Still not sure which drive to buy for your NAS? This drive comparison list grew a lot: SSDs, price history, and more...

A month ago I shared a little NAS drive comparison I had built for myself, and the feedback here sent me straight back to work. It's a good bit bigger now. Here's what's new based on your suggestions:

• SSDs added - now not just HDDs. NAS and enterprise SSDs are in, with the specs that actually decide whether one survives as a cache or boot disk: endurance (TBW/DWPD), DRAM cache, power-loss protection, NAND type. No more guessing whether that cheap SSD wears out in a year.
• Price history per drive, from today back to around mid-2024. The one I use most: you can see whether today's price is a real low or just back to its normal spot, instead of trusting a "sale" tag. Handy for timing a buy while drive prices are this insane.
• Drive noise (idle and seek, in dB) and helium fill, both sortable - straight from requests in the last thread.

The original stuff is all still there and sharper: CMR vs SMR verified per model (SMR still sneaks into NAS lines), real Backblaze failure rates now refreshed with the Q1 2026 Drive Stats (so more models have real numbers), live price per TB across 7 regions, plus tools for RAID usable-capacity, array failure-risk, storage planning, and power cost. It's up to 208 drives now (all current drives that you can buy), and the whole dataset is open (CC BY) with a public API if you want to build on it.

One honest thing the data keeps showing: once you put error bars on the Backblaze numbers, most drives fail at about the same rate. So buy on price, CMR/SMR, and endurance - not on "most reliable drive" lists.

Free, no login: https://www.nasdisks.com

Still building - what would you actually want added next?

Anyone else seeing this on a MetaHome Pro / CS200-Pro (CyberData OS)?

After a few hours, the NAS stops answering on the LAN. Power LEDs stay on. On my Netgear switch, the port is still green and flickering, so the cable/link looks fine. Ping fails, ARP never completes, and the CyberData app just times out talking to the local IP (port 40443). "Reconnect" button does nothing.

Force power-off/power-on brings it back. Auto-sleep is already disabled.

Feels like the network stack dies while the box is still powered. Looking for confirmation or a real fix beyond hard-rebooting.

Hey, looking for input from anyone who's built a home server/NAS. I want one box that can do all of this:

1. Plex or Jellyfin media server
   
2. Home Assistant (tried it on an old Pi 4, kept freezing — ran out of RAM compiling ESPHome, so I want real hardware this time)
   
3. Local photo backup to get my stuff out of the cloud (thinking Immich)
   
4. Hosting game servers for me and my wife (Minecraft, Valheim, etc.) so my gaming PC doesn't have to stay on

From what I've researched, one machine handles all of it with Docker containers. The options I'm weighing:

• TerraMaster F4-425 Plus (~$500) — Intel N150, 16GB DDR5, dual 5GbE, 4 bays + 3 M.2 slots. Great value, but might strain on heavier game servers.
• UGREEN DXP4800 Pro (~$719) — Core i3, 10GbE. More CPU headroom for game servers + VMs.
• DIY — used mini PC or SFF desktop (Ryzen 5/i5) running Unraid or TrueNAS Scale. Best performance per dollar, more tinkering.

Also heard Synology annoyed everyone with their drive-lock policy, so I've mostly ruled them out.

I’m potentially interested in going up in price if needed and worth it.
Anyone running a similar setup? Which way would you go, and any gotchas I should know about — especially for the game server side? Also curious what drives people are using?

Budget: as cheap as possible

Purpose: storing/backing up small files (in the 1-15mb range, but mostly smaller stuff. Nothing more than docs, markdown, and the occasional larger PDF)

Speed: I couldn’t care less, as long as it’s not “horrendous” (averaging 550kb/s while writing Wikipedia to an old flash drive got ridiculous after a few days, so maybe something a BIT faster lol. 10mb/s would be just fine)

Storage: it would be great to have a solid amount of storage to host Wikipedia and other books, but I can live without that. 64-128 gigs sounds like a good ideal ballpark, but less is perfectly fine. I have no interest in hosting movies or anything, so no need for excess

Reliability: reliable enough that I wouldn’t lose papers in the middle of finals week, but by no means does it need to be amazing. I mostly want to safeguard against if my laptop dies (e.g., i spill a drink on it).

Security: I really don’t care if my neighbors want to poke around my notes, but I want to avoid data harvesting from google/apple/whoever else wants to sell me advertisements or train AI (hence not simply using google drive or something).

