Frustrations after new purchase - Asustor

[ed]

Based on your requirement for both excellent hardware and software quality, I highly recommend considering a Synology NAS. Synology is renowned for offering a combination of robust hardware and user-friendly, feature-rich software, making it a top choice for NAS solutions.

Their hardware is known for its durability, reliability, and build quality, ensuring that your NAS will serve you well for years to come. Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system is widely praised for its intuitive interface, regular updates, and extensive app ecosystem, making it easy to set up and manage your NAS while providing a wide range of functionalities.

Synology also provides excellent customer support and has a strong user community, which can be invaluable if you ever need assistance or want to explore the full capabilities of your NAS. Whether you're a home user or a business professional, Synology's hardware and software combination is likely to meet your needs and deliver a smooth and efficient NAS experience.

Ed, thank you for your reply, pretty much what I expected re: Synology.
However can you advise WHICH Synology model?  And, considering my post in the open channel and concerns about Synology and third-party devices, is there a particular synology model or models that offers flexibility with third party hardware?

In my case I own 4 Western Digital 4 TB "Red Nas" drives, brand new for this install.  And 4 Samsung 1 TB nvme SSD "drives."  These will all be, momentarily, removed from the Asustor NAS and available for reinstall in something else.

Is it worth it for me to simply abandon those or try to return or resell, and get all new Synology equipment?

By the way, Amazon has agreed to accept my return of the Asustor and I will be doing so!

DS423+ is a solid choice. But if you need something faster than 1Gbit LAN you can consider ds923+. Or use USB 5GbE adapter. 
Synology accepts Ironwolf and WD Red plus 4TB drives. Their XS series models are more restrictive. There is no real limitation on NVMe SSD though. Unless you want to create NVME storage pool instead of caching. Then you need Synology NVMe.  

Plus series NAS models have a lot of ways and flexibility to use 3rd party components.