QNAP TS-464 or the Synology DS423+ NAS Drive – Which Should You Buy?

Choosing Between the Synology DS423+ and QNAP TS-464 NAS is more than just about how you are spending your money at checkout! Making a move away from 3rd public cloud storage can be a big, BIG decision for some users. The ‘freemium’ and low cost monthly subscription to the likes of Google Drive and DropBox seems like a drop in the ocean, right up until you realise that over the years you have spent hundreds of pounds and you face the fact that you are going to need to consider moving that data onto something more long term and ‘in house’. For many users, this is their first encounter with two of the bigger brands in the world of NAS, Synology and QNAP and although at a glance they seem to provide the same kind of solution, even a brief second glance reveals that these two brands have very, very different ideas of where you should be spending your money. Synology is the sleek, apple-esc presented solution that promises a smooth and uncomplex experience, with an arguably more rigid and fixed architecture. Whereas QNAP is the more customizable and flexible in its hardware and software, but has a slightly higher learning curve and requires more time to configure perfectly. Both brands provide an excellent range of NAS solutions with each of the solutions in today’s comparison being quite similar in price, but what you are getting for your money, the range of software included, the scope of hardware that is available and how they translate to upgradable and scalability is incredibly different! So, today we are going to compare the Synology DS423+ NAS released in March 2023 (HEAVILY comparable to the 2020 gen DS920+) against the spring 2022 released QNAP TS-464 NAS.

Synology DS423+ vs QNAP TS-464 NAS – Design

The design of the QNAP TS-464 and Synology DS423+ are both very uniform to the brands, utilizing existing designs in their respective Home/Prosumer/SMB ranges. Both are 4-Bay desktop solutions that are designed to be deployed easily and pretty much anywhere. They are largely the same in physical volume, with the Synology DS423+ arriving the tiniest pinch larger, but both systems provide a similar level of storage on their four SATA and 2x NVMe M.2 SSD bays. The Synology has the more traditional shape of the lockable storage media bays being immediately visible, but finish this with an incredibly modernistic shape and matt surface design. The front of the system features a single USB backup port, as well as 5 LEDs for system/drive activity and those two M.2 SSD bays are located on the base of the system. The QNAP TS-464 NAS uses a more glossy and slightly coloured design by comparison (featuring a copper side panel), with the 4 drive bays of the system being covered by a slidable and lockable semi-translucent panel. The QNAP also featured the same LED/USB present, but there are more LEDs on the QNAP and the USB here is both a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Port (10Gb/s) and is accompanied by a one-touch copy button. This is one of the early examples of how things in the NAS market have moved forward in hardware but Synology has instead doubled down on their focus of it’s DSM software platform above all else. The QNAP TS-464 is certainly the more expensive NAS of the two, with the DS423+, despite being newer and having a different position in the brand’s portfolio (see the DS923+ to learn more), but the hardware you are getting for that price tag is notably different and will become a clear divide between these two. Because of the compact design, both systems need to factor in intelligent cooling, as they will likely be in operation 24×7. This is another clear area where the brands have gone in different directions here.

QNAP TS-464 NAS 168mm × 170mm × 226 mm	Synology DS423+ NAS 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm

The ventilation on the Synology DS423+ is certainly more visible but in a much more ‘branded’ and slick way. The QNAP TS-464 features no front-facing ventilation, instead using two small areas of ventilation on the sides of the chassis and the base of the TS-464 featuring further ventilation under each of the storage bays. The Synology on the other hand has much more passive airflow, with each of the individual storage bays being surrounded by a slit of ventilation and the side panel of the DS423+ having the Synology logo featured as further ventilation. Higher-end Synology desktop models feature metal mesh panels inside these logos to capture dust, but this is less of a concern in the more compact and discreet DS423+. Overall, I would certainly say that the Synology DS423+ have more visible efforts to maintain system temperature than the QNAP TS-464 (which is a real surprise when you see how the hardware these two systems are sporting compares) but both maintain a good operation temperature.

QNAP TS-464 NAS	Synology DS423+ NAS

When you look at the rear of the TS-464 and DS423+ NAS, you see another big difference in how each system maintains their respective internal temperatures, with the QNAP featuring a single 120mm fan that covers the bulk of the internal hardware airflow path and the Synology featuring two 92mm fans that cover around 70% of the rear of the chassis. Of the two, I would say the QNAP TS-464 is the noisier in operation of the two (when populated with 4x 4TB WD Red HDDs) by the tiniest of margins, but it isn’t really till you entertain the idea of enterprise HDDs or drives larger than 10TB that you need to worry about ambient sound around these two systems. Both the DS423+ and TS-464 can have the rotations per minute (RPM) of their fans changed manually or left on automatic as the system changes the internal cooling to ensure maximum efficiency.

QNAP TS-464 NAS	Synology DS423+ NAS

Overall, the design of the Synology DS423+ is still the better-looking system of the two and although I personally really like the copper and glossy look of the QNAP TS-464 NAS, I know that the bulk of users will want to ‘set up and forget’ their NAS, so these aesthetic design choices are less important to them. Equally, although the QNAP fan has the potential to cool its respective system much more, I think the Synology features a better balance of active airflow and passive ventilation overall. The QNAP still wins pretty big on its inclusion of a USB 3.2 Gen 2 One Touch Copy button enabled port for faster and more manual backup options (as well as still allow automated and connection-triggered backups as the Synology), but overall on points, this round belongs to the Synology DS423+ NAS.

QNAP TS-464 versus Synology DS423+ NAS – Internal Hardware

This is an area where you really see how both brands focus their priorities on the solutions they offer, as well as how the components common to NAS have evolved in the 2 years between their respective releases. The Synology DS423+ arrives with a familiar architecture to it’s predecessor (the DS420+) and is a fairly tried and tested formula by the brand. Synology was the first company to introduce NVMe SSD storage bays into desktop NAS systems around 5 years ago (something that QNAP has only really been catching up on in the last 2 YEARS). Likewise, Synology has made a few very brand-specific decisions in their system architecture that this rather more proprietary brand is often keen to implement. For example, the default DDR4 memory inside (2666Mhz SODIMM) is actually soldered to the main internal board (4x 256MB Modules), with an additional empty memory slot to allow an additional 4GB Synology-branded memory module. As the DS423+ has a CPU that has a maximum 8GB of memory, this is an oddly artificial limitation that results in the DS420+ only allowing 6GB of max memory, an odd move that is perhaps done out of system PCI/Bandwidth, rather than any kind of manufacturer restriction. The QNAP features a newer gen CPU (as you would expect after the later release) and this CPU allows up to 16GB of memory (4GB in the default model) across two upgradable slots. Likewise, returning to those M.2 NVMe slots, both system feature 2 bays that can be used for SSD storage upgrades, although both the DS423+ and TS-464 support SSD caching (when a pool of SSDs is used to speed up data write/read in conjunction with the larger HDD RAID array), Synology ONLY RECENTLY allowed NVMe Storage Pools on their platform, whereas QNAP  has allowed NVMes as standalone storage pools, for app booting, running the OS from and even their own special internal tiering system known as QTier. This is the first of several key differences between the QNAP TS-464 and Synology DS423+ NAS that show the divide in hardware between these units.

Model	QNAP TS-464	Synology DS423+
Price	£559               $650              €675	£508               $549              €569
Storage Media Support	4x SATA, 2x m.2 NVMe 3×1 for Cache/Pools/QTier	4x SATA, 2x NVMe SSD Cache/Pool Bays
CPU Model	Intel N5105/N5095	Intel J4125
CPU Frequency & Cores	Quad-Core 2.0-2.9Ghz	Quad-Core 2.0-2.7Ghz
CPU Benchmark Score	CPU benchmark 4161	CPU benchmark 3006
Memory Default/Max	4-16GB SODIMM DDR4	2-6GB SODIMM DDR4 (4GB onboard)
PSU Power & Design	90W External PSU	100W External PSU
Physical Fans	1x 120m FAN	2x 92m FAN

Of course, the clearest difference that most PC builder-minded people are going to notice is the CPU. NAS systems are designed to be operational for days, weeks, months and even years at a time. Therefore, in order to maintain optimal performance, as well as lower power consumption and lessen the damage that long-term operation can inflict on a processor, the CPUs used in NAS are a great deal more modest. In the case of the Synology DS423+ and QNAP TS-464 NAS, they feature Intel Celeron processors, each featuring an embedded graphics component (allowing graphical operations, multimedia handling and visual data to be handled by a specialized area of the processor), quad-core architecture and a base level clock speed of 2.0Ghz that can be burst (turbo/increased when needed). However, the newer generation N5105/N5095 CPU in the QNAP is able to reach a higher overall clock speed and also is more efficient (i.e uses a little less hardware resources to get a task done than it would take on the J4125 typically, so, therefore, can do more tasks overall when the full CPU power is utilized). Indeed, CPUBenchmark rated the newer CPU 30%+ higher in it’s scoring than the J4125 (again, as you would expect for a CPU released more than a year later by Intel), so this processor means that more can be done on the QNAP (in like for like tasks) and also this CPU allows a greater range of hardware to be built into the system. CPUs are one of the largest quantifying factors of how a NAS is built and this is because they can only handle a certain amount of connected hardware (storage bays, ports, expansion slots, etc) when connected to a larger controller/motherboard. This is commonly referred to as the # of PCI lanes and the chipset used in the build of the system. Because this newer Intel N5105 / N5095 CPU has more lanes to use at once than the J4125, it allows the newer NAS drive to have more hardware.

QNAP TS-464 NAS – Intel N5105/N5095 CPU

Synology DS423+ NAS – Intel J4125 CPU

These additional CPU resources, as well as the increased maximum memory and flexibility of how the M.2 NVMe SSD slots can be used ultimately mean that in terms of internal hardware, the newer released QNAP TS-464 wins over the Synology DS423+ NAS. It is worth remembering that the M.2 NVMe SSD slots on the QNAP TS-464 are PCIe Gen 3 x1 (down to the Celeron CPU still not having anywhere near the scope in it’s flexibility that the likes of an Intel Core, Ryzen or Xeon might have) and will bottleneck at 1,000MB/s, but this is still better than nothing and there is still the lingering question of the Gen 2 slots on the DS423+ being 2×2 or 2×4 – which will potentially limit the M.2 NVMes on the DS423+ further still. So the QNAP still seems to have a better balance of NVMe SSD support in its architecture overall.

Synology DS423+ or QNAP TS-464 NAS – Ports & Connections

Now ports and connections on the Synology DS423+ and QNAP TS-464 NAS is an area that is INCREDIBLY diverse in it’s approach by either brand. Once again, the reasons clearly to do with the CPU choice and position on their respective brand portfolios, but also the brand’s own decisions in build architecture/priorities still massively continue to be a contributing factor here. The Synology DS423+ NAS certainly comes across as the weaker of the two here in its connectivity and although a lot of the QNAP’s advancements in connectivity could be described as ‘future upgrades and simply facilitating extras or addons’, it still manages to provide a greater deal of connectivity to the day 1 user than the Synology system here. The port(s) that almost certainly will be the one that jumps out immediately on each system is the network connections. The DS423+ NAS arrives with 2x 1GbE ports which, although allowing link aggregation to create 2GbE with a smart switch, was still a little underwhelming in 2023 (as we had already started seeing 2.5GbE arriving at the same price as 1GbE with a number of client hardware devices in 2020). The newer QNAP TS-464 features 2x 2.5GbE (so 5GbE via link aggregation and a supported switch) which now that some ISPs and budget switch manufacturers are providing affordable 2.5GbE solutions, will be incredibly useful. Then the is the additional PCIe upgrade slot on the QNAP NAS that allows upgrades towards 10GbE, dual-port 10GbE cards and even combo cards to add 10G and further M.2  NVMe bays via a single card. Again, there ARE upgrades and not something in the baseline model, but you can not argue with the future-proofing available here. Additionally, the DS923+ NAS released in December 2022 had the option to upgrade to 10GbE – something hugely absent here in the eyes of many on this 4xSATA and 2xNVMe DS423+ NAS. There is simply no avoiding that in the 2023 released DS423+, those 1GbE ports are something of a limiting factor.

Model	QNAP TS-464	Synology DS423+
Network Ports	2x 2.5GbE	2x 1GbE
USB 3.2 Ports	2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb)	2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gb)
USB 2.0 Ports	2x USB 2.0	0
HDMI Ports	1x HDMI 2.0 4K 60FPS	n/a
PCIe Upgrade Slots	PCIe Gen 3×2 Slot (2Gb/s)	n/a

After the network and PCIe differences that favour the TS-464, the distance between the 2020 and 2022 NAS hardware architecture here is further extended. The Synology DS423+ features a further USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gb/s) port, but LACKS the option to upgrade it’s storage down the line with an expansion (such as with the eSATA port on the DS920+ and DS923+ NAS supporting the DX517 official expansion). QNAP counters this on the TS-464 with the inclusion of another USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s) port, as well as some (obviously less useful) USB 2.0 ports. These USB 2.0 Ports are primarily designed to be used in conjunction with the optional visual output (HDMI 2.0 4k 60FPS) on the QNAP as a KVM (Keyboard, video and mouse) setup with the included parallel HD Station application and its tool. The HDMI and direct interface of the QNAP is still pretty niche as a service on this system, but it has a number of useful multimedia, surveillance and VM utilities that can be quite impressive. Expansions on the TS-464 are more diverse than the 5-Bay DX517 on the DS423+ (which again, is NOT supported anyway), with QNAP offering 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12-Bay expansion chassis (arriving in JBOD or hardware RAID enabled) that connect over USB or an inclusive PCIe card. Overall, it comes as no surprise that in terms of hardware, the QNAP TS-464 still takes the first place, as the Synology DS423+ (like most of the brand’s solutions) is prioritizes the DSM platform and it’s tools/services over the hardware. Let’s discuss the software on each of these brands.

QNAP TS-464 or the Synology DS423+ NAS – Software

When you are choosing to buy a Synology or QNAP NAS, it is always worth bearing in mind that you are not just buying a bunch of hardware, but you are actually getting a fully-featured software solution. Both the Synology DS423+ and QNAP TS-464 arrive with each brand’s premium NAS software and services platform, DSM and QTS respectively. Both of these platforms include a traditional operating system level of accessibility and control, that can be accessed via pretty much any web browser or desktop OS, as well as numerous tailored mobile client applications. The Synology DSM platform is a lot more comparable in design and control with Mac OSX and is by far the more user-friendly option of the two. The QNAP QTS platform is a lot more comparable to Android in its initial GUI and then more like Windows in it’s navigation, arriving as the option with a greater deal of configuration and control, but with a steeper learning curve. Another big difference between QTS and DSM is how they present their services, with QNAP providing a larger degree of support of 3rd party applications (both in the app center and in the configuration of their own range of 1st party applications. Synology DSM on the other hand proves a larger and more impressive range of fist party tools that are designed to replace/improve upon the 3rd party tools you might be using, with many of it’s applications being comparable to top tier 3rd party paid tools in the market (the Synology collaboration suite, the Surveillance Station application and pretty much everything in Synology Drive, just as a start). The QNAP platform also, in it’s efforts to be as widely compatible and configurable as possible, occasionally stems into over-complexity and risks the user tripping over itself as it tries to manage the larger scale of configuration Whereas, although the Synology DSM platform may seem a pinch more closed and fixed, it manages to prevent the users from accidentally ruining their own storage system. Here is a full breakdown of the key applications that are included with the QNAP TS-464 and Synology DS423+, broken down into categories:

	QNAP TS-464	Synology DS423+
Browser Support	Supports all Browsers	Supports all Browsers
	Browser File Management	Browser File Management
	Photo/Music/Video Tools	Photo/Music/Video Tools
	Multimedia Console	Synology Drive
	AI Photo Recognition	AI Photo Recognition
	Edge m.2 Coral TPU Support
Storage Services
	SED Drive Support	SED Drive Support
	QTier	Synology Hybrid RAID
	Hybrid Mount	Hybrid Share
	ISCSI Target/LUN	ISCSI Target/LUN
	vJBOD
	Snapshots	Snapshots
	SSD Cache (Read/Write/Both)	SSD Cache (Read/Write/Both)
	Cloud Sync / QSync	Cloud Sync
	Ex-FAT is Free	Fast RAID Rebuild
	RAID Resync control	RAID Resync control
	Secure Erase	Acrtive Backup Suite
	Lots of Expansions (TR/TL)	Hyper Backup
	HBS 3	Synology CMS
	Qfiling and Qsirch
Business Applications
	QVR Pro – 8 Camera Licenses (+USB Camera Support)	Surveillance Station – 2 Camera Licenses
	Virtualization Station	Virtual Machine Manager
	Ubuntu Linux Station 18/20	Docker Support
	Container Station	Active Backup 365 & Workspace
	Hypervisor Protector	Synology Office, Chat, Calendar
	QMailAgent	Synology Mail / MailPlus
	HD Station	Synology C2 and Services
	BoXafe
	Security Councillor	Security Councillor
	Malware Remover	Synology VPN Plus
	McAfee Anti-Virus Scanning	Log and Notification Center
	QVPN	Auto Blocking on SSH, Telnet etc
	Log and Notification Center	256 bit Encryption
	Auto Blocking on SSH, Telnet etc	2 Step Authentication
	256 bit Encryption	Firewall App
	2 Step Authentication	Access Protection and Allow/Deny list
	Firewall App	Synology Secure SignIn
	Access Protection and Allow/Deny list	Synology C2 Password

As you can see, both NAS brands provide similar levels of software, services and features, but they are presented in very different ways. Once again, I cannot emphasise enough how much more the QNAP platform is configurable but ALSO how it can often give you too much configuration and risk overwhelming less experienced users. The Synology DSM platform, for all its comparative rigidicy, is still overall the better software experience and you definitely see that Software over hardware priority from the brand clearly here. I have made long, LONG reviews on each of the NAS brand’s and their software platforms, which you can watch below for much, much more information on their respective strengths and weaknesses.

QNAP QTS 5.0 Review	Synology DSM 7 Review

Ultimately, it will come as no surprise that Synology come out on top in terms of software compared with the QNAP. That is not to say that the QNAP QTS platform is not good, it really, really is and some of the applications that are included for home and business users are often genuinely impressive, unique and provide facilities to the end-user that are wholly unavailable on any other NAS platform (eg Multimedia Console as a single portal media manager, the 2-3 Click VM storages and repository that are available in Virtualization Station, Linux Station and Container Staton or the QuMagie AI-powered tool that is able to cover a greater range of subjects and categories that any other NAS photo tool out there). However, the QNAP QTS platform is not quite as polished, as user-friendly and as responsive as the Synology DSM platform overall. If you want a better idea how these two NAS software platforms compare directly (i.e face to face), then you can check out my DSM vs QTS video below:

Alternatively, if you are NOT interested in using the software included with your NAS, there is always the option to install TrueNAS – Something that is surprisingly easy on the QNAP NAS (see video below):

QNAP TS-464 or the Synology DS423+ NAS – Conclusion

Ultimately, choosing between the Synology DS423+ and QNAP TS-464 largely comes down to a question of hardware vs software. The QNAP TS-464 is by a long distance the more advanced in hardware in practically every way (thanks of course to the brand’s focus in this direction) which leads to that system having a tremendously large scope in terms of what you can do with it, how far the storage can be expanded and how upgradable the system can be. The QNAP is the better future-proof hardware choice and despite the Synology NAS platform having a stronger software platform, it still has a vast array of software and services available in QTS nonetheless. For those that are hardware-focused or want a NAS to support their existing 3rd party client tools and apps, the QNAP TS-464 is by and larger the better choice. The Synology DS423+ NAS on the other hand, despite its 2-3 year older hardware (already premiered in the 2020 released DS920+) and arguably safer/sensible stance on hardware in general, is still a great NAS that will likely becoming more popular and palatable in the 4-Bay NAS market as the pricing becomes a bit more flexible (as many will still weigh the DS423+ with the older DS920+ that still has stock floating around and opt for the latter). Add to that the core strength and first-party focus of DSM leading to this hardware+software solution providing you with a huge array of polished and premium feeling tools at your disposal. As long as you are happy to do things ‘Synology’s way’ and are looking for an easy to use system that will not tax the end-users brain, you will find Synology the better software choice overall.

QNAP TS-464 NAS – Spring/Summer 2022		Synology DS423+ NAS – Spring 2023
Reasons to Buy it? Better Hardware inside and out More Expansion/Upgrade Options Able to run more simultaneous apps/clients at once Faster USB Ports (10Gb/s) Larger bandwidth PCIe upgrade slot (PCIe 3×2 vs 2×2/2×4) Higher CPU Frequency, Efficiency & Proficiency M.2 SSD Useable Tiered Storage Option		Reasons to Buy it? Much more user-friendly Synology Hybrid RAID for flexibility Overall Better 1st Party Software Better Surveillance Access/Streaming Lower Price Point as it in the SOHO part of Syn’s Portfolio Quieter Operation First Party Accessories (HDD, SSD, Memory, etc) Available
Buy on Amazon	Where to Buy	Buy on Amazon	Where to Buy

 

Best Jonsbo Builds for $250 / $500 / $1000 (or Pounds, or Euros!)

This is a guide on building your own Jonsbo N3 NAS for less than £300, £500 or £750-1000. With many of us feeling the pinch these days due to global financial issues affecting most of our wallets, it’s unsurprising to hear that many users looking to host their own private server are increasingly drawn to going full DIY. Despite the numerous alternatives out there in the market to build your own NAS drive from scratch, one brand has really built a great reputation for itself – Jonsbo, with its range of compact but exceptionally well-built NAS cases. One particular case that has drawn praise is the Jonsbo N3 case, a 5-6 Bay SATA enclosure that is very easy to build and of quite a high-quality standard, given the price tag. However, the case is only part of building your first NAS, and many users aren’t quite sure of the best components to choose and the best power-to-price ratio they need to consider. Your device may need to be on for days, weeks, months, and years at a time, so choosing the right components on day one is going to be crucial. Today, I want to go through three distinct but impressive Jonsbo N3 builds, that can be built for less than 250, 500, and 1000 pounds. Let’s go through some great Jonsbo N3 NAS builds.

Note – If you want to watch a FULL BUILD TUTORIAL of the Jonsbo N2 NAS with an Intel TopTon Mobo, you can watch our video HERE or use the detailed Step-by-Step Guide HERE.

Alternatively, you can find the video of this article, where we show each of the builds, plus commenting on possible alternatives – HERE on YouTube

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Jonsbo N3 NAS Case Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• I noticed the N3 has 2x PCIe slots, can you confirm the maximum motherboard specification (ie, can this take a larger Motherboard than the N2, which is limited to M-ITX)?

The N3 can only support ITX motherboards or 20.3 x 17MM DTX motherboards.A 10.5MM increase in width compared to the N2, the depth upgrade is to put the power on the motherboard to make room for eight hard drives, and the height increase is to accommodate a higher specification CPU and heat sink as well as a mainstream specification graphics card.

• Can users purchase the Jonsbo tray handles separately?

Jonsbo can provide tray handles if you message them, but but it will be slower than ordering separately and at their discretion, but the agents or sellers in different countries may not have the inventory of this part. If the users need it, most likely, they can only provide this service (I asked them).

• Does the additional size of the Jonsbo N3 allow for larger CPU Fan/heatsinks than the 6.5cm/65mm limits of the N2 ? Just so I can tell users the limits/scale of the components they can use.

The N3 can be installed with a 130MM high tower radiator, and two 80*25MM fans can be installed on the rear panel. N3 can install a 130MM high small tower heat sink, and the rear panel can install two 80 * 25MM fans.

• What Are the maximum Height of the PCIe Slot and Any limits on GFX/GPU/Graphics Card Installation?

• What Size is the case and fans?

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Jonsbo N3 Build Disclaimers

• $ / £ / Euro / etc – You probably already noticed that I have had to jump between currencies several times in this guide. This is because lots of users worldwide are going to read this guide. Additionally, many of the components might work out cheaper if purchased in your own region (eg Intel CPUs, especially 12th and 13th Gen are cheaper in the U.S than most of Europe). Additionally, currencies right now at the time of writing are getting closer and closer in value (thank you Global Recession…sigh). So, although the prices are going to differ from country to country, I have had to play a little fast and loose with $500 and £500. Please forgive this, but I am trying my best!

• Does not include storage media – everyone’s storage needs are different. Some may want to fully populate the device on day one with a couple of drives for redundancy, while others might opt for a more conservative two-drive build in a mirrored array, and then add drives gradually over the years. Therefore, it’s practically impossible to include storage media in these build guides. However, if you are interested in choosing the best value storage media for your Jonsbo N3 NAS build, we recommend the Seagate IronWolf 4TB NAS hard drives ($81 at time of writing) and WD Red Plus 10 TB hard drives ($189 at NewEgg) for the best price per terabyte in the market. These two options in this 5x 3.5″ NAS Case would result in £405 for 20TB (16TB RAID5) and $949 FOR 50TB (40TB RAID5). Alternatively, you can use our price per terabyte deal calculator below, which daily checks the prices of hard drives across several retailers and helps you find the best price per terabyte for your needs:

Click Below to use our Price per TB Hard Drive Calculator:

• Shipping and tax not included – We weren’t able to include the cost of delivery and tax in the following Jonsbo N3 NAS builds. Depending on where you live in the world, shipping and availability of the items described in these builds will differ significantly, so we can’t estimate shipping costs. Tax rates and amounts will also vary from country to country. So, while we’ve included tax in some component prices for export reasons, not all components listed below factor in tax.
• NAS software not included – The allure of DIY is often the lower cost compared to turnkey solutions like those from Synology or QNAP. But this means you’ll need to find your own NAS software. While many free options are available, like TrueNAS and Open Media Vault, some are subscription-based, like UnRAID. For fairness, we haven’t included the cost of NAS software, as choices will vary among users.

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Best Jonsbo N3 Build for Under/Around £250

This is often seen as the budget build for your Jonsbo N3 system. The list below provides a reasonably powerful Plex media server, the ability to run a compact and capable UnRAID server, a few robust container applications, and even lets you set up a combined NAS server and prosumer router using proxmox and pfSense, alongside your chosen open-source NAS software.

Jonsbo N3 + TopTon Intel n5105 Celeron / Pentium n6005 Build (+$35) Jonsbo N3 Case ￡94.25 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Topton N5105 + 128GB NVMe + 4GB RAM ￡193.48 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 2x SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 (note only need 8x, but cheaper to buy 2×6) – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ￡284.85 (128GB M.2 NVMe + 4GB RAM + 400W PSU) (Optional/Swap) If you want to save some money: Topton N5105 (NO EXTRAS) ￡159.82 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Cheaper 250W SFX PSU ￡13.15 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (needed for cheaper PSU) SATA to Molex Adapter ￡0.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ￡247.47 (no M.2 NVMe and Cheap PSU) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

(Component Prices and eShops – 9 Images):

Click to view slideshow.

