First Nas

[Enquiries]

I would really like some advice on my first NAS - I am focussed on redundancy and data integrity (to prevent bit rot etc). Storage would be for a variety of file types, with an emphasis on music files - I have a large flac colleciton from Bandcamp and CD rips.

Therefore I would be interested in streaming this music from the NAS and would be backing it up to a hard drive as well.

There are so many options, so would really appreciate advice on number of drives, storage format and RAID options.

Many thanks,

James

[ed]

Thanks for reaching out — great to hear you’re planning your first NAS. Since your focus is on redundancy and data integrity (bit rot protection especially), plus a big FLAC collection, here’s how I’d look at it:

Drives and Capacity
For your 12–18TB target, the sweet spot today is 4 × 6TB or 4 × 8TB drives. That gives you flexibility with RAID while staying within budget. If you want fewer drives, you could go 2 × 12TB in RAID 1, but 4 bays will give you better resilience and expandability.

Redundancy and RAID
• RAID 6 or SHR-2 (Synology): Best balance of protection and usable space. With 4 × 8TB drives, you’d get around 16TB usable, with 2-drive failure protection.
• RAID 5 or SHR-1: A little more space, but only 1-drive failure protection.
• ZFS (TrueNAS / QNAP QuTS hero): Brings in checksumming and scrubbing, which directly helps with bit rot prevention. Needs more RAM, but worth it if data integrity is the top priority.

File System and Integrity
• Synology’s Btrfs offers snapshots, checksums for metadata, and easy recovery tools. Very user-friendly.
• TrueNAS with ZFS is stricter and heavier on resources, but has full data checksums and scrubbing for bit rot.
• QNAP QuTS hero also uses ZFS, with a more NAS-style GUI than TrueNAS.

Music Streaming
For FLAC and Bandcamp/CD rips, transcoding is minimal (FLAC is usually direct-play). Synology Audio Station, Plex, or something like Navidrome (via Docker) will handle streaming easily. Even a modest CPU is enough since it’s not 4K transcoding.

System Recommendations
• Synology DS923+ (4-bay): Easiest setup, SHR/SHR-2 support, expandable later. Strong data safety with Btrfs.
• QNAP TS-464 or TS-664: 4 or 6 bays, more hardware options, ZFS option with QuTS hero if you want bit-rot protection built-in.
• TrueNAS DIY build: Best for absolute integrity, but requires more tinkering and learning. Your budget (£1000–2000) makes it viable if you’re willing to DIY.

Backup
Great to hear you’re already thinking about backing up to an external HDD. Remember the golden rule: RAID is not backup. For music especially, I’d set up a scheduled backup from NAS to an external USB drive once a week or month.