4 hours ago
(4 hours ago)ed Wrote: It sounds like you have a great mix of personal and professional needs for a NAS. Since you're already comfortable with building PCs and Hackintoshes, a DIY solution using TrueNAS or Unraid could be an affordable and flexible option. You could customize it to fit your exact requirements and scale as your storage needs grow. Plus, you’ll have more control over upgrades, and it could come in under your $1000 budget, especially if you use existing parts.
However, if you want something that's easier to set up and manage, an off-the-shelf NAS like the QNAP TS-464 or Synology DS923+ would give you powerful options with good collaboration tools, especially for your non-profit work. These models are scalable, support multiple users, and have great software for file access and backups.
Both options are solid, but if you want simplicity, go off-the-shelf. If you want customization and don't mind some DIY, a TrueNAS build could work too.
Same guy here, just with a username now:
How much maintenance/upkeep does a properly built TrueNas/Unraid DIY build require, and how stable/reliable is it? I might go DIY.