer as fast as possible. I have understand from your info that a synology with nvme for caching will speed up things. Also the use of sata ssd's in the bays. (Or an Nvme as set storage disk).
I will be limited by the up and download speed on the remote location. Will it then still make a difference to add a 10gbe port? As I still have to acces my home network, it is probably a little gain?
At home my router has a 10gbe port also my macs have 10gbe ports.
Besides the fast project disk and will use the nas as cold storage and back up with some HD in the other bays.

Thank you very much!

Im thinking abt getting a 990 EVO Plus for my TERRAMASTER F4-424 would this be overkill if so what m2 would you recommmend instead?

I have a large physical movie library with an excellent player (Panasonic UB9000). But I recently began to collect digital films. I also have a small but growing collection of high res music (DSDs mostly). I expect to run either Plex Server or Kodi on a Mac Mini. So I don’t think I need a server with transcoding capabilities. Besides, most of my playback will be on my TV. I will also be running Roon Server on the Mac Mini. I don’t expect many of the digital files to be 4K. Any help would be greatly appreciated,

I am a pure home/family NAS user.

I back up a few Macs with Time Machine, store pictures on the NAS, and have a folder with important documents in Synology cloud. (instead of iCloud or google drive)

Do I need SSD cache?

Thanks for your advice

Dear team
I hope you can help us with 2 hopefully easy inquiries.
Today our family uses 3x DS916 NAS devices for our family data (e.g., photos, family movies, data backup etc.).
We would like to increase our storage capacity. When we bought the devices we set them up with 2x 8tb raid 1 and then we added another 2x 16tb raid 1.
1. the DX513 is no longer around and we'd like to know if the DX517 is compatible with our DS916 devices, s owe can buy 3 expansion devices for each NAS. Then we'd like to know if we can buy standard drives (our preference would be for 24x Ultrastar DC HC590 24TB in SHR mode for usage with the DX517)
2. As an alternative we found some good offers on some older DS1821+ devices, but again we cannot find any information if they would work with Ultrastar DC HC590 24TB in SHR mode as the official compatibility list is very small. Could you help us clarify this point or does the DS1821 only works with a very limited list of enterprise hard drives?
kostas and eleni