Off the shelf NAS or build your own - Is it really better to buy from QNAP Synology or another big brand

[Redaktion]

Whether it's QNAP, ASUStor, Synology or some other prebuilt brand, a NAS is not a cheap piece of equipment. With free or low cost operating systems such as TrueNAS, Open Media Vault or even Unraid is it cheaper to build your own with new or second hand parts, or buy off the shelf?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Off-the-shelf-NAS-or-build-your-own-Is-it-really-better-to-buy-from-QNAP-Synology-or-another-big-brand.850739.0.html

[MSchmidt]

You didn't mention ECC at all, and if you are serious about data integrity, ECC is important.

Pre-built NASes often use ECC supporting CPU, MB and RAM (e.g. Synology).

But it is quite challenging to find such parts for custom build, especially at reasonable prices. Part of the issue is that manufacturers often don't specify if ECC is supported.

[Kevin Galligan]

You didn't mention ECC at all, and if you are serious about data integrity, ECC is important.

Pre-built NASes often use ECC supporting CPU, MB and RAM (e.g. Synology).

But it is quite challenging to find such parts for custom build, especially at reasonable prices. Part of the issue is that manufacturers often don't specify if ECC is supported.

Until recently, the only Synology models with ECC were more in the "business" tier. I have a DS920+, and there's no ECC. I did just look up specs, and the DS923+ and DS723+ have ECC, but anything below that does not.

Of course, I do agree that ECC should be something to consider, and finding ECC-compatible hardware, never mind the memory itself, is a bit of a challenge, and generally bumps up the price. I have the DS920+, but decided to build some DIY servers because I caught the "self-hosting" bug. Overall, I got much more bang for buck, hardware-wise, but I'm not sure how true that would be if time were factored in. Overall, pretty happy the outcome though. Scratched some nerd itches.

However, on ECC, I think what you're storing does come into play. Most Unraid users I've interacted with are storing "media files", and not really backing up important data. In those situations, ehh. My latest box is running ubuntu with zfs for the data storage (4*12g drives in a ZRaid2, so pretty good setup), plus offsite backup. Ubuntu isn't exactly a "NAS", but I found TrueNAS to be overkill for general config and restrictive for apps/Docker at the same time. Yada yada. I need to cut back on my nerd builds.

[Pesh]

One thing to also add that would be nice is power consumption.  Pre build NAS is very power efficient. This is important if you want to pair it with an UPS. Forna next article i would love to see Software comparison between all. Feature wise etc :)

[Warmonk]

Totally agree about needing power consumption data here. DIY can be power efficient but could take a lot of hardware and Linux optimization. It could be a massive time sink for someone.

[MasoxCZ]

Don't even bother to consider Asustor. Their software is quirky And tech support Is absolutely incompetent.