Interested in NAS, not sure what to do

[Enquiries]

Hello! For context: I'm a huge tech geek - I love to tinker. I'm an avid home assistant user, have it running on a rpi4 and have most of my home's smart devices connected to it. I'm a software engineer by trade so I can get my hands dirty with configuration if necessary, but would prefer less ideally (set-and-forget like HA would be nice).

I've been floating the idea of getting a NAS for years but haven't had a real reason to. Not until i got back into photography, which now my PC is running out of disk space and creating an immediate need for a NAS.

Other things I can see myself doing - Plex w/ transcode capability (which I understand limits my hardware choice), hosting random apps (/r/selfhosted), migrating my home assistant instance to it, running pi-hole, storage file browser, etc.

Expandability is nice - been eying 4 drive. Expandable ram would be nice too; and replaceable boot storage too

[ed]

Thanks for getting in touch and for sharing all that context, it really helps. With your mix of needs — photography storage, Plex with transcoding, running a few self‑hosted apps, and maybe moving Home Assistant and Pi‑hole over — you’re absolutely the right kind of user to benefit from a NAS.

Given your budget around $500 and your preference for expandability, here’s what I’d recommend:

If you want something more set‑and‑forget with a polished OS, easy app installs, and low maintenance, the QNAP TS‑464 is the best fit. It’s a 4‑bay unit with an Intel Celeron CPU that supports Plex hardware transcoding, runs QTS (which is more versatile than Synology’s DSM when it comes to Docker and self‑hosted apps), has upgradable RAM (up to 16GB officially, more unofficially), and two NVMe slots that can be used for cache or additional storage. It has a replaceable boot drive (the internal flash is separate from your storage). You’ll find it slightly above $500 new, but worth stretching for.

The Synology DS423+ is another option, with similar hardware, very polished software, and easy to use. It’s arguably better for a true “set‑and‑forget” approach, but DSM lacks Plex hardware transcoding support now and is a bit more restrictive on apps.

If you’re open to going a little more DIY, you could also consider a mini‑PC build or a budget‑friendly 4‑bay chassis running TrueNAS SCALE or Unraid, which would let you really customize everything. Something like a used Dell Optiplex + DAS box or an entry‑level custom build can sometimes hit your budget and give you even more flexibility.

For your use case I’d lean QNAP TS‑464 if you want an appliance‑style NAS you can grow into without too much tinkering, and you’ll still have plenty of scope to play with containers and apps as you like.