This build, just a bit over 250 pounds, offers a well-built base system, 4 GB of memory to start, and an included gen 3 NVMe SSD for your boot drive. Additionally, it has four individual 2.5G Ethernet ports that can either be solely dedicated to your NAS or divided between your chosen NAS OS and router OS. If you’re on a tight budget or wish to save for storage media later, consider downsizing the PSU to a more economical 250-watt PSU and buying the memory separately. These minor tweaks might save you as much as 40 to 45 pounds, depending on the adjustments you decide on.

Pros:

• Exceptionally affordable
• Simple build as many components arrive pre-attached
• Low power consumption
• Several avenues for cost-saving
• Components aren’t overcrowded, reducing heat concerns
• Compatible with virtually every NAS OS available
• Flexibility for dual OS to cover both NAS storage and prosumer router needs

Cons:

• Underpowered for TrueNAS’s full feature set
• Limited PCI lanes
• Reduced M.2 NVMe support compared to other builds on this list
• Not suited for extensive use or demanding business apps

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Best Jonsbo N3 Build for Under £500

At this price point, things get serious! Even if you exclude storage media costs and focus on the NAS hardware itself, $500 is substantial for DIY enthusiasts, especially when considering the time spent building the device and buying components from various brands. But if you’re willing to spend up to $500 on your custom-built NAS system with the Jonsbo N3 case, you’ll find a decent amount of flexibility. The subsequent build balances both internal and external performance against your budget. Moreover, the configuration below is priced around $450, allowing you some leeway in either saving extra cash, adding storage, or upgrading existing components (e.g., memory or network ports).

Jonsbo N3 + Intel Core i5 12th Gen + 16GB RAM + 10GbE Build Jonsbo N3 Case ￡94.25 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 2x SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 (note only need 8x, but cheaper to buy 2×6) – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE B660M ITX Motherboard £235.79 + Intel Core i5 12490F CPU + 16GB RAM – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Total $410.65 (i5 CPU + 16GB RAM + 2x10GbE + 400W PSU + Case + Cables) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

(Component Prices and eShops – 8 Images):

Click to view slideshow.

This design of this build is significantly more future-proof than its predecessor, but it comes with increased power consumption. The build takes advantage of newer generation PCIe lanes, boasts more cores than the previous design, and confidently supports adding top-tier NVMe SSDs to your storage system in the future. It’s essential to note that this build requires a more hands-on approach. The base network port will need an added network adapter card to expand ports or boost existing port bandwidth to 10G. Finding off-the-shelf motherboards in mITX form with numerous Ethernet and SATA ports that also support modern Intel Core processors can be challenging. Because this design demands an Intel i5 12th gen CPU, the motherboard only features four SATA connectors. The Jonsbo N3 case accommodates up to six SATA drives, so to maximize this on this motherboard, you’ll need a PCIe SATA card with two additional SATA ports. Another option is to buy a different motherboard that supports more SATA connectors but sacrifices network speed, CPU support, or other features.

Pros:

• Lots of power for Plex and virtual machine use
• Full support for all major NAS software platforms
• Great for a medium or growing Plex media server
• Support for 2x NVMe SSDs for cache, Plex metadata, and even a separate SSD volume
• Option to upgrade to 10Gbe networking, depending on your future needs
• Lots of room for RAM upgrades

Cons:

• High power consumption and increased heat concerns
• Requires an additional PCIe card to maximize SATA drives
• Limited PCIe expansion due to the inclusion of a PCIe x1 and PCIe x4 slot
• Reduced options for processor upgrades, given the choice of the motherboard

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Best Jonsbo N3 Build for £750-1000

For those who want to build a NAS that rivals even the best off-the-shelf models available today, the following $1000 build offers some incredible performance. With this budget, you can get a truly formidable Plex media server, a robust virtual machine host, and even full surveillance with support for over 40 cameras (assuming you’re using an appropriate NAS software platform). The Jonsbo N3 NAS build is a powerhouse, providing enough capability for nearly any home or small business task.

Jonsbo N3 + Gen4/5 MoBo + Intel Core i5 12th Gen with Int Gfx + 32GB RAM + 10GbE Build Jonsbo N3 Case ￡94.25 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 2X SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 (note only need 8x, but cheaper to buy 2×6) – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 600W SFX PSU ￡43.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Asrock Z690M-ITX/AX gEN 4/5 Motherboard £171.20 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Intel Core i5-12600K 12th Gen £239 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Re: CPU, features: 1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E Module 1 x PCIe Gen5x16 Slot* 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1, Key M), supports type 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) mode* • 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_2, Key M), supports type 2280 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s & PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) modes* * Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks * Supports ASRock U.2 Kit Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) £59.99 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Total £586.63 (Amazon) + ￡144.76 (Aliexpress) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

(Component Prices and eShops – 9 Images):

Click to view slideshow.

At the core of this design is the Intel i7 12th gen CPU, boasting six cores and twelve threads. Complementing this, the motherboard has full support for up to 128GB DDR4 memory (with prices still fluctuating for such large kits). But even with 32GB or 64GB kits being relatively affordable, it provides an excellent base for this system. For networking, the base board has two 2.5GbE ports, with the option to upgrade to 10Gbe using a suitable PCIe network card. However, similar to the $500 build, you’ll need to make some compromises if you want to maximize SATA drive connectivity due to the limited SATA ports on the motherboard.

Pros:

• Extremely powerful for almost any task you throw at it
• Full support for major NAS software platforms and high-end features
• Outstanding Plex media server performance
• Abundant RAM support
• Flexibility in networking, from 2.5Gbe up to 10Gbe

Cons:

• High power consumption
• Likely overkill for casual or home users
• Requires additional PCIe card to maximize SATA drives
• Significant heat production, making adequate cooling essential
• Expensive

Click to view slideshow.

Conclusion:

Building a Jonsbo N3 NAS system is an exciting project, allowing you to tailor the system to your specific needs and budget. Whether you’re aiming for a budget-friendly media server or a high-powered machine for intensive tasks, the Jonsbo N3 case provides a solid foundation. Always remember that while building the hardware is crucial, choosing the right software and ensuring that it runs seamlessly is just as important. As the NAS market evolves, DIY solutions like the Jonsbo N3 builds will only become more prevalent, offering enthusiasts and professionals alike more flexibility and options. Happy building!

Jonsbo N3 NAS Build with TopTon Board Build (Complete Guide) – UnRAID/TrueNAS (click below)

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ZimaBlade Review – Cheap, Easy, Powerful? WHAT?

Over the last few years, we have seen a growing middle ground in private server ownership. For a long time, if users wanted to make the switch away from third-party cloud and towards owning their very own NAS server, they would opt to either buy a turnkey solution from brands such as Synology and QNAP, or they would decide to go full DIY and build a NAS completely from the ground up. However, in recent years, we’ve observed an emerging middle ground in the form of convenient pre-built NAS server solutions that arrive OS-free, ready for your own chosen third-party open-source software (such as UnRAID, TrueNAS, pfSense, OpenWRT, and more). This space has become quite exciting as server technology has become more efficient and affordable. Fast forward to the subject of today’s review: the ZimaBlade single board hackable server. IceWhale, the company behind it, premiered their first hackable single board, the Zimaboard, via crowdfunding last year with tremendous success, making a follow-up expected. The new product started its crowdfunding earlier in 2023 and is now in production, with early backers set to receive their units in January 2024. Fortunately, I was among the few to receive an early review sample. Today, I will dive deep into the ZimaBlade to determine if this unique alternative to the NAS server status quo deserves your data.

Hardware Highlights of the ZimaBlade Single Board Server:

• Price: $64*-144** (Check HERE)
• Two Versions: ZimaBlade 3760* / 7700**
• Design: Fanless, Single PCB+Heatsink
• CPUs:
  • Intel Celeron N3350* (2-Core, 2.4GHz Max)
  • Intel Celeron N3450 **(4-Core, 2.2GHz Max)
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 500,(Frequency Up to 750 MHz)
• Supports Intel® Quick Sync Video
• Memory: 1x SODIMM RAM Slot (up to 16GB Option)
• Storage: 32GB MMC Internal
• Ports & Connections:
  • 2x SATA
  • 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gb/s – A / C)
  • 1x 1GbE Network
  • 1x Mini-DisplayPort 1.2 (4K 60FPS)
• 12V/3A USB Type-C Power (Optional Adapater Option)
• Expansion: 1x PCIe 2.0 x4
• Operation: Fanless / Silent
• 107 x 80 x 23mm in Size and just 175grams
• Software: Includes CasaOS (Ready out of the box), Compatibility: Can support practically any* server/router OS including Ubuntu, Windows, OpenWrt, pfSense, Android/Chromium and More

ZimaBlade Review – Quick Conclusion

I’m thoroughly impressed with this system. It challenges competitors from turnkey NAS, DIY NAS, and major cloud services with its competitive price point, comparable to a year’s subscription to cloud services. As a 2x NAS system, it offers great value, and DIY enthusiasts might find it hard to build a similar system at this price. While you can assemble a more powerful system with extra costs, it might compromise user-friendliness, power efficiency, and a compact design. The Zimmer blade stands out by offering a budget-friendly, capable, and user-friendly experience. Even though it’s a new entrant from crowdfunding, it checks all boxes. Its flexible OS is a boon for NAS beginners. Some design concerns exist, like the gen 2 Intel architecture and limited USB and ethernet ports. Yet, considering its price, these are minor. It’s a game-changer in the NAS domain, and I highly recommend it.

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? These Offers are Checked Daily

ZimaBlade Review – Retail Packaging

Kudos to IceWhale; the retail packaging for this compact device leans heavily into the cyberpunk mod aesthetic, feeling industrial in design and presentation. It’s more steampunk than the garish designs of some competitors. While compact, the packaging fits the device perfectly.

What you get with the ZimaBlade varies depending on your crowdfunding tier since different tiers come with different extras. Regardless, the board and included cables come in a fantastic compact retail kit. This kit also contains a thank-you card from the original developer, expressing gratitude for supporting the project. While not the first to include such a gesture, it feels genuine and not merely a marketing tactic.

Depending on the tier you select, the accessories and retail kit your ZimaBlade comes with may vary. Remarkably, the entry-level tier priced at $64 provides a dual-core ZimaBlade, a USB-C thread cable, and SATA cable adapters. Memory must be purchased separately, and a Y-splitter cable is necessary for using more than one drive.

However, for $64, you get the essentials for your Intel Celeron dual-core 2-bay NAS server.

Opting for the top tier gets you the $144 ZimaBlade 7700 package. This includes the system, 16GB of memory, a USB-C power adapter, a Y-splitter SATA cable for connecting two drives, and a metal 3.5-inch SATA hard drive cage for storage. For just $144, you have a 2-bay Intel Celeron NAS, 16GB of memory, all the required cables, and PCIe upgrade options, offering substantial value for a NAS kit.

It’s refreshing to see a server like the ZimaBlade utilize USB-C power. While it likely won’t run solely on standard USB power, acquiring USB power adapters (even high-wattage ones) is easier and results in less waste compared to unique PSUs found in most other NAS devices. This advantage, previously seen in Raspberry Pi mini servers, makes the ZimaBlade even more compelling.

The provided SATA connector combines both SATA and a four-pin power connector. If you want to use both SATA ports, you’ll need a Y-splitter cable. Oddly, the baseline $64 ZimaBlade package includes only a single SATA and power cable instead of the split cable. A small price increase could have easily covered this minor addition, making it more user-friendly. Still, it’s a discreet and customizable option for adding more SATA storage.

The included hard drive cage is basic but well-crafted, offering space to mount the ZimaBlade and a cavity for a PCIe card. With rubber pads on the feet to dampen vibrations, it’s an upgrade over its predecessor, which was just the board. Overall, the ZimaBlade’s retail kit doesn’t disappoint. Both the lowest and highest buying options from the crowdfunding campaign are reasonably priced. Now, let’s discuss the design of the ZimaBlade itself.

ZimaBlade Review – Design

Earlier this year, I reviewed IceWhale’s first single-board server, the Zimaboard. I was impressed by its compact size. Now, the ZimaBlade is even more compact with a distinctive design, reminiscent of a 1980s cassette Walkman. This small case manages to include numerous ports, connections, and hardware.

The sides feature a removable U-shaped slot design, and the top boasts a thick transparent plastic panel. The base and rear, made of metal, dissipate heat from key components like the CPU, which connects to the backboard with thermal paste and silicone.

The rear panel acts as a 2 sided heatsink (connected to a narrower ridged panel), efficiently releasing heat. Further vents aid in heat management. This ingenious thermal design ensures silent operation. Mechanical hard drives might produce some noise, but the ZimaBlade itself is silent.

The transparent top panel showcases the main control board and the SODIMM upgrade slot. I’m surprised IceWhale hasn’t introduced alternative cases, as some users might appreciate custom decals. Still, the design, reminiscent of old-school cassette tapes, is pleasing.

Comparing the ZimaBlade and the earlier Zimaboard, it’s evident IceWhale has opted for a different aesthetic. The older model had a large heatsink for heat dispersion, giving it an industrial look, while the ZimaBlade is sleeker and more compact.

The newer model needs good airflow but is a testament to the company’s dedication to refining their design. In conclusion, I’m enamored with the design choices of the ZimaBlade. It’s convenient, efficient, and its compact design compared to its predecessor makes it ideal for a hardware desktop lab. Now, let’s explore its internal components.

Zimablade Review – Internal Hardware

When Ice Whale said this was a single-board microserver, they weren’t kidding. Once you remove the external plastic plates and top transparent panel, you are left with just a single board. It’s about the size of a credit card, and components are distributed on both sides of the PCB. The CPU is situated at the base of the system with the memory on top. The designers have achieved an incredibly efficient layout to maximize component distribution. Removing the top panel was easily done by unscrewing two screws and sliding out the black plastic surround panel.

As the system doesn’t utilize any active cooling fans, the placement of heat sinks and the distribution of components are paramount. The ports and connections around the outer edge are clearly separated from the main SODIMM slot.

Interestingly, the predecessor Zimmer board didn’t feature upgradable memory; instead, it came with memory pre-soldered to the controller board. This is common in cost-efficient systems. Not only does it result in savings, but it also provides a more predictable and stable system. However, with the newer generation Zimablade, there’s a shift to the more popular use of an upgradable SODIMM slot. The baseline 64 model doesn’t come with any memory, but both the $70 and $80 tiers include either 8GB or 16GB of memory that fits into this SODIMM slot, and the CPUs support up to a maximum of 16GB.

On the base of the PCB, there’s an Intel Celeron processor powering the system. The device’s scale will inevitably draw comparisons to the established Raspberry Pi, mini PCs, and server devices. One crucial distinction is the CPU profile. Raspberry Pi systems utilize ARM processors, known for power efficiency but with limitations in high-performance environments. In contrast, the Zimablade features an Intel x86 64-bit processor, offering more robust hardware capabilities. This CPU, located at the system’s base, relies heavily on heat dissipation provided by the metal top panel.

For those choosing the more affordable Zimablade, it comes with an Intel dual-core Gen 2 architecture Celeron processor. While there are hints online about the specific CPUs in each Zimablade model, the official website isn’t explicit. Further investigation will clarify the CPU architecture, but it’s known to be a Celeron dual-core N3350 with a max clock speed of 2.4 GHz. Compared to contemporary systems, this might seem a bit underwhelming. Still, given the Zimablade’s price point, it’s reasonable.

The pricier model, ranging from $80 to $104, boasts a N3450 quad-core Celeron processor with a clock speed of 2.2 GHz. This boost in cores will be advantageous for multi-user environments and those looking to experiment with diverse operating systems.

The system also comes with some flash memory for storing the OS and other services. However, its modest 32 GB should suffice for the scale of the current mass software; larger, more aggressive software platforms may find this limiting, leading to an immediate need for additional storage for further app installation. Regrettably, the system doesn’t offer any form of internal storage upgradability. While you can connect USB storage drives, SATA HDD/SSDs, and even PCI-E cards to add further SATA media or M.2 NVMe storage drives, the system lacks any upgradable internal storage option. It would have been nice to see an M.2 NVMe or even an M.2 SATA slot, allowing for additional storage to be added to the base model, similar to how one can upgrade memory via the SODIMM slot. Additionally, an SD card slot would have been a welcome inclusion. However, given the compact size, there’s limited space to work with.

I might sound repetitive, but it’s genuinely challenging to criticize the Zimablade regarding its hardware. Given its price point and unique position in the market as a single-board, hackable server with few competitors, what you’re getting is impressive. This is an Intel-powered, 16 GB memory server with an open operating system that could easily fit in your pocket and runs off USB (with the appropriate adapter).

While the hardware inside the Zimablade isn’t cutting-edge, it surpasses what other architectures and brands offer at this scale and price. Let’s discuss the ports and connections.

Zimablade Review – Ports and Connections

The connectivity of the Zimablade is quite impressive. The ports are situated on three sides of the device, catering to a variety of needs.

Borrowed from the previous Zimmer board release are two SATA connections on the exterior. Coupled with an additional four-pin power connection, this board can link to standard internal SATA hard drives and SSDs. Notably, even the base model comes with a single SATA connector, while higher tiers offer more.

The system provides two USB ports: a general-purpose USB 3.2 Gen 1 and a USB Type-C mainly for power. Due to the device’s power requirements, users will most likely have only one USB port for peripherals.

Visual output is via a mini display port. Adapters may be necessary for standard monitors and TVs. Higher Zimablade tiers do include these adapters.

A highlight is the external PCIe upgrade slot. It offers versatility, allowing users to enhance the system with various cards. There are limitations, especially with power-hungry cards or those requiring more bandwidth. Yet, it’s a distinguishing feature that sets the Zimablade apart from its competitors.

To sum it up, the Zimablade offers a remarkable range of scalability options, especially when considering its size and cost.

The potential for upgrades and enhancements, both in hardware and software, makes it a valuable asset for tech enthusiasts and developers.

ZimaBlade Review – Casa OS Software

The landscape of personal cloud solutions is rife with options, each offering unique selling points. The Zimablade, entering this highly competitive space, packages its offering with CasaOS – a solution poised to redefine the relationship between hardware and software in the NAS ecosystem. But how does CasaOS fare, especially when set against stalwarts like Synology DSM, TrueNAS, and UnRAID? Let’s explore.

Key Features and Strengths:

• Digital Privacy at the Forefront: CasaOS, developed by the visionary team at IceWhale Technology, centers its design philosophy around safeguarding family data. Offering tools for encrypted communications, centralized multimedia storage, and smart home device management, CasaOS prioritizes digital safety in an age where data breaches are commonplace.

Click to view slideshow.

• Unrivalled Compatibility: One of CasaOS’s crowning attributes is its adaptability. The system integrates effortlessly across a multitude of hardware platforms, from x86 PCs to Raspberry Pi. With support for leading OS platforms, CasaOS promises a smooth experience, regardless of the tech ecosystem in which it operates.

Click to view slideshow.

• Expansive Application Universe: With over 20 pre-installed docker-based apps and 50+ community-verified ones, CasaOS provides users with a veritable buffet of digital tools. Whether you’re into home entertainment, require VPN solutions, or are seeking quality streaming apps, CasaOS has you covered.

Click to view slideshow.

• Holistic Data Management: CasaOS consolidates data storage, eliminating the need to juggle between platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive. With a promise of rapid 10x syncing speed and no associated data traffic or subscription fees, CasaOS champions efficient data management.

Click to view slideshow.

Points for Reflection:

• Comparative Lightness: While CasaOS supports a plethora of container applications, when benchmarked against established players like Synology DSM, TrueNAS, and UnRAID, it does come across as lite. Features such as ZFS support and 1st party mobile applications are conspicuous by their absence, leading to a heavier reliance on 3rd party container/docker apps.

Click to view slideshow.

• Gradual Transition to More Established Platforms: CasaOS, while robust in its offering, might be seen by many as a nascent stage in their NAS journey. As users grow accustomed to the intricacies of NAS operations, there’s a likelihood they may transition to a more comprehensive NAS OS. Platforms like UnRAID, with similar ease in container deployment but richer in 1st party features, often appear more attractive in the long run.

• Value Proposition: The inclusion of CasaOS with the Zimablade, especially at its introductory price range of $64-144 during its crowdfunding launch, is commendable. The synergy of hardware and software at this price point offers exceptional value for beginners. However, seasoned NAS enthusiasts might crave the depth found in mature OS offerings in the market. That said, it does allow for both local easy GUI access in a web browser AND terminal level  access easily:

The Zimablade, paired with CasaOS, makes a compelling entry into the personal cloud solution domain. CasaOS, with its focus on user-centric design, data privacy, and a wide array of applications, sets a solid foundation. However, as with many products in their infancy, there’s potential room for evolution and growth. Users looking for a lite, budget-friendly introduction to the world of NAS will find Zimablade and CasaOS an excellent starting point. Yet, as their needs expand and mature, migration to more established platforms might be on the horizon. Still, better to have a great ‘out-the-box’ OS included for day 1, than not! Also, the Casa OS will immediately boot on day 1, so no need to muck around with Bios with a visual output+Keyboard+mouse on day 1, as it will immediately appear on the network on your first boot in a few mins and be accessible via your web browser. All in all, especially at this price point, incredibly impressive, if a little lite. If you want to test out the CasaOS software before you purchase a system to run it on (Zimablade or otherwise), you can use the link below to test the software out in your web browser:

Click Below to access Casa OS Software Demo in your web browser

ZimaBlade Review – Verdict and Conclusion

If it hasn’t already become painfully obvious, I absolutely love this little system. Whichever way you look at it, this device is completely undermining a lot of competition from both turnkey NAS, DIY NAS, and established cloud hosting via third-party services like Google and Dropbox. This arrives at a price point that is comparable to a year of subscription cloud services at just a few hundred gigabytes. It’s also a 2x NAS system with inclusive operating system and app support that arrives at a third or even a quarter of the price of most established turnkey NAS. And for those looking to build their own modest low-powered NAS from scratch, I genuinely think you would struggle to assemble similar levels of hardware that we see here for the same price.

Sure, you could definitely assemble a system for a few hundred dollars extra that is more powerful, more expandable, more customizable, but in doing that, you would end up with higher power consumption, a larger physical footprint, multiple warranties to navigate, and ultimately end up with a far less user-friendly experience than what is on offer here. Most of the time, when it comes to technology, you will tend to find that it’s almost impossible to find a system that is low price, high capability, and user-friendly. Generally, you’ll have to sacrifice one of those. However, in the case of the Zimmer blade, although we are still talking about a system that is just in the process of leaving crowdfunding, it somehow manages to earn a big green tick in all three of those areas. Additionally, the fact that you are not locked into a single operating system and the inclusive OS, though light, is hugely adaptable, also means that the early NAS enthusiast and beginner in the world of private server ownership can use this as a learning tool that will still deliver value many years from now. Small design choices about the system I’m less keen on would include the gen 2 architecture of that Intel processor leading to slight bottlenecks in some areas, the realistically usable USB port being 5 gigabits per second—having just one of them is somewhat inconvenient—and the one-gigabit ethernet network connection out of the box is another bottleneck. However, when you put all these complaints into perspective regarding the device’s price point, they simply become irrelevant. Hands down, this is one of the most exciting NAS releases in both turnkey NAS and for DIY server builders I have ever reviewed, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Best Jonsbo Builds for $250 / $500 / $1000 (or Pounds, or Euros!)

This is a guide on building your own Jonsbo N2 NAS for less than £250, £500 or £750-1000. With many of us feeling the pinch these days due to global financial issues affecting most of our wallets, it’s unsurprising to hear that many users looking to host their own private server are increasingly drawn to going full DIY. Despite the numerous alternatives out there in the market to build your own NAS drive from scratch, one brand has really built a great reputation for itself – Jonsbo, with its range of compact but exceptionally well-built NAS cases. One particular case that has drawn praise is the Jonsbo N2 case, a 5-6 Bay SATA enclosure that is very easy to build and of quite a high-quality standard, given the price tag. However, the case is only part of building your first NAS, and many users aren’t quite sure of the best components to choose and the best power-to-price ratio they need to consider. Your device may need to be on for days, weeks, months, and years at a time, so choosing the right components on day one is going to be crucial. Today, I want to go through three distinct but impressive Jonsbo N2 builds, that can be built for less than 250, 500, and 1000 pounds. Let’s go through some great Jonsbo N2 NAS builds.

Note – If you want to watch a FULL BUILD TUTORIAL of the Jonsbo N2 NAS with an Intel TopTon Mobo, you can watch our video HERE or use the detailed Step-by-Step Guide HERE.

Alternatively, you can find the video of this article, where we show each of the builds, plus commenting on possible alternatives – HERE on YouTube

Jonsbo N2 Build Disclaimers

• $ / £ / Euro / etc – You probably already noticed that I have had to jump between currencies several times in this guide. This is because lots of users worldwide are going to read this guide. Additionally, many of the components might work out cheaper if purchased in your own region (eg Intel CPUs, especially 12th and 13th Gen are cheaper in the U.S than most of Europe). Additionally, currencies right now at the time of writing are getting closer and closer in value (thank you Global Recession…sigh). So, although the prices are going to differ from country to country, I have had to play a little fast and loose with $500 and £500. Please forgive this, but I am trying my best!

• Does not include storage media – everyone’s storage needs are different. Some may want to fully populate the device on day one with a couple of drives for redundancy, while others might opt for a more conservative two-drive build in a mirrored array, and then add drives gradually over the years. Therefore, it’s practically impossible to include storage media in these build guides. However, if you are interested in choosing the best value storage media for your Jonsbo N2 NAS build, we recommend the Seagate IronWolf 4TB NAS hard drives ($81 at time of writing) and WD Red Plus 10 TB hard drives ($189 at NewEgg) for the best price per terabyte in the market. These two options in this 5x 3.5″ NAS Case would result in £405 for 20TB (16TB RAID5) and $949 FOR 50TB (40TB RAID5). Alternatively, you can use our price per terabyte deal calculator below, which daily checks the prices of hard drives across several retailers and helps you find the best price per terabyte for your needs:

Click Below to use our Price per TB Hard Drive Calculator:

• Shipping and tax not included – We weren’t able to include the cost of delivery and tax in the following Jonsbo N2 NAS builds. Depending on where you live in the world, shipping and availability of the items described in these builds will differ significantly, so we can’t estimate shipping costs. Tax rates and amounts will also vary from country to country. So, while we’ve included tax in some component prices for export reasons, not all components listed below factor in tax.
• NAS software not included – The allure of DIY is often the lower cost compared to turnkey solutions like those from Synology or QNAP. But this means you’ll need to find your own NAS software. While many free options are available, like TrueNAS and Open Media Vault, some are subscription-based, like UnRAID. For fairness, we haven’t included the cost of NAS software, as choices will vary among users.

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Best Jonsbo N2 Build for Under/Around £250

This is often seen as the budget build for your Jonsbo N2 system. The list below provides a reasonably powerful Plex media server, the ability to run a compact and capable UnRAID server, a few robust container applications, and even lets you set up a combined NAS server and prosumer router using proxmox and pfSense, alongside your chosen open-source NAS software.

