NAS upgrade

[Enquiries]

Hello,
I currently have a Raid5 in my PC, its been running on 5x 6TB WDC WD80EFZX-68UW8N0 drives.

I finally hit the storage wall and without too much research, bought an additional 3x 6x TB drives WDC WD80EFPX-68C4ZN0 drives.

Only to discover, my Motherboard has 8 Sata ports, but only 6 can support the Raid. Furthermore, I attempted to just add 1 of the new drives, only to be told by the Intel RST software that the volume cannot be extended because the number of clusters will exceed the maximum number of clusters support by the file system.

So i now have a delemar as you can imagine. At this stage I am thinking of backing up the data, and then re-building the raid into a NAS, but my concern is the Qnap TS-873A is somewhat 4+ years old now, and at $2.3k australian, seems a bit rough. Really hope you can provide some guidance on what the best ladder is to climb out of this mess. Further more the retail i bought the 3x HDD, has a terrible returns policy so now I'm stuck with them (1k

[ed]

At this point, migrating to a NAS is definitely the smarter long-term play. It will give you better scalability, more redundancy options, and allow you to get away from software RAID limitations. Since you’re already working with eight 6TB drives (5 existing + 3 new), that puts you in the 48TB raw capacity range — so let’s look at a few solid NAS directions:

1. NAS Recommendations for 8x 3.5” HDD Setup

If you want something that feels modern and still hits that prosumer-performance sweet spot, consider:
• QNAP TVS-h874 (i5 or i7 models) – Newer than the 873A, supports ZFS (QuTS Hero), has PCIe expandability, and allows GPU/NIC upgrades. Not cheap, but far more future-proof than the 873A.
• QNAP TS-873A – Still a capable unit, but yes, it’s older now and only offers PCIe Gen 3. If you’re finding it at $2.3K AUD, I’d look hard at whether the h874 is available locally for just a bit more — the jump in hardware is worth it.
• Synology DS1821+ or DS1823xs+ – Great Btrfs systems, more polished UI, but you’ll want to check compatibility with your drives (Synology is fussy with third-party disks on newer units). Worth it if you don’t mind sticking to their ecosystem or using workarounds.
• Terramaster T9-450 or T8-423 – Budget-friendly options with solid performance, and they work with mixed or third-party drives more easily. Software isn’t as refined as Synology, but a good balance.

2. Software Considerations

If you’re open to DIY:
• TrueNAS SCALE or UnRAID running on a custom-built box might be the most cost-effective and flexible route. You could even reuse your current system and just switch to a proper NAS OS, assuming it supports all your drives.
• Both platforms support software RAID/ZFS with no vendor lock-in, and can grow with your needs.

3. What You Can Do Right Now
• Back up everything you can. RAID is not a backup, especially during migration.
• Avoid trying to expand your current Intel RST array further — the limits you’ve hit are a warning sign.
• Keep the 3 new WD80EFPX drives. They’re still excellent NAS drives (basically rebranded Red Plus) and will serve you well in a proper NAS setup.

If your budget is up to $5K AUD, you’re in a good position to pick up a proper 8-bay NAS (or even 10-bay if you’re planning for growth) and migrate your data over safely, with proper redundancy.