Check online for the price of the 3 big brands, Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba.
Usually the bigger capacity HDD price per TB is more higher. Lowest price per TB is around 8 or 10 or 12 TB.

But you also need to consider your NAS bays, getting higher TB with not optimum price per TB but in the longer run you would not need to change your HDD to bigger capacity.

This post has been edited by xxboxx: Mar 17 2025, 06:27 PM

New NAS from Synology will be coming. USB C and 2.5 GbE will be useful and future proof. V1500B processor slightly weaker in single core than R1600 but a lot more powerful in multicore. Overall I feel it is just slight improvement over current models.

Synology introduces eight new NAS systems

Good tips time to survey the market since last 4x4TB reaching over it's 5th years... standby for replacement when they hit

really in paradise after 2nd years sailing without warranty claim or trouble

Just replace UPS in Dec 2024 when the old one really can't holding with error every few week, will get it replace and use for my desktop

By the way my Synology unit warranty will be ended Dec 2025... are there any cautions to take into consideration beside periodical maintenance of clearing dust

never owned a synology. but i did own a qnap. im over with those prebuilt branded nas. i think truenas is better. the software is free and can use with the hardware u put together. its zfs which is the golden standard for NAS.

that said i dont think syn/qnap/asus will die anytime soon. too many newbs buy that cauz they dont know or dont want to know how to build the hardware

anyway before i migrated i got used to truenas first. once i understood how to use, setup and maintenance, then i switched over. for backup i recommend a 2nd nas to do the rsync to it with truenas. Or what people recommend is the zfs replication (i havent managed to get that to work to my satisfaction).


for qnap some model they had some defects. my 653a was affected. the mosfet up and died. cauz cant boot up the nas. its a known issue.

synology i havent heard anything bad. yeah just clean dust every now and then. set automation for scrub to monthly. long smart once a month. short smart once weekly.

backup depends on u. i do mine 1-2 times a year.

i use 4 drives in raidz1. If 1 drive dies, it goes to degraded mode. if 2 drives die, the whole raid is f***d. but as long as i have a backup its not game over. so i wouldnt worry about raidz1 its good enuff.


anyway ur situation ur warranty about expire. what about the software? at some point they cut u off from updates. with truenas u dont have this issue. eventually a new truenas will have a higher hardware requirement, but that isnt very often. also u can swap out parts as needed.

the thing is about these qnaps/syn etc. they got warranty, but if ever u need to send in repair, its expensive as hell to ship for repair or whatever. also remote support? totally useless.

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Mar 22 2025, 01:30 PM

truenas it is an OS installed on any other pc, so the performance depends on how powerful the parts you put into the pc, mine used to run on a ivy bridge cpu. though truenas is pretty safe, to use the software or additional features you have to install apps on the OS and that sometimes can stop working if you are using third-party apps

guys where do you buy your HDD?

i have 2x 12TB Ironwold (1 dead) ; can I xfer to to let say 2x6TB? Im using Synology DS423+?

create new pool on the 3rd and 4th drive?

Follow this guide

https://kb.synology.com/en-uk/DSM/tutorial/..._expand_storage

As for where to buy, usual place like lowyat or PJ digital mall

Suggest to buy retail as you never know how courier handle your parcel and HDD is prone to shock

The thing with Synology is they have decent quality assurance and security with their product and it's a big peace of mind. Maybe I am just lazy to self-build nowadays.

My last DS214 lasted almost 10 years until I switched to the DS224+ recently. The thing been running 24/7 for so long and I am more surprised that my WD Reds lasted that long as well. Was expecting the drives to fail much earlier due to earlier complains with WD Reds back then.

And, their support is awesome even after warranty ended. Had an issue when doing migration due to my own fault and Synology support remote in to sort it out for me quickly.

My colleague is samseng fan. always bought with care+...almost 2 years break it and claim brand new frame, screen and battery.

I ended up just order another 12TB Ironwolf but this time from local seller MONO DIGITAL.. I've bought stuffs from them before... they claim its original new unit..

not sure how to verify once I got it though...

Don't think there's fake HDDs out there

You can also use this to verify

https://verify.seagate.com/verify/

I mean not fake.. some are used unit.. but claim as new when they write the smart data

there is a hardware requirement/recommendation on truenas, best follow that.

u can have it as much built as u want to.

for zfs lots of ram is recommended. ECC ram ideally, but if not its ok, but u wont get the full benefit of zfs if u dont use ecc ram. some people think it doesnt really matter which u use.

the truenas software little to no bloat.

for self hosting apps, its very open. They have native docker, so u can apply docker apps with a few clicks. It even allows more advanced user docker installations with docker compose etc. Personally i install dockge via native truenas docker app install, then i use dockge to deploy the rest of my docker containers.

