Suggest Me a Product for a 4 Bay NAS

akay0402 on 21/05/2025 - 11:55
Last edited 21/05/2025 - 16:04 by 1 other user

Hi All,

Looking to put together a build that would support a 4-BAY NAS, and taking suggestions

Main purposes - Media repository, photo backup, and maybe some other docker containers (deluge)

Is it cheaper to buy a off the shelf product. I had the AOOSTAR WTR PRO 4 Bay NAS (Ryzen 7 5825U) in mind.

Just need to find a balance between performance and power consumption

If anyone has a build they're happy with suggesting, I'll take their recommendations

Budget would be $800 or less, for the computer without the hard-drives. I'll buy the drives when there's a new ozbargain listing

I've got a proxmox running on a Dell Wyse 5070 which currently runs (pfsense, omada, pihole and homeassistant). Looking to expand that really.

Thanks

Computing NAS

Comments

  • vorsprung on 21/05/2025 - 12:29

    Not what you're asking… but I find NAS prices to be crazy, since they're just a (typically low spec) computer with drive bays.

    When it came time to upgrade my 2 Bay Asustor NAS, I instead built a new Unraid server and got a case with 8 drive bays (replacing my old Optiplex micro PC in the process).

    • geekcohen on 21/05/2025 - 12:30
      +1

      I instead built a new Unraid server and got a case with 8 drive bays (replacing my old Optiplex micro PC in the process).

      What OS did you setup/run for this?

      • vorsprung on 21/05/2025 - 12:32
        +4

        Unraid (Linux) is the OS. I didn't downvote you.

        • geekcohen on 21/05/2025 - 13:14

          Thank you.

          I didn't know the software was called Unraid. So thank you for that, I will look into it further. I would love a NAS, but its costly and I have heaps of spare machines around that I could add some HDDs to.

        • akay0402 on 21/05/2025 - 14:55
          +1

          Is unraid free? Does it have any advantages over proxmox or TrueNAS

          • trankillity on 22/05/2025 - 08:37
            +1

            @akay0402: Not free. $250US for a lifetime license. More approachable than Proxmox and supports variable redundancy across different sized disks allowing you to grow over time. Arguably has better inbuilt container/VM management than Proxmox.

            Haven't used TrueNAS so can't comment.

            • ASA on 22/05/2025 - 09:30
              +1

              @trankillity: Truenas is very good but more complex to configure. It also uses ZFS.
              I was going to go TrueNAS on my recent NAS but played with Unraid (there is a free one month trial which you can actually extend a few times to have a good play) and I really liked it. I ended up going with it primarily for the reason above - it uses a parity drive for the main array (zfs is also available for the pools - maybe even the array now) but it is so easy to just add drives as you go. This is much more difficult with zfs. I just got a years license (for updates - the use is in perpetuity) but I might actually upgrade it to the lifetime license (which is an option).

              Yeah, TL;DR Unraid is awesome!

      • nuker on 21/05/2025 - 19:16

        Windows Server 2022 and configure Storage Spaces

    • akay0402 on 21/05/2025 - 12:46

      I have a HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC with a i5 that I currently have to spare. Is it just cheaper to use that or buy a 2nd hand PC to start

      • vorsprung on 21/05/2025 - 13:02
        +1

        You could use that to try out Unraid. It seems to have 2x 3.5" bays which would give you some room to play.

    • barge-in hunter on 21/05/2025 - 13:50

      +1 for unraid. I like that it runs docker and vms “ootb”. A great start with older hardware - generally at least as flexible as low power brand name s

      I built mine in a 6 bay Jonsbo Matx nas case, but anything will do

  • Sendaris on 21/05/2025 - 12:52
    +1

    IMO a Ryzen is overkill for what you need, I would just get a cheap 4-bay Intel N150 based NAS from Aliexpress, it will handle multiple docker containers and even transcoding plex/jellyfin without a hitch.

    I run https://unraid.net on an ancient HP mini server with a weak (2018 era) dual-core Pentium and it manages everything you've listed. N100,150,200 has many times more processing power at a fraction of the power use.

