Hi Robbie,

I am in the market for my first NAS for personal use. Although I consider myself tech savvy, it is always difficult to make 'apples-to-apples' comparisons without a lot of effort (which you do really well - thanks). I am still a little conflicted, having narrowed my choices (preferences) down to something like the Synology 920; Asustor 5304/6404; or QNAP T-453.

My use case is in two parts. The primary driver is data consolidation, protection and security as I want to collate and assure all the data I have on multiple devices including a bunch of old HDDs, phones etc - mainly photos and messages but a lot of academic material and an extensive ebook library.

The second driver is that I am about to do major home renovations and want to up-wire the house to incorporate distributed media access services, surveillance and suchlike. Having a device that can act as a home firewall, productivity hub and even hosting server is also within considerations.

I have a preference for "do it once, do it right" and am happy to have a higher initial investment for something I won't have to replace anytime soon. On another note, some of the brands advertise a "game like interface" which puts me off a bit. I am a traditional Windows/MAC user (and trainer) but have never been a gamer. I also detest Apple's iPhone OS and interface; and barely tolerate Android (which I've more or less had to do since the demise of Windows mobile).

Overall, I find myself leaning toward the Synology 920+ but have concerns over their limited interfacing and I/O options; then I question if this is really a concern?

I'd be interested in hearing your POV and any commentary you might add around potential candidates.

Again, thanks for your site, it is a valuable resource which I will certainly recommend to others,

Cheers

First let me say thanks so much. With the aid of your videos I was able to pick the best NAS system for me and I was able to set it up from your instructional videos. What I am trying to do now is set up a VPN on my QNAP system. Now QNAP has an app called QVPN, but it seems rather overwhelming for my minimal understanding of all that it offers and I was wondering if you had a video walk through for that app. Again, thanks so much for your channel. Not only did i set up my own system but I was able to help a friend get his going.

Jason

Hello NasCompares,

Please, I need help regarding some confusion I have regarding the internet and network switch for a 10gbe ecosystem. I recently bought a QNAP TS-453D along with 2 12TB Ironwolf HDDs. My plan is to set up the NAS to be used to video edit from and also backup video and photo files as an archive. The confusion I have is that I don't understand how exactly to obtain 10gbe speeds or if I even can. Even after watching a bunch of your YouTube videos (as well as others), reading through websites such as yours, and "googling" online, I still haven't seen a clear answer on this. Youtubers claim that now they can finally upgrade to 10gbe even though they've had access too such internet speed for years. Does this mean they've been paying for 10gbe speeds from their internet provider for no reason?

I have Verizon Fios gigabit internet speed. Am I able to obtain 10gbe connectivity from this or is there no reason to buy a switcher that supports ports above 1gbe? I looked on the Verizon website and it does not seem like they offer a faster plan than my gigabit ethernet, so I do not know how other people are achieving their 10gbe speeds. I looked through your 2019 and 2020 recommended switchers, should I get one of those 10gbe ones or just get a cheap 1gbe switch? The four ethernet ports on my Verizon fios provided router (G3100) are taken up by family, besides the single one that I am using. I should be fine using that single port to connect my own personal switch to and then connect my PC and NAS to correct? How about if I connect 2-3 gaming systems and a laptop to the switch as well. Is that fine or would I lose bandwidth by clogging up that single port (from router to switcher) if I am simultaneously running 2 - 4 different connected devices?

I definitely appreciate any insight you can offer me as to what my best set-up solution is and what to buy regarding switcher recommendations and my internet speed. Such as, also, if I should purchase a QNap 10gbe & ssd pcie adapter. Or, perhaps I should just use the two included 2.5gbe ports on the nas and link aggregate connecting those both to the switch? Or, if my max speeds are indeed 1 gigabit, then I could try out one port from nas to the switch and the other connected directly to my PC for both direct and internet access to the NAS? Lastly, I do not require a switch with too many ports. A lot of the 10gbe switchers I see have a ton of ports. I just really need for my PC and NAS - which may possibly use two ports if I link aggregate the two 2.5 connections. The game systems and laptop I would only really connect if the recommended switch mandatorily has those extra ports.

Thanks so much for your time and any help you can provide me. It has been exhausting trying to figure out answers to these questions myself. I will make sure to donate something for your efforts through your "buy me a coffee" donation link.

Thanks again and take care <3,

- Miguel

I have a 2-bay drive and have no room for a spare 2.5&quot; SATA SSD I have. Can I hook up a SATA SSD externally to the USB 3.x slot and still gain benefits for SSD Caching or is it pointless unless the SSD is hooked directly to a drive bay or PCI slot?