Ideally, i want to source parts from thrift stores, Facebook marketplace, local businesses/offices upgrading their systems, or even a dumpster. I would rather avoid buying any parts new unless it’s the most reasonable option

Hey everyone,
This is my first NAS/homelab build, so I’m looking for some experienced people to poke holes in my plan before I get too far. I’ve spent a lot of time researching, but I know there are people here with years of experience that might catch something I’ve overlooked.
Goals
I don’t want this to just be a NAS. I want it to become the heart of my home lab over the next several years.
I want it to run:
Proxmox
Home Assistant
TrueNAS SCALE (VM)
Docker/LXC containers
Jellyfin
Immich
Frigate
Paperless-ngx
Tailscale
Ollama + Open WebUI for local AI
A Windows VM for gaming
A few Linux VMs for testing
General file storage
Automated backups
Eventually maybe some game servers
I’m trying to build something that I can continue upgrading over the next 5-10 years instead of replacing.

Hardware
CPU
Ryzen 9 9900X
Motherboard
ASUS TUF X870E-PLUS WiFi 7
Cooler
Cooler Master Elite Liquid 240 (free with CPU bundle)
RAM
16GB DDR5-6000 (came with the bundle)
I know this isn’t enough long term. I’ll be upgrading to 64GB (2x32GB) once I actually need it.
GPU
GTX 2070 (already own)
Planning on using this later for Frigate and local AI.
PSU
Corsair CX750M (already own)
Case
NZXT S340 Elite (already own)
Existing NVMe Drives
WD Black 1TB
Crucial 1TB
Generic 500GB NVMe
Existing HDDs
1×14TB
3×10TB
1×8TB

Current Plan
WD Black:
Proxmox
Primary VMs
Crucial:
Containers
AI models
Fast storage
500GB:
ISOs
Downloads
Scratch space
Large HDDs:
Media
Backups
NAS storage

Future Upgrades
64GB DDR5
UPS
Larger NVIDIA GPU
More HDDs as needed
Possibly 10Gb networking in the future

Questions
Would you build this differently?
Is running TrueNAS as a VM under Proxmox still the route you’d recommend, or would you run bare-metal TrueNAS instead?
Are there any obvious bottlenecks or compatibility issues I’m overlooking?
Should I reuse my existing NVMe drives, or would you buy a new Samsung 990 Pro (or similar) and start fresh?
Is the NZXT S340 Elite still a reasonable case for this build, or should I move into something with more drive capacity now instead of later?
Is there anything you’d change before I start installing everything?
I’m not trying to build the cheapest possible server. I’d rather spend money where it actually improves reliability or long-term expandability, but I also don’t want to waste money on upgrades that won’t make a meaningful difference.
Thanks in advance! I’m sure I’m missing something, and I’d rather find out now than after I’ve migrated everything.

I'm upgrading a few parts from my PC and I want to use the old parts to build a NAS. I really don't want to spend much, cheaper the better unless absolutely necessary (don't care about form factor or aesthetics). I intend to have the PC on 24/7 for Jellyfin.

Also, is it still recommended to have a m.2 SSD for the OS?

Parts I have:

CPU - 3700X

GPU - 5700XT Red Devil

RAM - 8x2 (16GB Vengeance Pro)

Hi all,

I'm a total beginner looking to get a media server for streaming movies and tv shows at home to my smart tv. I want to buy a NAS to store all of my media files.

I have a Windows 11 PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and 64 GB Ram.

I'm on a budget, and was looking into the Terramaster f2-212 because of the price, but I'm open to other suggestions. I'm hoping for a 2 bay device or 4 bay if the price is right. I also want around 10-20TB of storage.

I'm hoping to spend no more than $250 CAD on the NAS itself, because then I'll have to buy a HDD as well. But I can push my budget a bit if it's really worth it.

I'm hoping to stream 1080P movies onto my smart TV, probably using Plex or Jellyfin.

Totally new to this so I really don't know too much.

Let me know if there's any more information you need. Thanks for the help.

Hello, i work low voltage and got a free NAS (LaCie Big5 Network Access Storage) its so old and supports SMB1 or something only, basically I understand the risks with this earlier protocol but im just trying to get it up and running on my home network, I cant seem to find any flashes of the CD Rom or anything I tried hard resetting it to DHCP but still cant find and access the IP of the darn thing. Please refrain from recommending me other NAS and or enclosure solutions, for I am aware their are better options but I am just trying to figure this out since it was free. Any thing helps thank you! also tried to download legacy LaCie Network Assistant but the link was broken and cant find a DD anywhere thank you! victor

A few weeks ago I posted v1 of Discoverr here and got a lot of feedback. Some of it was really useful.

