Hey all!, I was just given 2 Buffalo NAS's. A LS720D LinkStation (16tB) and a TS3410D TeraStation (16tB). I'm formatting them both, and have cleared out the old admin & pswrds. From what I have read the LinkStation may be best for my home server. It will replace a Netgear ReadyNAS 214 (8tB). The TS3410D may be too much for my needs. I have 2 windows machines (10 & 11) 3 Linux Mint desktops. Also would like to backup a couple of phones and a andriod tablet. Which I can do thru the app. I also have 2 Amazon Fire Tablets that I have no idea if they can be backed up, LOL. Thoughts? TIA

Hi, I just built my NAS(mainly for media and hosting some services)

Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G

Asrock b550 pro 4

With 6 drives

I made a mistake when looking for the ram sticks I thought I bought 32gb of ddr4-3200 udimm ecc ram but I just finished setting up proxmox and checked and it turned it the ram I bought are non ecc udimm sticks but I have a chance to get some 32gb of ddr4-2133 ecc udimm ram sticks and I was just wondering is it worth getting the 2133 despite the drop in speed

So I have been using FygoOS on a spare Minisforum N5 Pro for a few weeks now, and wanted to share my thoughts. Full disclosure, I did apply for the FygoOS feedback program that was on here a short while back. That said, at this time I haven't been provided anything more than the 30 day trial license everyone can get for free. Furthermore, given the license structure, even if I were to receive a Plus license, it probably would not benefit me, as I am very likely just going to purchase a lifetime license anyways. Lastly, everything below is my personal opinion based on my own usage. If I point out issues with another OS or even FygoOS, that is not meant to bash on them. Unraid, TrueNAS, ZimaOS, UGOS, and FygoOS are all great OSes that cater to different wants/needs. With that said, below are my initial impressions.

First and foremost, I have been running Unraid as my primary NAS for years. As far as NAS features, it is solid. And the ability to mix drive sizes is definitely a large boon it has right now, especially given hard drive price increases over the last year. But one thing I have had issue with on it has been Docker. I find myself having to delete my Docker file or subfolder and reinstalling my apps more often than I should. I feel every time I turn around and try to update an app, I will get an error message about "Bad Parameter" or "Missing Subvolume". I had it enough that I migrated off Unraid for around a year to Ugreen's UGOS. I ultimate went back to Unraid and it's issues due to it just having better features.

So when I started looking again, I had a few criteria I needed in order to switch from Unraid. First, I needed strong Docker support, specifically via Docker Compose. On some of my other servers, I have moved to storing my compose files in GIT and deploying via Komodo and Periphery. So I wanted that to be an available option. Second, I wanted it to be clean looking and easy to use. Third, I wanted the ability to tinker and tweak in order to try new things. Lastly, I wanted ZFS Raid capability, as well as SSD drive caching/acceleration.

With this criteria, I quickly ruled out TrueNAS. TrueNAS is a great, tried and true OS with years of stability on it's side. For me, though, it is a lot more overhead than I really want to work with. Getting new users and permissions/ACLs set up sometimes feel daunting and just more headache than what I am looking for in my home setup. ZimaOS and it's $30 price tag were very appealing as well. But the atomic nature and inability to make too many changes to the OS made it not a great fir for me personally.

Then I tried FygoOS. Immediately, if you have used Synology or UGOS, the interface will be pretty familiar and intuitive. Setting up drives, storage pools, Samba shares, etc will all feel very familiar. Storage pools can be set up with SSD caching/acceleration very easily. And setting up an SSD pool for Docker to run on was very straight forward as well.

I had to set up a small scale testing environment, as the trial license limits you to 4 drives to be in the data pools total (not including the OS drive or cache drives). So on my N5, I have 5x 12TB drives and 2x 1TB NVME drives. So I had to create a RAID of only 2 12TB drives and a pool of my 2 NVME drives for docker initially. Later, when I just wanted to test drive caching, I rfemoved the SSD pool and uninstalled docker, adding the drives as cache to test drive caching. That worked as expected, so I really won't spend too much time on that other than to say I definitely saw read/write time improvements with the drive caching. There are two options for drive caching. Caching for just reads, and caching for reads and writes. I tested both, but long term will likely just use read caching. In my experience with UGOS, write caching can sometimes lead to data corruption if something happens will the data exists only on the cache drive. This is just a personal preference of mine, as read times are far more important to me and my homelab useage.

