looking for a starter nas setup for my business

[Enquiries]

Hey Nas compares,

Just looking for some advice, I am looking for a started NAS setup.

I do video editing and 3D animation. Looking for 10GbE, also a bit of room for expansion in the long run. So maybe a 8 bay? with maybe x4 8TB HDD to start. with a 2 HDD redundancy.

I am just looking to connect multiple PCs in the long run to the NAS. so I have a central storage.

Also need a decent 10GbE switch.

would you be able to help with what the best brand are to go for?

cheers

Daniel

[ed]

For a video editing and 3D workflow, you’re on the right track aiming for an 8-bay NAS with 10GbE and room to expand. At around £2000 (diskless), here’s what I’d suggest:

1. QNAP TVS-h874X (Intel Core i9 model)
This is the most balanced option for creative professionals. It has 8 SATA bays, dual M.2 NVMe slots for caching or fast project storage, built-in 10GbE, and full support for SMB multichannel. It runs QuTS hero (ZFS), which is ideal for large files and redundancy (RAID-Z2). Performance is strong enough for direct 4K editing and simultaneous workstation access.

2. QNAP TVS-h1288X (if you want more headroom)
A step up in expandability and CPU power, this unit gives you additional PCIe slots, ECC RAM support, and more memory capacity. It’s overkill for most setups but a good investment if you’ll be scaling to 4–6 editors later.

3. Synology DS1825+ (new 2025 model)
A great option if you prefer a simpler interface. It supports 10GbE via an add-in card, NVMe caching, and Synology’s excellent Drive and Active Backup tools. However, Synology’s Btrfs system isn’t as ideal for live editing over a network compared to QNAP’s ZFS for large multiuser workloads.

10GbE Switch Recommendations:
• QNAP QSW-M2116P-2T2S – Managed, quiet, and offers both 10GbE SFP+ and 2.5GbE ports.
• MikroTik CRS310-8G+2S+IN – Excellent value and works well for small studio setups.
• Netgear XS708T – Simple and reliable 8-port 10GbE switch.

If you start with 4×8TB drives in RAID 6 (2-drive redundancy), you’ll have about 16TB usable, and you can add drives later without rebuilding.

QNAP gives you the best mix of speed, expandability, and video-oriented performance in this range. Synology is easier to manage but less flexible for live editing workloads.