Beginning NAS journey

[Enquiries]

Beginner NAS user above with requirements for document/photo storage, AV media streaming and support connectivity to multiple computers locally as well as remotely. Must be capable of supporting growth, either via system upgrades or daisy chaining.. I'm leaning toward the QNAP -TS-664 because of security concerns and possibly running TrueNAS

[ed]

Thanks for getting in touch, and good to hear you’re thinking things through carefully before jumping in. Starting with NAS can be a bit overwhelming at first, but you're asking all the right questions — and you're already thinking ahead in terms of growth and remote access, which is key.

The QNAP TS-664 is a solid choice and definitely ticks a lot of the boxes for your needs:

6 bays gives you plenty of room to hit that 100TB target over time, especially using high-capacity drives.

Dual 2.5GbE ports offer decent local transfer speeds and can be aggregated if needed.

You’ve also got the option to expand using QNAP’s official expansion units later on, which is ideal if you don’t want to start from scratch in a few years.

You mentioned possibly running TrueNAS, which is doable, but it’s worth flagging that QNAP’s hardware — while capable — isn’t really designed with TrueNAS in mind out of the box. You’d likely have to wipe the internal OS and install manually, which is fine if you’re comfortable with that level of DIY, but it does mean you lose QNAP’s built-in apps and support.

If you're dead set on ZFS and open-source flexibility, a small form-factor PC with ECC RAM support (like an ASRock Rack board or something like the Minisforum MS-01) might give you more long-term flexibility and better compatibility with TrueNAS. That route takes more setup but gives you full control.

That said, if your focus is fast setup, stable backups, media streaming, and local/remote access — and you want to avoid spending too much time on the technical side — I think the TS-664 is still one of the best turnkey systems in your budget. You can always shift to a DIY TrueNAS box down the line if your needs change.