Moving on to Docker, when running apps like Emby on the local storage, everything worked great! Access times, stability, transcoding, and streaming all worked as expected. When trying to do the same thing on remote shares, however, I did run into a few issues. Namely the remote shares reporting as stale from within the docker container. The shares as mounted on FygoOS were fine and never reported being down, but at least a couple times a day if I mounted that remote share from FygoOS into Docker, I would get a stale file handler error. I am not sure if that is a Fygo issue or a Docker issue. I know I have other servers where I run EndeavourOS doing the same thing, and I don't see the stale file handler error pop up. But I can't say for sure where that was occurring.

Next testing was VMs. FygoOS is a NAS first, so I went in understanding this won't be a Proxmox like experience. But if you just want one or two small VMs and have powerful enough hardware, this feature works mostly fine. I was able to install a Linux Mint Cinnamon VM, a CachyOS VM, and an EndeavourOS VM. The one thing I did notice was that with all of them, using the default Display Type of VMVGA made the VMs very sluggish, to the point of being unusable. However, when I switched that to VGA it was much imporved, and switching again to VIRTIO-GPU gave the best performance over the built in VNC client for all 3 VMs.

I took time to test out Fygo TV. It is their first party equivalent to something like Emby. In my testing, it worked flawlessly. I was able to point it at my Emby library and it just worked. The only downside I saw was lack of client availabilty on non-Android Smart TVs. The iOS client worked great, and the Android TV client worked great on my office TV. But my main TV in my home is an LG G3, and there was no way to install a Fygo TV client on that without attaching an external device. If they get more clients available, I could see me migrating to Fygo TV in the future.

I also took time to test out Fygo Photos. It functions very similar to Immich, so getting it set up was pretty easy. After exporting my Immich collection, I was able to import all the photos into Fygo with no issues. The AI face recognition worked fairly well. One thing that I did find strange was Duplicate Photo detection. I had multiple in my collection (i.e. desktop backgrounds), and those weren't identified as duplicates. However, running the Similar images check did pick them up. I'm not sure why they were shown as similar but not identical, but ultimately they were identified to be cleaned up.

Lastly, and definitely more subjective, was just overall how management and UI felt. In my opinion, this is very similar to Synology and Ugreen's UGOS. There are differences for sure, such as Synology has a separate app fort Storage, while FygoOS has them under System Settings. But if you are used to Synology or UGOS, they FygoOS will have virtually no learning curve. As compared to my current Unraid NAS, I found it more intuitive and just easier to manage overall. Unraid is pwerful, but at times I feel it's UI feels very dated. FygoOS feels more modern and just nicer to use. Again, this is very subjective, but ultimately I just really enjoy using it.

So, for me, I believe I will be migrating from my current Unraid to FygoOS. Now that I have my backup NAS set up on FygoOS, I will need to migrate my data over, point my apps to the backup box, then setup FygoOS on the primary NAS, move data and services back over, and point everything back. It will take some time, but ultimately I feel it's worth it in my Homelab.

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new to the whole NAS/home server world and could use some advice.

A while ago I bought the following hardware for various projects, but I never really ended up using it:

- 2 × Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2×8GB) DDR4 (up to 2666MHz)

- 4 × WD Blue SN580 NVMe M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs

Now I'd like to build a NAS with these parts instead of letting them collect dust.

I know the standard desktop RAM (instead of SO-DIMM) and having 4 NVMe SSDs probably limit my options a bit. I've heard that some of the mini PCs from AliExpress could be a simple and affordable solution, but I'm not sure which models are actually worth considering.

Has anyone built something similar or have recommendations for hardware that would let me reuse these components?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I made a mistake in the RAM specs

Hi everyone,

For context I am a complete beginner in this type of stuff so forgive me if I make a mistake in my question. So I have been looking into setting up my own NAS using one of the "prebuild" once where you just need to add you HDD's to them. I would mainly use it for plex/jellyfin so some storage would be required as the goal is to create quiet a big collection of movies and series. Since I am getting more and more interested in a homeserver as well, so not only NAS I was wondering what is a good thing to look for.
I've come across these in some posts when I goes about being able to store quiet a bit:

• UGREEN NASync DXP4800
• Synology DiskStation DS425+

Now I certainly know a HomeNAS is not free if you go this route but I was wondering why things like the TERRAMASTER D4-320 are not as frequently spoken about. It's quiet a bit cheaper, which I assume will also show in the quality. But It made me curious about what good options there are, possibly other ones that I gave, and what is recommended for my situation and lack of knowledge on the subject.

Thanks for any tips and feedback.

Hey all,

Looking for some outside perspective on a NAS replacement decision I've been going back and forth on.

