NAS - Selection Advice Please

Alan6984 on 21/11/2025 - 17:35
Last edited 21/11/2025 - 17:36

Hi All,

I am thinking about purchasing a NAS for use at home.

Up to now I have had a PC (running Ubuntu Desktop 24.04LTS, but that doesn't really make any difference I don't think) with a load of external USB HDDs plugged in, all running completely independently (no RAID for example), albeit with each one setup using LVM, for no better reason that that's what I always do when I setup a server :-)

This is fine, and I currently have six drives connected of varying sizes (2TB up to 12TB), all but one formatted as Ext4, with the odd one out as NTFS but only because it was originally connected to a Windows machine, and I was too lazy to move the data, reformat, and move it back.

That PC is starting to get quite old (not sure exactly but I think it had Ubuntu 16.04LTS on it at one point, so probably more than ten years old), and I have other spare machines that are much younger, so I first figured I could just substitute that for the existing one. I'd likely install Debian Server 13 (without the desktop environment) this time, simply because it is easier than using the GUI, but again, I don't think that really matters very much either way (I manage it primarily via SSH, but the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the desktop version, so meh either way).

However, its a bit… clunky?

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and purchase a proper NAS - I would say I would (should) be fine with a 4-Bay option (I only use six disks because the PC has six USB ports, and I don't bother with a keyboard / mouse unless something forced me to.

However, I'm really a software guy, and whilst I'm very comfortable with all of the above, I know next to nothing about hardware (beyond a physical server or desktop / laptop machine), and really nothing about NAS kit.

So: I am looking for recommendations for, say, a 4-Bay NAS that would take four 3.5" SATA HDDs (ranging from 6TB to 12TB currently, but my next purchase is likely to be at least a 16TB (maybe larger) drive to replace one of the 6TB drives). I am really keen to avoid going with any software that is not open source to run the NAS. I guess that could be a Linux distro (I prefer Debian / deb based if at all possible), but could be something else, or perhaps whatever comes with the NAS itself.

I don't have a fixed budget per se, but if at all possible, I would like to keep it under $500, and I am comfortable with it being second-hand as well if my budget is unrealistic for new. I figure (please correct me if wrong), that the enclosure should last a long time - it would be the drives that fail, and I already have my drives.

I would have to consolidate (delete!) a load of stuff I currently have stored, but I need to do that anyway, and it includes quite a few redundant backups (including QCow2 virtual disk backups) and mkv files that I don't really need to have a local copy of ;-)

I think I would want to set it up with RAID5 so I'd lose the capacity of one of the drives and protect what is stored from any one drive failing, and currently my total storage would be limited to 6TB (being the size of the smallest drive I would have in there, but I can make that work after reducing what I have stored.

I am posting around Black Friday, but there is no rush to this, so I am not necessarily looking for a Black Friday deal (if there are any) - this might be something I look to do over the coming months… no rush :-)

Please feel free to ask me anything - I don't know what I have missed or am not even aware of!

TLDR: Recommend a cost effective 4-Bay SATA NAS enclosure (no disks required)

General Discussion

Comments

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  • CarlLennyson on 21/11/2025 - 18:45

    Not exactly what you are after but - I installed Unraid on my old PC for mine and find it quite straight forward. It's an older PC - Intel 6700K so about 10 years as well. Maybe the chunkiness is the software?

    • ace310 on 21/11/2025 - 22:17

      I highly second this. I have unraid running on my old i8100 intel pc with 1tbx2 nvme zfs pool, 500gb nvme pool and 16tb, 12tb & 4tb hdds in array.

      Old discussion here

      There are lot of n100/300 motherboards on AliExpress with 6 sata and 2/3 nvme slots. Lots of reviews and tutorials on YouTube. Get a nice jonsbo case you have a powerful NAS. Definitely better, cheaper than branded NAS out there. Run unraid or proxmox or truenas.

      If you want pre-built only ugreen seems nice.

  • ABCDEFG on 21/11/2025 - 19:32

    I'd be looking at Ugreen, maybe the DH4300 or the DXP4800.

    I'd be staying away from Synology. The company has been making some very anti-consumer moves that don't bode well for the future.

    • jackvdbuk on 22/11/2025 - 11:16

      Agree, same with xbox. Over priced harddrives required to support series s/x games.

  • dryburn on 21/11/2025 - 21:48

    I've recently gone down the self hosted route particularly promox with truenas as an lxc.

    Mostly to replace Google photos and have smb shares for computers to access.

    There is a learning curve for Proxmox but since you're already used to unbuntu it shouldn't be too difficult for you.

