Network Attached Storage (NAS) is usually used for data hoarders for their home movies, photo's, data backup, home security and more tech head stuff like running virtual machines. This isn't techcally a full-on tech website so generally I'll keep things high level unless I'm providing instructional type material.
Anyway, over the years I have used NAS and as an avid photographer it has generally been used for my photographic storage needs and also data backup. Yeah, I am worring about losing all my imporrtant files and photos. More advanced features such as running virtual machines or server applications have not been utilised or even attempted.
As a budget conscious buyer and how technology has developed that was probably a good thing as I've always owned super low specced devices so they probably would have ground to a halt trying anything too computationally demanding even if they were marketed as possible use cases.
My 1st NAS purchase was a Dlink DNS-320. This was released in 2011 but is still going strong albeit with security vulnerabilities and only supporting SMB1.
Following that my 2nd NAS purchase was a LenovoEMC ix4-300d released in 2012 but bought many years later when it was an outgoing budget item. It was only used for storing and sharing files.
However, technology relentlessly marches forwards and now I think I have a machine capable of running more intensive tasks successfully.
I purchased a TerraMaster F4-423 in 2024 and this is kinda a powerhouse budget NAS. You can Google plenty of reviews of this NAS if you are interested. It's essentially a great bang for your buck NAS device. I personally wouldn't choose a device any less powerful than this but you can certainly buy them.
Anyway, as a learner on the TerraMaster F4-423 I'll probably post a few articles on how I use it and setup and use cases whenever I am personally trying something out.
For the techies I have upgraded the ram to 32MB, have two 1TB SSD cache drives and four 14TB hard disk drives. I have also changed the operating system from TOS to Unraid.
You can imagine the 14TB are expensive brand new and as such I have bought second hand re-certified Seagate Exos drives. Definitely a risk however even brand new drives fail.
Ambiant hard drive noise: For the tech heads Seagate Exos drives are not consumer drives so they are noisier to run. If you are looking for drives, just remember to check reviews for noise if you are placing your NAS in your home environment rather than say your garage.
Unraid
Unraid: I am definitely not a NAS operating system expert but my personal experience is that Unraid is super stable. It's pretty user friendly but it does require setup work as some things like copying files are surprisingly difficult.
I will say that an initial starting point shoud be watching some videos by: SpaceinvaderOne. The guy is a real expert on Unraid even if some older videos do need some updating.
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