Thank you.

Hi. I really need help on this one. I'm so stuck. I have a QNAP TVS 872XT with 4 X 4tb drives inside configured as RAID 10. As I'm starting to run out of space I decided to purchase another two 4tb drives to expand the array. I have powered down the NAS and installed the two new drives. Now that I have booted up, logged in and gone to storage/snapshot. Then to manage and clicked on expand, the option to expand is not available. I can see the drives listed as free. I'm not sure what is happening here, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I need to basically delete the volume and start a new array. Is this correct? I would have thought it was as simple as just adding two drives and expand the array. I would really, really like to avoid starting again and copying over the data, but worat case, if I have to do so, I do have another QNAP NAS TS 431X with an 8TB disk that the TVS 872xt gets backed up from. (Then I'd have to figure out how to restore the backup to the new volume if this is the case)
Realy appreciate any help/support you may be able to give on this one.

I haven't tried yet but was planning on upgrading the storage in the TS 431X with an additional 8tb into a RAID 0, so hopefully that should be a little more straightforward than adding drives to the RAID 10.

As I said any help is greatly appreciated as always. I have tried to search for a solution without success.
Thanks in advance.

Hello, here is a strange one for you but i have my reasons for it. I purchased a QNAP 252D NAS last year and has been great with 2 Western Digital reds inside 3tb each. I recently swapped them out for 6tb Seagate Ironwolfs each 6tb and installed the Q2 10gbe M2 card without fitting SSDs. This is generating alot of heat and when i open the cabinet door the NAS is inside, the NAS is too hot for my liking. The M2 is for QTier at a later date but i was wondering if i can get a 4tb SSD and swap out one of the Seagates for it with the view to swap out the other at a later date. I believe RAID 1 will not be possible but can they just be separate with the Seagate backing up or cloning the 4TB SSD until i can purchase a second SSD ?

I have several aging devices that I've accumulated over the years (2012 - 2015) Apple TC 1 tb,- TC 2TB, Mycloud 3Tb) and before things go south I want to consolidate to a single NAS - thinking Synology Ds720+

USE case - backups for 3 apple laptops 2 Ipads 2 Iphones and a good size photo and music library.
If I do go synology I'd like to keep one to backup the synology to some extent and I do have a small Icloud storage of 200GB
Thoughts?

Thanks
Ralph

Discuss: Thunderbolt NAS - Before You Buy <br><iframe width='560' height='315' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gxNaiX2BWVo' frameborder='0' allow='accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture' allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hi guys, looking for advice. Trying to find a NAS that can do it all, through all my digging I Would say that I would prefer Synology, but the more I dig, the more I am getting overwhelmed.

I was somewhat settled on the 1621+ or even the 1621xs+ (thank you for the really great reviews on both by the way), but I am at a loss because these units do not have GPU's

This led me to consider the DVA 3221 which also piques my interest. However, I wonder if there is a Synology unit out there, that is current, powerful, fast, can do the deep learning with NVR, has SSD caching, expandable RAM and all the trimmings.

I am really looking for the one NAS to bind them all... does this exist, or is there one that can be modified (easily and without voiding or hurting the unit) to suit this purpose? I would really like to find it if it does exist....

Thanks so much in advance,

WB.

Im starting out and am a first time user. I just got a DS1621 and have DSM installed, but don’t want to make a mistake in setting up the wrong disc configuration.

Personally:
- I currently have run out of Apple’s 2TB cloud storage, and also have tons more personal photos and videos on Amazon and Google Photos. Probably around 3TB altogether.
- I have movies and music backed up on external 4TB drives.

Business:
- Looking to have files, contacts, chat, and lots of varying documents.


My question:
I currently have a 6-bay, but only have 4 - 6TB HDDs. I went ahead and got the NVMEs populated for caching, but don’t have the money now for those other 2 slots. I am leaning towards SHR so I don’t have to worry about purchasing the same brand and model drives, but am realizing that SHR is similar to RAID 5 and SHR2 is equivalent to RAID 6. However, on a 6-bay I am seeing a lot of un-used space with SHR2, and am really debating its usage.

I like the thought of 2 discs of safety being that I don’t have an affordable backup solution. I know you say that a NAS is not a backup, and that we should always back up to cloud and locally, but both seem pretty pricey. I could use the old 2 - 4TB externals to backup some info, but it obviously won’t back everything up.

What RAID or SHR configuration would you recommended? Am I freaking out too much in concerning myself with a possible disc failure and wish I would have gone with SHR2 over SHR? Do you have any other suggestions that I may have not looked at or considered to properly set everything well the first time?

Thanks in advance!