    • Everettpsycho on 21/11/2025 - 22:00

      What are you using for google photos? Ive tried immich which has been pretty goodso far but think my hardware needs replacing to make the most of it.

      Also considering a cloud plan to backup my photos to so its not all in our house only.

      • ace310 on 21/11/2025 - 22:20

        Rather than cloud, look into another instance of your existing library in another location. Friends or family home. Maybe get a new hardware if you feel existing one is slowing down. Use the old one as your backup.

        • Everettpsycho on 22/11/2025 - 07:35

          Tempting as it is family ks the other side of the world so can't setup and configure to deploy to them and friends have zero interest in this stuff. Was tempted to see if I could set something up on something like a pi that could use at work periodically to dial home and back up.

          Cloud wise koofr has 1tb for $130usd so it's cheaper then buying new drives to run a backup. I intend to stick a second large hard drive in my proxmox box as my primary backup and the cloud is purely essential files so they are off-site, 1TB would be plenty for that use for now.

      • dryburn on 21/11/2025 - 22:54

        I use two servers.
        A simple hp micro server for Nas backup.
        Then immich on another hp g4 with ssd. Configure the thumbnails to be stored on ssd this speeds up the loading of pictures for preview. Full storage of pictures on the shared drive

        Still a work in progress but will be sticking with immich for now

  • Everettpsycho on 21/11/2025 - 21:52

    If you have the hardware I'd play with some nas OS options and I recommend watching nas compares on youtube for research. My "nas" is running on an old dell tower with an i5 4570 just fine on hex os (truenas).

    Drive wise unraid allows you to expand your array with different sized drives as long as the biggest one is your parity drive. Id really suggest havinf a parity drive for that much data to limit your risk.

    Truenas is a good option thats also free to try.

    Other than those two theres things like zima os and casa os that are a bit more closed down.

    If you want open installing your own software is the best option. I've heard good things about the wtr series and the minisforum n5 & pro, they are pretty much pcs that have hdd bays and small motherboards to install your os of choice. One thing of nkte on the wtr ks the sata controller is apparently not great with truenas.

  • kiwijunglist on 22/11/2025 - 07:23

    Id recommend unraid and also to move your hdd to internal.

    If all your hdd are already full of data:
    Unraid will wipe any existing data on the disk so you will need to add one empty disk to the array then copy your data to the array from the next disk that needs to be blanked, and so on, one at Time

    Unraid has a free trial. When the free trial expires unraid still works until you reboot the pc, it gives you two free extensions, so you can trial unraid for a very long time before you commit to paying.

    I switched from Ubuntu to unraid a long time ago, it's nice not having to use ssh and terminal all the time. It's easier to troubleshoot things.

  • DeeCee on 22/11/2025 - 09:43

    I used to run a HP Raid controller on Windows with 8x drives for media and backups for many years and switched to Synology NAS'. I also had a number of hdd bricks which also had media and backups of backups.

    Biggest challenge I had was consolidating the media onto the Synology as I had to pre-format the raid arrays and then transfer files, as I was bouncing between 4 different groups of 4x disk arrays and 2x NAS. This was because I was putting arrays into the NAS' but moving them from PC into the NAS and formatting to BTRFS.
    (I won't mention the motherboard failure of the windows media box forcing me to borrow a 1U HP server from a friend so I could retrieve my data from the HP configured array's.. and then 2x HP server fans failed in the server, extending the time of recovery out to months as I got wrong fans sent and then the proper fans sent from England..)

    kiwijunglist noted the need to manage the data transfer requiring additional disk(s), so if you can minimise that process you will save some effort.
    If you can transfer to a fresh array and then pool existing disk into a second array as your failover or backup of the primary array, then that may be an approach.

    For $500, you aren't going to get much for your dollar tbh, maybe just a pre-built. The additional disk is the bulk of the cost.
    I went with 4x Seagate 18TB EXOS Enterprise from East Digital https://east-digital.myshopify.com/ about 18 months ago.
    Disks are expensive in NZ to purchase but in saying that I have had use my warranty on some old WD Reds due to corrupted sectors which were part of my original, original media server/array.

    Currently running 4 x 18TB Exos; 4x Seagate Ironwolf (noisier than the Exos on R/W operations); 4x 8TB Western Digital white label WD80EMAZ shucked from bricks across 2x NAS

    oh ~5400RPM are quieter than ~7200RPM disks if the NAS unless you can move the file server to a location with no one around.

    A bit of random information but hopefully some food for thought to help you plan your next move.

    Cheers Dave

  • mpc on 25/11/2025 - 22:22

    Have a look at this thread for a couple of options, though they are a bit over your budget https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=164&topicid=32…

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