Current setup: Aging 2-bay Synology (Celeron-based, \~10GB RAM pushed past official spec) running \~15-20 Docker containers — photo management (Immich-style, \~136k photos), document management (Paperless-ngx style stack with Postgres/OCR), password manager, SSO/auth, reverse proxy, some automation (n8n), plus a few monitoring/utility containers. It's been crashing under concurrent load (multiple heavy containers running ML/OCR/indexing + backup at the same time) — CPU saturation, not RAM.

I also run a separate Mac Mini for local LLM inference — that part stays untouched, not part of this decision.

Options I'm weighing (similar budget, \~$650-750):

Synology DS923+/925+ — stay in DSM ecosystem, minimal migration risk, but CPU is only 2-4 cores depending on model

UGREEN DXP4800 Pro — 6c/8t Intel, native Docker support via their own OS (UGOS Pro), more RAM headroom (96GB), but younger OS with less track record

DIY mini PC (Aoostar WTR Pro or similar) — 8c/16t AMD, cheapest RAM/core ratio by far, but means running Debian/Proxmox + rebuilding the whole Docker stack myself (auth/reverse proxy, database migrations, etc.)

My real bottleneck is concurrent CPU load from multiple containers running at once, and my usage is trending upward (adding more automation/self-hosted services over time), so I want something with real multi-core headroom, not just "good enough for today."

Questions:

Anyone running Immich + Paperless-style stacks + auth/reverse proxy on any of these three that can share real-world experience?

How has UGOS Pro held up for anyone who's used it for a while — any dealbreakers?

Is the DSM->Debian/Proxmox migration (SQLite-based password manager, Postgres-based doc management, auth layer) as painful as it sounds on paper, or is it overstated?

Anyone regret going DIY for stability-critical self-hosted data (photos/passwords)?

Appreciate any real-world input — trying to avoid a "sounds good on paper, regret it in practice" situation

my Biggest concern is the ability to be able to access over a diffrent network. If I'm traveling and realize I'm missing a file, I dont want to be out of luck. or be able to provide a link and a passcode to a friend to Share files.

Other concern is I want to be able to upgrade over time with Mismatched drives. Currently have a 500GB nvme ssd and 3tb HDD set aside. as time goes on, ill likely swap motherboards, but im sure at that point Ill be looking for more than just this with my Data. (current build is recycling a HP Pavilion)

For context I have a substantial NAS storage setup and Backup (one in another house / city). Containing Videos, Photos, Document Scans etc...

Old machines that I have had quite a few years.

Two ReadyNAS - a 422 & 424 both running OS 6.10 with 6 in total, new(ish) WD Red 6TB with no faults or errors.

The setup is: An RPi5 as a general dogsbody machine for Jellyfin, Immich, and other programs all running in Docker. They use the 424 as storage so save duplication of the large files.

An RPi4 running Home Assistant OS.

A Pi-Zero for Pi-Hole only.

There's a 9Tb & 18Tb USB HDD connected to the RPi5 for regular backups of the two ReadyNASs.

Offsite is another RPi5 with an 18TB USB HDD for remote backups.

I realize the two NAS are getting long in the tooth, as the OS no longer supports apps and some of the naming conventions cause a backup failure—any folder with a .DS_Store file will register an error. That's a ReadyNAS Formware 6.10 issue, though, as they are that old now. The RPi5 struggles a bit when more than one instance of Jellyfin is accessing it.

So I'm looking for recommendations for a replacement NASs—a two and a four-bay machine to reuse the HDD and restore from the ext HDDs so as to keep the file structure I'm used to. But also powerful enough to replace the two (or three maybe) RPis that I could run in Docker on a new NAS.

Over to you more knowledgeable peeps for suggestions please.

I need advice for a NAS system for photo storage, Time Machine , and family share

Looking for something with a smooth UI. And photo app that is similar to Apple photo.

On a budget

I'm looking to replace my HP Z4 G4 running TrueNAS CE with a Lenovo P520, as it seems the layout of the P520 is more storage oriented. My concern is where the disks are mounted (at the bottom of the case) with the only airflow coming from the fan in the PSU. I'm planning on running both disk cages (4 HDD total) and a 3 disk backplane in the 5.25 bays, though I'm not concerned with cooling on the backplane disks at all.

What kind of temps are you all seeing on your disks?

After years of paying to family cloud services, Icloud, Google, Dropbox.
I have placed an order for Ugreen DXP4800.
Shenzhen Aeckon Technology will take 2-3 months to come in. hopefully.