Jonsbo N2 + TopTon Intel n5105 Celeron / Pentium n6005 Build (+$35) Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Topton N5105 + 128GB NVMe + 4GB RAM ￡193.48 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ￡264.64 (128GB M.2 NVMe + 4GB RAM + 400W PSU) (Optional/Swap) If you want to save some money: Topton N5105 (NO EXTRAS) ￡159.82 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Cheaper 250W SFX PSU ￡13.15 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (needed for cheaper PSU) SATA to Molex Adapter ￡0.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ￡247.47 (no M.2 NVMe and Cheap PSU) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

(Component Prices and eShops – 9 Images):

Click to view slideshow.

This build, just a bit over 250 pounds, offers a well-built base system, 4 GB of memory to start, and an included gen 3 NVMe SSD for your boot drive. Additionally, it has four individual 2.5G Ethernet ports that can either be solely dedicated to your NAS or divided between your chosen NAS OS and router OS. If you’re on a tight budget or wish to save for storage media later, consider downsizing the PSU to a more economical 250-watt PSU and buying the memory separately. These minor tweaks might save you as much as 40 to 45 pounds, depending on the adjustments you decide on.

Pros:

• Exceptionally affordable
• Simple build as many components arrive pre-attached
• Low power consumption
• Several avenues for cost-saving
• Components aren’t overcrowded, reducing heat concerns
• Compatible with virtually every NAS OS available
• Flexibility for dual OS to cover both NAS storage and prosumer router needs

Cons:

• Underpowered for TrueNAS’s full feature set
• Limited PCI lanes
• Reduced M.2 NVMe support compared to other builds on this list
• Not suited for extensive use or demanding business apps

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Best Jonsbo N2 Build for Under £500

At this price point, things get serious! Even if you exclude storage media costs and focus on the NAS hardware itself, $500 is substantial for DIY enthusiasts, especially when considering the time spent building the device and buying components from various brands. But if you’re willing to spend up to $500 on your custom-built NAS system with the Jonsbo N2 case, you’ll find a decent amount of flexibility. The subsequent build balances both internal and external performance against your budget. Moreover, the configuration below is priced around $450, allowing you some leeway in either saving extra cash, adding storage, or upgrading existing components (e.g., memory or network ports).

Jonsbo N2 + Intel Core i5 12th Gen + 16GB RAM + 10GbE Build Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE B660M ITX Motherboard £235.79 + Intel Core i5 12490F CPU + 16GB RAM – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Total 390.44 (i5 CPU + 16GB RAM + 2x10GbE + 400W PSU + Case + Cables) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

(Component Prices and eShops – 8 Images):

Click to view slideshow.

This design of this build is significantly more future-proof than its predecessor, but it comes with increased power consumption. The build takes advantage of newer generation PCIe lanes, boasts more cores than the previous design, and confidently supports adding top-tier NVMe SSDs to your storage system in the future. It’s essential to note that this build requires a more hands-on approach. The base network port will need an added network adapter card to expand ports or boost existing port bandwidth to 10G. Finding off-the-shelf motherboards in mITX form with numerous Ethernet and SATA ports that also support modern Intel Core processors can be challenging. Because this design demands an Intel i5 12th gen CPU, the motherboard only features four SATA connectors. The Jonsbo N2 case accommodates up to six SATA drives, so to maximize this on this motherboard, you’ll need a PCIe SATA card with two additional SATA ports. Another option is to buy a different motherboard that supports more SATA connectors but sacrifices network speed, CPU support, or other features.

Pros:

• Lots of power for Plex and virtual machine use
• Full support for all major NAS software platforms
• Great for a medium or growing Plex media server
• Support for 2x NVMe SSDs for cache, Plex metadata, and even a separate SSD volume
• Option to upgrade to 10Gbe networking, depending on your future needs
• Lots of room for RAM upgrades

Cons:

• High power consumption and increased heat concerns
• Requires an additional PCIe card to maximize SATA drives
• Limited PCIe expansion due to the inclusion of a PCIe x1 and PCIe x4 slot
• Reduced options for processor upgrades, given the choice of the motherboard

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Best Jonsbo N2 Build for £750-1000

For those who want to build a NAS that rivals even the best off-the-shelf models available today, the following $1000 build offers some incredible performance. With this budget, you can get a truly formidable Plex media server, a robust virtual machine host, and even full surveillance with support for over 40 cameras (assuming you’re using an appropriate NAS software platform). The Jonsbo N2 NAS build is a powerhouse, providing enough capability for nearly any home or small business task.

Jonsbo N2 + Gen4/5 MoBo + Intel Core i5 12th Gen with Int Gfx + 32GB RAM + 10GbE Build Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 600W SFX PSU ￡43.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Asrock Z690M-ITX/AX gEN 4/5 Motherboard £171.20 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Intel Core i5-12600K 12th Gen £239 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Re: CPU, features: 1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E Module 1 x PCIe Gen5x16 Slot* 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1, Key M), supports type 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) mode* • 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_2, Key M), supports type 2280 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s & PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) modes* * Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks * Supports ASRock U.2 Kit Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) £59.99 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Total £586.63 (Amazon) + ￡123.51 (Aliexpress) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

(Component Prices and eShops – 9 Images):

Click to view slideshow.

At the core of this design is the Intel i7 12th gen CPU, boasting six cores and twelve threads. Complementing this, the motherboard has full support for up to 128GB DDR4 memory (with prices still fluctuating for such large kits). But even with 32GB or 64GB kits being relatively affordable, it provides an excellent base for this system. For networking, the base board has two 2.5GbE ports, with the option to upgrade to 10Gbe using a suitable PCIe network card. However, similar to the $500 build, you’ll need to make some compromises if you want to maximize SATA drive connectivity due to the limited SATA ports on the motherboard.

Pros:

• Extremely powerful for almost any task you throw at it
• Full support for major NAS software platforms and high-end features
• Outstanding Plex media server performance
• Abundant RAM support
• Flexibility in networking, from 2.5Gbe up to 10Gbe

Cons:

• High power consumption
• Likely overkill for casual or home users
• Requires additional PCIe card to maximize SATA drives
• Significant heat production, making adequate cooling essential
• Expensive

Click to view slideshow.

Conclusion:

Building a Jonsbo N2 NAS system is an exciting project, allowing you to tailor the system to your specific needs and budget. Whether you’re aiming for a budget-friendly media server or a high-powered machine for intensive tasks, the Jonsbo N2 case provides a solid foundation. Always remember that while building the hardware is crucial, choosing the right software and ensuring that it runs seamlessly is just as important. As the NAS market evolves, DIY solutions like the Jonsbo N2 builds will only become more prevalent, offering enthusiasts and professionals alike more flexibility and options. Happy building!

Jonsbo N2 NAS Build with TopTon Board Build (Complete Guide) – UnRAID/TrueNAS (click below)

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

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Best NAS for $100-$150 of 2023

It would be an understatement to say that the sheer range and affordability of private server devices that even the most cash-strapped user can buy have grown exponentially over the last few years. It seems almost insane to think that you can pick up a NAS device from some of the biggest brands in the market for as little as $100, brand new and running the very latest software. Over the years, the argument to switch from public subscription cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox has been mainly based on cost, with most NAS devices costing triple figures. On day one, subscription cloud services set you back between $2 and $10 per month. However, all too quickly the months turn into years, and you suddenly find that you have paid hundreds of dollars for your cloud subscription services. And you either have to continue paying for those cloud services indefinitely or bite the bullet and buy some physical local storage anyway! So why not just cut to the chase and buy the NAS device on day one and therefore not only have long-term storage for your data in-house but also have full control over remote access, local access, and the scalability of your data completely in your hands. That is why the increasing affordability of, and the sheer range of different NAS drives that you can pick up for as little as $100 to $150 is so impressive! So today I want to go through the four best NAS that you can pick up for a bargain in 2023.

Disclaimer

A couple of disclaimers right out of the way. First, none of the solutions I’m talking about today (with the possible exception of one in certain circumstances) include storage media. You will need to buy hard drives additionally to populate these NAS devices. These will generally cost you around $30 to $40 per terabyte and are completely scalable to you and your needs, with multiple different brands available. And regular sales and offers allow you to get the very best bargains. Additionally, these NAS devices have been designed to keep things affordable and efficient, and therefore the full range of apps and services that they support has been significantly streamlined to focus on the main handful of apps and services that entry-level users will want to take advantage of. Unsurprisingly, buying a NAS for just $99 will not allow you to run complex clusters of virtual machines for your business! These NAS devices are affordable for a reason, so keep your feet on the ground. The following NAS devices, despite their affordable price point, all comfortably support the following features and services:

• Multi-site backups, allowing you to connect with other NAS devices as well as multiple third-party cloud servers like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more

• A full range of client tools for desktop and mobile devices that allow you to communicate with the NAS utilizing whichever device you prefer to use the most. Multi-user and multi-client device support allowing you to migrate data between your family devices or work colleague devices very easily.
• USB backup support, as well as direct connection gigabit to gigabit port supported. DLNA and UPnP support allow you to stream your multimedia to your local home. Smart TV, supported current-gen console, and Wi-Fi home devices easily
• Regular feature and security updates that will be applied to the device if you set up an automatic update as needed
• Download managers, music server managers, and even WordPress database management are possible although the scope and range of this will differ from system to system.

There are a few other features worth touching on, and several others that are brand-specific, but all of these incredibly affordable $100 to $150 NAS devices support these modest entry-level features.

Synology DS120J NAS – Lowest Price @ $89

Marvel 64bit 800hz – 512MB DDR3L Memory – 1x SATA HDD/SSD – 1x1GbE – USB 2.0 – $89 (10/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

Although I already touched on this in the introduction, I still find it incredible that it is possible to get a Synology NAS for under $100! The Synology DS120J NAS is a 1-bay solution that was released towards the end of 2020 and despite its modest stature, still supports the latest Synology DSM 7.2 software. Arriving with a dual-core Marvel ARM 64-bit processor at a low 800 megahertz, this still manages to run more than half of the applications that Synology updates regularly. These include a number of the collaboration suite of tools that include Synology mail, office, chat, drive, calendar, and hyper backup. There are also the multimedia apps that include Synology video station that allows you to host your own equivalent to Plex or Netflix using your own multimedia. Finally, there is support for Synology surveillance station, with two camera licenses included and support of around 5 to 10 cameras depending on what else you do with the device simultaneously. Both Synology DSM 7.2 and surveillance station are by far the best examples of both NAS software and NVR software that you can possibly buy in the market and are arguably individually worth more than the $100 you are paying for this system on its own! Needless to say, though, to maintain this affordable price point, these systems have to be pretty modest in most other ways. Alongside the remarkably small 512 megabytes of DDR3 memory, the system also only arrives with a single gigabit Ethernet port and USB 2 connectivity. The result is a system that leaves very little room for expandability both in its storage, later down the line as a one-bay with no expansion port, and also in that memory not being upgradable, therefore limiting the range of apps, services, and connections you can run simultaneously. Nevertheless, this is a fantastically affordable NAS and the fact that you are getting a Synology (Still arguably the best brand in the entire NAS industry) for this price is just insane.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our Synology DS120j NAS Review:

Although this device will only cost you less than £175 including TAX and a 2TB hard drive, it can still perform the bulk of the standard tasks that are available in modern NAS and if you are looking for a universally supported DLNA or backup device, this is the one for you. Though definitely not aimed at the NAS experienced or 2nd time buyers, or those looking for a solid foundation to build a business around, if you are looking for a network-attached storage device to act as a network backup or just want a simple nice to do basic tasks such as media and protecting the data on your other devices, I recommend the Synology DS120j NAS. Just make sure you have an off-site backup in place (such as a study external USB drive or a third-party cloud space with which to back up your data to periodically via cloud synchronization). Lastly, as much as I recommend the DS120j, it is worth remembering that it does not multitask especially well (due to that more modest CPU and memory), so sometimes you will need to be patient.

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? Synology DS120j 3TB 1 Bay NAS Solution, installed with 1 x 3TB Seagate Ironwolf Amazon UK 36.39 OFF (WAS 249) [LINK HERE] Synology DS120j/10TB N300 1 Bay Desktop Amazon UK 4.56 OFF (WAS 354) [LINK HERE] These Offers are Checked Daily

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QNAP TS-133 NAS – Best Hardware

Cortax A55 4-Core 2.0Ghz – 2GB DDR4 Memory – 1x SATA HDD/SSD – 1x1GbE – USB 5G – $129 (10/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

The QNAP TS-133 NAS, much like the Synology device previously mentioned, is by far one of the best examples of just how much the hardware that you can buy in a NAS for a little over $100 can be stretched. Arriving, depending on which eShop you choose, at around $129 to $139, this NAS more than doubles (and in some cases quadruples) the hardware scope of the previous NAS. The TS-133 arrives with a quad-core ARM processor at 2.0 gigahertz, as well as 2GB of DDR4 memory. The system also arrives with support for more than 70% of the QTS NAS software platform from QNAP, further improved thanks to this NAS also featuring an integrated AI component. This Neural Processing Unit (NPU) allows the system to harness more specialized AI processes used in photo and face recognition, as well as within the QNAP surveillance platform QVR Elite. Also, thanks to the surprisingly high level of NAS hardware at this price point, the system also supports containers, multi-site backups with Hybrid Backup Sync, a full range of file handling services up to and including intelligent filing and intelligent system-wide searches with AI support, there is even a full range of multimedia applications each of which being tailored towards different intended media use for videos, photos, and music. Further, still, the QNAP TS-133 supports pretty much all of the wide range of client apps for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows. Although it lacks many of the more business-oriented applications, due to its lack of an x86 CPU, it makes up for it with fantastic access to the base-level applications in QTS and is by far the lowest price 2023 series NAS from QNAP.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our QNAP TS-133 NAS Review:

As long as you keep your feet on the ground a little and stay realistic, the QNAP TS-133 NAS Drive is indeed a very impressive piece of kit. We are talking about a combined hardware and software solution that you can purchase with a 4TB drive from the likes of Seagate or WD inside all in for a little over $200. It can run plex media server, it has surveillance software included in QVR Elite, AI-powered photo recognition (with the system featuring a dedicated AI engine for these tasks), multi-tiered backup handing in Hybrid Backup Sync 3, host a DLNA media server, connect and synchronize with cloud services in a bunch of ways, access to a bunch of tailored mobile apps and a whole lot of other services that would take too long to mention. Also, the TS-133 NAS is the first system in the commercial NAS market to feature this new Cortex A55 processor, as well as twice (and in some cases) four times the memory of alternative systems in the same tier with it’s 2GB DDR4 RAM. As long as you have realistic expectations about how busy you are going to be, how hard you intend to push the device and how much you expect it to do at any one time, I think the QNAP TS-133 NAS is easily the most powerful and capable 1-Bay NAS in the market to buy right now. The non-upgradable memory is a pain, the lack of 2.5GbE is perplexing and the continued appearance of USB 2.0 is a tad infuriating, but the TS-133 seemingly makes up for it with a wide variety of applications supported, a remarkably subtle and discreet deployment and in the hands of the right low-level user, this might well be the best NAS QNAP have produced in the value tier for years!

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? These Offers are Checked Daily

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Le QNAP TS-AI642 est un NAS 6 baies un peu particulier. En effet, ce dernier est construit autour d’un processeur ARM avec jusqu’à 6 TOPS NPU (Unité de traitement neuronal) qui améliore les performances sur de la reconnaissance d’image. QNAP TS-AI642 Le fabricant QNAP continue de se distinguer avec ce nouveau NAS : TS-AI642. Il s’agit d’un boîtier pouvant recevoir jusqu’à 6 disques durs ou SSD SATA. Le NAS est animé par un processeur ARM Quad Core Cortex-A76 cadencé à […]

Cet article QNAP TS-AI642 : un NAS ARM avec NPU est apparu en premier sur Cachem

Jonsbo N2 Build with TopTon NAS Board Walkthrough

It’s almost comical now how easy it is to build your very own NAS server from scratch. Building your own server expands the boundaries of your tech understanding. A lot of this ease is attributed to the modular approach to PC and server building that has emerged in recent years. This is especially true for network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The increased availability of pre-configured server motherboards from brands like TopTon and the wider availability of server-ready cases make building your own low-cost, open-source alternative to big brands like Synology and QNAP increasingly easy. Today, I want to guide you through building the Jonsbo N2 NAS build using a cost-effective pre-built TopTon NAS board. This guide will help you finish in just over an hour and will enable you to use popular NAS software such as UnRAID and TrueNAS. Let’s begin.

Note – FULL Video Tutorial HERE on the YouTube Channel

In a Rush? Here are the full details on the Recommended Jonsbo N2 NAS Builds for $250, $500, $750 and $1000 – HERE on the blog (with parts) and HERE on YouTube:

Jonsbo N2 + TopTon Intel n5105 Celeron / Pentium n6005 Build (+$35) Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Topton N5105 + 128GB NVMe + 4GB RAM ￡193.48 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ￡264.64 (128GB M.2 NVMe + 4GB RAM + 400W PSU) (Optional/Swap) If you want to save some money: Topton N5105 (NO EXTRAS) ￡159.82 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Cheaper 250W SFX PSU ￡13.15 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (needed for cheaper PSU) SATA to Molex Adapter ￡0.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ￡247.47 (no M.2 NVMe and Cheap PSU) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

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Jonsbo N2 + Intel Core i5 12th Gen + 16GB RAM + 10GbE Build Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 400W SFX PSU ￡24.36 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE B660M ITX Motherboard £235.79 + Intel Core i5 12490F CPU + 16GB RAM – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Total 390.44 (i5 CPU + 16GB RAM + 2x10GbE + 400W PSU + Case + Cables) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

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Jonsbo N2 + Gen4/5 MoBo + Intel Core i5 12th Gen with Int Gfx + 32GB RAM + 10GbE Build Jonsbo N2 Case ￡74.04 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE SATA 6 Connector ￡4.19 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE 600W SFX PSU ￡43.78 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Asrock Z690M-ITX/AX gEN 4/5 Motherboard £171.20 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Intel Core i5-12600K 12th Gen £239 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) £59.99 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE ARGB CPU Radiator Fan (LGA1700) ￡13.38 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (better option for CPU Fan) Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler £49 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE X540-T2 Intel Chipset PCIe x8 Dual Copper RJ45 10Gbps ￡39.34 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Tbkoly Controller Card Motherboard Expansion Card 1 To 5 Port SATA £20.45 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE (Optional) 2x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4 X 8 Card GLOTRENDS Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 – Check Amazon HERE – Check AliExpress HERE Total £586.63 (Amazon) + ￡123.51 (Aliexpress) Note, you need an SSD for TrueNAS OS (USB for UnRAID)

What You Need for the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build

Although this guide is designed for the Jonsbo N2 NAS, the range of TopTon NAS motherboard combos is diverse. Some elements of this guide might differ based on the TopTon motherboard you choose. Generally, you’ll need the following items:

• Jonsbo N2 NAS case – HERE

• TopTon NAS motherboard (either with memory and SSD included or purchased separately)- Amazon HERE

• Storage media (HDDs and SSDs)
• A USB drive (if you’re using UnRAID to run from or TrueNAS to install from) – HERE
• A 6x SATA multi-lane cable – HERE

• A minimum of 250-watt SFX PSU – HERE

• Internal USB pin converter (board dependant)- Example #1 HERE , Example #2 HERE

• Philips cross-head screwdriver
• USB keyboard, mouse, and HDMI monitor/capture card
• Optional – Download Advanced IP Scanner HERE, as it is a really useful tool for analyzing your network and finding your new TrueNAS Core NAS for remote access
• Optional – A Disk Image to USB conversion too. I recommend ‘Rufus’, currently in ver 3.19 and can be run in a portable .exe form that doesn’t require installation – DOWNLOAD
• Optional – Download the latest stable release of TrueNAS Core here as a system image (you will be converting this to USB later on) – DOWNLOAD
• Optional – Download the latest stable release of UnRAID here as a system image (you will be converting this to USB later on) – DOWNLOAD

That’s about it! The only other things you’ll need are time and patience. Avoid rushing the build as you’re working with internal components in a relatively confined space.

Start of the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Guide

Unpack all components for this build and clear away any unnecessary materials.

Click to view slideshow.

Place the Jonsbo N2 NAS case on a table. Use the included small Allen key to remove the top lid from all four corners.

Click to view slideshow.

Go to the back of the Jonsbo N2 case and take out the four thumb screws around the fan.

Detach the fan using the small fan connector linked to the internal starter board.

Next, remove the screws securing the plate around the PSU compartment.

Grab the PSU and divide the power connectors into two sets: one set with individual SATA and molex connectors and another set with the thicker connectors.

Click to view slideshow.

Feed the SATA and molex cables into the PSU compartment and immediately into the right cavity leading to the SATA backplane where drives connect.

Thread the larger power supply connectors into the back of the PSU compartment, lifting them out through the case’s top.

Now, link the two molex PSU power connectors to the white molex connectors on the backplane behind the primary storage bays.

Affix the previously removed black plate from the Jonsbo case to the back of the PSU and Insert the PSU into its compartment in the Jonsbo case. Ensure the molex connectors remain in place and that the larger power cables are still outside the case.

Fix the plate to the back of the Jonsbo case to secure the PSU.

Connect the multi-lane SATA cable, carefully aligning each numbered cable with the corresponding SATA port on the backplane (next to the molex power ports).

Guide the SATA cable through the cavity above and out of the top of the Jonsbo case. Ensure cables are attached to the right drive numbers and threaded correctly.

Reattach the fan to the rear of the case using its white four-pin connector and secure with the thumb screws.

Click to view slideshow.

Unbox the TopTon NAS board, starting with the metal backplane.

Mount the metal backplane in the available rectangular cavity of the Jonsbo case, ensuring readable text faces the right way. The network/ethernet port should be on the right when viewed from the case’s rear.

Carefully place the TopTon motherboard inside the top of the Jonsbo case, aligning connectors with the gaps in the backplane. If done right, the motherboard’s corner screws will align with the N2 case screw holes.

With all cables hanging outside, fasten the four corners of the TopTon motherboard to the Jonsbo N2 case.

Click to view slideshow.

Right now, it should look like this (ignore the disconnected white 4 pin PSU connector, needed to disconnect briefly to take this photo):

Connect each SATA connector from the multi-lane cable to its corresponding numbered SATA slot on the motherboard’s top right.

Plug the 20-pin PSU cable into the motherboard’s corresponding slot.

Connect the PSU’s four-pin port to the motherboard’s power port. If your PSU has a combined eight-pin plug, it might split into two four-pin groups. Ensure you select the right connectors and slots for this.

Click to view slideshow.

If you bought memory separately, install it in the available slot now.

The same goes for if you have purchased a CPU fan separately + connect with the CPU fan power plug (white, next to the CPU socket)

Some TopTon motherboards have varying front panel, USB pins, and LED pins.

If yours doesn’t have the right USB pins for both USB type-A and type-C front panels, you’ll need specific adapters to connect them.

For front panel LEDs and the power button, consult your motherboard manual to identify the right pins.

Note that the Jonsbo case doesn’t have a reset button, so you won’t find a corresponding pin.

Before sealing the Jonsbo case, briefly test the PSU’s power delivery via the main port. Ensure the power button illuminates when pressed. When you plug in the PSU with a mains cable, a brief crackling sound indicates live power, and the PSU is responsive. If power flows and the power button is on, the CPU fan and/or rear fan should activate.

If you’re installing an M.2 NVME SSD, do so now. Afterwards, seal the top of the case using the four screws and Allen key.

Prepare your storage media for installation. Unlike many cases, the Jonsbo N2 doesn’t have individual hard drive trays. Instead, it uses a combination of screwed guide plugs and silicone handles.

Attach the handles by screwing them into each hard drive’s base. Traditionally, the drive face is opposite the SATA connector.

Insert four rubber thumb screws into each drive’s available screw holes. Screw each plug just enough to close its small gap. Over-tightening can misalign the drive inside the chassis.

Repeat for each drive you’re installing.

Guide each drive into the Jonsbo’s slot, ensuring the SATA connector is at the bottom. This positioning ensures the drive’s SATA connector meets the NAS board’s connector.

Click to view slideshow.

Reattach the front panel. If it doesn’t align with the rest of the N2 chassis, the drives might not be fully connected.

Your system is now boot-ready. From here, you must decide on the NAS server software for your Jonsbo N2.

UnRAID Installation on the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Setup Walkthrough (Optional)

If you’ve chosen UnRAID as your desired software for the Jonsbo N2 NAS, the following steps will help you get started:

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 1, Get the Latest Stable Release of UnRAID

Head to the UnRAID website HERE and download the latest stable release of the software to your local PC, Linux or Mac system. Make sure to remember where you downloaded it. You CAN recommend the USB creator tool and that can allow you to create a system image of the UnRAID loader, but some users have highlighted that compatibility issues with some USB sticks and capacities have been highlighted. So, that is why I recommend scrolling down and downloaded the latest stable release of UnRAID to your local PC/Mac system.

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 2, Preparing the USB

Connect the small form factor USB Drive to your system (again, this is the one I used from Sandisk) and after a few seconds, it should appear as an available USB Drive. The drive MAY need formatting (you will be prompted to do so), if that is the case, then you can format it via the system prompts and by default, it will format it to FAT32 (as long as your USB is less than 32GB). If you are not presented with a system prompt to format your USB, then you can head into My PC, or My Computer via a windows computer and right-click the drive, select ‘format’ and format it that way. IMPORTANT – Make sure in the ‘volume label’ or Drive Label field, you call the drive UNRAID (all in caps and no spacing)

If you have used the USB for other things previously, there is a chance that the drive has existing partitions in place. For that, the quickest way to completely remove any partitions is to open up the bottom-left windows system menu as normal, and then just type diskpart and open the command-line GUI tool. From there, use the command list disk to show the available drives that are connected, you will see your USB (normally disk 1 or 2, but can differ depending on your system layout and can be spotted by the storage amount). From there, type select disk # (where # is the drive number that your USB is shown as) and then type clean, which will then remove any index structure for the drive (i.e the partitions and existing format) and then you can go back to the My Computer/My PC page and format the drive to FAT 32 as normal.

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 4, Creating a USB Loader Image of UnRAID

Now that your USB has been prepared for the UnRAID USB setup, the next thing you need to do is move the appropriate installation files over to it. Find the .zip UnRAID Server installation you downloaded earlier on your PC/Mac system.

Then use the 1st party extractor tool or 3rd party tools such as WinRAR, then extract the contents of the downloaded .zip to the UNRAID USB drive (DO NOT CREATE ANY ADDITIONAL FOLDER STRUCTURE)!

REMEMBER! This will completely format your USB drive and any files that are on that USB will be destroyed. The process upto this point will have turned the USB into a pure boot image tool – the USB will not be usable for traditional storage again unless you completely format it again.

Now that you have the files extracted onto the UNRAID USB drive, you need to go into the folder structure and right-click the .bat file ‘make_bootable’, then select ‘run as Administrator’. This will open a new cmd window.

In this new CMD window, you simply need to press any button and the bootable batch file will do it’s thing in less than a second. Press any button again to exit the CMD window. Next, we need to amend a folder to ensure the drive is picked up as a bootable drive in the Jonsbo N2 mobo.