The biggest criticisms were that it was written in JavaScript, the codebase wasn't great to work with, and that because AI was involved nobody would want to contribute.

Rather than argue, I spent the last couple of weeks rebuilding it.

Discoverr v2 is now:

• Fully rewritten in TypeScript
• Better discovery logic with more varied recommendations
• Customisable daily post times and timezones (requested in the last thread)
• Lots of cleanup, bug fixes and general improvements

For anyone who missed the first post, Discoverr is a lightweight Discord bot for Jellyfin + Seerr that automatically posts daily recommendations and lets users request them directly from Discord.

It currently supports:

• 🎬 Movie of the Day
• 📺 TV Show of the Day
• 🔥 Trending
• 🆕 New Releases
• 🍿 New on Streaming
• 💎 Hidden Gems

The discovery logic is designed to avoid recommending the same handful of blockbuster titles over and over by rotating genres, sampling across multiple TMDb pages and keeping a history of previous suggestions.

The bot itself is intentionally pretty simple. It pulls recommendations from TMDb, checks Seerr to make sure a title isn't already available or pending, then posts it to Discord with a request button. You create the Discord bot yourself, invite it to your own server, and use a dedicated Seerr account with whatever permissions you choose to give it. It doesn't need admin access to your media stack.

AI disclaimer: Around 80% of this project was built with AI assistance, and I know that's a dealbreaker for some people. That's completely fair. I built this as a personal project for my own Jellyfin server, then decided to open source it because I thought other people might find it useful. AI is just another tool I use while developing. I still review, test, debug and maintain the project myself, and I'm happy to explain how anything works if people are curious.

The feedback on the first post genuinely made this project better, and a few of the requested features have already made it into v2. If you've got more ideas, I'd love to hear them.

GitHub: https://github.com/loafdaddy/discoverr-bot

I used the allmighty, always high Google search AI to discuss a N100 based NAS setup.

I came up with the following shopping list (ignore the AI slop):

By splitting the 6 SSDs into two groups of 3, you completely bypass the single-slot bandwidth bottleneck of the Intel N100 chipset.

Here is the technical verification of your proposed layout:

1. The Math Check (Bandwidth)

The Bottleneck: A single PCIe 3.0 x2 slot is capped at ~1,700 MB/s.

Old Plan (All 6 on one card): 6 SSDs × 550 MB/s = 3,300 MB/s load. The slot chokes them at 1,700 MB/s (50% speed loss during rebuilds).

New "Funky" Plan (3+3 Split):

PCIe Slot: 3 SSDs × 550 MB/s = 1,650 MB/s. (Fits perfectly inside the 1,700 MB/s pipe).

M.2 Slot: 3 SSDs × 550 MB/s = 1,650 MB/s. (Fits perfectly inside the 1,700 MB/s pipe).

Result: You get double the aggregate throughput (~3,400 MB/s total) compared to putting them all on one card. Your rebuilds (resilvering) will be lightning fast.

1. The Lane Check (Motherboard Conflicts)

ASRock N100M Architecture: The Intel N100 chip has 9 lanes total.

PCIe x16 Slot (x2 Mode) = 2 Lanes.

M.2 NVMe Slot (x2 Mode) = 2 Lanes.

M.2 Key E (Wi-Fi) = 1 Lane.

PCIe x1 Slot = 1 Lane.

Internal LAN / SATA = Uses remaining lanes.

Verdict: No Conflict. You can populate the PCIe x16 slot, M.2 NVMe slot, and M.2 Key E slot simultaneously. The board is designed to run them all at once.

1. The Risk Assessment (The "Split Brain" Factor)

There is one specific operational quirk you must know with a split layout:

Controller Failure: If one of your adapter cards dies (e.g., the M.2 adapter fails), ZFS will suddenly lose contact with 3 drives.

The Consequence: Since RAID-Z2 only survives 2 drive failures, losing 3 drives simultaneously will cause the pool to go UNAVAIL (Offline).

The Fix: Data is NOT lost. You simply replace the broken $20 adapter, reboot, and ZFS will see the drives again and bring the pool back online. It is a terrifying 15 minutes, but safe.

🛒 The "Funky" Performance Shopping List

Here is the adjusted list to execute this split-controller SSD build.