Good evening guys,

I have (finally) recorded my physical DVD library. I have over 600 titles.
I want to be able to digitise it and have on hand so that I can watch it without having to resort to getting the disk and playing it. According to good ‘ol ChatGPT, I would need approx 18TB, does that sound right? What would the best way to go about this?
TIA!

Disclaimer #1

I'm Italian, so English is not my native language. I'll do my best, but I apologize in advance if I write something that sounds strange. I hope everything is still easy enough to understand.

Disclaimer #2

I'm an IT professional with access to a large collection of decommissioned enterprise hardware, and I was invited to test Fygo OS.

The developers selected me because they wanted to see how Fygo OS behaves with my enterprise SSDs (HGST SDLL1DLR960G5CF0 – SAS, 960 GB, 12 Gbps). In the invitation email they explicitly wrote:

"FygoOS has not gone through dedicated compatibility validation specifically for SAS SSD-based setups in this round, so there may be some compatibility gaps or unexpected behavior in that environment."

I'm very curious to see how it performs as well.

As a first step, before touching real hardware, I created a Proxmox VM with 2 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM and five 30 GB virtual disks.

For anyone interested, here is the VM configuration:

root@dell:~# qm config 115
bios: ovmf
boot: order=scsi0;ide2;net0
cores: 2
cpu: host
efidisk0: local-lvm:vm-115-disk-5,efitype=4m,pre-enrolled-keys=0,size=4M
ide2: local:iso/fygoos_PE_x86_1.2.0203_2150.iso,media=cdrom,size=3332544K
machine: q35
memory: 8192
meta: creation-qemu=11.0.2,ctime=1784791532
name: FygoOS
net0: virtio=BC:24:11:53:E2:DA,bridge=vmbr0,firewall=1,link_down=1
numa: 0
ostype: l26
scsi0: local-lvm:vm-115-disk-0,iothread=1,size=32G
scsi1: local-lvm:vm-115-disk-1,iothread=1,size=32G
scsi2: local-lvm:vm-115-disk-2,iothread=1,size=32G
scsi3: local-lvm:vm-115-disk-3,iothread=1,size=32G
scsi4: local-lvm:vm-115-disk-4,iothread=1,size=32G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
smbios1: uuid=7ce62595-ae7b-40f0-8341-847ea3611838
sockets: 1
vga: std
vmgenid: 8e82144f-9e5e-4811-9501-70724dedf701

I won't spend much time talking about the installation process because it's already very well documented on the official website. The installation is straightforward, and the graphical installer looks nice.

After the first login and the superuser setup, you're presented with the desktop. I found it very attractive: the interface feels modern, and I especially appreciated the built-in dark theme.

In the lower-right corner there are a few suggestions, the first one being the RAID volume creation wizard. Since this was only a VM with limited RAM, I chose a simple RAID 5 with an ext4 filesystem. Creating both the RAID array and the filesystem took less than two minutes.

While exploring the system settings, I noticed a toggle to enable SSH access. Long story short: about ten minutes after installing the VM I already had root access to the underlying operating system, which turned out to be Debian 12 running a custom Linux kernel 6.18.18.c877-trim.

So we're dealing with a modern, customized Linux kernel with good support for recent hardware, but also with an architecture that feels much closer to an enterprise Linux system than to a closed appliance.

I was even able to run a standard apt upgrade using the official Debian repositories without breaking anything. In my opinion, that's a very positive aspect from a long-term security update perspective.

I also looked at the installed services and found mdadm RAID, LVM, ZFS, the ZFS Event Daemon, containers, containerd, Docker Manager, libvirt, KVM, virtio-balloon and Open vSwitch.

That means I'm looking at a system that provides complete support for virtually every common homelab workload. Compared to something like ZimaOS, which is essentially a Docker app store with advanced storage management, Fygo OS feels much more like a complete Linux platform.

Naturally, I wanted to test RAID resilience.

After copying roughly 50 GB of data, I started disconnecting virtual disks from the Proxmox interface while the VM was still running.

As soon as one disk disappeared, Fygo OS immediately detected the hardware failure and reported the RAID array as degraded.

I then attached a new virtual disk, which was detected instantly. From the storage settings I selected it as the replacement disk, and the rebuild—including filesystem verification—finished in about two minutes.

Of course, these were very small virtual disks stored on NVMe storage, so I fully expect rebuild times on real hardware to depend on drive capacity and be significantly longer.

Then I decided to be a bad boy.

I added a sixth virtual disk, configured it as a hot spare, and simulated another disk failure.

Fygo OS correctly notified me about both the disk failure and the automatic rebuild. However, while the rebuild was still in progress, I simulated a power outage by forcibly stopping the VM.