File the folder labelled ‘EFI-‘ and then rename it ‘EFI’. That’s all, there is nothing else left to change.

You can now safely remove the USB using the contextual system options on Windows/Mac systems and then prepare to install the USB inside the Jonsbo N2 NAS.

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Connecting the USB, Keyboard and HDMI Monitor

Next, we need to connect the external means to install UnRAID on the Jonsbo N2 NAS. Unlike when you set up your Jonsbo N2 NAS for the first time, UnRAID cannot typically be installed via the network. UnRAID requires you to use a KVM (keyboard, Video Mouse – though you won’t need a mouse!) and go through the installation using a low-res graphical user interface. Now you will ONLY need this setup/items for the installation and initialization of your UnRAID server and after that, you will be able to use the server over the network/internet as normal. You are going to need a basic USB Keyboard (not a Bluetooth or wireless one, as these may need drivers to run and you cannot install drivers at this point) and an HDMI Monitor/TV. You CAN use a mouse, but it is not hugely necessary and 99% of the choices in the setup of UnRAID can/will be via keyboard input. Also, I would also recommend connecting the NAS to the network during setup as this will allow the system to assume certain network values during setup that will save a tonne of time later. Once that is all connected, do NOT turn the NAS on yet – there is one small and slightly time-sensitive thing to do.

 

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Accessing the BIOS Menu of your Jonsbo N2 Motherboard

Now that your Jonsbo N2 NAS is all connected and you are ready at your keyboard/Monitor, turn the NAS on and wait till you hear a beep (should take between 5-15secs depending on the Jonsbo N2 NAS). As soon as your hear that noise (and likely see a flashing character or underscore on the monitor screen), you need to continuously hit the ESC / F12 / F2 and/or DEL keys (not at the same time, just back and forth). One of these will result in the system displaying the blue BIOS menu (it changes between motherboards and Jonsbo N2 uses a mixture of mobos in their Intel and AMD-powered systems). You need to be quick, as you only have about 3 seconds to do this before the Jonsbo N2 will automatically boot from the small internal 4GB/5GB flash OS module that boots into Jonsbo N2 .

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Booting from the New UnRAID Installer USB

When you are in the bios menu, tap right until you reach the ‘Boot’ menu. From here, you need to change the boot priority order and ensure that the USB Drive is in Boot Priority #1. This is because UnRAID loads and runs from the USB drive. Normally, the Jonsbo N2 NAS will boot from the internal  SSD that contains the Jonsbo N2  OS by default (differs, depending on the board you bought from Topton, whether it inc an SSD and a pre-installed OS like pfsense, etc). When you are done, head into the ‘Exit’ tab using right and select save and exit. This should result in the system rebooting and you will be greeted with the UnRAID initialization page.

 

UnRAID on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Accessing the HDMI Port and Keyboard Control

Next, you need to start getting the system ready for Initialization and Setup. I would strongly recommend running the first-time installation via a direct interface with the Jonsbo N2 NAS over KVM locally connected. You will need to connect an HDMI Monitor/TV/Capture Card to the HDMI port of the NAS, a Keyboard (and/or mouse) to an available USB port) and then connect the power/network connections to the NAS and boot the device up.

After this method of connection (as it allows you to check everything is working), you can switch back to accessing the system over the network in future.

You have two options with how to access the configuration and controls.

You can use the HDMI+Keyboard if you choose for console/command level access. Alternatively (much more recommended), use a program such as Advanced IP Scanner, which is free and VERY useful anyway, or even network command prompt) to scan your local area network and find where the Jonsbo N2 with UnRAID is located (i.e it’s IP).

This IP (eg 192.168.1.113) is what you put into the URL bar of your web browser and it will load into the login GUI for UnRAID. From here you will need to use the username ‘root’ in combination with the password that you created during initialization.

And that is about it. You now have UnRAID installed as the default OS of your Jonsbo N2 NAS. Now, it is worth remembering that UnRAID does require the use of a licence key in order to use all of the storage features. The type of licence you will need will be largely based on the scale of your storage (in terms of # of drives). However, you CAN go ahead and register for a free 30 day trial of UnRAID from within the GUI and get started.

From here you can do anything and everything that his highly regarded and exceptionally low resource-consuming server software offers. Head into the Storage area and start creating pools, as well as areas for caching and lots more features.

UnRAID was recently updated to ver.6.10.3 in a stable release of the massively portable format The first thing you are going to need to do when setting up your UnRAID > Jonsbo N2 NAS server is set up your storage. Do this by heading into the storage tab and following the handy steps on the screen. After that, you can pretty much do anything on your new lightweight NAS server!

TrueNAS Installation on the Jonsbo N2 NAS Build Setup Walkthrough (Optional)

For those leaning towards TrueNAS on the Jonsbo N2 NAS, keep in mind that TrueNAS requires more hardware resources. Thus, you might need to upgrade your CPU and memory. Follow these steps for the installation:

Head to the TrueNAS Core website HERE and download the latest stable release of the software to your local PC, Linux or Mac system. Make sure to remember where you downloaded it.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 2, Download Rufus USB Image Tool

Head to the Rufus website and download the latest version of that tool – I recommend downloading the standalone executable file here, as then it will immediately run when you double-click the file, without installation etc. It may redirect you to Github, but it will be the same executable file. Once again, remember where you downloaded it.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 3, Preparing the USB

Connect the small form factor USB Drive to your system (again, this is the one I used from Sandisk) and after a few seconds, it should appear as an available USB Drive. The drive MAY need formatting (you will be prompted to do so), if that is the case, then you can format it via the system prompts and by default, it will format it to FAT32 (as long as your USB is less than 32GB). If you are not presented with a system prompt to format your USB, then you can head into My PC, or My Computer via a windows computer and right-click the drive, select ‘format’ and format it that way.

If you have used the USB for other things previously, there is a chance that the drive has existing partitions in place. For that, the quickest way to completely remove any partitions is to open up the bottom-left windows system menu as normal, and then just type diskpart and open the command-line GUI tool. From there, use the command list disk to show the available drives that are connected, you will see your USB (normally disk 1 or 2, but can differ depending on your system layout and can be spotted by the storage amount). From there, type select disk # (where # is the drive number that your USB is shown as) and then type clean, which will then remove any index structure for the drive (i.e the partitions and existing format) and then you can go back to the My Computer/My PC page and format the drive to FAT 32 as normal.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 4, Creating a USB Installer Image of TrueNAS Core

Open the Rufus application and from there you will see the USB Drive (listed as NO NAME, or ‘UNTITLED’, ETC) at the top. From there, look to the select image/find image option (depending on the ver. of Rufus or your USB Image Creator tool of choice) and find the TrueNAS Core disk image you downloaded earlier). If the drive is not listed, it may have downloaded as a compressed/archive file. If that is the case, head to the location of where you downloaded TrueNAS Core (in your file explorer, not in Rufus) and right-click the file you downloaded. If the option to ‘extract‘ is visible, then you can extract it (i.e unpack it to the original form) in that same download directory. From there, head back into RUFUS and then the TrueNAS Core system image should be visible. Select it, then run the Rufus System image creator tool and create your USB bootable TrueNAS Core disk image.

REMEMBER! This will completely format your USB drive and any files that are on that USB will be destroyed. The system image creator tool will turn the USB into a pure boot image tool – the USB will not be usable for traditional storage again unless you completely format it again.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 5, REMOVE THE USB FROM YOUR PC!!!!!!!!!

Really, really important and sometimes overlooked. Once the USB creation is completed, you need to remove the USB (using the eject hardware safely option at the bottom right of your windows machine taskbar as normal). DO NOT accidentally leave the USB in your USB Ports for any longer than necessary. If you leave it in and your system reboots at any point (eg in a normal ‘end of day shut down, go home, reboot tomorrow’ scenario), then the system might boot directly into the TrueNAS Core installation and although it is easy to exit from, it can change your system default boot preferences, maybe even remove your primary boot drive as the OS drive – requiring a little messing with a windows installation disk to change it back. The odds of this are very small, but not zero, so make sure to safely remove your USB drive when the TrueNAS Core system image creator tool is completed.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 6, (OPTIONAL) – Install an NVMe SSD

This is an optional step, but one I would certainly recommend for newer-generation Jonsbo N2 NAS devices. TrueNAS is a lot like a traditional computer operating system (eg Windows or macOS) in it’s architecture and will run at its best when the necessary boot files are located on a seperate, smaller and faster area of SSD/flash storage away from the general bulk storage. So, if possible/available in your Jonsbo N2 NAS, I would recommend installing a smaller m.2 NVMe SSD drive and then using that as the target/location for your TrueNAS Core installation. This is not compulsory and you can also use a single HDD or SSD in one of the main storage bays of your Jonsbo N2 , however, it means that this drive will unusable for general storage (i.e in any RAID configuration or storage pool). This CAN be negated with some creative portion creation, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Additionally, do NOT try to install TrueNAS Core on another USB drive that is connected to the system – this isn’t particularly stable and tends to result in a poorer TrueNAS Core experience. M.2 NVMe bays and their location in the Jonsbo N2 NAS changes depending on the system. Reminder – TrueNAS is NOT a big program and you can use an SSD as small as 32GB and still have a tonne of provision for future storage space. However, M.2 NVMe SSDs are not available in smaller sizes than 120GB. Lower size than this and you will generally only find 2240 SSDs and/or SATA M.2 SSDs. These are still perfectly fine to use, but the performance difference between SATA and NVMe (PCIe) is HUGE! You can find many SSD options here on amazon for as little as $30  – Find Low Capacitiy and Low Price M.2 NVMe SSDs HERE on Amazon (already filtered the results)

NOTE – If you plan on upgrading the memory of your NAS to 4GB-8GB-16GB or higher (in order to use ALL of the features of TrueNAS Core to their fullest extent), I would recommend doing so at this point before rebuilding the physical chassis again, as many Jonsbo N2 NAS have the 2nd SODIMM memory slot in really tight locations.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 7, Connecting the USB, Keyboard and HDMI Monitor

Next, we need to connect the external means to install TrueNAS Core on the Jonsbo N2 NAS. Unlike when you set up your Jonsbo N2 NAS for the first time, TrueNAS cannot typically be installed via the network like QTS/DSM/etc. TrueNAS requires you to use a KVM (keyboard, Video Mouse – though you won’t need a mouse!) and go through the installation using a low-res graphical user interface. Now you will ONLY need this setup/items for the installation and initialization of your TrueNAS Core server and after that, you will be able to use the server over the network/internet as normal. You are going to need a basic USB Keyboard (not a Bluetooth or wireless one, as these may need drivers to run and you cannot install drivers at this point) and an HDMI Monitor/TV. You CAN use a mouse, but it is not hugely necessary and 99% of the choices in the setup of TrueNAS core can/will be via keyboard input. Also, I would also recommend connecting the NAS to the network during setup as this will allow the system to assume certain network values during setup that will save a tonne of time later. Once that is all connected, do NOT turn the NAS on yet – there is one small and slightly time-sensitive thing to do.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Accessing the BIOS Menu of your Jonsbo N2 NAS

Now that your Jonsbo N2 NAS is all connected and you are ready at your keyboard/Monitor, turn the NAS on and wait till you hear a beep (should take between 5-15secs depending on the Jonsbo N2 NAS). As soon as your hear that noise (and likely see a flashing character or underscore on the monitor screen), you need to continuously hit the F12 and/or DEL keys (not at the same time, just back and forth). One of these will result in the system displaying the blue BIOS menu (it changes between motherboards and Jonsbo N2 supports a mixture of mobos in their Intel and AMD-powered systems). You need to be quick, as you only have about 3 seconds to do this.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Booting from the New TrueNAS Installer USB

Next, you need to tap ‘RIGHT‘ on the keyboard and head to the ‘Save & Exit’ option. At the bottom, you should see, under the ‘boot override‘ option, your USB Drive. Tap ‘DOWN‘ until you are highlighting the USB and then tap ‘Enter‘ or ‘Return‘ on your keyboard, as this will push the Jonsbo N2 to boot from that USB and begin the TrueNAS Core installation. Later on I will show you how to force the system to ALWAYS boot into TrueNAS Core, but for now, we just need it to read from this USB this one time.

TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 10, Rebooting and Starting the TrueNAS Installer

This next step is a bit of a quick one. Around 5-15 seconds after you selected the USB Drive in BIOS, the screen will display the TrueNAS Installer option page. Tap ‘Enter’ as soon as you see it, as the page is on a countdown and when it reaches zero it will (possibly, depending on the version) reboot and then you will have to repeat the last few steps again!), So, in order to avoid this, tap ‘ENTER‘ as soon as this page appears.

After a few minutes, the TrueNAS Core GUI/Command will appear on your monitor and all you need to do is navigate the config choices to set up your TrueNAS Core NAS the first time.

Important – TrueNAS Core runs at its best when it is run on a separate drive from your storage. Much like an Operating System, you can install TrueNAS Core on an available SSD in a SATA or NVMe SSD slot in the Jonsbo N2 NAS, then (after initialization) you can go into the TrueNAS Core > Storage area and create a pool of storage using the available storage media bays,

It is NOT recommended that you install it on a USB drive, for reasons of speed and power-connections.

After you have completed the setup and are back at the initial TrueNAS Core boot menu, select the ‘SHUTDOWN‘ option (not reboot/restart, for reasons I will explain in a moment).

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TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 8, Remove the Boot USB Drive AND CHANGE BIOS!!!

Once your Jonsbo N2 NAS has fully powered down, you need to disconnect the USB drive you installed earlier with TrueNAS Core boot loader on it. You need to do this otherwise, when you reboot the Jonsbo N2 NAS, it can potentially reboot into the bootloader again. You can skip past this and/or it will not action a reinitialization without your input, but better to remove the USB and therefore allow the system to always immediately boot into the TrueNAS Core system you just created.

Next, you need to head back into the BIOS from earlier. Keep the Keyboard and HDMI Monitor connected and use the same method you used earlier during the initial boot of the Jonsbo N2 (pressing F12 and/or Delete repeatedly when you hear the first Jonsbo N2 beep after about 10-15 secs) and as soon as you are greeted with the familiar blue BIOS screen. From here, tap right a few times to highlight the ‘Boot’ option and change the option for Boot Priority #1. The default is Jonsbo N2 OS, you need to change it to the drive you installed TrueNAS on (whether that is a SATA/NVMe SSD or one of the main storage bays).

This will change the boot order to allow the system when it is first powered on to always boot into TrueNAS. After this, you can click right again in the BIOS menu to select the option to Save and restart. The system will then boot into the TrueNAS initialization (first time setup).

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TrueNAS Core on a Jonsbo N2 NAS – Step 9, Reboot the NAS

Upon rebooting the Jonsbo N2 into TrueNAS Core (can take up to 5 mins, but usually much quicker). You have two options with how to access the configuration and controls. You can use the HDMI+Keyboard if you choose for console/command level access. Alternatively (much more recommended), use a program such as Advanced IP Scanner, which is free and VERY useful anyway, or even network command prompt) to scan your local area network and find where the Jonsbo N2 with TrueNAS Core is located (i.e it’s IP). This IP (eg 192.168.1.111) is what you put into the URL bar ofay web browser and it will load into the login GUI for TrueNAS Core. From here you will need to use the username ‘root’ in combination with the password that you created during initialization.

And that is about it. You now have TrueNAS Core installed as the default OS of your Jonsbo N2 NAS. From here you can do anything and everything that his highly regarded ZFS powered server software offers. Head into the Storage area and start creating pools, as well as areas for caching and lots more features.

TrueNAS was recently updated to ver.13 in a stable release of the FreeBSD format, as well as new improvements in the Linux-based version ‘TrueNAS Scale’. The first thing you are going to need to do when setting up your TrueNAS Core > Jonsbo N2 NAS server is set up your storage. Do this by heading into the storage tab and following the handy steps on screen. After that, you can pretty much do anything on your new ZFS NAS!

You can find out more about TrueNAS in my full review below that covers everything I like and dislike about the platform:

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Jonsbo NAS DIY Vs Synology and QNAP? Better or Worse?

The perennial question for many tech enthusiasts: how does a custom-built NAS stack up against pre-packaged solutions like Synology and QNAP? The decision largely boils down to convenience vs. cost. For individuals who prioritize convenience and have a bit more to spend, a pre-assembled NAS from brands like Synology and QNAP offers an attractive package. With everything set up out of the box, from hardware to software, and a unified warranty, it’s a hassle-free solution. On the other hand, for those with a tighter budget, technical knowledge, and time on their hands, a DIY NAS like the Jonsbo N2 offers an economical alternative. The detailed Jonsbo N2 build listed in the guide above provides a 5-6 bay NAS system with an Intel Celeron processor popular in the server market, 4GB of DDR4 memory, 4x 2.5 G LAN ports, M.2 NVME support, an unused PCIE slot for 10GbE additions, and KVM capabilities. Factoring in all components, delivery, and a lifetime UnRAID license, the entire build costs roughly £350. Here’s a price breakdown:

Hardware:

• Topton N5105 NAS Motherboard – £149.37 (with 4GB Memory + 120GB NVMe Included – £127.72 Bare)
• Jonsbo N2 5/6 Bay NAS Case – £74.60
• SATA 6 Cable Fan/Multi-Cable – £11.59
• SFX 250W PSU – £25

Total = £260.56 with 4GB Memory + 120GB SSD (£238.91 without SSD/Memory)

Additional (i.e. optional/flexible):

• + $59-89 for UnRAID Basic/Plus License HERE
• + $0 for TrueNAS Core/Scale
• + $7 for a 32GB USB
• +£29.40 Delivery to UK

For comparison, acquiring a similar level of hardware from brands like Synology, QNAP, Terramaster, and Asustor will set you back between £600 to £800:

Click to view slideshow.

Clearly, the Jonsbo N2 build offers a significant cost-saving, coming in at over half the price of its branded counterparts. But this economical choice does come with trade-offs. You might end up relying on community-supported software, which could be less intuitive than proprietary software bundled with turnkey NAS solutions. Moreover, the time and effort invested in building and maintaining the NAS need to be factored in. Even with a clear guide, the DIY route will never be as plug-and-play as a pre-built solution.

 

Additionally, a custom-built NAS like the Jonsbo N2 typically involves dealing with warranties from various vendors. This means your components like the CPU, motherboard, case, PSU, and cables may all come with different warranty terms and lengths. Compatibility checks, troubleshooting, and potentially more maintenance time are other considerations. In conclusion, while building your own NAS can be both financially and personally rewarding, it does lack the comprehensive support and seamless experience associated with turnkey solutions from brands like Synology and QNAP.

 

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

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Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] TRY CHAT Terms and Conditions   Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.

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QNAP vient de mettre en ligne QTS 5.1.1. La nouvelle version intègre de nombreuses améliorations et nous vous recommandons d’installer sur votre NAS. Regardons de plus près les nouveautés dans QTS 5.1.1… QNAP QTS 5.1.1 La semaine dernière, le fabricant QNAP a mis en ligne une nouvelle version de son logiciel interne pour ses NAS : QTS 5.1.1. Cette dernière contient de nombreuses corrections, des améliorations et plusieurs mises à jour de sécurité. Voici ce que l’on peut lire dans […]

Cet article QNAP QTS 5.1.1 est disponible est apparu en premier sur Cachem

The Best NAS for Under $250 of 2023 – Synology, QNAP, Asustor and Terramaster

Making the tough decision to migrate away from public subscription cloud services and towards your own private server can be a costly and intimidating decision. Therefore, it is always tremendously gratifying to know that as NAS systems have now been around for a few decades, their ease of use and general affordability has grown exponentially. Previously, I have discussed the very best NAS devices you can buy for under $500, £500, or 500 euros. However, today I want to take things even further, by discussing the very best in NAS devices you can get for as little as $250. It is genuinely impressive, just how affordable this technology has become, even at this rather modest price point, which equates to less than 2 years of public cloud subscription services. By comparison, you still have access to the bulk of modern NAS software and features in 2023.

Disclaimers

Before going any further, it’s worth highlighting a few disclaimers about how the different NAS for this article were selected and a few extra considerations you might have before spending a single penny. For a start, all of these solutions arrive unpopulated. That means that you will still need to purchase hard drives or SSDs separately in order to fully take advantage of these systems. The reason I have not included hard drives in these calculations is because there are just too many different kinds and capacities available to users. That said, in every case, these are two-bay NAS systems and therefore support traditional RAID configurations for two drives that allow at least one drive for failover or the performance benefits of combining two drives into a single storage pool.

It is also worth highlighting that one NAS that I really wanted to include in this available range, the Synology DS220 + NAS released in 2020, is unfortunately too expensive to qualify for a selection of NAS devices under $250. However, this NAS has regularly been on sale for the last 12 to 18 months globally, and also is seeing a refresh to the new DS224 + NAS relatively soon. The result is that although right now the Synology DS220 + is over $250, it will relatively soon become a great deal more affordable and likely regularly on sale in the coming months. So if you do see this NAS, I do recommend getting hold of it as it is by far the best NAS on this list, if it could qualify.

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The Synology DS223 – Best NAS Software and Services for Under £249

Realtek RTD1619b – 2GB DDR4 Memory – 2x SATA HDD/SSD – 1x1GbE – USB 5G – $249 (10/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

By far the most recently released NAS on this list, the Synology DS223 is one of the latest releases for the brand’s 2023 portfolio and arrived with substantial support of DSM 7.2. Synology is a brand that has traded on the usability and smooth running of its popular NAS software, Disk Station Manager, and the majority of Synology NAS systems that arrive with this software are generally two or three times the price of the DS223. However, thanks to the affordability of ARM-based processors and the increasing efficiency that the brand brings to the development of their software over time, it is now perfectly possible to enjoy the majority of the features of DSM on a fantastically affordable NAS like the DS223. Originally released in the spring of 2023, it was the beginning of the refresh of the entire value series from Synology and alongside the fantastically efficient RTD 1619b processor, the system also arrives with 2GB of DDR4 memory. A way to enjoy Synology’s entire ecosystem, whilst also featuring a fantastically low footprint in power consumption, scale, and noise by far.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our Synology DS223 NAS Review on 08/02/23:

As soon as your look at the Synology DS223 as an entry point into the Synology software platform and ecosystem for those that want to have a small, robust and user-friendly NAS – it makes ALOT of sense! There is a reason why it arrives at a price point $120-150 cheaper than the DS723+ and as long as you are looking at the DS223 as a low-power, low impact and low-demand device, you are going to come away from it happy! It provides the bulk of the DSM applications and services that most home/small office users are going to want for Multimedia, Collaboration, Backup, Sync’d team drives and surveillance, but does so in a much more affordable package than the + series. Where some users might hit issues when they assume that the DS223 can provide the same extent of features and performance of the DS220+, DS723+ and above. This NAS carries the ‘Value’ tag for a reason and as long as you keep that in mind, it is a great little NAS box and serves as a great first NAS or as an extension of your existing Synology NAS environment as an additional backup layer. The rather lacklustre support of USB in DSM 7 is slightly countered by this device having three on board (though 5Gb/s) for storage, which is more desirable for home users, as is that copy button function. The removal of the SD Card slot in recent refreshes of this series, + the continued appearance of 1GbE is disappointing but expected at this tier in the brand’s portfolio. But overall I cannot really fault the DS223 NAS for those users who want to be able to access the Synology NAS platform, but are on a tight budget and/or have low-ranged demands for it’s use. Again, just don’t go expecting a Ford Mustang when you are paying the price of a Ford Focus!

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? Synology DS223 Diskstation NAS (Realtek RTD1619B Quad-Core 2GB Ram 1xRJ-45 1GbE Amazon USA 13.81 OFF (WAS 365) [LINK HERE] Synology DS223J 2 Bay Desktop NAS, black Amazon UK 15.44 OFF (WAS 193) [LINK HERE] Synology 2-Bay NAS DS223 (Diskless) Amazon UK 6.12 OFF (WAS 281) [LINK HERE] Synology DS223 36TB 2 Bay Desktop NAS Solution installed with 2 x 18TB HAT5300 D Amazon UK 77.59 OFF (WAS 2201) [LINK HERE] These Offers are Checked Daily

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The QNAP TS-233 – Best Priced Value NAS @ $199

Cortax A55 4-Core 2.0Ghz – 2GB DDR4 Memory – 2x SATA HDD/SSD – 1x1GbE – USB 5G – $199 (10/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

At least in the early stages of 2023, the QNAP TS-233 is comfortably the lowest-priced NAS in this article, something I never thought I would say about a QNAP NAS. With a price point of $199, it would be easy to assume that this system would be inferior to the previously mentioned Synology. However, it actually arrives with a significantly superior CPU inside which features both a higher clock speed of 2 gigahertz on a quad-core architecture, but also has an embedded AI component (NPU) to directly assist with AI processes in their photo recognition and surveillance applications that are included with the QTS software platform. The system also arrives with 2GB of memory and is even lower impact in size and power consumption than the Synology offering. I think it would be fair to say that although Synology DSM is the superior software, that QNAP QTS is still pretty darn good and significantly improved year on year. Applications and support of third-party software and hardware on the QNAP NAS here and factoring in that it is also $50 less is also tremendously appealing. If you were looking for the most flexible NAS out there, then chances are the QNAP is the one for you here.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our QNAP TS-233 NAS Review on 25/02/23:

Overall – I would say that the QNAP TS-233 NAS Drive IS good value, although maybe not as good a value as we have seen in previous releases from the brand. On the plus side, this is by far the most modern CPU that we have seen from a NAS brand in the ‘value’ tier. After a few years of fatigue from everyone using the Realtek RTD1966, this newer and more powerful/capable Cortex A55 is a breath of fresh air and allows a larger range of QNAP services and simultaneous services to be used at once. Equally, QTS 5 seems to have taken a lot of the criticism that people have had towards QNAP in 2021, its ‘default heavy’ security, over-flexibility in its design that gave some users too much rope to hang themselves and presets – then tightened many of them up, changed how users are informed of issues, bolstered the default security tools and increased its recommendations on backup tiers. QTS still has a steeper learning curve than other NAS brands, but now thing seems a lot tighter on day 1 and changing some options that users might use carelessly has been a big part of that. The 2GB of DDR4 memory in the system is a welcome day 1 inclusion too, when many affordable systems from competitors have 512GB or 1GB (which in 2022 is rather mind-boggling), however, the lack of scalability in that memory to go higher, the default 1GbE and those USB 2.0 ports are a touch surprising from a brand that generally tends to push the envelope in the hardware department more than many others. Overall, a solid release, if a little tame and safe at times. If you are looking at entering the QNAP NAS ecosystem and are on a tight budget, the TS-233 is a solid release and excellent value.

