08-07-2025, 10:11 AM
Hi there,
Thanks for the detailed breakdown — really helpful to get the full picture. Sounds like you’ve done a great job building a resilient setup over the years, and I agree, now’s a good time to modernize with the hardware starting to show signs of failure and your needs evolving.
Based on your $1200 budget, here’s what I’d suggest:
Main NAS Upgrade
The Synology DS923+ is a great choice for your use case. It brings:
• Support for Btrfs with Snapshots for better ransomware protection
• Active Backup for Business for your kids’ PCs (great for full-system backups)
• iPhone photo backup via Synology Photos (auto uploads work well)
• Expandability via NVMe for caching or fast storage
• Support for 10GbE if you upgrade your network later
If you want something quieter and slightly more compact (but still with similar software functionality), the DS423+ is also a solid alternative. You’d be trading the upgrade path (no 10GbE) and a bit of performance, but for pure backup/photo/media tasks, it’s still very capable.
That said, avoid the DS423 or DS223 series, as those lack the Plus series features like Docker, full PC backup, and virtual machine support.
Drives
Since one of your goals is reliability and off-site rotation, I’d recommend:
• 2x 8TB WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf to start with in RAID 1 or SHR-1
• Add more later as your needs grow
• For hot data or frequent access, consider adding NVMe SSDs later as a separate storage pool if needed
Cloud Backup
You’re spot on: Synology C2 is the most seamless if you want easy integration. It works natively with Hyper Backup, and you can encrypt the backups client-side. Backblaze B2 is a bit cheaper per TB but requires a bit more setup. Since you’re hovering around 2.5TB, Synology C2’s 3TB tier might be a comfortable fit without much overhead.
Bonus Option — Use the QNAP as a Cold Backup
If the TS-231 still works (after replacing the failed drive), you can repurpose it as a second backup target. Just push encrypted Hyper Backups from the new Synology to the QNAP every week. You already have your offsite drive rotation strategy dialled in, which still applies here.
Thanks for the detailed breakdown — really helpful to get the full picture. Sounds like you’ve done a great job building a resilient setup over the years, and I agree, now’s a good time to modernize with the hardware starting to show signs of failure and your needs evolving.
Based on your $1200 budget, here’s what I’d suggest:
Main NAS Upgrade
The Synology DS923+ is a great choice for your use case. It brings:
• Support for Btrfs with Snapshots for better ransomware protection
• Active Backup for Business for your kids’ PCs (great for full-system backups)
• iPhone photo backup via Synology Photos (auto uploads work well)
• Expandability via NVMe for caching or fast storage
• Support for 10GbE if you upgrade your network later
If you want something quieter and slightly more compact (but still with similar software functionality), the DS423+ is also a solid alternative. You’d be trading the upgrade path (no 10GbE) and a bit of performance, but for pure backup/photo/media tasks, it’s still very capable.
That said, avoid the DS423 or DS223 series, as those lack the Plus series features like Docker, full PC backup, and virtual machine support.
Drives
Since one of your goals is reliability and off-site rotation, I’d recommend:
• 2x 8TB WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf to start with in RAID 1 or SHR-1
• Add more later as your needs grow
• For hot data or frequent access, consider adding NVMe SSDs later as a separate storage pool if needed
Cloud Backup
You’re spot on: Synology C2 is the most seamless if you want easy integration. It works natively with Hyper Backup, and you can encrypt the backups client-side. Backblaze B2 is a bit cheaper per TB but requires a bit more setup. Since you’re hovering around 2.5TB, Synology C2’s 3TB tier might be a comfortable fit without much overhead.
Bonus Option — Use the QNAP as a Cold Backup
If the TS-231 still works (after replacing the failed drive), you can repurpose it as a second backup target. Just push encrypted Hyper Backups from the new Synology to the QNAP every week. You already have your offsite drive rotation strategy dialled in, which still applies here.