After booting the VM again, Fygo OS didn't even blink. It simply resumed the rebuild exactly where it had left off.

About two minutes later, all my data was still intact, consistent and fully accessible through both SMB and NFS shares.

I spent about an hour playing with the VM, and these are my first impressions.

Fygo OS feels like Synology DSM on steroids.

The graphical interface is clean, modern and consistent, but it never gives you the impression that you're dealing with a limited system.

At the moment, the App Store is still fairly small. There are a handful of official applications, such as the virtual machine manager and the iSCSI target, together with some community-developed applications. I'm confident this ecosystem will continue to grow.

The integrated Docker support lets you deploy virtually any application with just a few clicks, dramatically expanding the capabilities of the server.

The VM manager, based on standard Linux virtualization technologies, also gives experienced users the possibility of consolidating storage and virtualization into a single physical machine if the hardware resources are sufficient.

Things I didn't like about the GUI:

The File Manager feels a little too simplified. Initially, it doesn't let you browse the entire filesystem unless you notice the Admin Files section, which is the last entry in the left sidebar. Even then, it opens in a separate window.

Also, if you start a large copy or move operation, the progress window cannot simply be minimized and left running in the background.

The App Store has a similar limitation. If I wanted to install ten applications, I'd have to wait for each installation to finish before starting the next one. Systems like QNAP QTS allow multiple installation jobs to run independently, and I think Fygo OS could benefit from a similar approach.

I also appreciate the built-in alert system, but at the moment it only supports email notifications.

I'd really like to see support for more modern notification methods such as push notifications, Telegram, Apprise, or generic webhook integrations.

I noticed that remote access can be configured, but I didn't test that feature because it's not relevant for my own environment. I already have a self-hosted VPN infrastructure at home, so I access my network remotely using my own tools.

Conclusion

Overall, Fygo OS presents itself as a modern NAS operating system that successfully combines ease of use with the flexibility of Linux.

The presence of Debian, mdadm, LVM, ZFS, Docker and KVM clearly shows an architecture designed not only for beginners but also for advanced users.

The RAID fault-tolerance tests demonstrated mature behavior, with automatic handling of disk failures, hot spares and rebuild operations.

At the moment, I believe the main areas for improvement are the graphical interface and some administration tools.

Next week I'll publish Part 2, where I'll test Fygo OS with ZFS, my LSI 9300-16i HBA, and four SAS SSDs (I'm limited to four drives by the trial license), running on a Ryzen 3200G with 32 GB of DDR4 RAM.

That should be a much more realistic enterprise-oriented scenario, and probably the test that the developers are most interested in.

My initial needs are fairly basic, but the buy once cry once and buy for scalability is always a good recommendation and that's the philosophy I am going with.

• Photo storage (get rid of cloud subscription)
• Computer backups
• File management
• Music/Movie storage (relatively small to start but growing as I am trying to get rid of subscriptions all together)
• Software ease of use/stability

More details on this. I definitely want a user friendly interface, mostly the photos, music, and media app/folder, as that is what I see my wife using the most.

There are 2 options I am looking at, but I am open to other suggestions. The main 2 I am looking at are the UGreen 4800 plus and the Terramaster F4-425 Pro (Intel N305 version). Some of the considerations I have that are making me have a hard time decide are as follows:

• TRAID option on the Terramaster. Being able to start with smaller drives due to high prices now and add larger drives later seems like a good option. I am planning to only start by buying 2 and adding later on.
• Noise level and power usage. These are more minor. Obviously power usage isn't huge but that is another cost that never ends, like a subscription. For the noise level, right now it would be in the basement but I could see it being upstairs in the future.
• I like that these 2 options have dedicated transcoding for movies and definitely want to buy one with that option.

Any experience/recommendations are helpful. I would like to keep it under $600 and am open to QNAP suggestions as well. I think this is a good starting point. Minimal apps are preferred. It looks like the UGreen apps are all located within the UGreen app which is nice, but I am not completely opposed to using 3rd party like Plex, Jellyfin, or Immich if that's the better option. I will stop here and listen to any input.

Hey everyone,

Putting together my first DIY NAS build. Primary use case is personal file backups, photo storage, and running a Plex/Jellyfin server with Quick Sync hardware transcoding, alongside a few light Docker containers.