1. Boot Drive: 120GB - 250GB SATA SSD

Note on "80GB": 80GB drives are mostly obsolete or used server pulls. I highly recommend buying a new 120GB or 128GB SATA SSD (like an Intenso, Patriot Burst, or Kingston A400) for ~€15. It connects to the motherboard's native SATA Port 1.

1. Controller A (PCIe Slot): 4-Port or 6-Port SATA Card

Product: PCIe x4 to 6x SATA Controller (ASM1166 Chipset).

Usage: You will plug SSDs #1, #2, and #3 into this card.

Why: Even though you only need 3 ports, the 6-port cards (ASM1166) are more stable and faster than the cheaper 4-port cards (ASM1064).

1. Controller B (M.2 NVMe Slot): M.2 to 5-Port SATA Adapter

Product: M.2 Key M to 5x SATA Adapter (JMB585 or ASM1166 Chipset).

Usage: You will plug SSDs #4, #5, and #6 into this card.

Tip: These adapters are small and float in the air. Use a small piece of electrical tape or a zip tie to secure the SATA cables so they don't drag the card out of the slot.

1. Networking: M.2 Key E to 2.5G Ethernet

Product: M.2 Key E (A+E) to 2.5GbE LAN Card (Intel i225/i226 or Realtek RTL8125B).

Installation: This goes into the tiny Wi-Fi slot. You mount the RJ45 port to the back of your case.

Hey folks, I am looking to buy a Home NAS in India. My needs are pretty simple

1. Backup mobiles and laptop data to free up space on the devices.

2. Have redundancy in the backup as I don't plan to have any backup outside of NAS.

3. Should be easy to set up and maintain but it should not be at the cost of security and privacy (both of these are my drivers to buy and maintain a Home NAS)

4. Optionally, I would like to run docker but no heavy usage these are going to be some personal projects.

Could I get guidance on good brands and models that I should consider. Also, please also let me know the setup experience and the OS/software packages that come with these brands.

Hi everyone! I am looking to buy my first NAS and set up a Plex server on it but the amount of information out there (which is great) is also overwhelming so I thought I'd come to trusty ol Reddit for some opinions. See below for how I intend to use it plus some information that might be required for me to help choose.

I will almost exclusively be using the NAS for a Plex (or Jellyfin) server. My budget for the NAS alone is $1,000 AUD or less. The NAS will be plugged directly into my network switch via Ethernet with an average download speed of 980mbps. The media server will only be used by myself and my wife on one TV in the house. The movies I download will mostly be 1080 bluray or 2160 webs. Will not be downloading anything in true 4K at like 60gb a movie or anything like that so I feel like I don't need a crazy amount of space. I have looked into RAID, I would not really care TOO much if one drive failed and I lost some movies or TV shows. Can always get another drive and download again. So I would say that both 2 bay and 4 bay NAS devices would be okay.

Things I've read but am not sure if true or would matter in my use case;

Will I NEED to get M.2 storage for cache? Would I notice the difference if I did or didn't? If I get a Synology NAS do I HAVE to use Synology M.2 storage? If was using Radarr and Sonarr, is 2GB ram on my NAS not enough and would I be better getting one with 4GB ram? I read that for a Plex server, Intel CPU is a must? And finally, that Synology is kinda outdated these days and going with YouGreen or Terramaster might be better?

NAS's I have been looking at the most.

YouGreen NASync DH4300 plus 4 Bay / 8gb DDR4 ram / $629 AUD

Synology DiskStation DS425+ / 2gb DDR4 ram / $869 AUD

Terramaster F2-425 Plus / 8gb DDR5 ram / $649 AUD

Please help a noob out and give me your thoughts and opinions!

EDIT: My post got filtered for using a certain brand name due to some astroturfing campaign (I have no idea what this is) so I have edited the name above to YouGreen.

I was looking around the internet and everyone points me to the UGREEN DXP2800. I am about to buy it but I thought it would be helpful to know if there are any better alternatives to it?

I will be streaming 4k movies using VLC off the NAS, that will be my use-case. At most, I expect 2 people total to be concurrently using the NAS.

Is there anything that offers more than this? The price is £280/$375.

Thank you.