    • akay0402 on 21/05/2025 - 13:00

      What would recommend is a cheap N150 based nas

      • nicktork on 21/05/2025 - 13:32
        +1

        Yes, the Intel N100 or N150 chipset is a much better option if you want to use hardware transcoding in Plex etc. I have a 2-bay N100-based AOOSTAR NAS running Xpenology (emulating a Synology NAS) and it works perfectly. Not the easiest thing to set up, but fantastic once you get it done.

        • hmac on 21/05/2025 - 13:46

          What are your thoughts on Xpenology vs TrueNAS? I currently run TrueNAS but would be keen to run Xpenology as the UI looks much better

          • nicktork on 21/05/2025 - 13:58
            +1

            @hmac: I haven't used TrueNAS so can't really advise on the pros/cons, sorry. I boot from a high-endurance SSD into Proxmox, then boot ArcLoader as a Virtual Machine from a USB drive. I pass through the SSD and 2x HDDs through to the VM. I'm emulating the Synology SA6400 which has driver support for the Intel graphics chipset. I run about a dozen docker containers, plus Plex as a Synology app with hardwork encoding enabled. Coming from a physical Synology 918+ with its weak Celeron processor, this thing really flies.

            • gizmomelb on 22/05/2025 - 14:57
              +1

              @nicktork: This is the way - I'm running an intel n5095 with auxxilium and direct boot auxxilium from usb into synology DSM 7.2 (with the hardware pretending it's an SA6400 - I did have to enable some modules in the auxxxilium configuration (from my notes: acpid, amepatch, cpuinfo, storagepanel - but that was 8 or so months ago with an early version of auxxilium.. I should update, but hey it's working right? so don't mess with it), it's running half a dozen containers and has minimal CPU usage under load. I have 5x SATA HDDs in SHR1 array and also installed a 512GB SATA m2 drive which is used for read caching (which mostly caches the metadata from jellyfin, from what I can see - so that makes menu access nice and responsive).

    • Caped Baldy on 21/05/2025 - 15:48

      Intel is meant to be better than Ryzen for streaming (at least for Plex).

      • ASA on 22/05/2025 - 14:07

        This used to be the case but less so for the past couple years. I haven't tried it for Plex as I am using an old Intel HP for my plex server, but I have used a Ryzen iGPU with Jellyfin. And Ive read that lots of people have got one going in Plex too. But its probably a lot more tinkering to get it working

  • Caped Baldy on 21/05/2025 - 15:56

    I'm running a terramaster using xpenology and it runs fine. Streaming works great locally but can be slow over the internet.

    It was a lot of stuffing around so wouldn't recommend doing it.

    Consider if you can upgrade ram, streaming, and software. For photo backup, do you want it just over the local network or over the internet? I've found the synology photos app to be average and wouldn't back up remotely.

    • akay0402 on 21/05/2025 - 15:57

      Can you tell me which you bought and how much you paid for it?

      • Caped Baldy on 21/05/2025 - 16:13

        F5-221 for $432 in December 2020 from Amazon. I bought an 8gb stick for $55 too because it came with 1 or 2gb.

    • gizmomelb on 22/05/2025 - 15:03
      +1

      "Streaming works great locally but can be slow over the internet." Yeah that'll be your nbn upload bandwidth being the bottleneck (what speed connection do you have 50/10 or 100/20 nbn?), or you're possibly transcoding because the remote devices don't support the video or audio CODECs that your media is encoded with.

      I encode everything shared on my jellyfin to HEVC before it gets added, but I keep the original audio tracks from the bluray/dvds. Generally every media streamer that my remote family users have supports HEVC and usually it's only the audio being transcoded to stereo ACC because they don't have a surround sound processor like I do and cannoy play the native DTS-HD, or Dolby Atmos that the file's audio is encoded with.

      • Caped Baldy on 22/05/2025 - 15:16

        you're possibly transcoding because the remote devices don't support the video or audio CODECs that your media is encoded with

        I think it's this though my potato internet doesn't help.

        • gizmomelb on 22/05/2025 - 18:43

          if you're using a browser then I thkn I noticed that firefox doesn't support HEVC, but chrome does.

  • Groovyuvi on 21/05/2025 - 19:33

    I picked up a node 804 case of fb marketplace and built a nas. It has space for 8+ drives and is still very spacious. Installed linux mint on it and running multiple docker containers with no issues. I sourced most of my parts second hand. Just looking for deals on hdds now.