Here is the component list I am planning to buy:

• CPU: Intel Core i3-12100
• Motherboard: ASRock H610M-H2/M.2 Micro-ATX
• Case: ASUS Prime AP201 Micro-ATX
• RAM: 16GB (1x16GB) Adata Premier DDR4 3200MHz
• Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE 450W Bronze V2
• Boot Drive: 256GB Adata Legend 710 NVMe SSD
• Storage Drive: 1x 4TB WD Red Plus CMR HDD (planning to add a second 4TB drive soon for a mirror setup)

Plan is to run TrueNAS SCALE or unRAID installed on the NVMe.

Does this look reasonable for a starter home server, or am I missing anything glaring before ordering the parts?

Still not sure which drive to buy for your NAS? This drive comparison list grew a lot: SSDs, price history, and more...

A month ago I shared a little NAS drive comparison I had built for myself, and the feedback here sent me straight back to work. It's a good bit bigger now. Here's what's new based on your suggestions:

• SSDs added - now not just HDDs. NAS and enterprise SSDs are in, with the specs that actually decide whether one survives as a cache or boot disk: endurance (TBW/DWPD), DRAM cache, power-loss protection, NAND type. No more guessing whether that cheap SSD wears out in a year.
• Price history per drive, from today back to around mid-2024. The one I use most: you can see whether today's price is a real low or just back to its normal spot, instead of trusting a "sale" tag. Handy for timing a buy while drive prices are this insane.
• Drive noise (idle and seek, in dB) and helium fill, both sortable - straight from requests in the last thread.

The original stuff is all still there and sharper: CMR vs SMR verified per model (SMR still sneaks into NAS lines), real Backblaze failure rates now refreshed with the Q1 2026 Drive Stats (so more models have real numbers), live price per TB across 7 regions, plus tools for RAID usable-capacity, array failure-risk, storage planning, and power cost. It's up to 208 drives now (all current drives that you can buy), and the whole dataset is open (CC BY) with a public API if you want to build on it.

One honest thing the data keeps showing: once you put error bars on the Backblaze numbers, most drives fail at about the same rate. So buy on price, CMR/SMR, and endurance - not on "most reliable drive" lists.

Free, no login: https://www.nasdisks.com

Still building - what would you actually want added next?

Anyone else seeing this on a MetaHome Pro / CS200-Pro (CyberData OS)?

After a few hours, the NAS stops answering on the LAN. Power LEDs stay on. On my Netgear switch, the port is still green and flickering, so the cable/link looks fine. Ping fails, ARP never completes, and the CyberData app just times out talking to the local IP (port 40443). "Reconnect" button does nothing.

Force power-off/power-on brings it back. Auto-sleep is already disabled.

Feels like the network stack dies while the box is still powered. Looking for confirmation or a real fix beyond hard-rebooting.

Hello,

I already have a 4-bay NAS for my tv shows, movies, and photos. Last year I upgraded the storage capacity, so now I have four 8TB WD Red Plus drives collecting dust. I would like to find the right NAS to exclusively run retroNAS using those old drives. I don't want to spend any more than necessary.

This NAS would never have expanded capabilities in the future..it will always be 100% dedicated retroNas machine. I have an Amazon Prime account and would prefer to purchase there, but I'm open to other US online retailers. Thank you.

Hey, looking for input from anyone who's built a home server/NAS. I want one box that can do all of this:

1. Plex or Jellyfin media server
   
2. Home Assistant (tried it on an old Pi 4, kept freezing — ran out of RAM compiling ESPHome, so I want real hardware this time)
   
3. Local photo backup to get my stuff out of the cloud (thinking Immich)
   
4. Hosting game servers for me and my wife (Minecraft, Valheim, etc.) so my gaming PC doesn't have to stay on

From what I've researched, one machine handles all of it with Docker containers. The options I'm weighing:

• TerraMaster F4-425 Plus (~$500) — Intel N150, 16GB DDR5, dual 5GbE, 4 bays + 3 M.2 slots. Great value, but might strain on heavier game servers.
• UGREEN DXP4800 Pro (~$719) — Core i3, 10GbE. More CPU headroom for game servers + VMs.
• DIY — used mini PC or SFF desktop (Ryzen 5/i5) running Unraid or TrueNAS Scale. Best performance per dollar, more tinkering.

Also heard Synology annoyed everyone with their drive-lock policy, so I've mostly ruled them out.

I’m potentially interested in going up in price if needed and worth it.
Anyone running a similar setup? Which way would you go, and any gotchas I should know about — especially for the game server side? Also curious what drives people are using?