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? QNAP TS-233-US 2 Bay Affordable Desktop NAS with ARM Cortex-A55 Quad-core Proces Amazon USA 36 OFF (WAS 294) [LINK HERE] These Offers are Checked Daily

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The Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro – A 2.5GbE NAS for Under $249

Realtek RTD1619b/RTD1296 4-Core 1.4-1.7Ghz (Gen 2 ver. has CPU Upgrade) – 2GB DDR4 Memory – 2x SATA HDD/SSD – 1×2.5GbE – USB 5G – $249 (10/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

Now, on the face of it, it could be argued that of all of the NAS devices here, the Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro NAS is the least compelling of the bunch. It has a CPU that is older or lower in clock speed than all the other devices in this list, and also has pretty much the same memory quantity as the bulk of solutions on this list. So what makes its $250 price point any more compelling than the other NAS we have discussed so far? Nice and simple, this system arrives with 2.5 GbE network support when all other solutions only feature gigabit network speeds. Yes, the TerraMaster can get close thanks to port trunking or link aggregation, but this system provides it straight out of the box to 2.5 G supported client hardware. This is further improved when you learn that with a simple $20 network upgrade, you can add additional 2.5G network ports using USB to 2.5G adapters available from multiple retailers. This means that the Asustor is one of the few NAS devices here that can not only allow you to fully capitalize on two hard drives inside externally, but also is the only one really capable of providing enough external bandwidth for two SSDs installed inside too. Add to that the Asustor ADM software, though the least featured of the three platforms, has BTRFS support like the Synology, smooth operation in the web browser, and a tremendous range of client tools available for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac platforms. Overall, when it comes to network performance, this might be one of the best options for you if what you want is a system to just shut up and get the job done with the best possible external network performance. What it lacks in fully featured apps and tools, it makes up for in straightforward deployment. Just be aware that this price point does mean that some compromises between it and more premium systems have to be made.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro NAS Review on 21/08/22:

The Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro NAS is a modest system that for the most part does not over-promise in what it can provide. Its architecture lends quite well to the more budget-friendly buyer, home users and those that are simply looking for an easy backup option to the cloud. Additionally, less demanding users who want some light multimedia support, network-based camera surveillance and cross-platform file sharing will certainly see plenty of use in the Drivestor 2 Pro device. The software and services available via ADM on the Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T also provide a decent level of utilities and provides a good level of confidence to the end-user in housekeeping and secure functionality. Though the system is arguably let down by weak upgradeability and internal hardware that has been a tad overused in recent years, you still have a very functional solution here that mostly sticks the landing in offering your own private cloud solution.

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The Terramaster F2-221 – Best Hardware Value for Under $249

Intel J3355 Celeron CPU – 2/4/8GB DDR4 Memory – 2x SATA HDD – 2x 1GbE – HDMI 1.4b 4K 30FPS – USB 5G – $249 (10/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

Thanks to TerraMaster arguably prioritizing hardware over software, you generally find better value for money on their products in terms of hardware than any alternative NAS brand out there, with the F2-221 being a great example of this. However, it gets even better here because the F2-221 was released a good couple of years ago, yet the main improvement and innovations in TOS (the TerraMaster NAS software) only really kicked off about a year ago in version 5. The result is that you have a low hardware price point as it is a previous generation, yet it fully supports the latest software updates. Consequently, what you have here is the only NAS in the list that features an Intel Celeron x86 processor, 2GB of memory that can be expanded even further, and dual LAN architecture with support of SMB multichannel/Port Trunking/LAG to really take advantage of the two-drive RAID potential here externally. Their software is still less featured than what you would find in QNAP QTS and Synology DSM, but it is still a fantastically capable piece of kit, especially when you factor in the ability to install Unraid or TrueNAS on the system too.

Click to view slideshow.

Terramaster still continues to be the most affordable fully-featured provider of the whole NAS market and although a number of their solutions have always felt a little rough around the edges, you always got the impression that you were getting a good deal for the hardware that was available from QNAP and Synology. Now in 2022/2023, the same continues to be true but in the F2-221 NAS’ case, you are actually getting some pretty top tier (for the Home/Prosumer) market at a price tag that is really tough to argue with. Terramaster has clearly been watching their bigger competitors and cherry-picked the features that people have been asking for this new generation. In terms of software, things are a little less convincing and although TOS 5 (currently in Beta at the time of writing) still continues to evolve into something genuinely fully featured and impressive, TOS 4 that the F2-221 includes at launch is usable (if unexciting) platform that provides the base level services that a new NAS user would want, but lacks killer apps that their competitors are offering right now (File Streaming, AI photo recognition, Surveillance, etc). Most of these ARE included in TOS5, but until it arrives much later in 2022 in a full release, the F2-221 feels like a powerful NAS that doesn’t have the software to show off its strengths yet. If you are reading this later in 2022 or 2023, this might well be irrelevant though, as the brand rolls out their bit firmware update to ALL TerraMaster NAS devices. Overall, I definitely CAN recommend the F2-221 NAS for its hardware, for Plex Media server or as an affordable multi-tier backup solution, but if you are looking for a NAS for more tailored data access or in a much more fully-featured package – hold out a little longer till TOS 5 gets released first.

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QNAP vient de mettre à disposition la nouvelle version de son logiciel interne : QTS 5.1. Il s’agit d’une version majeure pour le fabricant de NAS. Cette dernière intègre de nombreuses améliorations et fonctionnalités pour profiter au mieux de son boîtier réseau. Découvrons ensemble les principales nouveautés de QTS 5.1. QNAP QTS 5.1 est disponible Après une Bêta et trois Release Candidate, QNAP propose en téléchargement la nouvelle version QTS 5.1. Le système se voit agrémenter de nombreuses corrections et […]

The Best NAS for Under $500 of 2023 – Synology, QNAP, Asustor and Terramaster

We are now halfway into 2023, and even though this is an odd-numbered year, traditionally a quieter period for hardware releases in the tech industry, we have seen an enormous number of new NAS devices released by the big brands in the industry. Whether you are looking at just 2023, or the individual 2023 series, each brand has put out a confident range of solutions for home and business users to choose from. However, for many new users considering making the jump from existing cloud platforms to their own NAS system, it can still be a somewhat costly and trepidatious choice to make. Today, I want to talk about the best NAS that you can buy for under $500/ £500 / 500 euros of 2023 so far, each one based on the best value, the best price, the best hardware, and the best software.

Quick Disclaimers

Before going any further, a few things should be highlighted. First and foremost, none of these prices includes the cost of your storage media. This is because different uses have different requirements and budgets, each of which may scale from hundreds to thousands of dollars. However, all solutions in today’s article can run with as little as a single drive inside and are completely scalable – meaning you can add more storage drives and expand your storage over the years quickly and easily. Additionally, all solutions in this article are combined hardware and software solutions, providing you with a complete turnkey solution that can be deployed effectively out of the box, with many supporting the installation of third-party software such as TrueNAS or Unraid. Lastly, it’s worth highlighting that while all of these solutions are available for under $500, if you spend an extra $100 to $200 more (eg Synology DS923+ or QNAP TS-464), you can scale things up even more. These aren’t necessarily the best NAS overall; they are simply the best NAS you can buy right now in summer 2023 for under $500.

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The Asustor Flashstor 6 – Best Plex 4K/8K that’s under $500

Intel N5105 Celeron CPU – 4-16GB DDR4 Memory – 6x M.2 NVMe SSD – 2.5GbE – HDMI 2.0b 4K 60FPS – S/PDIF – USB 10G – $491 (06/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

It was a pleasant surprise when Asustor revealed their new NVMe-focused solution. Arriving with hardware architecture not dissimilar from other Intel Celeron-powered systems in the market, this new 2.5GbE equipped NAS is entirely focused on the use of M.2 SSDs and can support up to six drives in one or more storage pools. Although Asustor lacks some of the historical and AAA+ applications available from their competitors like Synology and QNAP, the Asustor Flashstor 6 is one of the best NAS devices I’ve seen this year. With the decreasing cost of Gen 3 SSDs as newer-generation drives come to market, fully populating a NAS with SSDs is becoming more affordable. This, combined with the system’s price range of $450-$499, makes it one of the best value solutions in the market right now. You can also easily install TrueNAS on it. Frankly, it is near impossible to build a NAS like this for less money than they are charging, and they even include their own software.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our Asustor Flashstor Review on 12/06/23:

I cannot stress enough how impressed I am that the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro are priced at $499 and $860, respectively, given the level of hardware on offer here. These are by no means enterprise-grade NAS server solutions, nor should they be thought of as such. However, given the cost of typical fully featured 4x HDD solutions from their competitors and the brand themselves, which often start at $550 and above, it is quite remarkable that the six M.2 SSD system with comparable internal hardware comes in at $499. As long as a user keeps their expectations in line with what this cost versus its capabilities, it’s really tough to argue with the price point that these two devices have arrived at on the market. The Asustor FS6712X Flashstor 12 Pro NAS presents a unique offering in the NAS market, leveraging NVMe technology to provide high-capacity, ultra-high-performance storage. The device’s design, with its rhombus-shaped enclosure and twelve M.2 NVMe slots, sets it apart from traditional NAS devices and offers a sleek and modern aesthetic. The tool-less drive installation mechanism makes it easy to set up and expand the storage capacity. However, there are some considerations to keep in mind. The limited number of PCIe lanes provided by the Intel Celeron N5105 processor may restrict the performance of high-speed NVMe drives.

The single 10GbE LAN port also presents a potential network bottleneck, limiting the device’s overall network performance. Users seeking maximum performance and network throughput may find alternative solutions better suited to their needs. Despite these limitations, the FS6712X shines as a storage solution for users who prioritize high-capacity storage, quiet operation, and low power consumption. The device’s ability to directly output 4K video, along with its range of Asustor-approved apps, makes it an excellent choice for media distribution and presentation. In terms of pricing, the FS6712X comes with a price tag of $850+. While this may appear high at first glance, it is comparable to 8 bay drive NAS SATA devices and many of those do not even include NVMe slots or 10GbE. Users looking for a more cost-effective option can consider the Flashstor 6, which offers half the number of slots and 2x 2.5GbE enabled ports for $499. As the cost of flash modules continues to drop, and larger capacity drives become available all the way up to 8TB (even without QLC), the FS6712X provides an attractive solution for those seeking high-capacity and high-performance NAS storage. While some underlying performance relativity by the end user needs to be factored in and hardware limitations exist thanks to the use of that Celeron to remain budget-friendly, the FS6712X is a tremendously smart move by Asustor. A well-designed NAS that presents a much more confident solution demonstrating the benefits of NVMe-focused NAS devices to an audience that would have assumed such things are way, WAY outside the realms of affordability!

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Synology DS423+ – Best NAS for Software under $500

Intel J4125 Celeron CPU – 2-6GB DDR4 Memory – 4xHDD – 2x M.2 NVMe SSD – 1x1GbE – eSATA Expansion – USB 5G – $469 (06/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

When considering a Synology NAS device, the brand’s fantastic DSM software is usually the key reason. Not all Synology NAS are built equally, and depending on the device you buy, the extent to which you can wear and the number of simultaneous processes that can be done at any given time will differ greatly. Synology does offer a more business-class and scalable solution in their portfolio, the DS923 +, but that system is noticeably more expensive and lacks some of the multimedia and graphical capabilities of the more recently released and affordable DS423 +. The Synology DS423 + arrived in Spring 2023, and while the bulk of its hardware borrows from the older Synology DS920 + and elements of its predecessors, the DS423 + is a very solid NAS that supports everything in the Synology DSM 7.2 portfolio. This NAS trades more on its software than its hardware, hence why the base level hardware pales in comparison to some of the other releases on this list, but it is still a solid and dependable solution with easily the best NAS software in the market right now, all for under $500. The system also comes with integrated graphics, NVMe SSD pool support, and the latest innovations in volume encryption and immutable data protection in DSM 7.2.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our Synology DS423+ NAS Review on 15/03/23:

here are two ways we need to look at the Synology DS423+ NAS. In one way, the Synology DS423+ DOES support all of the features and services that users demanded in a fully-featured home/prosumer solution. It features an Intel Quad Core processor with embedded graphics, DDR4 memory, multiple gigabit ports, wide HDD/SSD compatibility and m.2 NVMe SSD support. These are all things popular and most certainly what users would want/expect in a fully featured home/prosumer solution (aka SOHO). Then, when you roll in DSM 7 and it’s enormous range of software and services, the DS423+ is an excellent NAS solution that counters a broad range of criticisms that were leveled at the DS923+ at launch. However, there is, of course, the unavoidable way that most long-term Synology users and those looking to upgrade an existing 2016/2018 Diskstation are going to look at the DS423+ – a Synology DS920+ with less memory and no expandability! For those that skipped the DSx20+ generation, the DS423+ is going to feel decidedly underwhelming at best and hugely disappointing at worst! Synology has made no bones that they prioritize their software and services, with hardware being an important but nevertheless secondary concern. The main criticism is that CPU being the same processor used in the 3 years previous generation. Intel has moved production away from the J4125 themselves several times (with most other NAS brands using the N5105 or J6412 right now) and although Synology has been known to move CPU architecture down through the generations previously, this is a particularly egregious example. If they had just scaled something up on this device, such as the network ports from 1GbE to 2.5GbE, add the option of a 10GbE upgrade or more over upgrade the base level memory from 2GB or 4GB. The Synology DS423+ IS a good NAS system and serves as a great means to enjoy the wide-ranging features of DSM privately or professionally! It just feels like more of a stop-gap system in some places and one that existing DS920+ or DS420+ owners will skip.

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QNAP TS-462 NAS – Best NAS for Hardware and Scalability for under $500

Intel JN4505 Celeron CPU – 2-16GB DDR4 Memory – 4xHDD – 2x M.2 NVMe SSD – 1×2.5GbE – HDMI 2.0 4K 60FPS – PCIe Gen 3×2 Slot – USB 10G – $489 (06/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

Like the previously mentioned Synology solution, this QNAP prioritizes hardware over software. There is a slightly more business-oriented version available (the TS-464) that costs more and perhaps includes more hardware than you’d use. On the other hand, the QNAP TS-462 NAS arrives at a better price point while offering a taste of every single feature available on current-generation NAS drives. Anything you’ve heard great things about in the world of NAS is available here. Into NVMe storage pools and caching? Check. Integrated graphics? Check. KVM and 4K output? Check. Support for multiple expansions, upgradable memory, and integrated AI services? Check, check, check! The TS462 even comes with a PCIe upgrade slot that allows you to add further network or local connections as needed, with the system also arriving with 2.5 GB Ethernet off the bat. Finally, there’s the QNAP software, which, although not quite as advanced as the Synology platform, is pretty darn close and is hugely customizable with a vast range of office, multimedia, virtualization, and surveillance applications all rolled in. Bottom line, this QNAP NAS is great value for money and for those who found the more business-centric TS464 and recent changes to the fixed 8 GB memory to be slightly off-putting, the TS462 is an excellent and more affordable alternative.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our QNAP TS-462 NAS Review on 24/01/23:

The QNAP TS-462 NAS is a substantial update on the QNAP TS-451D (even worth considering for those who opted for the TS-451D or TS-451A previously) that features a more modern CPU that allows increased internal performance. This translates in hardware to M.2 NVMe SSD support, a larger bandwidth PCIe Upgrade slot, USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gb/s connectivity and 2.5GbE by default. Some areas of the device are less compelling, such as that initial 2GB of memory (which you are almost certainly going to upgrade immediately, given QTS will eat up at least half of that to run the baseline/1st party apps generally). The limiting of those M.2 NVMe SSD bays to PCIe Gen 3×1 makes alot of sense, giving the range of this PCIe3 Celeron CPU makes sense, but is nonetheless going to annoy some users. lastly, the hardware gains in the system featuring much, MUCH more powerful and visually appealing HDMI 2.1 is a fraction let down by the HD Station software getting fewer and fewer feature-rich updates (outside of stability and performance fixes). As far as running the QNAP QTS EXT4 software platform on the TS-462, you will have little to no complaints, as it can run the bulk of the 1st/3rd party applications available to the software, just remember that you are running a dual-core and two thread processor – so the glass ceiling in terms of hardware resources is going to be a pinch lower than some of their Pentium, Intel Core or Xeon systems of course. After a bumpy start to 2022, with the brand needing to win alot of users back after being targetted by ransomware groups and missteps in communication, fast forward to the start of 2023 and you have a much more secure, closed and layered QNAP NAS platform here.

Click to view slideshow.

Choosing the QNAP TS-462 NAS over the increasing range of 4-Bay’s in the brand’s portfolio is a little less straightforward, with the TS-462 nestled somewhere between the TS-453E, TS-464, TVS-h474, TS-473A, TBS-464 and TS-453D (with several more 4-Bay options in the TS-x51+, TS-31P3 AND TS-31K still listed on their official site). I also think the TS-462 would do better to have been released alongside the TS-464 (and the rest of the x64 range), when the portfolio was a little less clustered and its status as an affordable alternative to the TS-462 made alot more sense! The QNAP TS-462 is designed for users looking to spend a little less on base hardware, whilst still buying a device that can be scaled in storage, network bandwidth and more down the line. QTS still continues to be fully featured and has a great many new security and access defaults/settings introduced to limit novice users leaving doors open, but still has a fractionally steeper learning curve than many of its competitors, often trying to do too many things at once (or at least not stopping an end user doing too much at times), which can lead to occasionally bumps in the road when using their platform on a more modest system as this. The QNAP TS-462 is a great 4-Bay NAS and a solid refresh/update on the TS-451D, but if you can stretch your budget a fraction more, I recommend opting for the TS-462 or TS-464 ($100-200 more) as much like this device doubles down on it’s predecessor hardware, so do those two NAS ram things up further for your money. A good NAS indeed, that lives a tad in the shadow of it’s own brothers and sisters!

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The Terramaster F4-423 – Best Value NAS Under $500

Intel N5105 Celeron CPU – 4-32GB DDR4 Memory – 4x SATA HDD – 2x M.2 NVMe SSD – 2.5GbE – HDMI 2.0 4K 60FPS – USB 10G – $469 (06/07)

YouTube Video Review HERE – NASCompares Written Review HERE

If you are looking for the lowest-priced turnkey NAS solutions in the market in desktop form, it’s tough to beat the range of solutions and affordability offered by Terramaster. Although I could pick any number of their solutions that all come for under $500, some featuring 10 GBE and others having a vast number of local connections, the best of their 2023 series so far is the F4-423. Arriving with the same quad-core Celeron as their competitors at Asustor and QNAP, but at a lower price point, their systems offer pretty much everything that everyone else does, but on a smaller budget. Support for up to 32 GB of DDR4 memory, M.2 NVMe slots for caching or storage pools, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and 10Gb USB ports means that you’re getting the same hardware as the prosumer boxes from competitors at more affordable home price tiers. The software, TOS 5.1, may not be as advanced as that of Synology’s DSM or QNAP’s QTS but makes up for it by focusing on the fundamentals and providing the baseline applications and services users want. There’s a lack of some premium AAA+ first-party services for things like virtualization or multiple client applications, but there is support for their own hybrid RAID system (TRAID) that is comparable to Synology’s Hybrid RAID, support for BTRFS, and a unique one-click isolation mode that can completely sever the system from all third-party remote services and all external connections at the click of a button. Additionally, the relative ease and simplicity of installing third-party software such as TrueNAS and Unraid make this an extremely affordable alternative to more expensive NAS devices on the market right now, offering a similar level of hardware for noticeably less money by comparison.

Click to view slideshow.

What we said in our Terramaster F4-423 NAS Review on 23/03/22:

Terramaster still continues to be the most affordable fully-featured provider of the whole NAS market and although a number of their solutions have always felt a little rough around the edges, you always got the impression that you were getting a good deal for the hardware that was available from QNAP and Synology. Now in 2022/2023, the same continues to be true but in the F4-423 NAS’ case, you are actually getting some pretty top tier (for the Home/Prosumer) market at a price tag that is really tough to argue with. Terramaster has clearly been watching their bigger competitors and cherry-picked the features that people have been asking for (2.5GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2, M.2 NVMe SSD bays, etc) for this new generation. In terms of software, things are a little less convincing and although TOS 5 (currently in Beta at the time of writing) still continues to evolve into something genuinely fully featured and impressive, TOS 4 that the F4-423 includes at launch is usable (if unexciting) platform that provides the base level services that a new NAS user would want, but lacks killer apps that their competitors are offering right now (File Streaming, AI photo recognition, Surveillance, etc). Most of these ARE included in TOS5, but until it arrives much later in 2022 in a full release, the F4-423 feels like a powerful NAS that doesn’t have the software to show off its strengths yet. If you are reading this later in 2022 or 2023, this might well be irrelevant though, as the brand rolls out their bit firmware update to ALL Terramster NAS devices. Overall, I definitely CAN recommend the F4-423 NAS for its hardware, for Plex Media server or as an affordable multi-tier backup solution, but if you are looking for a NAS for more tailored data access or in a much more fully-featured package – hold out a little longer till TOS 5 gets released first.

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? TERRAMASTER F4-423 4-Bay Amazon USA -16% £367.99 [LINK HERE] These Offers are Checked Daily

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This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

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We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] TRY CHAT  

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    Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.  

What Is Going On at Plex? 20% Staff Layed Off? What is Happening and Should You Be Worried?

When it comes to enjoying your personal multimedia collection that you’ve built over decades, while still benefiting from the slick GUI available from third-party streaming services, there are very few better options out there than Plex media server. Plex has been around since 2008 and in that time has evolved from being a relatively small fish in the sea of multimedia server applications to becoming one of the biggest names for personal multimedia collections. Which is why it came as such a huge shock to many users when it became public knowledge that Plex had recently laid off 20% of its workforce in efforts to maintain profitability. Plex, unlike a number of open-source alternatives, is built on a hybrid free and paid subscription service model, with a significant percentage of the more desirable capabilities of the software behind a paid Plex pass. Today we want to discuss everything we know about the unfortunate ex-employees of Plex, how the Plex organization is adapting its business model in efforts to remain profitable, and what this might mean for new and existing users of Plex.

Click to view slideshow.

What Has Happened at Plex HQ and Why?

Although there has been no official statement from Plex on their own platforms, there have been numerous indications of recent events surrounding the layoffs at Plex and changes being required internally, published on several news outlets and social media platforms. Some of the earliest indications came from numerous ex-employee postings on LinkedIn volunteering that they were unfortunately involved in the large-scale layoffs at Plex. This was further corroborated by the popular website, The Verge, when they obtained Slack messages that detailed more about the current situation and responses from the CEO of Plex, Keith Valory.

“This is by far the hardest decision we’ve had to make at Plex, These are all wonderful people, great colleagues, and good friends. But we believe it is the right thing for the long-term health and stability of Plex. While we adjusted our business plan last year after the shift in equity markets to get us back on a path to profitability without having to cut personnel expenses, the downturn in the ad market in Q2 put significantly more pressure on our business and ultimately it became clear that we would need to take additional measures in order to maintain a confident path to profitability within the next 18 months,” CEO Keith Valory

For those who do not wish to visit the original article and find out more, you can find the TL;DR below:

• Information primarily stems from a Slack message obtained by ‘The Verge’
• Original investments in 2019 by PLEX towards ad-funded free streaming services on their platform did not produce the predicted ROI, due to a competitive and oversaturated marketplace
• 37 People Laid Off, totally 20% Workforce Affected (All Departments)
• Looking to turn things around and back into positive cash flow in 18 months
• Restructuring Plex Long term under four main product areas
• Changes in the product roadmap
• Reduced spending on marketing
• Several members of staff have shared information on the layoffs
• Several Plex backend devs on Reddit sharing their input
• Indications that another, smaller, round of layoffs took place at the start of 2023

With an incredibly competitive marketplace right now, with third-party streaming services fighting for your monthly subscription, and other supportive streaming services really squeezing the profit margins tighter, it comes as little surprise to many users that Plex trying to enter this crowded marketplace was always going to be challenging at best, and futile at worst. Furthermore, Plex is no longer a small indie outfit, and in order to support its existing large user base, wide variety of supported third-party hardware platforms, and continue to grow and remain sustainable, it seems like the company really does need to make some serious internal changes.

However, as bad as the loss of 37 staff members’ jobs is (and let’s be clear about this, it is really disappointing!), many existing Plex media server users are going to have to think about how this may impact their long-term enjoyment of Plex media server on the devices they use. So let’s take a moment, put on our worst-case scenario hats, and think about some hard choices that Plex may need to make to remain profitable and commit to that plan to be cash positive in 18 months.

What Is the Worst Case Scenario for Plex Users?

In the face of these drastic changes within Plex, it’s essential to consider the possible outcomes that could impact its user base. Let’s delve into the worst-case scenarios for Plex users, examining how these potential changes could significantly alter the Plex experience for both existing and potential new users.

• The End of Plex Pass Lifetime Memberships, Old and New
• Reduced Development of Less Popular Plex Client and Plex Media Server Devices
• Slow Down and/or Reductions in Support of New Compressions, Codecs, and Formats in Plex
• A Restructuring of the Plex Free / Subscription Tiers, favouring Ad Supported Tiers
• More Paid Client Tools, Beyond iOS and Android

So, let’s break down into each:

• The End of Plex Pass Lifetime Memberships, Old and New This would significantly impact existing users who have invested in a lifetime Plex Pass, relying on its benefits for as long as they use Plex. If Plex were to end this membership, they may resort to a monthly or annual subscription model which would increase the ongoing cost for users. The loss of the lifetime membership could also disincentivize new users who might have considered Plex as a long-term investment. For those that invested in the ‘Lifetime’ Plex Pass back when it was first introduced in 2013/2014 or so, that has still been incredible value IF the lifetime membership was rescinded (more likely, it will cease to be the same, as a new tier would be introduced in its place, slowly returning the lifetime pass technically). For slightly newer Lifetime pass users, it would be very disappointing.
• Reduced Development of Less Popular Plex Client and Plex Media Server Devices Users who are using Plex on less popular or older devices could be affected negatively. Plex might cease updates and improvements on these platforms, resulting in stagnation or even degradation of user experience over time. Users may be forced to switch to different, possibly more expensive or less preferred devices to continue using Plex with all its features. This could target any OS that is above a certain age range (as PLEX might want to prioritize their workforce towards newer OS’ and their updates. Alternatively, it could be the reverse and result in a similar situation as found with Drobo a few years ago and not staying on track with the newest OS’ updates, resulting in new hardware (that has the latest software revisions out the box) not working right/at-all.

• Slow Down and/or Reductions in Support of New Compressions, Codecs, and Formats in Plex One of Plex’s strengths is its support for a wide range of file formats and codecs. If Plex were to slow down or reduce the support for new technologies, users would be limited in the type of media files they could stream. This could frustrate users who have diverse media libraries or who wish to make use of the latest file formats. With the increased development and availability of 4K, as well as new and more efficient formats needed to handle 8K (from Cinema screen to your iPhone!), staying ontop of the latest compression formats and file types is going to be growing in importance year on year.
• A Restructuring of the Plex Free / Subscription Tiers, favouring Ad Supported Tiers If Plex were to restructure its free and subscription tiers to favour ad-supported content, this could affect the viewing experience for all users. Ads can be disruptive and may make the platform less enjoyable for users who are used to an ad-free experience. Paid users may also feel frustrated if the number of ads increases or if more content becomes ad-supported. Currently, Plex has three tiers. Monthly Subscription of $4.99 , Annual of $39.99 and a lifetime pass at $119. These do see promotions/discounts at sales events and different regions of the world have different prices, but these are largely the prices. Now, in order to become more profitable, Plex might adapt this towards a tiered system which has certain features locked to specific tiers. Or, they might introduce an Ad-supported tier as opposed to the lowerest tier (perhaps even replacing the free tier to maintain and subsidize it’s use).

