Choosing a NAS

[Enquiries]

Dear NASCompare Team,

I'm looking for advice on selecting the right NAS for my setup. I currently own three 4TB WD Red SN700 NVMe SSDs, and I’d like to build a system that can fully utilize them.

Here are my key requirements:

The NAS should support NVMe SSDs not just for caching, but as primary storage.

I plan to configure the drives in RAID 5 for redundancy and performance.

I’d like the option to expand with two additional NVMe SSDs in the future (total of 5 drives).

Ideally, the NAS would include at least 2,5GbE or 10GbE connectivity to take advantage of the SSD speeds.

Compatibility with WD Red SN700 drives is essential.

The system should be reliable for 24/7 operation, potentially for virtualization, media streaming, or Docker workloads.

If there are any models that meet these criteria—or if you recommend a solution involving PCIe expansion cards or other configurations—I’d greatly appreciate your guidance.

Best regards,
Zsolt

[ed]

Hi Zsolt, for an all-NVMe setup that allows full use of your WD Red SN700 drives as primary storage in RAID 5, your best options are currently the QNAP TBS-h574TX and the UGREEN DXP480T Plus. Both support NVMe drives as main storage rather than cache, which is still uncommon among NAS systems.

The QNAP TBS-h574TX has five NVMe slots, supports ZFS RAID 5, and includes both 10GbE and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, giving you very high transfer speeds and flexible expansion later. It’s ideal for your virtualization and Docker workloads but tends to cost more.

The UGREEN DXP480T Plus is cheaper and also supports NVMe primary pools through UGOS Pro, but it only has four NVMe slots and 2.5GbE networking. You could start with this model and expand storage later using a Thunderbolt or USB4 expansion chassis if you need five drives total.

If you want to keep costs low while maintaining flexibility, the UGREEN is the most affordable route. If you want the most robust and future-proof option, the QNAP TBS-h574TX remains the strongest pick.