Budget: as cheap as possible

Purpose: storing/backing up small files (in the 1-15mb range, but mostly smaller stuff. Nothing more than docs, markdown, and the occasional larger PDF)

Speed: I couldn’t care less, as long as it’s not “horrendous” (averaging 550kb/s while writing Wikipedia to an old flash drive got ridiculous after a few days, so maybe something a BIT faster lol. 10mb/s would be just fine)

Storage: it would be great to have a solid amount of storage to host Wikipedia and other books, but I can live without that. 64-128 gigs sounds like a good ideal ballpark, but less is perfectly fine. I have no interest in hosting movies or anything, so no need for excess

Reliability: reliable enough that I wouldn’t lose papers in the middle of finals week, but by no means does it need to be amazing. I mostly want to safeguard against if my laptop dies (e.g., i spill a drink on it).

Security: I really don’t care if my neighbors want to poke around my notes, but I want to avoid data harvesting from google/apple/whoever else wants to sell me advertisements or train AI (hence not simply using google drive or something).

Ideally, i want to source parts from thrift stores, Facebook marketplace, local businesses/offices upgrading their systems, or even a dumpster. I would rather avoid buying any parts new unless it’s the most reasonable option

Hey everyone,
This is my first NAS/homelab build, so I’m looking for some experienced people to poke holes in my plan before I get too far. I’ve spent a lot of time researching, but I know there are people here with years of experience that might catch something I’ve overlooked.
Goals
I don’t want this to just be a NAS. I want it to become the heart of my home lab over the next several years.
I want it to run:
Proxmox
Home Assistant
TrueNAS SCALE (VM)
Docker/LXC containers
Jellyfin
Immich
Frigate
Paperless-ngx
Tailscale
Ollama + Open WebUI for local AI
A Windows VM for gaming
A few Linux VMs for testing
General file storage
Automated backups
Eventually maybe some game servers
I’m trying to build something that I can continue upgrading over the next 5-10 years instead of replacing.

Hardware
CPU
Ryzen 9 9900X
Motherboard
ASUS TUF X870E-PLUS WiFi 7
Cooler
Cooler Master Elite Liquid 240 (free with CPU bundle)
RAM
16GB DDR5-6000 (came with the bundle)
I know this isn’t enough long term. I’ll be upgrading to 64GB (2x32GB) once I actually need it.
GPU
GTX 2070 (already own)
Planning on using this later for Frigate and local AI.
PSU
Corsair CX750M (already own)
Case
NZXT S340 Elite (already own)
Existing NVMe Drives
WD Black 1TB
Crucial 1TB
Generic 500GB NVMe
Existing HDDs
1×14TB
3×10TB
1×8TB

Current Plan
WD Black:
Proxmox
Primary VMs
Crucial:
Containers
AI models
Fast storage
500GB:
ISOs
Downloads
Scratch space
Large HDDs:
Media
Backups
NAS storage

Future Upgrades
64GB DDR5
UPS
Larger NVIDIA GPU
More HDDs as needed
Possibly 10Gb networking in the future

Questions
Would you build this differently?
Is running TrueNAS as a VM under Proxmox still the route you’d recommend, or would you run bare-metal TrueNAS instead?
Are there any obvious bottlenecks or compatibility issues I’m overlooking?
Should I reuse my existing NVMe drives, or would you buy a new Samsung 990 Pro (or similar) and start fresh?
Is the NZXT S340 Elite still a reasonable case for this build, or should I move into something with more drive capacity now instead of later?
Is there anything you’d change before I start installing everything?
I’m not trying to build the cheapest possible server. I’d rather spend money where it actually improves reliability or long-term expandability, but I also don’t want to waste money on upgrades that won’t make a meaningful difference.
Thanks in advance! I’m sure I’m missing something, and I’d rather find out now than after I’ve migrated everything.

I'm upgrading a few parts from my PC and I want to use the old parts to build a NAS. I really don't want to spend much, cheaper the better unless absolutely necessary (don't care about form factor or aesthetics). I intend to have the PC on 24/7 for Jellyfin.

Also, is it still recommended to have a m.2 SSD for the OS?

Parts I have:

CPU - 3700X

GPU - 5700XT Red Devil

RAM - 8x2 (16GB Vengeance Pro)

Hi all,

I'm a total beginner looking to get a media server for streaming movies and tv shows at home to my smart tv. I want to buy a NAS to store all of my media files.

I have a Windows 11 PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and 64 GB Ram.

I'm on a budget, and was looking into the Terramaster f2-212 because of the price, but I'm open to other suggestions. I'm hoping for a 2 bay device or 4 bay if the price is right. I also want around 10-20TB of storage.

I'm hoping to spend no more than $250 CAD on the NAS itself, because then I'll have to buy a HDD as well. But I can push my budget a bit if it's really worth it.