Then i got 20+ docker apps self hosted running.

the downside of truenas

- not everyone is keen on learning how to use truenas (it takes a bit more learning than something like synology. its not too hard, there many youtubes explaining it, but not everyone cares about doing due diligence sadly)

- not many want to know how to build their own nas hardware. im a newb it was tough for me, but i googled and youtube and asked around and still managed to do it. but it requires time and effort ( AND A good budget to allocate). Its far simpler just getting something prebuilt like a synology by comparison. But the upside u are getting more bang for ur buck doing ur own build.


personally i use a rack network, to rack most of my networking gear (switches + nas).

For nas rack recommendations, i think sliger is awesome
https://www.sliger.com/products/rackmount/storage/

Not cheap though.

The one i got is a silverstone. It was pretty expensive. I think sliger might have been the better buy but availability is an issue since its only in the US.

U can get some cheaper china nas rack cases from alibaba or shopee.

I went with a 4U for ample space, and it can fit in my rack. Installation was easy since plenty of room. Had to measure the height of the cpu cooler. If you plan to install a full blown graphic card, i recommend a sliger case which some support installing a graphic card in a horizontal position inside the case, and will fit. Personally i dont need it.

Last time i had graphic card for machine learning acceleration for my immich. but it still works fine without it. I also used it for hardware acceleration for jellyfin, but i can playback without transcoding and its fine. Only if u are trying to live transcode for lower resolutions might it be worth getting (does make a difference).


anyway blacktubi makes some good points on synology. Lots of newbies (even some pros) are content with something like synology. Its simpler and quicker to setup without much hassle.

My main criticism is the type of support. For qnap i ended up being my own support. I can imagine synology truly offering any good enuff remote support. There is always going to be some limitations with that. At the end of the day, u r ur own support (unless u have a company where is paid tech support to fix stuff). On some occasion i had to bring my nas to an actual IT shop to fix the hardware. Cauz if i had tried warranty from the brand, the shipping cost would be killer.

A lot of the accessories they try to sell u, including ram is over priced. This is what partly also made me go to self built truenas, since i dont have to put up with any brand limitations etc.

One example, i bought a fiber optic transceiver, didnt work on QNAP QTS. But when i FLASHED truenas ON THE SAME DAMN MACHINE, IT WORKED. so the QTS software was the culprit preventing the transceiver from working. There was nothing wrong with the transceiver itself

by the way for fiber i use 10gtek. Sadly they closed down their shopee store, no idea y. they sold good fiber optic and sfp pcie modules for an affordable price can still order from alibaba (which i did, for ordering more om3 fiber optic cables and sfp+ fiber transceivers 10g). Actually u dont even need to necessarily get 10gtek. Only reason i did is cause i tested it working with my equipment so im sticking with what i know knows. But ive seen other china brands with good reviews for comparable or cheaper prices.

Downside is, unlike fs.com their transceivers dont have a tool to recode the sfp+ transceivers if u plan to use them for different branded networking gear. I dont change switch brands often so wasnt a deal breaker for me.



another good alternative to truenas i would recommend is unraid. its also zfs. but the deal breaker, it cost money to buy license. whereas truenas is just as good and cost nothing. this is why i always had a hard time recommending unraid over truenas.


This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Mar 27 2025, 09:04 AM

unraid is a great solution for people who store their data across different hdd sizes and are starting to look for a nas solution. you can mix and match any hdd size in the array, as long as the parity disk(s) are the largest. when storage space runs out, just add another disk and you're good to go. there's no need to worry about adding matching disks to expand a raidz group, resilvering, and so on.

the current pricing structure is a bit off-putting, to be honest. previously, you could get a lifetime upgrade license for the price of one hdd, which was a bargain. at least they still offer a 30-day free trial with full functionality.

My preference for buying HDD for NAS would be the cheapest source that can deliver the HDD to me safely. So in order:

1. Amazon US - delivered to US address then bring home whenever I go there for business/holiday. But in current scenario, not a good time to go there, so this is out for me.
2. Retail locally - safest in terms of unlikely to have a damaged shipment
3. Online locally (Lazada, etc) - have to be careful... I once ordered 3 HDDs (Ironwolfs) that I thought was coming from a local shipper. Turns out it was from Japan. 2 of the HDDs arrived DOA. Probably damaged during shipping. Recently I tried out a new supplier, and HDD arrived safe in working order (well packaged), but it was shipped from China (from Lazada website, it looked like local shipper until i saw the shipping notification).

