I know this topic has been done ad nauseam but I’m stuck in a decision loop that looks something like this…
“…OK screw it, I’m going to stop talking about it just get a [non-enterprise/non-rack] Synology/QNAP NAS. I rent an apartment and they have a much smaller footprint and low power draw out of the box. Damn, it really costs that much for 4 bays with entry level hardware? NIC and RAM upgrade costs how much??? What if Synology abandons that model? Where’s the fun in this solution anyway…”
“…OK I’m going to look at going DIY instead. It’s more interesting, more customisable, virtually unlimited support, can be cheaper. Man that case is big and ugly… hey that ITX case looks alright. Wow consumer ITX boards are expensive, rather limited, and look like they will suck power too. Woah OK enterprise ITX mainboards are not in my budget. Hmm that aliexpress NAS board looks alright, but could be a dice roll. Do I really have time for this anyway? OK screw it I’m getting a Synology…”
And so on… I get all the pro’s and con’s of each, and that’s part of the issue!
Ultimately homelabbing is a hobby, and if I wasn’t such a nerd I would have bought a turnkey solution already or just paid Big Tech for the solutions I require.
On the other hand, the storage is a critical part of the infrastructure and could suck the fun out of the hobby. Maybe it’s best to pay for a solution created by people smarter than me (and paid for their time), so I can spend time on fun things that aren’t mission critical.
So I want to hear from fellow nerds, which path did you chose and do you regret it?
DIY - No regrests is what I voted.
I started out with a Synology DS918+. Used that for a few years before getting a free Synology DS412+ from work. Used them both.
Eventually built a TrueNAS build using some used and mostly new parts. Allowed me to get a case that would hold more drives and a motherboard that wasn’t picky on the parts that went in it. I have two RAID 5 arrays in there. 4x 12TB HDDs, 4x 256GB SSDs, and 1 1TB NVME. The HDDs are used for storage that aren’t read from or written to often, the SSD array is for stuff that is read and written a lot, and I don’t really use the NVME for anything at this time. Its just there. The reason I use the 256GB SSDs is because I get a stack of them for free from replaced computers at work. So when they die, and they have in my NAS, I just pop in a new one and rebuild the RAID.
I use the Synologys as “offline” storage and only turn them on when needed to save power.
My only regret in this setup is the case I built my TrueNAS build in isn’t “easy” to do maintenance in. I need to pull the whole thing out of the rack and then do whatever I went in for. But that is something I can change by just buying a new case and not a whole new NAS. The Synology boxes are just dead simple and accessible. But, offers little upgradeability.
End note, I use my NASs as NASs, nothing else running on them. I even have the internet blocked on those devices. Want to keep the NASs setup as simple as possible so there will be less risk of me messing up and losing data.