Finding the correct NAS

toriam78 · July 10, 2018

Hello everyone,

I currently have a 4 Bay Qnap (something like this https://www.qnap.com/en/product/tvs-471)

I have it populated with 4 x 2 tb wb red's and currently it lives at my parrents house. I am now looking into getting a new NAS in my own house that I can upgrade over the years to store 4K movies, music and the like. Majority the NAS will be used for long time storage.

Features I'm looking for:

* visual indicator on the front of the NAS to indicate which drive is dead.

* 12 Bays for 3,5 inch drives (I'll use 6 drives in raid 6 from day one and expand later when the need arises.

* 10 gb sfp+ port (I have a UniFi Security Gateway Pro with a Unifi 48 port PoE switch to connect together with the NAS using stp+)

* Bonus if it supports VM as I can either put a Windows or Linux image on it to work as a torrent client allowing me to have one pc less running 24/7

* Noise 25-30 Db max. I have a computer rack in a closet in the middle of my house and noise can be an issue. I have already replaced the fans in the router and switch.

* Syncronize files between my NAS and my parrents NAS for backing up eachothers files.

* A NAS I set up once and then I leave it alone and it does its thing and it just works

I am currently looking at TS-1635 (https://www.qnap.com/en/product/ts-1635) but in the few reviews I've found it has been pointed out that VM doesnt work that well and the 10gb sfp+ port yields no significant effect. You also have the cost.

I am not a linux guy at all, and all my computers have Microsoft OS at the moment. I have also not ever built my own NAS box.

Alternativly I've been thinking that perhaps building a NAS into a Node 304 (https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Mini-ITX-Computer-FD-CA-NODE-304-BL/dp/B009LHF4FO) but this means fewer drives.

Any advise is appreciated if I should scrap my "buy a Qnap or Synology" and build my own or if there is a NAS that can handle the things I need with the ammount of drives I need (for the future).