• More Paid Client Tools, Beyond iOS and Android Currently, Plex charges for client tools on iOS and Android. If they were to extend this to other platforms, users could end up paying more than they currently do. For example, users who use Plex on their smart TVs or gaming consoles could be affected. This could make Plex less attractive compared to free or cheaper alternatives. This is probably the least likely ‘worst case scenario’ as it would need these platforms to have a robust payment system in place that is both reliable, convenient and not off-putting, but it’s something that some other platforms (Emby for example) have in a bigger way already.

Ultimately, ALL of the above are hypothesised and not confirmed in any way, but Plex needs to make changes in order to remain stable and profitable, so I would not rule them out either! Ultimately, changes to the subscription models and what are included are almost certainly going to be the BIG change that happens (and, in my opinion) are needed. Heck, if a GIANT like Netflix can change their subscription tiers in this current streaming vs profit climate to introduce ad-supported lower-priced tiers and/or alter the scope of what a subscription includes – ANYONE CAN!

Should You Leave Plex? What Are the Alternatives?

As Plex grapples with internal challenges, users may naturally start to contemplate alternatives. Two of the most notable competitors are Emby and Jellyfin, each offering their own unique advantages that could potentially serve as suitable replacements for Plex.

Emby, similar to Plex, offers a polished, user-friendly interface and supports a wide range of devices. Its strong live TV support is a particular standout, and it’s also known for its robust parental control features, making it an excellent choice for families. Emby offers a free tier, but to unlock all its features, including mobile and cloud sync, cinema mode, and offline media, users need to subscribe to Emby Premiere. If you’re accustomed to the premium features offered by Plex Pass, Emby might be a good choice. However, the transition might not significantly alter your spending, as Emby also operates on a subscription model.

On the other hand, Jellyfin is a completely free and open-source media server software, which might appeal to those who are more budget-conscious or prefer a more hands-on, customizable approach. Born as a fork of Emby, Jellyfin is entirely community-driven, meaning that it doesn’t feature any premium tier or include any form of advertisement. However, being community-driven, it doesn’t provide any official customer support, which might be an issue for less tech-savvy users. The interface is not as polished as Plex or Emby, but it’s continually improving. For those who value total control over their media server and don’t mind getting their hands a little dirty, Jellyfin could be an excellent alternative to Plex.

Ultimately, whether Plex users should switch over to Emby or Jellyfin largely depends on their individual needs and preferences. Both alternatives have their merits and downsides, and it’s important for users to carefully consider these before making the switch.

You can find out more by visiting our Plex vs Emby vs Jellyfin article below:

(Click the banner below to read the article):

Alternatively, you can watch my comparisons of Plex vs Emby and Plex vs Jellyfin, in the videos below:

Plex vs Jellyfin YouTube Video	Plex vs Emby YouTube Video

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] TRY CHAT  

Support What We Do

    Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.  

Malgré notre impatience grandissante pour QTS 5.1, QNAP a pris la décision de retarder sa sortie et a publié une troisième version Release Candidate. On le sait déjà, il s’agit d’une version importante pour le fabricant de NAS, mais depuis la Bêta en mars dernier… les utilisateurs commencent à s’agacer. QNAP QTS 5.1 RC3 QTS, également connu sous le nom de QNAP Turbo Station, est le système spécialement conçu pour les NAS QNAP. Il permet le stockage, le partage de […]

Which is the Best NAS Media Server Tool – Plex, Emby or Jellyfin

Although modern Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices can be used for a multitude of purposes, there has always been a large percentage of users who buy a NAS from the likes of Synology, QNAP, Asustor and Terramaster (or go full DiY/Open Source and opt for TrueNAS) in order to host their own multimedia server. If you have been out of the loop this last decade or so, then you might not be aware that the standard of media server software and ease of use has evolved incredibly and when it comes to NAS drive multimedia streaming, there are THREE big players in this arena – Plex, Jellyin and Emby. These three platforms (alongside many others, including tools such as Video Station from the NAS brands themselves) have allowed users who own DECADES of digital media (Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos, eBooks, Comics, etc) to not only access them conveniently remotely from the comfort of their soft/hotel room/commuter train/beach – but also do so with the slick graphical user interface that you would often associate with premium streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. This is done thanks to massive only databases (such as TheMovieDatabase and IMDb) that mean that your years of multimedia is scanned, sorted, and arranged into searchable titles. It then adds boxart, movie posters, cast lists, trailers, synopsis, trailers, extra content and more. Suddenly your dull breadcrumb ‘file/folder’ pile of media takes on an insane quality level and you have your very own personal Netflix – BUT CRUCIALLY YOU OWN ALL THE MEDIA!! That is the appeal of media server software like Jellyfin, Plex and Emby!

Jellyfin	VS	Plex	VS	Emby
Truly Open Source?		Premium Package?		The Middle Ground?

Although all three are quite similar on the face of it, all three have appealing design, interface, cost and customization choices that will almost certainly make one of them more suitable for you than the others! All three are supported by the bulk of modern NAS platforms, with via an available app in the brand’s official app center, available via a 3rd party app center (see QNAPClub or Synocommunity for example) or allow you to create a container within the NAS software and run from there, but there are definitely distinctions between all three that you might want to know before taking the plunge on your new multimedia server setup! So, today I want to go through all of the differences between Plex, Emby and Jellyfin media servers and, hopefully, by the end help you decide which is best for you!

Note – A huge thank you to Protektor-Desura for his time breaking down these services and his permission to use his data. You can find out more about his ongoing project HERE.

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – What have they ALL got in Common?

Before we go any further, it is worth highlighting the things there are supported by all three of these media server applications. It needs to be underlined that regardless of your specific requirements, Plex, Jellyfin and Emby are all EXCELLENT media server applications and alongside a massive range of client applications to watch/listen/read your multimedia on your devices, they have all grown into platforms that rival most paid subscription streaming services like Prime, Netflix, Disney+, etc. Here is a quick snapshot of all the things that Jellyfin, Emby and Plex have in common:

Plex, Emby and Jellyfin ALL Support the following: (Note – Some Services for Emby/Plex Require Subscription Services)
1080p/4K Support AV1 Compression Support H.265/HEC Support Metadata Scraping Group Watching	Android/iOS Client Amazon Fire TV App Apple TV App Roku App Android TV App Desktop PC/Mac Client	Hardware Transcoding Live TV / DVR Multiple Users Offline Downloads Smart Home Integration TV/Movie Tracking

Now, there are a whole bunch of other things that Plex, Emby and Jellfin have in common (the above list would easily be 10x longer if I names them all), so I stuck with the most requested/sought-after features. But what about the things that they don’t have in common? Or those things that are locked behind a subscription/one-off-fee? Let’s begin with the first difference that many users consider the biggest hurdle – the cost of Plex, Emby and Jellyfin.

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Pricing

Now, for many users, the idea that the media server software that they want to use on their NAS costing them MORE money is REALLY annoying! The whole point for many users making the switch AWAY from streaming services (Netflix, HBO Max, etc) is because they wanted to spend that money on the hardware to watch the media they own, as well as ensure that it’s not changed/removed from one money to the next. Now, unfortunately, this is only half the story! The fact is that media platforms such as Jellyfin, Plex and Emby have REAL PEOPLE working o them, as well as continued development (and that is not even factoring in security/stability/feature improvements in the software’s life) that all needs to be subsidized. The NAS brands DO NOT financially support them, the Streaming services actively avoid/discourage them and although users can always donate – the user vs donation ratio is obviously is painfully uneven. Therefore unless these platforms embrace advertisements and/or 3rd party sponsorship (which is a slippery slop for many), the more ambitious platforms need to find ways to fundraise their services in a way that doesn’t hurt casual/low-end users, but pushes the heavier users to support the service.

Here is how Plex, Jellyfin and Emby breakdown their costs:

Server License Fees	Jellyfin	Plex	Emby
Free Option?	Yes, Completely	Yes, but some services unavailable	Yes, but some services Unavailable + Some Client Apps Need One-off payment
Monthly	Free Unlimited Users	Plex Pass $4.99 (15 devices)	Emby Premiere $4.99 (25 devices)
Yearly	Free Unlimited Users	Plex Pass $39.99 (15 devices)	Emby Premiere $54.00 (25 devices)
Lifetime	Free Unlimited Users	Plex Pass $119.99 (15 devices)	Emby Premiere $119.00 (25 devices)

So, IMMEDIATELY Jellyfin looks appealing, RIGHT? It’s totally free for the server application, client tools and (remember the chart above showing what all three support) has most of the same features as Plex and Emby. Although all three have free-to-use options, the ability to use ALL services and client tools is where the subscription services appear. Of the three, Emby works out the tiniest bit more expensive, but actually (when you work it out at the per-user vs cost) it is largely identical to Plex in costs. The main reason that Emby works out the most expensive technically is that although the Emby Premiere subscription is optional, some of the client applications (eg iOS, Android, FireTV, etc) require you to either have an existing Premiere subscription OR pay a one-off fee. Plex allows you to install the app for free on most platforms, but limits the range of supported services that you can use (eg, hardware transcoding, share watch, etc) without a Plex Pass subscription in place. Next, let’s dig deeper into those available features and services available in Emby, Jellyfin and Plex to see what is available, what differs and what is free/paid-for!

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Features, Functions and Supported Formats

Now, as mentioned in the introduction, Emby, Plex and Jellyfin all support a whole bunch of services and features to help you enjoy a wide range of multimedia, in a wide range of formats and on a wide range of devices! But there is definitely some disparity when you dig deeper. Let’s go through the range of supported features of these three applications and see where they start to separate:

Features	Jellyfin	Plex	Emby
License	GPL v2	Full Commercial	Full Commercial
Client/Server	Yes	Yes	Yes
4K Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
ATSC 3.0 Support (4K HEVC Main 10 profile at Level 5.2 Main Tier, HDR, Dolby AC-4, MPEG-H 3D Audio)	No	No	No
AV1 Support	Yes	No	Yes
Audiobook Support	Yes	No	Yes
Bandwidth Limiting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Camera/Photo Upload	No	No	License
Collections	Yes	Yes	Yes
Comic Book Support	Yes	No	No
Commerical Skip	3rd Party Add-on/Free	License	No
E-Book Support	Yes	No	No
Favorites and Tags	Yes	No	Yes
Game Support	No	$2.99/Month	Broken
Group Watching	SyncPlay/Free	Watch Together/License	Limited/Free
Hardware Transcoding	Yes	License	License
Internet Radio Support	Yes	No	No
Intro Skipping	Yes, Plugin	Yes	Yes
LDAP Support	Yes	No	License
Live TV/DVR Support	Yes	License	License
Lyrics	No	License	No
Magazine Support	Yes	No	No
Mobile Media Optimizer	No	License	No
Mobile Sync	No	License	License
Movie Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiple Plugin Repositories	Yes	No	No
Multiple Users	Yes	License	Yes
Music Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Music Video Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Offline Media (Download & Play Offline)	Yes/Free	License	License
Parent Controls	Yes	License	Yes
Per User Bandwidth Limit	Yes/Free	License	License
Photo Albums	Yes	License	Yes
Plug-in Support	Yes	No	Yes
Podcast Support	3rd Party Add-on/Free	No	Yes
Recommend & Discover	Yes	Yes	Yes
Remote Login Server	Never	Yes	Yes
Server Backup	No	Yes	License
Server Stats	Playback/Free, Reports/Free, Embystat/Free	License, Tautulli/Free	Yes, EmbyStat/Free
Sharing Libraries	No	Yes	No
Simultaneous Login Limits	Yes	No	Yes
Smart Home/Voice Control	Alexa/Free, Home Assistant/Free	Alexa/License, Google/Free	Alexa/License, Google/License
Theme Songs and Videos	3rdParty Plugin/Free	Yes/Songs only	License
TIDAL Music (Requires Subscription)	3rd Party Add-on/Free	License	No
Tonemapping CPU	No	Yes	Yes
Tonemapping GPU	Yes	Yes	Yes
Trailers & Extras	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tuner Sharing	No	No	No
TV Episode Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
TV Guide Data	Yes/3rdParty Add-on/Free, fHDHR/Free	License	License
Virtual Reality	No	License	No
Video Chapters Metadata DL	No	No	No

Now, Jellyfin is the most open of the three (cough because it’s pure Open Source), and as good as that sounds, it is worth remembering that this does come with a downfall in platform development when compared to the platforms that get user-subsidy via subscription. Jellyfin is the less visually modern of the three (for those that care) and also throws alot of information at you on the server side, whilst not guiding the user as much. This results in a slightly steeper learning curve vs Plex and Emby. Emby also suffers from this a little, but also does a slightly better job of guiding the user through the experience. The main difference here is regarding the extent of open source! Of the three, PLEX is the one that is the closest to ‘the establishment’, it has long since shrugged off it’s free ‘indie’ type image, as it is the closest in design, appearance and presentation to subscription services. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as this results in a premium level of support, development and updates, connections with existing services and just generally a much better-presented platform overall (server-side and client-side) that is more user-friendly and intuitive – exactly what you would expect from the more premium presented/priced package in 2023/2024. However, this also results in the platform being alot more rigid, restricting optional add-ons and packages that are typically ‘unofficial’ (i.e. ones that Plex do not add to the service themselves). Equally, that Development vs Subsidy balance results in ALOT of the more exciting features being locked/restricted behind a Plex Pass subscription. This is initially understandable (again, see previous paragraph about supporting good work), but many users bulk at the idea of paying for a service, when they already paid for their hardware and said software will occasionally intentionally limit that hardware utility behind the subscription. Both Emby and Plex are guilty of this. Let’s talk about Hardware Transcoding!

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Hardware Transcoding

What is Transcoding? Transcoding (also referred to as encoding, decoding and converting in similar means) is when a file is changed in order to be better suited to the destination client device that it will be enjoyed on. Here are some examples of when you might need to take advantage of transcoding:

• You might own media in a specific compression (the technique used by the media industry to make cinema screen blockbusters into at-home watchable content, among other reasons), such as HEVC/H.265, but not have a licence to play it on your client device, a NAS that supports HEVC or have sufficient client-side hardware/permission locally to convert it
• You might own 4K versions of your multimedia, but you want to watch it on a mobile device where a 480p or 720p version is much, MUCH more client power/hardware efficient to watch
• You are on a limited internet/cellular connection (morning commute, hotel, coffee shop, etc) and need a compressed version of a media file streamed
• Your media might be in an unsupported format (a hugely overlooked factor in audio formats) such as mp4a, FLAC, ACC, etc and needs changing

Transcoding can be done in advance (offline transcoding) or as/when the file is being accessed (known as on-the-fly transcoding) and that later one requires your NAS/Media Server to have sufficient hardware to change the file quickly enough to keep up with organic natural playback (i.e. it takes less than a second to convert/transcode a second of media). Now, you can use software transcoding (i.e the NAS will use raw CPU/System power to change the file, which is less efficient and less effective) or you can use hardware transcoding, which uses specifically available NAS system hardware (graphics card or CPU integrated graphics) to do the job, which is MUCH faster and MUCH MORE efficient. Where Plex and Emby hit a wall is that both platforms have put hardware transcoding support in their premium subscription services Plex Pass and Emby Premiere. This effectively means that the media server software is charging you to use the hardware in your NAS. This upsets quite a few people. Now, in their defence, hardware transcoding does require the software to be adaptive to different graphical hardware, requires time/energy invested in optimizing the software to take advantage of the hardware the best it can and is technically a more specialized media service/function that is not used by everyone – so in a way it makes sense tha this would be one of the optional settings to use as a means to subsidize development in their platform. However, the fact that Hardware Transcoding is available for free in Jellyfin is one of the strongest benefits that users that need this service will observe when comparing Jellyfin, Plex and Emby.

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Supported NAS Hardware & Software Server Platforms

Although Plex, Jellyfin and Emby are all supported on the bulk of NAS platforms, the actual installation of them on NAS devices (from brands such as Synology ,QNAP, WD, Asustor and Terramster) or Custom built NAS servers that run on TrueNAS Core, TrueNAS Scale or UnRAID is not as straight forward from one media server app to the other. Here is how the three media server applications compare with it comes to installing the server-side application for Emby, Plex and Jellyfin:

Server OS	Jellyfin	Plex	Emby
Android	No	Yes	Yes
Asusor	No	Yes	Yes
Docker	Yes	Yes	Yes
FreeBSD	No	Yes	Yes
Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes
MacOS	Yes	Yes	Yes
Netgear ReadyNAS	No	Yes	Yes
Nvidia Shield	No	Yes	Yes
Open Media Vault	Yes	Yes	Yes
QNAP	No	Yes	Yes
Rasberry Pi	Yes	Yes	Yes
Synology	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terra Master	No	Yes	Yes
Thecus	No	Yes	Yes
TrueNAS	No (docker supported)	Yes	Yes
WD My Cloud & My Passport	No	Yes	Yes
Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes

Straight away, you can see that the installation of Plex and Emby on..well..EVERYTHING is supported. Once again, that optional paid subscription model has evidently paid off! Not only is Jellyfin not available as a standalone installer on a large number of platform, but in some cases it can only be installed as a custom-built container application (requiring a container hypervisor such as Docker) and although this is not hugely difficult, it will be dependant on the end user to create it right, as well as the efficiency of the NAS hardware in question to run the container as efficiently as possible. Overall, when it comes to the installation of the server-side application for these three multimedia server applications, Plex and Emby are winning the race! However, this is just the client-side application (i.e the one running the media server on your NAS), what about the support of the client applications for all your devices? Let’s take a look.

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Supported Client Apps & Player Devices

The success of your multimedia server is going to be based on the smoothness of how well your NAS runs the server slide Plex, Emby or Jellyfin application – but also HUGELY dependant on the quality and extent of how well it is supported on the devices that you plan on accessing and enjoying your multimedia (referred to as clients or client-tools). Although all three applications can be accessed via the majority of web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Mozilla, Opera, etc), the bulk of users want to access their media via their phones, laptops, Smart TVs and streaming boxes such as FireTV and Roku. The range of supported clients and the means/extent of their use is possibly one of the biggest areas of difference between Emby, Plex and Jellyfin that you will find! Here is how they compare:

Clients	Jellyfin	Plex	Emby
Android	Free (Google Store), Free (F-Droid Store), Free (Amazon Store), MrMC $2.99	$5 or Server License	$5 or Server License
AndroidTV	Free	Free	$5 or Server License
AppleTV	Free, InFuse $.99/month, $9.99/yearly, or $74.99/lifetime, MrMC $6.99	Free	$5 or Server License
FireTV	Free	Free	$5 or Server License
GoogleDaydream VR	No	$5 or Server License	No
iOS	Free	$5 or Server License	$5 or Server License
Kodi	Jellyfin-Kodi/Free, Jellycon/Free	PlexKodiConnect/Free	Embycon/Free
LenovoMirage Solo VR	No	$5 or Server License	No
Linux	Free	No	No
MacOS	Free	Free	$5 or Server License
OculusGo VR	No	$5 or Server License	No
Roku	Free	Free	Free
SamsungGear VR	No	$5 or Server License	No
Sonos	DLNA	Free	DLNA
SonyPlaystation 3	DLNA/WebBrowser	Free	DLNA/WebBrowser
SonyPlaystation 4	DLNA/WebBrowser	Free	DLNA/WebBrowser
Tivo DVR Box	No	Free	No
Tizen(Samsung TV)	Free/Not in Store	Free	Free
WebBrowser	Free	Free	Free
WebOS(LG TV)	Free	Free	Free
Windows	Free	Free	$5or Server License
Xbox360	No	Free	No
XboxOne	Free, Videotape/Free	Free	$5 or Server License

So, let’s break this down a little. In the case of Jellyfin, the application continues to be largely free and available on the bulk of currently used client hardware platforms. I say ‘largely’, because in some cases Jellyfin is not available as a direct client application for those platforms. You will need to use 3rd pary tools/plugins on some client hardware, some apps are glorified browser tabs with a lite GUI on top and some need to have a small fee to maintain their existence on certain app centers. Emby on the other hand is available on more platforms than Jellyfin, however, a large number of those platforms require you to either have an existing Emby Premiere subscription in place in order to download/use them or need you to pay a fee at the app center in order to use them. Finally, we have Plex, which is the one that seems to be the most freely available client application, widely available native installer client app and has much fewer instances of app-payment requirements than Emby.

Now there IS the argument that Emby and Plex need to subsidize these apps being hosted on these app centers, as their continued appearance there and patches being developed over time needs funding. But I do think the availability and potential pricing of these tools is something that is not advertised enough and something that many users do not realize until AFTER they have invested a bunch of time setting up their respective Emby/Plex Media server on their NAS. Jellyfin is clearly the one that is trying to keep itself Free/Open-Source as much as possible, but that comes with limitations on how far they can stretch themselves and the ease of installation on client devices in some cases.

Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Conclusion

Choosing between a Jellyfin, Emby and Plex Media Server NAS for your massive multimedia collection is one that going to be about the extent you are going to use it! If you are looking to create a simple media server that is largely accessible everywhere, but has lots of users, is user-friendly on both the server/client side, won’t need all the bells and whistles of a higher-end media enthusiast and you are just looking for a pretty way to enjoy your existing media that compares with premium subscription services – GO FOR PLEX!

If you are looking for a moderately customizable and featured multimedia server that gives you a good balance of control, usability and hardware support, but where the pricing can be a lot more flexible/ad-hoc (i.e one off payment per client of $5) and want the slick GUI, but also the option to customize it and take advantage of a few community add-ons – GO FOR EMBY!

Finally, if you are much more of a multimedia enthusiast, have a wide range of different media formats (i.e Audio, Video, literature and more), want to be able to link a large number of other services/tool and want to take advantage of the full extent of your NAS hardware (but are prepared for a slightly higher learning curve) – GO FOR JELLYFIN!

In summary, here are the pros and cons of each:

Clients	Jellyfin	Plex	Emby
Pros	Largely FREE on the client and Server side Supports Many more formats of media Wide range of supported Plugins Live TV / DVR Services are free to add Much more customizable Much more hardware efficient Offline Downloads Supported	Easiest to setup on Server/Client side Massive available as a client/server application with widest support Very User Friendly Optional Premium Support/Service options for Users Technically cheaper than Emby	One-off app payment vs regular subscription will appeal to some users Phone Camera Upload Support More Customizable than Plex, in add ons and GUI More Client/Server apps available than Jellyfin More media analytical tools than Plex
Cons	Steeper learning curve Fewer ready-to-go installer applications on client/server side Lacking some System config backup options vs Plex/Emby Lacks Premium/Paid support/Service option	Some Subscription/Paid restrictions Hardware Transcoding PLEX Pass barrier is annoying! Offline Downloads behind Subscription Service Lacks customization and Add ons of Emby/Jellyfin Live TV / DVR Support is behind Subscription	Hardware Transcoding behind Subscription Live TV / DVR Support behind Subscription Offline Downloading behind Subscription Not quite as widely available as Plex

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Drobo’s: Innovating Storage Solutions Through the Decades – WHAT WENT WRONG?

Drobo, the pioneering data storage company, has had an interesting and noteworthy journey since its inception in 2005. Known for developing user-friendly, advanced storage solutions that emphasize simplicity and reliability, the company has encountered various highs and lows in the market. Let’s dive into the history of Drobo, tracing its evolution through the years.

Drobo, How it Began (2005-2010)

Data Robotics, known today as Drobo, was founded by Geoff Barrall in December 2004 in California. Geoff had the vision of creating a new kind of storage technology, a product that was easy to use, flexible, and above all, highly secure. He aspired to make technology that was a “data robot” – automated, intelligent, and adaptable – hence the name Drobo, a portmanteau of “data” and “robot.” The company officially launched its first product, the original Drobo, in June 2007. The device was a 4-bay external storage device known for its simplicity and ease of use. What set it apart was its ability to hot-swap drives of nearly any size without requiring data migration. It was designed to manage resources without the need for human intervention, and it offered flexible data protection schemes. It was a breakthrough product at the time because it introduced an entirely new concept in storage – automated storage that didn’t require extensive knowledge or configuration to manage.

The original Drobo was marketed as a “storage robot” that simplified the task of data storage, making RAID, a system typically used by large companies and IT professionals, accessible to everyday consumers and small businesses. This was a significant step in democratising storage technology. With the help of Drobo, users did not need to worry about the intricate details of traditional RAID setups. Moreover, the original Drobo was hailed for its design as well. It was sleek, quiet, and attractive, unusual for storage hardware usually relegated to the unseen corners of a desk or a data center. Drobo was bringing style to the world of storage, making their devices something people were happy to have visible in their workspace.

Despite being a relatively young company, Data Robotics managed to create a lot of buzz in the tech world with the Drobo. The concept was unique, and the implementation was effective. Drobo became the buzzword for simplified and automated data storage. Drobo’s launch was so successful that it set the tone for the brand for years to come. In conclusion, the early years of Drobo from 2005 to 2007 marked the inception and launch of a pioneering data storage product. The company successfully carved out a niche for itself in the competitive storage market, and its innovative approach to storage garnered attention and praise. This period laid the foundation for the Drobo brand and its mission to simplify storage for all. Over the next three years, Drobo’s unique, self-managing storage solutions attracted attention in the market. They offered an appealing mix of data protection, expandability, and ease of use. The successful launch of Drobo FS, a network-attached storage (NAS) device, in 2010 further cemented Drobo’s reputation as a customer-centric innovator in the industry.

Drobo Entering the Business Market (2010-2013)

In the wake of its initial success with consumers, Drobo began to set its sights on the lucrative business market. Recognizing the burgeoning data storage needs of businesses, Drobo embarked on a strategic journey to capture a significant share of this market. In 2010, Drobo made a bold move with the launch of DroboPro FS, a network-attached storage device specifically designed for small to medium businesses (SMBs). This model included a dual-drive redundancy feature, which provided extra protection for data, a feature highly valued by businesses. Additionally, it supported iSCSI, a network protocol that allows the sending and receiving of SCSI commands over IP networks, making data transfers faster and more efficient. Recognizing the importance of support and reliability for business customers, Drobo also launched DroboCare for the DroboPro FS. This service provided enhanced support features, such as 24/7 technical support and advanced hardware replacement. These additions were significant, demonstrating Drobo’s understanding of business customer needs and its willingness to meet them.

In 2011, Drobo continued its foray into the business market with the launch of the Drobo B800i and B800fs models, targeting larger businesses. These models featured 8 drive bays, significantly increasing storage capacity. The B800i model also offered iSCSI connectivity, making it an attractive choice for businesses requiring large amounts of storage. This expansion into the iSCSI SAN market underscored Drobo’s intent to serve the data storage needs of businesses. The following year, in 2012, Drobo took another leap forward with the release of the Drobo B1200i. This model was a significant upgrade from its predecessors, offering 12 bays for increased capacity. It also featured automated data-tiering, a mechanism that moves data between high-cost and low-cost storage media—typically fast SSDs and slower hard drives—depending on its usage and value. This feature was particularly beneficial for businesses, as it allowed for optimized storage performance and cost-effectiveness.