I have a local NAS with RAID1. I want to sync some confidential stuff like copies of my passport and drivers license to an offsite backup. I’m wondering what everyone is using. I’m thinking about using SyncThing but I want to add another layer encryption to make sure my important files don’t get compromised. I’ll be using Tailscale to connect the two devices together that are not in network.
What are others using or how can I make my things more secure

Backblaze just released their Q1 2026 Drive Stats few days ago, so I refreshed the failure-rate data on the NAS drive comparison list I run. It was full-year 2025 before, now it includes the new Q1 2026 quarter, too:
www.nasdisks.com

Quick version of what the new numbers say: failure rate is around 1.3%, and honestly, for the drives most of us actually buy, they all fail at about the same low rate, so there's no single "most reliable" one to chase. A few old enterprise drives are worse (a 14TB Exos around 4.9%). So skip the reliability hunt, just avoid SMR and buy on price per TB.

The website has all that in one place: every current NAS drive with its CMR/SMR status, its freshest Backblaze failure rate where real data exists, and live price per TB, in one sortable table.

Backblaze only tracks enterprise/datacenter drives, so a lot of consumer NAS models have no failure data. If a drive you run is missing or something looks wrong, tell me the model and I'll fix it asap.

As the title says im completelynew to NAS. Ive been using USB external harddrives for while now but im get sick of the the clutter and im looking to switch OS soon so a comprehensive storage solution would be ideal.

Thing is, im not really sure what i should get or what i need. I would appreciate any guidance.

Primary use would be to store my personal files, gaming files and saves, and RAW photos and edited photos.

I appreciate any and all advice!

Hope all of you are doing well.

new to the world of NAS and HomeLab but im looking to start one soon. I currently have a 16tb external HDD from seagate. DriveDx tells me that it's a 7200 rpm Barracuda in it.

I was wondering if shucking them was a good way to get hard drives for cheap rather than buying Ironwolf pros for a premium. Can't say much but I work somewhere that allows me to get these external expansions for less than listed price so financially it makes more sense.

any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated!

I have a home NAS with 64 GB RAM, 2×16 TB HDDs and 2×4 TB SSDs. It runs a bunch of services, including Immich.

I told my girlfriend I'd like to add another 4 TB SSD so I can move our photo library onto SSDs for a snappier experience.

She said no.

Then I suggested getting an AI Max 395 mini PC to offload Immich's ML so I can use better models and faster search.

She said no again.

Any ideas on how to convince her? Has anyone actually managed to justify homelab upgrades to their partner?

I'm still pretty new when it comes to NAS but I'm not a complete newbie, though I do need help on deciding how much TB of storage I really need because I don't want to buy 16TB of HDD/SSD for nothing, it's way too much for what I need at least a few things to keep in mind: - I'm an artist and an author, so naturally I write and draw a lot. my programs are Obsidian (for writing) and Krita (for drawing) and I would usually save my files as ".kra". I would like to note that I'm also learning blender/3d modeling so keep that in mind - I read books but I'm not self hosting it, I just want to keep it save and backed up— most of them are comics, mangas and novels though some of them are ".cbr" files which are pretty big (I'm used to megabyte files, anything that's gigabyte is considered big to me), aside from that, for novels (or anything that's just a wall of text) I prefer to use PDF and EPUB - I listen to songs and similarly to e-books, I am not hosting it. I usually like to download everything in mp3 but lately I had to download everything into ".m4a" so the album covers would show up on my Walkman - I'm not really the type to download a bunch of series/shows and I usually watch anime on hianime but sometimes the website had to move or renamed when it got taken down— i watch everything in 720p btw and that's mostly it— I would've included pictures in this list but I'm not really a photo hoarder, I save all my reference on my Pinterest board, if it got taken down well.. too bad then. and I don't go outside and take a lot of pictures. videos can go in the same category as anime/shows, though it's usually my screen recordings or my drawing time lapse which I like to save because I want to see how far I've come in my art journey in the future anyways, if anyone can provide me any tips, that'll be great, thank you very much

three to four 2-slots NAS

or

two 4-slots NAS

or

one 6-slot NAS?

I've had several nas boxes in my life, starting with a wd mycloud 4 bay with 44tb and eventually and up to my current asustor nimbustor 4 bay with 46tb drives and upgraded ram.

Thing is I don't have a backup, I've always ( stupidly ) just gone for a max space and no safety net of a raid setup.

I know this will eventually get me. The asustor I use is wonderful and the ironwolf drives are some of the best I've ever used.

But as time goes on, I keep thinking "yanno I should just build a new box, with tons of ram and some bigger drives, maybe a couple of nvme drives as well" and just mirror my current nas but also create not only a successor but a physical and separate backup.

So lately ive been looking and I keep landing on a ugreen nas, maybe with a different OS, but with 16 or more ram, a couple of nvme drives, and maybe 4 x 12 drives. That's more than I'll ever need

What I want is ease of use too, and an intel CPU since ive read the transcoding is better than amd chips (which I love but I want performance and brands I have no loyalty to).