    Mobo - b360m
    Ddr4 24gb ram
    I5 8500

    Everything including the case cost around $200.

  • Nutrino on 21/05/2025 - 21:34

    Id get a syno ds925+.

    • geekcohen on 22/05/2025 - 05:42
      +2

      Just the Unit alone is $1k and then you need HDDs! Doesn't fit the OPs Budget.

  • joshash on 22/05/2025 - 07:31

    I built a 4 bay nas recently… Jonsbo n3 case…. intel i3… running trunas

    • akay0402 on 22/05/2025 - 08:50

      Would you mind sharing your build parts and how much you paid for each please?

      • joshash on 23/05/2025 - 15:55

        yeah mate here you go.
        I already had hard drives they are 4xWD Red 3tb

        Intel Core i3-12100 $159.00
        MSI MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard $723.65
        Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5200 $129.00
        Jonsbo N3 Mini ITX Desktop Case can't remember price
        Corsair SF750 (2024) 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply $240.00

        OS: Truenas scale
        Uptime: 100 days

  • trankillity on 22/05/2025 - 08:46

    I went with the Syno DS423+ because it's their last model that has the Celeron chip which allows for Intel QuickSync giving hardware accelerated video transcoding. This was important for my use case because I use Plex extensively and I also use my NAS as my NVR ingesting 5 camera feeds via Frigate (using Google Coral TPU accelerator). So QuickSync was basically a non-negotiable aspect. I had a DS418play before that for the same reasons but upgraded for the faster processor + faster memory capability + M2 application storage. They've both been rock solid for the ~8 years they've been running and Synology's DSM software is incredibly user-friendly. There's definitely a few downsides to DSM though: some of their applications are behind the times (rather old Docker), there's a decent amount of bloat, there's system functions that can't be disabled or reconfigured that may conflict with other services on your network, they try and restrict you to their hardware.

    So if I had my time again, I would likely go the self-built route with Unraid because I'm wanting to host more and more (local LLM, game servers, etc) and Unraid provides more flexibility and ease of expansion plus the ability to use any old hardware you have lying around.

  • shadyscab on 22/05/2025 - 11:31

    N100/N150 mini itx board from AliExpress - starting at $135 AUD.

    Can get a 4-8 bay case starting at $120 AUD (I’d go the JONSBO N1 at $250ish

    You’ll be able to upgrade the mono and processor as needs

    • akay0402 on 22/05/2025 - 11:33

      Can you please give me some product links of the ones you'd go for?

      Also whats mono? Do you mean the motherboard?

      • shadyscab on 22/05/2025 - 13:14

        Yeah sorry mobo.

        Just search n100 or n150 itx and see which one you like the most and has the best reviews for your use case.

        You can probably get some other processor model for cheaper but the n100/150 is a great low power cpu and has quicksync for Plex/jellyfin.

        Topton is a good brand but DYOR.

        I’ve been tempted by the Aoostar and Ugreen nas products cause great hardware but would most likely end up running unraid anyway, synology has great software but hardware is trash for $$$.

        Should be able to build a mad NAS for under 800

  • oooooooo ahhhhhhh on 22/05/2025 - 12:49
    +1

    From my experience Synology is by far the easiest and simplest to use but makes up for that in the pricing

  • gizmomelb on 22/05/2025 - 14:47
    +2

    I built my own 8 bay NAS for around $600, will support up to 12x SATA drives and I'm running the synology DSM operating system (so totally unsupported by synology and while it does work with synology's remote connection service I do not use it at all - access could be cut at any moment). I'm using docker to run Jellyfin, Jellyseer, Grafana, HDD scrutiny, Sonarr (I was running the full 'arrs suite' but I never used anything other than sonarr, so I removed the unused containers). system CPU usage barely spikes and all dockers use about 4GB of RAM (I have 16GB DDR4/2666 installed).

    Personally I encode all video media to HEVC before it goes on to the NAS, it minimises the storage space it needs but I keep the original audio and subtitle tracks (I use staxrip to encode and then mkvedit to copy the original audio and susbtitles from the original ripped h264 bluray files to the new compressed video file). Yes it's a little bit of extra work, but it doesn't take me long and in my mind it enables me to keep encoding consistent across the majority of media (and I know my settings work across all the media streamers across my family user base, settings maintain the best image to compression ratio I could find (after a month or two of trying different settings) and compression generally shrinks my original files from 30-90% smaller than the original file size).