Throughout this period, Drobo was consistently recognized for its efforts. The company received numerous awards for its products, including several “Editor’s Choice” awards, further cementing its reputation as a leading provider of business storage solutions. By the end of 2013, Drobo had successfully established itself in the business market, offering a range of products to suit various business needs. The company had skillfully adapted its initial consumer-focused strategy to serve businesses, leveraging its unique value proposition of simplicity and user-friendly design, combined with powerful business-oriented features. The success of Drobo in the business market was indicative of its versatility and adaptability, traits that would continue to shape its journey in the years to come.

A Reminder of Key Innovations by Drobo over the Years!

Drobo has been a pioneering force in the world of network-attached storage (NAS) systems. Several key innovations have become synonymous with the brand over the years, enhancing their products’ usability, efficiency, and aesthetics. Let’s delve into some of these game-changing features.

Drobo Innovation #1. BeyondRAID – Flexibility Over Traditional RAID

Traditional RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems have long been the standard for data protection and performance. However, they require careful planning, the same sized drives, and can be difficult to manage. In contrast, Drobo introduced its proprietary BeyondRAID technology, fundamentally transforming the way RAID is perceived and utilized.

BeyondRAID retains the fundamental principles of RAID, but it introduces a level of flexibility unheard of with conventional systems. BeyondRAID is unique because it automates the traditional management tasks associated with RAID, including the configuration of RAID levels, provisioning of storage, and array expansion. It also supports the mixing of different drive sizes, which simplifies drive upgrades and expansion.

Drobo Innovation #2. Internal Battery in a Desktop NAS

Uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems are common in data centers and server rooms, but less so in desktop storage systems. Drobo broke the mold by incorporating an internal battery in their desktop NAS devices.

This innovative feature ensured that the device would complete any ongoing data transactions even in the event of a sudden power loss, preventing data corruption and loss. This was an industry first and showcased Drobo’s commitment to data safety and security in their devices.

Drobo Innovation #3. Optional SSD for Caching

To improve the performance of their NAS systems, Drobo was one of the first companies to introduce an optional solid-state drive (SSD) for caching. This feature significantly improved the overall speed and efficiency of the system by storing frequently accessed data on the SSD, reducing latency and improving access times. This innovation reflected Drobo’s forward-thinking approach to enhancing user experience.

Drobo Innovation #4. Unique LED System

Drobo also introduced a unique LED system for system indicators and storage usage. Rather than requiring users to decipher complex codes or log into a software dashboard, Drobo’s front panel presented a simple, easy-to-understand light system. Coloured lights indicated overall system status, hard drive health, and capacity, enabling users to understand their system’s status at a glance. This user-friendly system was another example of Drobo’s focus on simplicity and accessibility.

Drobo Innovation #5. Modern Design and Low Noise

In an industry where many products are often visually unappealing and noisy, Drobo took a different approach. The company invested in sleek, modern designs that were quiet and low-noise. The innovative design philosophy resulted in products that users were comfortable displaying in their workspace, rather than hiding them away. This commitment to aesthetics was rare in the storage industry and it helped set Drobo apart.

Drobo’s numerous innovations in their products have greatly contributed to the evolution of NAS systems. From BeyondRAID’s flexibility to the incorporation of an internal battery, an optional SSD for caching, a unique LED system, and a commitment to modern, low-noise design, Drobo had continuously pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in desktop storage solutions. Unsurprisingly, they quickly gained high industry praise and would end up gaining the attention of bigger companies and buyers soon!

Drobo Transition and Reinvention (2013-2015)

In a turn of events that seemed both surprising and familiar, Drobo was acquired by Connected Data in 2013. This was a company founded by Geoff Barrall, the original creator of Drobo, after he had left Drobo in 2009. Connected Data, recognized for its Transporter product line, had carved out a niche for itself in the market for private cloud services. The union seemed fitting as both companies were driven by the same ethos of making data management simple and efficient. Following the acquisition, the companies merged their strengths, bringing together Drobo’s user-friendly storage solutions with Connected Data’s private cloud products. The strategy behind this merger was to provide a more comprehensive and seamless data storage solution for both individual users and businesses. The combined entity continued operating under the Drobo name, symbolizing the strength and market recognition of the brand.

The years following the merger saw Drobo refocusing its efforts on its foundational principle of simplicity. The company updated its product line to include features of private cloud storage, emphasizing user convenience. The move was seen as a response to the changing trends in data storage, with more businesses and individuals seeking the flexibility of cloud storage. However, in 2015, a significant change occurred. Drobo and Connected Data parted ways. Drobo was acquired by an investment group led by seasoned technology veterans who saw potential in Drobo’s simplified storage solutions. Despite this transition, Drobo maintained its brand identity and continued to operate independently, signaling a new phase in the company’s journey.

During these years, Drobo also updated its offerings to adapt to emerging technologies and user preferences. This included the integration of SSDs into their storage devices, as well as the introduction of devices compatible with newer data transfer protocols, like Thunderbolt. The move demonstrated Drobo’s commitment to innovation and reinforced its status as a competitive player in the evolving data storage market. This period of transition and reinvention was a pivotal one for Drobo. Not only did it reflect the company’s adaptability to changes in ownership and market trends, but it also reaffirmed its unwavering focus on delivering user-friendly, advanced storage solutions. Despite the changes, Drobo’s core principle of making data storage ‘self-managing, trouble-free, and affordable’ remained steadfast.

Drobo / Stoltz Capital Acquisition (2015)

As Drobo moved further into the mid-2010s, the company faced a turning point. Despite the success of its previous strategic shifts and product launches, it was clear that the rapidly evolving tech landscape was calling for another transformation. This transformation came in the form of an acquisition. In 2015, Drobo was acquired by an investment group led by seasoned tech investor, Stoltz Capital. The investment group saw significant potential in Drobo’s unique approach to data storage, and they were determined to help the company achieve its full potential. This acquisition was not merely a change in ownership. It signalled a new era for Drobo, one that was marked by a renewed focus on innovation and an aggressive drive to push the boundaries of what was possible in the data storage space.

Stoltz Capital’s deep pockets and commitment to Drobo’s vision provided the company with the resources it needed to invest heavily in research and development. This new financial backing was instrumental in enabling Drobo to continue developing its innovative data storage solutions, and to move forward with its plans for future expansion. Moreover, the acquisition brought new strategic guidance and management expertise to Drobo. This included a greater focus on strengthening Drobo’s competitive position in the market, and an increased emphasis on targeting high-growth sectors, such as cloud storage and other emerging technologies. The change in ownership also meant a shift in business strategy. With Stoltz Capital’s backing, Drobo started to venture into the Enterprise market, developing higher-end models designed to cater to large corporations with vast amounts of data. This move allowed Drobo to tap into a more lucrative market segment, further enhancing its growth prospects. The acquisition by Stoltz Capital was a defining moment in Drobo’s history. It marked a period of rejuvenation and expansion for the company, and set the stage for the next phase of Drobo’s evolution. The years following the acquisition saw Drobo ramping up its efforts to innovate and adapt in the face of an increasingly competitive and demanding market, efforts that would continue to shape the company’s trajectory in the years to come.

Drobo Facing Challenges and Changes (2016-2019)

In the years following the Stoltz Capital acquisition, Drobo faced a period of turbulence marked by a series of significant challenges and changes. Despite the acquisition’s promise and the infusion of new resources, the company had to navigate a highly competitive data storage market and adapt to the rapid technological advancements that were reshaping the industry. One of the most significant challenges that Drobo faced during this period was the pressure to stay ahead of technological changes. The rise of cloud computing and services like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud fundamentally shifted the way businesses and individuals stored and accessed their data. Companies started to prefer these cloud storage solutions due to their scalability, ease of use, and lower upfront costs compared to traditional data storage methods. This rapid shift posed a threat to Drobo, whose products were primarily focused on on-site data storage. To stay relevant, the company had to innovate rapidly and find ways to integrate its offerings with these new technologies. This meant investing in new product development, adapting their existing products, and exploring partnerships with cloud providers to offer hybrid storage solutions.

The changing market dynamics also brought a surge of new competitors. Tech giants like Dell EMC and NetApp, as well as start-ups like Pure Storage and Nutanix, were all vying for a piece of the data storage market. These competitors, with their vast resources and advanced technologies, posed a significant threat to Drobo’s position in the market. In response to these challenges, Drobo underwent a series of changes. There was a major restructuring of the company’s operations and strategy to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance the company’s competitiveness. This included scaling back certain areas of the business, focusing on core competencies, and ramping up investment in research and development. During this period, Drobo also unveiled new products designed to cater to the changing market needs. This included the release of more advanced NAS devices and the introduction of new cloud-compatible storage solutions. Drobo’s effort was focused on providing flexible, scalable, and cost-effective storage solutions that could cater to the needs of both small businesses and large corporations.

Despite the considerable challenges, this period also saw moments of success and innovation for Drobo. The company managed to weather the storm and laid the groundwork for its future in the rapidly evolving data storage market. This period, characterized by both adversity and adaptation, would ultimately prove critical in shaping Drobo’s future trajectory.

Drobo Closes Doors. The Recent Developments (2020-Present Day)

Though the years between 2016 and 2019 were pivotal for Drobo, marking a turning point as the company grappled with numerous challenges and embarked on significant changes. With technological advancements and shifting market dynamics reshaping the data storage industry, Drobo found itself in a tough position. The rise of cloud computing and its adoption by businesses and individuals posed a significant challenge for Drobo. Tech giants like Amazon and Google were offering scalable and user-friendly cloud storage services at lower upfront costs. In contrast, Drobo’s core offerings were primarily focused on on-premises data storage. This market shift required Drobo to innovate rapidly, and the company was under pressure to adapt its offerings to remain relevant.

Moreover, the data storage market also witnessed a surge in competition. Major tech companies and emerging startups were all vying for a piece of the market, threatening Drobo’s position. In response, Drobo undertook a significant restructuring of its operations and strategy. This involved scaling back certain areas of the business, concentrating on core competencies, and increasing investment in research and development. Despite these challenges, Drobo managed to introduce new products, including advanced NAS devices and cloud-compatible storage solutions, geared towards meeting changing market needs. These offerings were aimed at providing flexible, scalable, and cost-effective storage solutions for small businesses and large corporations alike.

However, the significant shift in the industry, combined with increased competition, eventually began to take its toll. Drobo’s parent company, StorCentric, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2022, indicating significant financial distress. As time progressed, and StorCentric failed to find a buyer or restructure its assets, it became apparent that full liquidation was inevitable.

In April 2023, StorCentric shifted its bankruptcy status to Chapter 7, indicating a move towards liquidation and sale of assets. At this point, Drobo’s website announced that as of January 27, 2023, Drobo products and support were no longer available. It wasn’t immediately clear what would become of Drobo and its assets in the liquidation process. This period was undoubtedly challenging for Drobo. While the company had innovated and adapted in response to the changing industry landscape, it was clear that they were unable to keep up with the pace of change and the market’s demands. As Drobo’s story unfolded, it served as a poignant reminder of the rapid pace of technological change and the importance of staying agile and responsive in a fiercely competitive market.

Drobo Alternatives in 2023/2024?

With Drobo no longer in the running, there are several notable alternatives for Thunderbolt RAID storage and NAS systems available in the market. Here are some that might be of interest.

Why Choose Synology NAS to Replace Your Drobo?

Synology is often considered the ‘Software Choice’, as DSM (Diskstation Manager) is by far the most user-friendly, secure, responsive and ‘OS-like’ platform available in the whole of NAS. It may seem one of the most expensive, but with it, you get some genuine boundary-breaking software with your purchase.  You still get a great level of hardware in the majority of Synology NAS solutions, but the real draw of Synology is that software. Not only does it support your own hardware environment of PCs, Macs, entertainment devices and mobiles in their own respective software, but DSM also includes MANY applications designed around keeping all your data IN-HOUSE. So, replace Skype/Whatsapp with Synology Chat, Replace Google Docs and Office365 with Synology Office. Use Synology Drive to make your storage visible and accessible the way YOU want it, and export your entire cloud/data network over to a Synology NAS and remove all the external access as and when you need! They aren’t the cheapest and they want you to do it ‘there way’, but it’s a pretty decent way. Additionally, their recent DSM 7.0 software has left many users impressed, with enhanced support of those 3rd party cloud storage and business services, AI photo recognition, their surveillance platform continuing to win awards and even an in-house cloud service in Synology C2. Stylizing themselves very much as the ‘Apple’ of this industry, they really do focus on keeping things straightforward and intuitive.

PROS of Synology NAS

• Easily the most intuitive and Usage browser-based GUI (award-winning DSM 6.2/7.0/7.1) – FULL Review HERE
• One of the best Surveillance NAS software solutions
• Most popular vendor for Mac users for it’s UI
• Incredibly feature-rich NVR software included, in Surveillance Station
• Includes Active Backup Suite – Enterprise level and fully featured Backup Co-ordination software
• Lowest Power Consumption vs other brands
• A large # of their systems arrive with m.2 NVMe SSD caching upgrade bays
• Quiet chassis compared with other brands
• Task specialised Ranges like ‘PLAY’, ‘PLUS’ and ‘J’ make buying easier
• The best range of first-party software, with Synology Office, Chat, Mail, Drive and more
• SHR and SHR-2 – also BTRFS available in most solutions
• Cloud Services and Hybrid Storage Tools available in Synology C2
• Desktop and Rack-mount options are available
• Best software for Home and SMB

CONS of Synology NAS

• Often the most expensive
• Recent Enterprise NAS Hardware has changed Compatibility in favour of Synology HDDs and SSDs
• Generally, Synology NAS has the lowest hardware power in their systems
• NVMe SSD Bays are for caching ONLY, they cannot be used for super-fast storage pools (Note – Changed in DSM 7.2 for SOME devices)
• More technically minded folk will need to dig a little to get to the nitty-gritty
• SHR is not available on Enterprise NAS Systems
• Network ONLY – no HDMI, Audio in/out, Thunderbolt, etc

Why Choose QNAP NAS to Replace Your Drobo?

Often considered the choice for the more hardware-aware buyer, if you are looking for a much more traditionally computer associated hardware – QNAP NAS is certainly the one that springs to mind. Generally considered the ‘innovators’ of the NAS industry, they have the largest range of solutions available Notwithstanding the fact that their hardware is by FAR the most evolved platform in NAS (thunderbolt 3, multiple HDMI, 10Gbe standard solutions, Silent NAS, AI solutions and advanced SSD caching), the platform is fantastically diverse, providing great NAS options alongside network switches, network adapters and generally reshaping your hardware environment for the better. The software has also evolved dramatically into its own beast, moving away from trying to imitate and carving its own path. It is a little more technically (and I really do mean a little) but it is far more rewarding for it. They do not feature some popular items on their portfolio, such as BTRFS or a fluid RAID system like SHR/BeyondRAID, but make up for this with their own range of alternatives and in most cases succeed. Get your reading glasses on though, as their range is quite vast and might overwhelm you a tad. In recent years the brand has shifted focus a great deal more towards software in efforts to meet the gap with their rival Synology to pretty good success. This is often achieved by releasing software that does the previously impossible before anyone else, but lacking a little of the polish of their biggest rival. Recent achievements with HybridMount, vJBOD, HyperVisor Protector, QuMagie and Multimedia Console have been received remarkably well, arriving onto the scene 1-2 years before anyone else. Alongside this, QNAP still has easily the best virtual machine and backup software for home and SMB in Virtualization Station and Hybrid Backup Sync.

PROS of QNAP NAS

• Best Solutions for Plex Media Server in NAS
• Enterprise/Business Solutions feature ZFS
• 2.5Gbe, 5Gbe and 10Gbe Options
• Best Virtual Machine and Container Solutions in NAS
• NVMe SSD Bays can be used for Caching, Storage Pools or Tiered Storage Configurations
• Almost all range is metal in design, or a plastic but unique chassis
• HDMI and remote control included in most Media NAS devices
• Thunderbolt NAS options covering TB2, TB3 and even TB4 (TS-464)
• Two Surveillance Solutions (with 4/8 Camera Licenses included)
• The Best Backup/Synchronization solution in ‘Hybrid Backup Sync 3’
• Technical information far more readily available
• Lower price compared with Synology in terms of hardware
• Regularly updated software and Detailed GUI/APPs – FULL Review HERE
• Desktop and Rackmount options are available
• Much better business options and definitely the best for virtual machines

CONS of QNAP NAS

• A more android feel towards apps and stability means some users will be put off
• Lacking the BTRFS and SHR support of Synology
• Higher typical Power consumption
• Often a fraction noisier due to chiefly metal chassis
• Much larger range of devices can lead to confusion
• Most units arrive with 2-3 Years warranty, but longer will cost you more
• Have been targetted by Ransomware attacks in the last 2 years

Recommended Synology Replacement for the Drobo 5N2 NAS – The DS920+ and DS1522+ NAS

Choosing to replace the Drobo 5N2 5-Bay NAS with a Synology is actually a surprisingly easy choice. Right now at the time of writing, there are two very clear Diskstaiton devices that you can choose (if you want to stay at this kind of storage sale). The Synology DS920+ 4-Bay NAS (originally released in 2020) and the Synology DS1522+ 5-Bay NAS (released in June 2022). The former has been in the market for long enough that multiple deals are available and if/when the DS923+ arrives on the scene, it will likely become increasingly affordable – in spite of this, the hardware inside is great and it’s a solid fully featured NAS. The latter choice, the DS1522+, is the latest 2022 generation release from the brand, has great default system hardware and plenty of scalabilities and upgrade options to add to the system’s utility in years to come. Find out more about them both below:

Synology DS923+ 4-Bay NAS $500+

AMD Emb.Ryzen R1600 2-Core, 4/32GB Memory, 1GbE, Optional 10GbE, NVMe SSD Caching+Pools, Expandable, SHR, 4x SATA Bays, 3yr Warranty

NASCompares Written Review – HERE

NASCompares YouTube Review – HERE

What we said on 21/05/20

Synology has clearly made something of a gamble in the release of the Synology DS923+ NAS. There is no avoiding that making the switch from the Intel Celeron that has historically been the build choice of this product family and opting for the AMD Emb.Ryzen has ruffled some feathers! On the face of it, the R1600 here has a heck of alot of going for it over the previous generation! Higher clock speed, greater PCIe Gen 3 Support throughout, that 4-32GB of DDR4 memory in such a compact system and just generally giving you a lot more horsepower to play with, as well as better bandwidth potential inside and out! But at what cost? The 1GbE standard connectivity in the base model leaves alot to be desired, the proprietary 10Gb upgrade (though incredibly handy) limits the upgradability a tad and the lack of an integrated graphics processor is likely going to result in many long-term Synology advocates to skip this generation. Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM 7.1 at the time of writing) still continues to impress and although the brand still continues to heavily push their 1st party priorities, they have left a little more wriggle room in DSM 7.1 than DSM 7 before it in terms of media compatibility. In terms of design, I cannot fault Synology on this as the DS923+ chassis still arrives as one of the best-looking and still exceptionally well-structured devices at this physical scale and storage level. As always, a Synology NAS is more about the software than the hardware (and the DS923+ delivers in spades on the software side!) and with DSM 7.2 around the corner improving things. Just always keep in mind that the Synology DS923+ NAS is a system that arrives with the slight emphasis on having to do many things ‘their way’. If you are less technically versed, then you will definitely appreciate this level of user-friendly design and assistance, but more technically minded admins’ main strain a pinch! In short, the DS923+ IS a good NAS drive, but its focus has certainly ebbed more towards the business user this generation than the home.

Check Amazon for this NAS via the link below in your region (results in a % going back to the site and supports us):

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Synology DS1522+ 5-Bay NAS $750+

Ryzen R1600 Dual Core, 8/32GB ECC Memory,4x1GbE, Optional 10GbE for $150, NVMe SSD Caching, Expandable, SHR, 5x SATA Bays, 3yr Warranty

NASCompares Written Review – HERE

NASCompares YouTube Review – HERE

What we said on 29/06/22

The Synology DS1522+ is a good NAS drive and most business-focused users are going to appreciate what this newer configuration of hardware is able to provide. There was never any doubt in the extent to which this new NAS would support DSM7, and given its architecture, there is virtually nothing in the popular NAS software that this system cannot do. Likewise, having the option of 10GbE on a Diskstation of this scale will be hugely attractive to some, though the proprietary means with which you need to upgrade is arguably less desirable. The R1600 CPU is a good choice of processor for file handling and simultaneous tasks, as is the 8GB of memory that this system arrives with, plus the potential to ramp it up to 32GB. After that though, the desirability of this system to home users and multimedia users is a little less compelling and with such a large audience of users who look at NAS for their media streaming, the DS1522+ not featuring a more graphically enabled chip will leave them somewhat underwhelmed. Bottom line, the DS1522+ is a solid and full DSM7 supporting system here and you cannot fault the design, internal/external performance and ease of use of this Synology NAS. However, there will always be users wondering why this NAS never arrived with an Intel chip.

Check Amazon for this NAS via the link below in your region (results in a % going back to the site and supports us):

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Recommended QNAP Replacement for the Drobo 5N2 NAS – The QNAP TS-464 and TS-h973ax

If you decide to move away from the Drobo 5-Bay 5N22 and towards a QNAP, then I recommend opting for either the 2022 generation TS-464 NAS (as it is really is the best hardware vs scale vs price point the brand has ever released) or the incredibly mutli-facited QNAP TS-h973ax, which as 10GbE, 3 kinds of storage media supported across 9-Bays and the choice of file system at initialization of ZFS or EXT4. Here is more information on these two NAS and what we said about them when reviewed:

QNAP TS-464 4-Bay NAS $599+

Intel Celeron 4-Core N5105, 4/16GB Memory, 2×2.5GbE, NVMe SSD Caching or for Storage, HDMI 2.0 4K 60PFS, USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb), USB RAID Expandable, PCIe Gen 3×2 Upgrade Slot, 4x SATA Bays, 3yr Warranty

NASCompares Written Review – HERE

NASCompares YouTube Review – HERE

What we said on 18/04/22

The TS-464 comfortably arrives with the best hardware in its tier of the NAS market and that is something that QNAP has always been quite good at. Even if you rewind just 5 years, the level of hardware scalability and ease of upgradability that the TS-464 provides is frankly incredible and, fast forward to 2022, is still pretty unmatched. A Desktop 4-Bay NAS (eg Prosumer RAID 5 storage) has always been the next confident step for users who are tired of their hands being tied by subscription cloud services from Google, OneDrive and DropBox, who are looking for their own competent, flexible and fully-featured private server. In the TS-464 NAS, you find a system that is unquestionable the best hardware for your money you can possibly get right now. In software, things are a little less straightforward. QTS 5, although massively software and service-rich, arrives as a complete operating system in your web browser with multiple mobile/desktop clients and hundreds of applications and apps that can be installed at the touch of a button – which can all too often be something of a steep learning curve for many. Lacking the chewable, user-friendly nature of many of their rivals, QNAP and its software/service still have a tendency to be a bit of an information overload that can quickly intimidate the novice. However, for those that are looking for a system that is completely customizable in how/when/where you want data presented to you, as well as a wide degree of 3rd party support, QNAP and QTS 5 still manages to provide a huge degree of brand-unique service that are simply not available elsewhere. Just be prepared to invest your time wisely in its setup and more time ensuring the system is perfect for your needs.

Check Amazon for this NAS via the link below in your region (results in a % going back to the site and supports us):

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QNAP TS-h973ax 5/9-Bay NAS $999+

AMD Ryzen V1500B Quad Core, 8/32GB Memory, 1x 10GbE, 2×2.5GbE, 5x SATA HDD, 2x SATA SSD, 2x U.2 NVMe SSD, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb), USB RAID Expandable, ZFS or EXT4 File System Choice, 2yr Warranty

NASCompares Written Review – HERE

NASCompares YouTube Review – HERE

What we said on 13/11/20

I have seen a lot of network-attached storage over the years and the TS-h973AX brings a lot of colour to what was fast becoming a somewhat grey landscape. In short, QNAP has gone and done it again by proving they are the hardware innovators of this industry and have managed to provide a genuinely unique solution here. When they first revealed their new Hero ZFS operating system last year, you could not help but get the impression that only top-end enterprise businesses with £10K starting budgets were ever going to benefit. The TS-h973AX desktop NAS is solid evidence that QNAP will share the wealth and that this is the start of a whole new series of affordable ZFS solution from the brand. That isn’t to say that this system is perfect and pernickety points about a lack of HDMI or LCD may put off some users, and the compact 9 bay chassis that will attract some will no doubt deter others. Ultimately though QNAP has succeeded in creating what they sought out here and what we find is one of the best examples of hardware and software meeting in the middle, while still arriving with a price tag in 3 figures. In the current absence of a straight forward QuTS license purchase option for existing QNAP NAS systems right now, this is a solution that serves as a good alternative to a number of 4 and 6 Bay solutions in their portfolio. Though, make sure you upgrade that memory on day one! 

Check Amazon for this NAS via the link below in your region (results in a % going back to the site and supports us):

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Recommended Synology Replacement for the Drobo B810n NAS – The DS1821+ NAS

Replacing or deciding against the Drobo B810n 8-Bay NAS system and opting for a Synology is, if anything, considerably easier than moving away from the 5N. Synology has a great history of 8-Bay NAS devices and the 2021 generation DS1821+ is a fantastic choice of NAS system. It supports the full range of DSM applications, has scalable storage, can be expanded by ten more drives, has in-built m.2 NVMe slots, a high bandwidth PCIe Upgrade slot and still manages to be very petite. Here is more information on the Synology DS1821+ and what we thought of it at review:

Synology DS1821+ 8-Bay NAS $1,100+

AMD Ryzen V1500B Quad Core, 4/32GB Memory, 4x1GbE, 8x SATA HDD, 2x NVMe SSD for Caching, PCIe Gen 3×8 Upgrade Slot, SHR or Traditional RAID, BTRFS or EXT4 File System Choice, 3yr Warranty

NASCompares Written Review – HERE

NASCompares YouTube Review – HERE

What we said on 15/12/20

What you have here is a solid piece of hardware that very much lives up to everything Synology promises, even if some of those promises aren’t to everyone’s taste. With a hardware architecture that we have already tested to notable success in the DS1621+ previously, we already knew that this NAS would be able to do everything it promised. Many users looking to spend their annual business budgets on an improved or extended data storage solution will find the balanced position of hardware vs software found by the Synology DS1821+ to be quite desirable, as well as the scaled potential to upgrade external performance via PCIe and storage via eSATA. However, there is no ignoring that despite the fact this 2020 release excels in many things, it also arrives with a little bottlenecking in a number of others. The continued default utilisation of 1Gbe on the newest generation by Synology is somewhat perplexing and although I have continued admiration for Synology’s engagement with intelligent M2 NVMe cache utilisation and providing a solution that allows more flexible upgrade paths, I know that there are still users who just wish they could use that super fast NAND for raw storage pools and have better than gigabit connections out by default. It has never been a secret that buying a Synology NAS solution was always a largely ‘software over hardware’ purchase, and the DS1821+ is still a fine example of that balance. However, with other brands closing the gap in what they can offer the SMB (Small/Medium Business) user, while still providing superior hardware and similar warranty coverage, there is the tiniest feeling that the DS1821+ is a NAS that sits on its laurels a bit. Hugely upgradable and still with that award-winning and fantastically intuative DSM software, the DS1821+ is about buying a solution you can adapt within its lifespan and not one that will knock your socks off on day one. A solid and dependable data storage solution, if a little safe, at the end of 2020.