So for a new nas what can someone help me build and recommend? I want at least 4 bays, no more than 6, 16+ ram, 2-4 nvme slots, and a setup that lets me have somewhat of an "app store" like the asustor has so I can easily install plex, docker, other apps like ironwolf health monitor, etc.

I'd like at least 2.5gh lan speed, but 5 or 10 is desired for future use.

And I want to be able to hook it all up, not spend weeks on some hard to understand and use OS (I'm older and just don't have the time to fiddle with it as much.. I mean I will if the juice is worth the squeeze, but still).

And the end result is I want to copy my entire current nas to my new one, and then have it like weekly backup from this new one to my old one (don't know if I can automate that) and also flesh out docker with some apps that can auto scrape for the file I seek (which is a totally different topic at all).

I just want a badass new nas, I can copy my current to and then run as a mirror l(old mirroring the new) as well as an easy app store type deal so installing and updating (important) apps isn't a huge deal, more of a click update and it's done.

I know I can wish in one hand and popp in the other, but I'm just asking for advice here. Budget isn't an issue, but I also don't want to spend like 10k. I figure $500 each for drives, the cost of the nas, market price for 16-32gb of ram, and of course a couple nvme drives (I'll get the pcie drives that are cheap right now even tho the nas won't use them to.full capability -theyre cheap because no one's buying them and someday I can yank them out for a new laptop that does support them and replace with some older pcie4 drives).

I keep circling back to ugreen. I want the best nas, with an intel chip (because the main function is for plex use and I've read Intel and transcoding and general serving video is what to need over amd for performance).

I'd love to future proof this as much as possible so buying something that exceeds what I need is fine. Again price isn't an issue, and I don't want to "build$ a has like a pc. I just want to pop in some drives, ram, ssds,.I'll do most of the labor on the OS either with the one that comes with it or move to.truenas, and then I want a sort of "app store" so installing stuff and updating (important) is easy.

Also I don't care about serving to anyone outside my home or any sort of internet etc. it's solely for home lan and home wifi and all the external stuff will be disabled because I seen the wreck that happens if someone hacks into your box and etc.

Ugreen? What model? Ironwolf drives are the best or no? What OS? Does maker of ram matter or just get whatever..ecc or no? And finally does brand of nvme matter or just get some Samsung pros and call it a day?

Thanks for everything ive lurked here forever and used this sub as a resource for years.

Now I come to you all for help on the next nas for me and hope you will guide me to the best solutions, maybe some I'm not even considering

I am planning to get Ugreen.
I have a very basic question;
I turn on the auto backup on my iphone, gallery is all uploaded to my NAS. if I delete the photos on my iphone to clear up my phone storage, does it also get deleted from my NAS? is it a two way sync?

I am looking for a turn-key NAS with 9 or more drive bays which I then can run under Unraid.

I looked at Terramaster, but their most affordable 9 bay NAS (https://www.terra-master.com/products/t9-450 - US$1200) seem to be sold out in most online places. Also it doesn't have a HDMI port for easy Unraid install.

Any idea who offers home-user priced NAS with 9 or more bays good for Unraid?

Hi I’ve never had a NAS before but as a videographer and photographer for a few years I’m starting to gather a lot of 1 & 2TB hdds. I need to backup at home large amounts of video and photo data (usually 20-50gb at a time, at least twice a week). I’d also like to have my family be able to backup phone galleries and important home documents too.

I’ve looked at a few enclosures and the ugreen looks pretty good for a beginner, was considering a 4u enclosure. I’d be tempted by the ironwolf 18tb drives (even though current drive prices are astronomical!).

Are they easy to set up and keep data safe? I’m aware I should have an offsite backup too so would be tempted by backblaze as I’m familiar with its setup.

Can anyone suggest a good solution for a novice?
TIA.

Currently have a single 8TB hdd at the moment, looking to have some kind of redundancy for my setup. My initial thought was RAID 5 with three identical drives, or RAID 1 with just one additional drive. After looking into it, adding one or two 8TB drives adds up quite a bit in pricing, looking like \~$120 USD per drive. After doing some digging, would a RAID 1E or RAID 10 setup be worth it, adding two 4TB drives to be used in RAID 0 and the 8TB drive as a mirror? Prices for used 4TB drives are less than half that of a used 8TB, and I would also benefit from RAID 0 on read/write speeds as far as I can tell?