2 Bay NAS Recomendation

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#3446113 20-Dec-2025 23:02

Tinkerisk:

The discussion gave me an idea, and I ordered a 2-bay DXP2800 tonight, replacing the standard 8GB RAM with a 16GB module. That's significantly better than those cheap ARM chip NAS devices, and I'm going to add two 4TB WD red drives that are lying around here unused as spare parts. The manufacturer's firmware will not be used. I will make the device available to reliable, advanced commercial customers as part of our services for exactly 6 months free of charge, and we will administer it remotely. After that, the device will be returned to us in any case (we do not sell hardware), and the customer is free to decide what he would like to purchase next (no NAS, 2-bay, 4-bay, etc.) and what should happen to their data accumulated up to that point.

Thanks! 🙂

Just be aware that older 4 and 6 Tbyte WD Red drives do not seem to last very well. All of mine that I bought when those sizes first came out have died. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I gave up on WD Red drives and have been buying enterprise class Seagate and WD drives, which do seem to last a long time.

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#3446115 20-Dec-2025 23:54

fe31nz:

Just be aware that older 4 and 6 Tbyte WD Red drives do not seem to last very well. All of mine that I bought when those sizes first came out have died. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I gave up on WD Red drives and have been buying enterprise class Seagate and WD drives, which do seem to last a long time.

I have 4 of them and they are at 60K hours and no bad sectors.

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#3446117 21-Dec-2025 04:27

networkn:

fe31nz:

Just be aware that older 4 and 6 Tbyte WD Red drives do not seem to last very well. All of mine that I bought when those sizes first came out have died. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I gave up on WD Red drives and have been buying enterprise class Seagate and WD drives, which do seem to last a long time.

I have 4 of them and they are at 60K hours and no bad sectors.

I had problems with WD Red drives as well. I stopped using them a couple of years ago. They have used SMR drives, which really are not good for NAS use, in the 2TB - 6TB range.

If you use drives 10TB or bigger you won't get SMR.

Tinkerisk

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#3446123 21-Dec-2025 08:04

fe31nz:

Tinkerisk:

The discussion gave me an idea, and I ordered a 2-bay DXP2800 tonight, replacing the standard 8GB RAM with a 16GB module. That's significantly better than those cheap ARM chip NAS devices, and I'm going to add two 4TB WD red drives that are lying around here unused as spare parts. The manufacturer's firmware will not be used. I will make the device available to reliable, advanced commercial customers as part of our services for exactly 6 months free of charge, and we will administer it remotely. After that, the device will be returned to us in any case (we do not sell hardware), and the customer is free to decide what he would like to purchase next (no NAS, 2-bay, 4-bay, etc.) and what should happen to their data accumulated up to that point.

Thanks! 🙂

Just be aware that older 4 and 6 Tbyte WD Red drives do not seem to last very well. All of mine that I bought when those sizes first came out have died. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I gave up on WD Red drives and have been buying enterprise class Seagate and WD drives, which do seem to last a long time.

They are indeed WD red plus drives and no shingle dingles. 😉

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#3446152 21-Dec-2025 08:42

networkn:

fe31nz:

Just be aware that older 4 and 6 Tbyte WD Red drives do not seem to last very well. All of mine that I bought when those sizes first came out have died. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I gave up on WD Red drives and have been buying enterprise class Seagate and WD drives, which do seem to last a long time.

I have 4 of them and they are at 60K hours and no bad sectors.

I have been running WD Red for five years in my Synology - no issues.

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#3446153 21-Dec-2025 08:46

It's also worth noting that we have dozens of clients running synology and wd red drives with 4tb being the usual size and failure rates and performance were within expected tolerances. I'd go so far as to say our failure rates were very low.

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#3446190 21-Dec-2025 13:17

Handle9:

they have the right attitude towards their users

For now. Synology started out that way too. What is your assurance you won't see differently from Ugreen in 3 years time? My concern is that Ugreen has burned through a number of product ranges, and isn't an expert in any. If this isn't profitable enough for them, expect them to drop it.

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#3446193 21-Dec-2025 17:41

Synology had its chance, just as Ubiquiti had its chance. Since I rely almost exclusively on OSS anyway, I don't care about the ‘ecosystem’ at all – just as I don't with my (two) Apple devices. One chooses the lesser and more valuable (not cheaper) evil. 🙂

(If Linux runs stably according to my criteria on the Mac mini, I won't hesitate to use it as a NUC replacement in a cluster. 😉)

I have also installed Terramaster, Qnap and Synology NAS for clients – just not with their firmware, but with our stack for remote support. This is not a problem as long as the customer understands this mandatory requirement for our „Susy carefree“ package.

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#3446194 21-Dec-2025 17:50

networkn:

Handle9:

they have the right attitude towards their users

For now. Synology started out that way too. What is your assurance you won't see differently from Ugreen in 3 years time? My concern is that Ugreen has burned through a number of product ranges, and isn't an expert in any. If this isn't profitable enough for them, expect them to drop it.

The beauty of ugreen is its unlocked hardware. You aren’t locked in to their software.

The best thing you can do to ensure longevity is decoupling the hardware from the software. That’s not suitable for everyone of course.

sir1963

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#3446242 22-Dec-2025 09:15

Tinkerisk:

Synology had its chance, just as Ubiquiti had its chance. Since I rely almost exclusively on OSS anyway, I don't care about the ‘ecosystem’ at all – just as I don't with my (two) Apple devices. One chooses the lesser and more valuable (not cheaper) evil. 🙂

(If Linux runs stably according to my criteria on the Mac mini, I won't hesitate to use it as a NUC replacement in a cluster. 😉)

I have also installed Terramaster, Qnap and Synology NAS for clients – just not with their firmware, but with our stack for remote support. This is not a problem as long as the customer understands this mandatory requirement for our „Susy carefree“ package.

My setup at home is I have 2x 2012 Mac Minis running OSX server.

I have a 9TB RAID + a 4x 2TB JBOD

It works for me, I really wish Apple would bring back its OSX Server software, I would love to throw an M series Mac mini running Jellyfin into the mix

Mehrts

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#3446243 22-Dec-2025 09:26

Slightly offtopic:

I thought I'd have a look around at general NAS offerings, as I'd also like to make the move from my janky TrueNAS setup to a low-power dedicated NAS machine at some stage in the future.

And I stumbled across this, which cracked me up. "2.5 GHz LAN port"!

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#3446341 22-Dec-2025 11:22

But that's nothing special these days. Nearly all 4-bay intel based NAS devices have 2x2.5Gb/s, and some pro models even have 10Gb/s.

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#3446343 22-Dec-2025 11:51

@Tinkerisk:

But that's nothing special these days. Nearly all 4-bay intel based NAS devices have 2x2.5Gb/s, and some pro models even have 10Gb/s.

He's referring to the image showing "2.5 GHz LAN port" in one place (bottom left), instead of 2.5 Gbps.

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#3446352 22-Dec-2025 12:17

Mehrts:

And I stumbled across this, which cracked me up. "2.5 GHz LAN port"!

Worse is trying to find things that are 5 gigabit because they all get mixed up with 5g cellular and 5ghz wifi.

Richard rich.ms

Tinkerisk

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#3446473 22-Dec-2025 18:34

freitasm:

@Tinkerisk:

But that's nothing special these days. Nearly all 4-bay intel based NAS devices have 2x2.5Gb/s, and some pro models even have 10Gb/s.

He's referring to the image showing "2.5 GHz LAN port" in one place (bottom left), instead of 2.5 Gbps.

Missed approach. That is indeed a special feature. I suspect that two WLAN cables are even included. 🙂

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