Check Amazon for this NAS via the link below in your region (results in a % going back to the site and supports us):

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Recommended QNAP Replacement for the Drobo B810n NAS – The TVS-872X NAS

0-176TB, 8-Bays, 2x PCIe 4 M.2 NVMe 2280, PCIe Gen 4×16 Upgrade Slot, Intel Core 12th Gen i5/i7/i9 CPU, 16-64GB DDR4 Memory, 2.5Gbe Port, 10Gb x2 Prots (Intel i9 Version), KVM, ZFS or EXT4 Setup, 3-5yr Warranty

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $2000-2500-3000

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch

What I said in my review Dec ’22:

The QNAP TVS-h874 NAS is easily one of the most hardware-capable desktop NAS systems that I have ever seen (as you would expect for £2500+) and has clearly been designed with phenomenal future proofing in mind! If you are concerned about the longevity of this NAS, this hardware architecture will still be top tier 5 years from now, with the added support of PCIe 4 meaning that high capacity and performing micro upgrades throughout its life also ensuring it remains relevant long after. It’s price tag clearly moves this purchase out of the home and squarely into the business market (though likely those that take their media seriously will add it to the cart) and the TVS-h874 will function as a solid solution for Video editing (even at 8K), high frequency and performing VMs, large scale AI powered Surveillance setup, hybrid cloud/on-prem alternative to Office 365/Google Workspace services and as the center point for all your data storage operations. Crucially though, it is that the hardware on offer here will be able to do ALL of these at the same time, therefore maximising the investment for most businesses that want to move aware from their cloud dependant ops. In terms of software,t things are a little less absolute, with QTS and QuTS still getting a little busy at times, with a steeper learning curve than its big rival DSM from Synology. That said, die-hard fans of ZFS (Zettabyte File System) will adore the inclusion of benefits in RAID handling, management and recovery that are exclusive to that platform, whilst enjoying the wide range of applications and service benefits in QuTS that are often restricted to Linux platforms.  The slightly conveluded approach to release hardware that does complicate the selection process (different CPUs in the Intel 12th Gen family changing the rest of the system architecture) is something that I hoped this brand would graduate from (for the sake of simplicity), but for many, this level of choice in hardware and budget will be welcome. As is QNAP’s position on the support of 3rd party hardware (drives, PCIe upgrades, etc) and software, something that we have seen a worrying trend in the last few years against elsewhere in the industry but some other brands, to err towards 1st party/proprietary compatibility more and more. There are still lingering doubts by some on the security of NAS, with ransomware attacks on the rise and ALL brands and ALL platforms being targetted (NAS, Cloud ,etc), finding a middle ground between ease of use and depth of security being a tricky tie rope walk indeed. The TVS-h874 arrives with a wide range of Day 1 tools, further rigid defaults in QTS/QuTS in 2022/2023, considerable security settings to configure and multiple system scan tools for recommendations & preventative measures available. The QNAP TVS-h874 is probably the most powerful desktop/tower NAS drive I have ever reviewed and if you are looking for a system that can legitimately do anything server-side, but you are also willing to put in the time to configure it correctly – you will genuinely be hard pushed to find a better system in 2022, 2023 and likely 2024 at this price point and scale.

Check Amazon for this NAS via the link below in your region (results in a % going back to the site and supports us):

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Why Not Use Cloud Services like Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox instead of a NAS?

Do not think that 3rd party cloud services are bad, they really aren’t! In fact, you should always consider adding a 2nd or 3rd tier into your backup strategy at home/work, and synchronization of files/folders on your NAS with the cloud is a good means to ensure you have another backup in place. Additionally, most NAS feature a variety of 256bit encryption options, password protection, 2 step verification and more to allow secure access is ensured to the NAS and the content, even via the cloud. Additionally, bg NAS brands like Synology and QNAP have been supporting Hybrid Cloud services that not only allow cloud storage to be bolted onto your NAS storage for shared usage and access, but also both brand support backup and synchronization with cloud collaborate services, such as Google’s G Suite and Microsoft’s Office 365. So there is DEFINITELY still a valid and useful place for 3rd party cloud services in 2022, however, I rarely advocate the use of these cloud services as a PRIMARY storage location. They ARE convenient and you can get a limited amount of space included for free, but I generally have three core reasons that I do not recommend cloud as a first-tier storage.

 

COST – The cost of most 2-year subscriptions costs about the same as if you just purchased even a small-scale NAS on day 1. It might seem like just 5 or 10 bucks a month, but over 2 or 3 years, it all adds up and moreover, after that time you either need to keep on paying every month or still buy a NAS or DAS system for the data to live on. Might as well buy the NAS sooner rather than later as it will be inevitable eventually.

ACCESS – NAS provides more apps, file-level tailored use and can be better adapted into popular 3^rd Party applications like PLEX, KODI, APPLE TIME MACHINE and DLNA supported devices. A cloud provider severely limits the kind of access you have on a regular basis.

PRIVACY – NAS provides full individual user control and access, as well as admin controls. Plus the NAS can be fully disconnected from the Internet/Network at your discretion. A cloud provider has a relative pre-set safety protocol that, when cracked on one or two occasions, opens up mass hacking

This is not to say that data on your NAS is completely inaccessible. Any NAS brand can only really stay 1 step ahead of the hackers, patching exploits as they are found (no different than any online service really), but a NAS is a means to create a secure, customizable and ultimately bespoke data storage solution.

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What About Moving from Drobo to Asustor or Terramaster NAS?

Obviously, as NAS is such a popular and highly evolved area of the tech industry (despite it still also remaining quite niche compared with traditional computers and laptops), Synology and QNAP are not the ONLY brands in the market! Indeed, if you have been looking at moving away from Drobo and saw some affordably devices from Asustor or Terramaster, you will likely wonder why I have not covered them as much in this article (though I DO cover them and their solutions in the video embedded in this article above). Although both brands have been providing some great hardware (both for the price AND just generally) in 2022, these brands do not provide the full range of software and services (especially 1st party developed) that QNAP and Synology do. Their respective software in ADM and TOS aren’t bad, indeed they are very good and very responsive with many apps, they just are not on the same level as Synology DSM and QNAP QTS/QuTS right now. You can find out more about their software in the software review videos of each below:

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Should I Move From Drobo to TrueNAS Core?

Many Drobo users, after using their systems for many years and (after becoming increasingly proficient) started to feel its limitations, might have heard about the free and DiY NAS server platform ‘TrueNAS’ (aka FreeNAS) and considering making the switch towards it after Drobo. It will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that when it comes to TrueNAS is a fantastically capable software for managing your storage. It even manages to swerve the downfall of being ‘too enterprise’ but arriving as an open source free software platform to be enjoyed by businesses and storage enthusiasts. There is no avoiding that it IS quite a technical mountainous learning curve if you are arriving at it from a position of zero storage or network experience, but the last few big TrueNAS system updates have gone a long way to update some UI elements to be more intuitive, software wide help notes available at all times and the community support is as on-point at it has ever been. If you are a home users looking for a hurdles setup or a day-1 deployable system for your small business, then TrueNAS may be too big a jump for you and you would be better off with a traditional off-the-shelf NAS system. However, if you have the know-how, you have the willingness to get your hands dirty and already have the hardware in mind/in-house, then TrueNAS stands in a class of it’s own and thanks to some very unique architecture choices that are almost utterly unique to this platform, it’s pretty unparalleled in its scope. Just please, PLEASE remember that a Drobo NAS is a ‘turnkey’ solution (aka, ready to go out of the box) and TrueNAS Core and TrueNAS Scale involve ALOT more setup and a much higher learning curve. You can buy TrueNAS-ready systems, such as the iXsystems series of devices, but these are still rather expensive compared with the modest Drobo and still require ALOT of tech knowledge to make the most of. You can find out more about the TrueNAS software platform in my written and video review below:

TrueNAS Written Review

TrueNAS Video Review

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The QNAP TS-855X NAS Drive Review

The QNAP TS-855X NAS enters the network-attached storage market promising robust performance and high scalability, targeting businesses and advanced users with substantial data needs. Despite its commendable feature set, the device doesn’t come without its shortcomings. In this detailed review, we’ll navigate through every facet of the TS-855X – from the unassuming packaging to the expansive connectivity options and powerful internal hardware – all the while keeping a keen eye on its potential drawbacks. My objective is to provide a balanced evaluation to help you discern if the TS-855X truly offers the value for money it is asking for! So, today I want to review the new TS-855X private NAS server, drill down to how the brand has taken a different stance on 10GbE and its accompanying hardware this time around and break down its software platform into where its strengths and weaknesses are. Let’s go!

QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

I have to say, I am MOSTLY impressed by how much bang for buck is being included in the TS-855X and although it is not the most powerful device in the market (arguably intentionally, as it favours the more affordable Atom over a xeon), it is a sensible workhorse of a NAS. On the positive side, the QNAP TS-855X NAS comes with numerous strong selling points. The device offers large storage potential, especially with the ZFS file system, making it a powerhouse for data management. The choice of CPU is also sensible, providing a balance between performance and cost-effectiveness. The inclusion of the QTier tool is particularly appealing, adding a layer of efficiency to the storage management. Another big plus is the user-friendly GUI for ZFS in QuTS, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise. The three-tier storage options and support of ECC memory with a maximum of 128GB further enhance the device’s versatility and potential. Moreover, the TS-855X provides a wealth of expansion options and comes with 8 camera licenses with QVR Pro/QTS. The well-ventilated design contributes to thermal efficiency, ensuring optimal performance, while its support for the latest 22TB and soon-to-be-released 24TB drives future-proofs your investment.

However, the TS-855X is not without its drawbacks. While the two SATA SSD bays provide extra storage options, they would have been better if they were U.2 slots, which offer faster speeds. Although the device supports ECC memory, the initial 8GB memory in the base model is non-ECC, which might not be optimal for all ZFS services. The memory capacity might also be somewhat low for users with intensive data needs. Furthermore, the software can sometimes be inconsistent under heavy use, and it has a steeper learning curve compared to competitors like Synology. Finally, the pricing structure for the TS-855X is a mixed bag. While some users may find the cost reasonable given its features, others might feel it’s a bit steep for what it offers. Therefore, while the QNAP TS-855X NAS offers a plethora of attractive features and strong performance, it’s worth keeping in mind that a spend of a few hundred more dollars opens the door to Intel Core-powered NAS in the TVS-hx74 series or more powerful Xeon triple tiered systems such as the TVS-h1288X. If you want power, but on a budget, it’s a great choice!

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? These Offers are Checked Daily

QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES

The retail packaging for the QNAP TS-855X NAS doesn’t stand out in terms of visual appeal, but it certainly does its job. Its dull exterior can be described as ‘functional chic’, focusing more on substance than style. Even so, the packaging is impressively solid, providing a sense of reassurance that the NAS device within is well-protected during transit.

When it comes to the internal protective packaging, it boasts a sturdy and solid construction made of a hard foam structure. This robust internal packaging is designed to effectively cushion the NAS, further enhancing the protective aspects of the packaging and ensuring that the device reaches the user in impeccable condition.

As for the accessories, they include ethernet cables, an external mains cable, screws, m.2 heatsinks, tray keys, an instruction manual, and warranty information. These accessories may not be the most exciting, but they are certainly practical, providing you with all the necessary components to set up and start using your NAS right out of the box.

A noteworthy inclusion is the heatsinks for the M.2 NVMe slots within the QNAP TS-855X NAS. Although it may seem like a small addition, it’s an incredibly useful one. These heatsinks will play a significant role in maintaining optimal operating temperatures for your M.2 NVMe SSDs, which is especially beneficial for intensive workloads.

The overall packaging design strikes a perfect balance between protection and functionality. While the packaging and included accessories might be considered somewhat mundane by some, they include everything necessary for setting up and operating the NAS. This focus on utility over aesthetics makes the unboxing process a smooth and satisfying experience.

QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – Design

The QNAP TS-855X NAS chassis is sizeable, with dimensions of 231.9 × 292.9 × 319.8 mm. Its metallic structure gives it a hefty, robust feel, suggesting that it’s built to last and can handle the rigors of intensive data management.

As for the ventilation system, it’s clear that a lot of thought has been put into its design. There’s abundant ventilation on the front around the trays, a large side vent panel, extensive ventilation on the bottom, and additional ventilation on the rear of the casing around the two main active fans. This comprehensive cooling system ensures efficient thermal management, which is crucial for maintaining the longevity and performance of your drives.

The TS-855X NAS also features an LCD control panel, which provides real-time system information. This includes system temperatures, LAN addresses, and system warnings. Having this level of information readily available at a glance makes for a more user-friendly experience and allows for better system management.

Each empty bay of the TS-855X, which includes six SATA HDD and two SATA SSD bays, comes equipped with a plastic tray that requires no screws to secure the drives. This screwless design makes installing and replacing drives a breeze, adding to the overall user-friendly design.

Each bay features a dedicated LED light that indicates drive access and health. These LED indicators can have their brightness increased or decreased as per your preference. This offers an easy visual cue to help you keep track of drive performance and access.

Moreover, each bay is lockable, offering an added level of security for your drives. This can be particularly useful in shared environments, providing a physical deterrent against unauthorized drive removal.

The TS-855X is quite flexible when it comes to drive configuration. You can operate the system with as few as a single SATA drive, or you can choose to partially or fully populate the bays. This scalability ensures the NAS can adapt to your storage needs as they evolve.

Additionally, you can attach up to two expansion devices from QNAP to the TS-855X. These expansion devices range from 2-bay and 4-bay models to larger 16-bay models and even daisy-chainable rackmounts. This flexibility allows for considerable storage expansion possibilities, ensuring your NAS can grow along with your data requirements.

There is a front-mounted one-touch button USB port available for local backups on the TS-855X. This convenient feature enables straightforward local backups, adding to the overall versatility of the system.

QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – Ports & Connections

In terms of connectivity, the QNAP TS-855X NAS brings a variety of options to the table, even if it feels a bit oriented towards business needs.

It offers a 10GbE copper port, which is directly available and not via a PCIe card. This high-speed network connection allows for rapid data transfer, making it ideal for businesses or power users with demanding data needs.

There are two Gen 3×4 PCIe slots available for adding upgrade cards. These slots can be utilized for various additions, including 10GbE, 25GbE, NVMe Storage Upgrade cards, and more. This provides the user with considerable expansion possibilities, catering to potential future upgrade requirements.

The TS-855X also comes with two 2.5GbE ports, which support SMB Multichannel. With these ports, the system can provide a potential 15GbE of network connectivity on day one, with lots of room for increased bandwidth later on.

Additional connectivity options include two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports, which can be used for external storage drives, network adapters, office appliances, UPS’, and the previously mentioned QNAP expansion devices. This wide variety of connectivity options positions the TS-855X as a highly versatile and adaptable NAS solution.

QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – Internal Hardware

At the heart of the QNAP TS-855X NAS is an Intel Atom C5125 8-core processor, with each core operating at a clock speed of 2.8GHz. This CPU is a reasonable and affordable alternative to a Xeon Processor, bringing a solid balance between performance and cost-effectiveness.

This CPU allows the TS-855X to deliver impressive performance, achieving up to 3,500MB/s sequential read and 2,200MB/s sequential write with SATA SSDs and 25GbE network upgrades. These figures demonstrate the power of the TS-855X, which is well-suited for handling demanding tasks such as large file transfers, streaming high-definition content, or running intensive server applications.

The NAS arrives with 8GB of UDIMM Memory that can be upgraded over 4 slots up to a maximum of 128GB. This expanded memory capacity will be particularly beneficial for tasks that require a lot of RAM, such as running virtual machines, managing large scale databases, and handling dedicated flash storage.

The CPU of the TS-855X supports ECC memory. However, to keep the cost of the NAS at an affordable range of $1300-1400, ECC memory is not included by default. This compromise allows QNAP to offer the TS-855X at a more competitive price, while still providing the option for users to upgrade to ECC memory if needed.

Apart from the 6 HDD bays and 2 SSD bays, the QNAP TS-855X NAS also incorporates 2x NVMe SSD Bays inside. This additional storage option introduces an extra level of versatility to the system’s storage configuration, opening up new possibilities for performance enhancement.

These M.2 NVMe Bays are 2280 PCIe Gen 3×4 and allow the TS-855X to function as a three-tier storage system, supporting caching and QTier. This three-tier system enables the NAS to efficiently manage and distribute data across different types of storage media, optimizing performance and storage efficiency. The M.2 NVMe Bays can also be used for storage pools with drives OR for AI upgrade cards like the Google Coral or NPU upgrades. This provides users with even more options for enhancing the capabilities and performance of the TS-855X.

The good news is that unlike Synology and its inclusion of M.2 NVMe SSD slots, the 2280 slots inside the QNAP can be used for more than just read/write caching. The use of SSD caching to provide performance benefits to a slower, but larger and more affordable Hard Drive RAID away are quite well established in the NAS industry, using the SSD space to either write files to the system faster (acting as the primary write area, before moving the data) or increase the speed of accessing commonly requested files on the NAS (making copies of those files onto the SSDs, though largely tiny files are optimized and do not really affect larger block/sequential data). However, though the QNAP TS-855X supports SSD caching on these bays, it also supports their use in QTier. This is similar to caching but in QTier the available HDD and SSDs are combined into a single storage area and it intelligently moves files periodically to the appropriate storage media as it analyzes their access and requests. Finally, if you wish, you can use the NVMe SSD bays for just a fast accessing and performing storage pool and volumes of it’s own. These two bays, plus the main SATA HDD bays, plus adding a PCIe SSD storage card in an available slot means that the TS-855X has enormous storage potential. These m.2 bays can also be used for system upgrades, but these are still quite few in reality and it is only the google TPU m.2 upgrade that increases AI system processes that is recommended in 2023 so far.

Finally, despite the size of the TS-855X NAS, the interior is surprisingly spacious. The clever design allows for excellent airflow within the chassis, contributing to efficient cooling and optimal performance. This thoughtful design ensures that the TS-855X can handle even the most demanding tasks while maintaining a high level of reliability and durability.

]QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – Software & Services

Alongside the hardware of the TS-855X NAS, you also receive the complete software and services package of QNAP QTS (currently in version 5.0). This is a complete operating system. similar in design and presentation to Android OS, it runs hundreds of applications, services and functions, as well as arriving with many mobile and desktop client applications that allow you to interact with the data on your NAS in a much more tailored way. Alongside this, the QNAP QTS software on the TS-855X also includes a few extra SSD tools for anti-wearing on SSDs, better SSD profiling and even options to separate the media into storage, caching or tiered storage where appropriate. The performance and services of QTS have been covered many times on this channel, so reviewing it’s individual performance on the TS-855X NAS is a difficult task, as we have to look at two key things. Is QTS a good software platform and is QTS 5.0 a substantial update on QTS 4.5?

On the first score, I can comfortably say that QNAP NAS software and services have truly come into their own and the balancing act of supplying the end-user with the flexibility to use the system ‘their way’, whilst still keeping it user-friendly is the best it has ever been. Is it perfect, no. In its efforts to make itself customizable in every way possible, QTS develops an inadvertent learning curve that may catch some novice users unaware. Likewise, although QTS 5 has done a lot of work on its presentation of information and notifications, there is still the odd moment of ‘TMI’ when switching between services on the fly. QNAP’s NAS software is still easily one of the most adaptable in the market right now and allows users to have a truly unique storage environment if they choose and although not quite as user-friendly as Synology DSM, it counters this by being fantastically flexibly by comparison (from file/folder structure to 3rd party services support and connectivity). That said, 2020-2021 were a bumpy road for the brand and a series of ransomware attacks were targetted at the brand that was caused by a combination of vulnerabilities in Linux (which practically all NAS and Android software is built upon) but also in how applications in the QNAP platform were allowed to have external access. In previous revisions of QTS, customization and guidance for changing settings on the system was made very easy and open but lacked a lot of the gravitas and significance that these changes ade to the system being highlighted to less experienced users (such as allowing the QNAP to adapt remote ports on your router over UPnP and how the HBS3 program allowed remote access. These omissions, vulnerabilities and communication issues in QTS have seemingly been resolved and QTS 5 seems to be a much tighter system on the whole (as much as anything can be once you open it to the internet). But many users still feel that the brand needs to do more and therefore until QNAP can remove the lingering stories of ransomware and malware over time, this si always going to be an existing sensitive issue for buyers. In order to see the extent of the latest version of QNAP TS 5.0 use the links below to the written review and video below released in late 2021:

FULL Written QNAP QTS 5 Review	FULL Video Review of QNAP QTS 5

Although the full review of QNAP QTS is available in the article and video linked above, let’s discuss the highlights of the platform. First off there are the software and services for managing files and folders on the fly. QTS includes several tools for managing files in your web browser (with full copy, paste, archive, extract, sharing, etc options built-in), as well as smart system/file search functionality.

Click to view slideshow.

The security when using your TS-855X NAS (again, a continued area of contention and criticism for QNAP in the past) in terms of customization and alerts have been noticeably improved and upgraded in both their deployment and presentation in QTS. These range from a multi-layered security advisor to control anti-malware scans, anti-virus schedules, firewall monitoring and more. There is also a range of access and security credential tools that are quite far-reaching all built-in. With QNAP having to prove its platform is safe more than most, there is a bit shift positively in this direction in the latest versions of QTS.

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Overall storage management, access, mounting and how this factors into backups have also been massively diversified in QTS and along with numerous means to create a very unique storage system (factoring RAID, multi-stage 1-2-3 backups, connecting with cloud drive/objects and how this is presented to the end-users are incredibly deep. It can lead to a situation in which the end-user is a pinch overwhelmed, but you cannot say that QNAP is not providing the tools – they are just almost TOO numerous in their presentation.

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The same goes for multimedia handling on the QNAP TS-855X, with a wide range of tools for handing photos, music and video in a tailored GUI to each media type. This is made considerably easier with QNAP’s multimedia console tool that provides a single GUI that can be used to handle all the backend setup of all your individual media apps. QNAP also provides AI photo recognition to allow decades of photos to be searched intelligently for people and subjects to quite an impressively deep degree (not needing internet access to do so, with the AI onboard the system). Then you have support for a wide range of 3rd party multimedia tools such as Plex media server, Emby, Twinky and Kodi (unofficially).

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Then you have business tools (small, medium or even enterprise) included that can range from the deployment of multiple virtual machines across many platforms and a dedicated 1st party container deployment tool. One very unique feature of QNAP QTS compared with other NAS brands in their deployment of VMs is that they include 2-3 click download options in their respective applications that allow you to download ready to use VM in Windows 7,8 and 10, as well as a VM market place for more enterprise virtual clients and even a Ubuntu 18/19/20 VM deployment tool that allows you to quickly set up a VM and then access remotely OR use the HDMI+KVM set up locally. The container station tool also has its own pre-built tool repository too.

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Finally, for surveillance use, the TS-855X arrives with QVR Pro which allows you to have a business-class surveillance platform hosted on your NAS. This platform has its very own GUI that supports thousands of IP Camera brands, as well as the software arriving with 8 camera licenses with the TS-855X, a multi-camera feed display, intelligent alerts, AI services (hardware appropriate), multiple client tools for mobile/desktop clients, integration of 3rd party system management tools and you can even attach USB cameras to your QNAP NAS and have local cameras fed into the NAS too.

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So, software on the QNAP TS-855X is pretty diverse and although the brand has seen its fair share of security complaints in the past, I think that it would be hard for me to ignore the range of NAS hardware configuration, services and tools that are included.  Tests of the QNAP TS-855X on how it performs as a Plex Media Server, host for Virtual Machines and more will be conducted shortly over on NASCompares YouTube channel. I recommend visiting there to learn more. Below is the video review for the QNAP TS-855X NAS

QNAP TS-855X NAS Review – Conclusion & Verdict

I have to say, I am MOSTLY impressed by how much bang for buck is being included in the TS-855X and although it is not the most powerful device in the market (arguably intentionally, as it favours the more affordable Atom over a xeon), it is a sensible workhorse of a NAS. On the positive side, the QNAP TS-855X NAS comes with numerous strong selling points. The device offers large storage potential, especially with the ZFS file system, making it a powerhouse for data management. The choice of CPU is also sensible, providing a balance between performance and cost-effectiveness. The inclusion of the QTier tool is particularly appealing, adding a layer of efficiency to the storage management. Another big plus is the user-friendly GUI for ZFS in QuTS, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise. The three-tier storage options and support of ECC memory with a maximum of 128GB further enhance the device’s versatility and potential. Moreover, the TS-855X provides a wealth of expansion options and comes with 8 camera licenses with QVR Pro/QTS. The well-ventilated design contributes to thermal efficiency, ensuring optimal performance, while its support for the latest 22TB and soon-to-be-released 24TB drives future-proofs your investment.

However, the TS-855X is not without its drawbacks. While the two SATA SSD bays provide extra storage options, they would have been better if they were U.2 slots, which offer faster speeds. Although the device supports ECC memory, the initial 8GB memory in the base model is non-ECC, which might not be optimal for all ZFS services. The memory capacity might also be somewhat low for users with intensive data needs. Furthermore, the software can sometimes be inconsistent under heavy use, and it has a steeper learning curve compared to competitors like Synology. Finally, the pricing structure for the TS-855X is a mixed bag. While some users may find the cost reasonable given its features, others might feel it’s a bit steep for what it offers. Therefore, while the QNAP TS-855X NAS offers a plethora of attractive features and strong performance, it’s worth keeping in mind that a spend of a few hundred more dollars opens the door to Intel Core-powered NAS in the TVS-hx74 series or more powerful Xeon triple tiered systems such as the TVS-h1288X. If you want power, but on a budget, it’s a great choice!

PROs of the QNAP TS-855X NAS	CONs of the QNAP TS-855X NAS
Large Storage Potential (Especially in ZFS) Sensible Choice of CPU QTier Tool is VERY Appealing ZFS in QuTS but with a User Friendly GUI Three Tier Storage Opts Support of ECC Memory & 128GB Max Tonnes of Expansion Options 8 Camera Licenses with QVR Pro/QTS Well Ventilated Design Supports Latest 22TB and 24TB (soon)	2x SATA SSD Bays Would Hva ebeen Better if U.2 Initial 8GB Memory is low for all ZFS services + is not ECC in default/Base Model Software can be a little inconsistent under excessive use Features a steeper learning curve than Synology Early Pricing is a Mixed Bag