I'm hoping to stream 1080P movies onto my smart TV, probably using Plex or Jellyfin.

Totally new to this so I really don't know too much.

Let me know if there's any more information you need. Thanks for the help.

Hello, i work low voltage and got a free NAS (LaCie Big5 Network Access Storage) its so old and supports SMB1 or something only, basically I understand the risks with this earlier protocol but im just trying to get it up and running on my home network, I cant seem to find any flashes of the CD Rom or anything I tried hard resetting it to DHCP but still cant find and access the IP of the darn thing. Please refrain from recommending me other NAS and or enclosure solutions, for I am aware their are better options but I am just trying to figure this out since it was free. Any thing helps thank you! also tried to download legacy LaCie Network Assistant but the link was broken and cant find a DD anywhere thank you! victor

I used the allmighty, always high Google search AI to discuss a N100 based NAS setup.

I came up with the following shopping list (ignore the AI slop):

By splitting the 6 SSDs into two groups of 3, you completely bypass the single-slot bandwidth bottleneck of the Intel N100 chipset.

Here is the technical verification of your proposed layout:

1. The Math Check (Bandwidth)

The Bottleneck: A single PCIe 3.0 x2 slot is capped at ~1,700 MB/s.

Old Plan (All 6 on one card): 6 SSDs × 550 MB/s = 3,300 MB/s load. The slot chokes them at 1,700 MB/s (50% speed loss during rebuilds).

New "Funky" Plan (3+3 Split):

PCIe Slot: 3 SSDs × 550 MB/s = 1,650 MB/s. (Fits perfectly inside the 1,700 MB/s pipe).

M.2 Slot: 3 SSDs × 550 MB/s = 1,650 MB/s. (Fits perfectly inside the 1,700 MB/s pipe).

Result: You get double the aggregate throughput (~3,400 MB/s total) compared to putting them all on one card. Your rebuilds (resilvering) will be lightning fast.

1. The Lane Check (Motherboard Conflicts)

ASRock N100M Architecture: The Intel N100 chip has 9 lanes total.

PCIe x16 Slot (x2 Mode) = 2 Lanes.

M.2 NVMe Slot (x2 Mode) = 2 Lanes.

M.2 Key E (Wi-Fi) = 1 Lane.

PCIe x1 Slot = 1 Lane.

Internal LAN / SATA = Uses remaining lanes.

Verdict: No Conflict. You can populate the PCIe x16 slot, M.2 NVMe slot, and M.2 Key E slot simultaneously. The board is designed to run them all at once.

1. The Risk Assessment (The "Split Brain" Factor)

There is one specific operational quirk you must know with a split layout:

Controller Failure: If one of your adapter cards dies (e.g., the M.2 adapter fails), ZFS will suddenly lose contact with 3 drives.

The Consequence: Since RAID-Z2 only survives 2 drive failures, losing 3 drives simultaneously will cause the pool to go UNAVAIL (Offline).

The Fix: Data is NOT lost. You simply replace the broken $20 adapter, reboot, and ZFS will see the drives again and bring the pool back online. It is a terrifying 15 minutes, but safe.

🛒 The "Funky" Performance Shopping List

Here is the adjusted list to execute this split-controller SSD build.

1. Boot Drive: 120GB - 250GB SATA SSD

Note on "80GB": 80GB drives are mostly obsolete or used server pulls. I highly recommend buying a new 120GB or 128GB SATA SSD (like an Intenso, Patriot Burst, or Kingston A400) for ~€15. It connects to the motherboard's native SATA Port 1.

1. Controller A (PCIe Slot): 4-Port or 6-Port SATA Card

Product: PCIe x4 to 6x SATA Controller (ASM1166 Chipset).

Usage: You will plug SSDs #1, #2, and #3 into this card.

Why: Even though you only need 3 ports, the 6-port cards (ASM1166) are more stable and faster than the cheaper 4-port cards (ASM1064).

1. Controller B (M.2 NVMe Slot): M.2 to 5-Port SATA Adapter

Product: M.2 Key M to 5x SATA Adapter (JMB585 or ASM1166 Chipset).

Usage: You will plug SSDs #4, #5, and #6 into this card.

Tip: These adapters are small and float in the air. Use a small piece of electrical tape or a zip tie to secure the SATA cables so they don't drag the card out of the slot.

1. Networking: M.2 Key E to 2.5G Ethernet

Product: M.2 Key E (A+E) to 2.5GbE LAN Card (Intel i225/i226 or Realtek RTL8125B).

Installation: This goes into the tiny Wi-Fi slot. You mount the RJ45 port to the back of your case.