Buying a NAS for the home. Big NAS, cheap drives or Cheap NAS, big drives?

[DoubleTap]

At a minimum, I'd like to get 8-12TB of mirrored or redundant storage for family photos, system backups and whatnot.

Not doing plex, storing lots of movies or doing a lot of downloading

I'd like to spend under a grand, but I could do 1200 or so if I need to.
I don't want to build my own - my house has enough tech that I have to maintain including 4 gaming PCs.

Physical size, heat output and noise are factors.

Right now, I'm only considering Synology but if someone wants to make a case for QNAP or something, I'm open minded.

Options:

1. DS718+ (Dual bay, Intel, can add 5 disk dumb chassis) $400 + two 8-12TB NAS drives - so like $1000ish

2. DS1618+ (six bay, NVME cache, slot to add 10GBE) $735 + with six bays, I can start out with small drives and have tons of room to expand and later add 10GBE if I want
This feels like the best options because I'm putting the money into the infrastructure and I could literally run 3x 4TB drives for a long time and be fine.

3. DS620slim 6 bay 2.5" NAS (six X 5TB 2.5" drives is max) $465 + 4TB or 5TB Seagate 2.5" drives - none of which are "NAS" drives, but all of which can often be found for $89-99 if shucked from USB drives. I could make a 20TB array with 2 redundant drives and this thing is really small - again, I could start with 2-3 5TB drives and could even add SSDs later, but it's limited to 1GBE and not expandable. Probably $1100 fully populated.

What if I got a big chassis and just used regular drives in a redundant array - is that really "unsafe" compared to buying the WD Red style drives?

How crazy is it to use 2.5" drives? It seems to me that having a path to 10GBE would make the 1618+ viable for general storage on all the PCs in the house, but I don't know.

Finally, the DS718+ with dual WD Red Pro drives seems like the most secure and sensible move, but it would also max me out and my only upgrade would be replacing the drives or buying the 5 bay add one. Also, I don't like the idea of using two big, $300-400 drives and having to replace one if one craps out. Multiple smaller drives seems like a much more manageable system.

 

[Blue Fox]

You don't need to get such high end models for your use case. A Synology DS420j is $170 new. Add a pair of 12TB shucked drives ($180 each) and you are looking at about $530 before tax. Going up to a 4 bay model and you'd be looking at $660 total.

 

[drescherjm]

You may want to consider at least a partial backup for the NAS while your at it. You would not want a faulty power supply or other NAS failure to destroy all your family photos.

 

[Zedicus]

an Asrock Matx ryzen board and a ryzen APU and some ECC ram can all be had for sub 250$. the benefit here is you can get any case you want and run 8 drives off the bat. upgrade to an HBA easily. and dabble with VMs. there are small cube cases that make this desktop and space friendly.

 

[Joust]

Everyone I know running Synology products are happy with them. While there is value in building your own, it's a good turn-key solution.

 

[DoubleTap]

You don't need to get such high end models for your use case. A Synology DS420j is $170 new. Add a pair of 12TB shucked drives ($180 each) and you are looking at about $530 before tax. Going up to a 4 bay model and you'd be looking at $660 total.

Not interested in their low end, ARM processor units. I'd much rather spend a few hundred dollars more up front for something with more capabilities. I get that people shuck these drives, but are these NAS style drives inside and does that even matter? I'd much rather get a bigger box and run more, smaller drives than fewer, larger drives but as I said, maybe that's not the best way to look at it.

You may want to consider at least a partial backup for the NAS while your at it. You would not want a faulty power supply or other NAS failure to destroy all your family photos.

I have an 8TB Barracuda in a USB case that I will probably use on one of the USB ports on the Synology to keep a backup of critical data.

an Asrock Matx ryzen board and a ryzen APU and some ECC ram can all be had for sub 250$. the benefit here is you can get any case you want and run 8 drives off the bat. upgrade to an HBA easily. and dabble with VMs. there are small cube cases that make this desktop and space friendly.

This is literally the last thing I'm interested in doing. I already need to upgrade some of my kids PCs and deal with them, I don't need to deal with a PC based NAS. Do not want.

The DS1618+ is looking like the right unit for me at this point. It's $300 or so more than the other units, but it has everything and it seems to be the lowest end model with an internal power supply which is a huge plus to me.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-NAS-DiskStation-Diskless/dp/B07CR8RZYY/

Something annoying on Amazon - if you (or at least I) type in DS1618+, you don't see the base model, you see all sorts of preconfigured units for $2000-4500 from some system integrator. It seems like searching again pulls up the base model - not sure what those guys are paying Amazon, but it's obnoxious as hell.

 

[Blue Fox]

Not interested in their low end, ARM processor units. I'd much rather spend a few hundred dollars more up front for something with more capabilities. I get that people shuck these drives, but are these NAS style drives inside and does that even matter? I'd much rather get a bigger box and run more, smaller drives than fewer, larger drives but as I said, maybe that's not the best way to look at it.

I'm not sure what you'll be missing out on with the ARM units? The main thing the Intel models can do is virtualization, but there's very little RAM to go around for that.

As for shucking the drives, yes, they used to actually put WD Reds in there. They switched to 'white label' drives to help prevent people from selling them as such on the secondary market. I personally have a dozen of the 12TB drives in my DS2419+.

 

[DoubleTap]

I'm not sure what you'll be missing out on with the ARM units? The main thing the Intel models can do is virtualization, but there's very little RAM to go around for that.

As for shucking the drives, yes, they used to actually put WD Reds in there. They switched to 'white label' drives to help prevent people from selling them as such on the secondary market. I personally have a dozen of the 12TB drives in my DS2419+.