    Some questions -
    What do you specifically want the NAS for? Remote access and storage or just local network access?
    Immich would be great for photo storage and personally I use and recommend Jellyfin for media streaming / access (I have about a dozen family members using my Jellyfin on my 250/25 NBN connection and they have a mix of google tv, fire tv sticks and a couple of other android based media streamers connected to their tvs).
    If you're wanting to do heavy virtualisation then a better CPU than an intel n100/n150 based system would be recommened, but if you're wanting to stream then the intel iGPU is much better supported than the AMD iGPU.

    If you're ok with reading some guides then setting up remote access using tailscale, caddy or similar dockers is easy enough (and you've set up proxmox with pfsense so I feel you'll do ok - I have my proxmox with pihole, opnsense and home assistant running on an intel n150 mini PC for minimal power usage).

    My NAS I built towards end of 2024 and pricing then ($640):

    n5095 mini-itx NAS motherboard from ali express (12 SATA ports) - was about $180 AUD delivered.
    16GB Corsaire Vengeance DDR4 3200 SO-DIMM - amazon - $44
    Jonsbo N3 mini itx NAS case - PLE - $229
    thermaltake toughpower SFX 550W PSU (total overkill for this build) - PLE - $159
    6 x SATA thin cable ( ADCAUDX or similar) - amazon - just makes connecting SATA backplane to motherboard so much neater - $24

    currently I have 5x 10TB drives installed and with the system at load it uses about 50W from memory.

    If you specifically only wanted a 4 bay case, then I'd change the motherboard to one with faster ethernet (2.5 and 10Gig connections, depends on what you want / need) and has 6x SATA ports.

    This is what I'd recommend as an alternative (total $670):

    N100 NAS motherboard, 4x 2.5GBe ethernet and 6x SATA ports - $186 AUD aliexpress - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006374540503.html
    1x 16GB DDR4 SODIMM for motherboard - $60-70 from amazon.au
    Josbo N2 case (has 5 bays) - supplier PLE - $199 (though to be honest, the N3 for $229 with more bays is much better value in my opinion)
    thermaltake toughpower SFX 550W PSU (total overkill for this build) - CPL - $159
    6 x SATA thin cable ( ADCAUDX or similar) - amazon - just makes connecting SATA backplane to motherboard so much neater - $26 - https://www.amazon.com.au/ADCAUDX-SATA-III-Cable-Right-Angle…

    Now you could get a motherboard with an n150 CPU on it instead, but my opinion is that it's not much of a speed bump / performance and some people have had issues with iGPU support under linux - though using the latest kernel fixes that since support for the n150 igpu was only added fairly recently.

    As for O/S? Well lots out there, I chose auxxxilium to install the synology DSM as it supported SHR and allowed me to initially move my old drives from my HP n36l microservers directly into the new case/motherboard - synology picked up the pre-installed DSM array and it just worked. After I had migrated all the data off the old drives (which had DSM 5 installed) I put in the new drives and did a fresh DSM 7.2 install. Now as I said, I don't use the synology remote connect or any other apps which 'call home' to synology and that's fine for me, it depends on what you want and how confident you feel with work arounds if there are features you need or if you prefer to go UNRAID etc.

    • shadyscab on 22/05/2025 - 17:17

      @akay0402 👆this legend has done it all for you👍

    • joshash on 23/05/2025 - 15:57
      +1

      another jonsbo n3 guy! just gave mine a gentle kick under the desk in your honour - salute!

    • gizmomelb on 24/05/2025 - 20:22

      sorry for newer motherboard should be DDR5 SODIMM, not DDR4 - also there are similarly priced N100 motherboards with 2x 2.5GBe and 1x 10GBe NICs on board.

  • dominator293 on 24/05/2025 - 16:53

    I was in the same situation. I ended up turning an old PC I had laying around into a 'TrueNAS' solution just by adding 4 x NAS hard drives to it and a spare SSD I had sitting around for a cache. It's been fantastic, way faster than my old QNAP system and hopefully more reliable. Been running for 6mths faultlessly, see how it goes :)

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