I have a DS407 that's been running since 2008... no issues. Just cleaning dust periodically. I did do a full swap of the HDDs at one point, to increase size.

Have a DS213+ running 2x 6TB RAID1 24/7 for my start-up - still going strong after 2 years of 24/7 operations. Also have a DS1821+ (1 year +) and a DS1618+ (3 years) and no issues with them so far. Just dust clean once in a while.

anyone want to buy Sysnology HAT5300 8T new sealed unit? i got 2, last time bought for spare hot swap. but suprisingly the HDD can last.

Synology DiskStation DS925+ review: A terrific NAS ruined by baffling limitations

The DiskStation DS925+ brings much-needed upgrades, but Synology's hard drive restrictions make it hard to recommend.


It's official, Synology dooming the new models launch and future models too. Which type of consumer that going to buy it? Light users just for storing photos and files can get by using lesser polished software from other brands but more cheaper, power users will want more storage and that will push the cost to run the NAS a lot higher.

Agreed. This is a deal breaker for me too. I was in the market for -25 gen Synology boxes but no more. I will go with previous generations for now and begin to explore DIY NAS builds. Will be building an Unraid NAS for backup using some old parts. For the future, I’ll look into DIY or other manufacturers.

Pity Synology has chosen to shoot themselves in the foot with this. live owned 7 Synology NAS boxes of which 6 are still operational.

https://github.com/gamestailer94/farm-check

i installed this on my truenas using docker to check the seagate hdd FARM stats.

i got FAILED. why? because the smart hours power on was VERY different than the farm power on. BY A LOT.

for a legit drive, those values would be the same or VERY close to each other. in my case it wasnt even a question if it was a scam or not

Hence that is second hand. So the most they did was reset smart, but FORGOT OR dont know how to reset farm (seagate knows).

I think re-certified seagate (official) DO reset farm. Its fine if u know its recertified. different story if u say brand new.

the past 2 sellers ive tried is scam. (all refunded, so no worries. just annoying and troublesome )

now is my third try hopefully is legit.

its a (OEM) seagate exos 12tb X18 with a 4 year warranty up to 2028. The 4 year is from store warranty. for rm 1200 They do have newer X20+ but those cost like Rm2k. i think X18 is fine and has the same capacity and cost less. It doesnt have the bad reputation the X12 series for the seagate exos had for failure rate.




explanation what is OEM drive
https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/warranty...ducts-169851en/


people who tried said the serial works on the seagate site for legit warranty. but they did say its store warranty because its an OEM drive, they were very clear on that.


For pricing comparison, a 12tb seagate ironwolf non pro is about the same price but only 3 year warranty. thats from official seagate on amazon.


so how much r those SCAM second hand 12tb exos X12? about rm 400-700. One scammer was so arrogant, he attempted to swap out a EXOS X14 for a X12 and expect the buyer not to notice. cost rm 1k Claimed refund, then they incur a restocking fee lel...



seems scammers have found a method to ALSO reset farm
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/...ability-metrics


so not sure how long we can rely on farm vs smart power on hours to detect if its truly brand new or not. older scams still detectable cause they did not realize there is this method.


If you dont want to be spending rm1200 for a 12tb drive, then ur only option is the recertified drives with probably a 2 year warranty (im just guessing here because thats what serverparts offers in the US for recertified or second hand hard drives). Where can u get a similar reliable recertified hard drive seller around here? no idea for a backup i think recertified is good enuff assuming its a legit source.

OR, you can stick to lower capacity. Maybe 4tb? so if u want a 4 hdd in raid5 or raid z1. also u will need storage for ur backup as well. i never recommend a nas without backup.


*update

i notice the seller i am buying from their iron wolf pro is same price as the exo X18 12tb, but only has 3 year warranty. For NAS either is fine, i rather take the one with 4 year warranty vs 3.

i also recommend this. either truenas or unraid. either is good but unraid requires a license purchase that needs to renew yearly? or the permanent license that cost more. truenas is totally free. For hardware, hard to say. Some people have different requirement. Mine is a more of a midrange build. Some people prefer lower end build thats just enuff for a nas without going overboard.






https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/commen...g_almost_100_7/

then again $100 usd is not worth the same as it was many years ago. the silent theft keeps on taking


This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: May 9 2025, 07:40 AM