The intel units support a lot more apps and a lot of the ARM units don't do the btrfs file system - a few of them do, but the intel units can do transcoding and generally have better performance for things like displaying thumbnails, etc.

I'm open to using the shucked drives, especially if they are basically the same as the red drives.

edit: also, at some point, I might setup a 10GBE connection from my PC to the NAS - my ITX system doesn't have a PCIE slot, but it looks like I can get a TB based 10GBE NIC - as I'm the one managing and moving the data, this is appealing to me.

 

[Blue Fox]

Well, can't argue with that point. The shucked drives are very popular for a reason. I've used them for my past 2 NAS and have been very happy with them. No sense in paying 50% more for retail drives.

 

[Zedicus]

The intel units support a lot more apps and a lot of the ARM units don't do the btrfs file system - a few of them do, but the intel units can do transcoding and generally have better performance for things like displaying thumbnails, etc.

I'm open to using the shucked drives, especially if they are basically the same as the red drives.

edit: also, at some point, I might setup a 10GBE connection from my PC to the NAS - my ITX system doesn't have a PCIE slot, but it looks like I can get a TB based 10GBE NIC - as I'm the one managing and moving the data, this is appealing to me.

my bad, you literally described a use case for a computer derived nas. i did not realize thats what you did not want more than anything.

 

[DoubleTap]

my bad, you literally described a use case for a computer derived nas. i did not realize thats what you did not want more than anything.

That was one of the first things I said

I'd like to spend under a grand, but I could do 1200 or so if I need to.
I don't want to build my own - my house has enough tech that I have to maintain including 4 gaming PCs.

This reddit post has me sold:

I love this question — thank you for asking it in such concise form.
Pros of 1019+ — support of single thread hardware video transcode. Most people don’t need it.
Cons of 1019+ —

• only supports NVME SSD. (Stability nightmare)
• external PSU (crap quality, sure indication of cut corners all over the place)
• 2MB only cpu cache
• Does not support ECC memory
• cheap plastic construction. Built to price. Stupid design decisions such as power button right next to the USB port. Memory access through the units sphincter.
• Limited to gigabit networking

Pros of 1618 — all of the above cons inverted

• supports PCIE 3.0 4x lanes in in 8x port
• ECC ram
• 8MB cache CPU — you can feel the difference in UI responsiveness
• internal PSU — indicator of quality and less cables to disconnect and fail
• solid metal construction
• memory accessible on the bottom of the device under metal door

Cons of 1618: slightly more expensive. 15% over cost of the above.
Who should buy 1618? Everyone. 1618 is the hands down best value proposition from synology in terms of feature set and bang for buck.
Who should buy 1019: nobody. It’s the worst value proposition in the entire lineup. It’s a turd. High margin garbage. Pice of shit. Don’t buy it. Synology should not have released it, including 918.
Source: owned both, 918+ (same as 1019 minus extra bay) and 1618 and have other relevant experience and lack of care about downvotes that lets me openly shit on what I think is worth shitting on.
Silicon bugs are noise — they are irrelevant; don’t let that dictate your hardware choice.

 

[Zedicus]

That was one of the first things I said

yes it was. that did not stick in my thought process. my bad.

i will mention that if you use a NAS distro on a whitebox they are as appliance like as any pre-rolled nas. i have deployed several to my friends and most of them have years of service before i ever touch them again. but i do understand the 'just want an appliance' in a home full of custom built stuff.

 

[DoubleTap]

yes it was. that did not stick in my thought process. my bad.

i will mention that if you use a NAS distro on a whitebox they are as appliance like as any pre-rolled nas. i have deployed several to my friends and most of them have years of service before i ever touch them again. but i do understand the 'just want an appliance' in a home full of custom built stuff.

I didn't realize the distros were at that level, one reason the appliance is so appealing is all the apps and future capabilities I can try. I don't have the time or the interest in learning all that on a NAS distro. I do appreciate the input though.

The problem I have with decisions like this is that there are basically an unlimited number of purchase increments from $400-1200 - no matter what I decide on, there is always something a little better for another $50-80. A pair of 12TB shucked drived in a DS718+ would last me a long time. I'm just not a data hoarder...

 

[Zedicus]

my current freenas build has been the same hardware for 10 years, and it was oldish at the time of build. i have easily added a 10gb NIC to it, and added drives several times. updates are automatic other than MAJOR releases. and the software can be upgraded across major releases unlike a pre-rolled unit.

i do less work to my home built NAS than i have my last 2 refrigerators and dishwashers.

 

[Joust]

Truth is, if you're ONLY using it as a NAS, and that's an important point, then it's really a set-it-and-forget-it situation.

 

[Spartacus09]

Sounds like you might need this it checks quite a few of your boxes (not to toot my own horn): https://hardforum.com/threads/fs-ft-qnap-16-bay-nas-ts-1635ax-4g.1992907/#post-1044512721
Doesn't take NVMe but its got 4x 2.5" sata slots, 2x m.2 sata internal, plus 12 bays to give you the small drive array with built in 10gb SFP+ ports.
Though it does have a ARM processor, and is rather large per your notation.

Edit: Let me know if you have any questions or want to get detailed into your usecase to see if it makes sense.

 

[DoubleTap]

Sounds like you might need this it checks quite a few of your boxes (not to toot my own horn): https://hardforum.com/threads/fs-ft-qnap-16-bay-nas-ts-1635ax-4g.1992907/#post-1044512721
Doesn't take NVMe but its got 4x 2.5" sata slots, 2x m.2 sata internal, plus 12 bays to give you the small drive array with built in 10gb SFP+ ports.
Though it does have a ARM processor, and is rather large per your notation.

Edit: Let me know if you have any questions or want to get detailed into your usecase to see if it makes sense.

I really do appreciate the mention, but thats not quite the hardware cocktail I'm looking for.