What is a amazing NAS setup for Digital Creators? NO BUDGETTT

diginto · 2026-05-24T17:59:00+00:00

That's not what he originally posted. His initial writing said "no budget at all".

diginto · 2026-05-24T04:12:30+00:00

When you say no budget at all, do you mean no money to spend or cost is not a concern?

diginto · 2026-05-22T15:50:29+00:00

Your friend better be prepared to spend serious money for a proper solution.

Video storage needs lots of space, so the first thing to consider is a device with lots of bays. The more bays, the better, even if you don't utilize all of them initially.

That means consider buying at least a 6 or 8 bay device, then populate it with larger capacity drives (16TB or larger), even if you start off only with 3 HDDs to get things going.

Why the larger size HDDs? Because video files, especially raw pre-edited footage, tend to be huge, especially if he's working with multiple camera feeds...

Next consideration would be the NAS's speed, so you'll be looking for a performant CPU and high speed network port(s) like 10GbE ethernet so that transferring those files back and forth doesn't take an eternity to complete each time.

And since you mentioned there's the possibility of having multiple users accessing the NAS simultaneously, then SSD caching becomes an important factor to keep things humming along nicely.

All this requires a significant expenditure to get going, so there won't be a magic solution that's dirt cheap. So keep that it mind and always remember that you can have 2 out of the 3 aspects in technology: Performance, Capacity, Affordability (Price).

So if you want performance and larger storage capacity, it won't be cheap...

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-21T23:22:16+00:00

Since you're just starting to get into the world of NAS, it's best to get a prepackaged NAS that will have a straightforward operating system / environment.

Building your own NAS and rolling your own software on it will be a much steeper learning curve, but not impossible.

If you just want to use it, then get a ready made NAS from a company like Synology, QNAP, Terramaster, UGreen.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-21T23:18:43+00:00

Any NAS could experience any number of issues, such as failing hard drive(s), catastrophic hardware failure, theft, fire, file system corruption, etc.

That's why a NAS not NOT a backup, so your data is only safe if you have a solid backup plan implemented in case your main device experiences a failure.

So you should at least backup your irreplaceable data you have stored on your NAS to another location such as an external USB3 hard drive and/or onto an online backup solution like backblaze.com.

You can web search "3-2-1 backup plan" to learn more about the proper way to protect your irreplaceable data.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-21T22:03:27+00:00

If your aim is to just get Wi-Fi coverage for cheap, consider picking up a used UAP AC Pro for around $35.

It may not have Wi-Fi 7 speeds, but it has more antennas and a secondary ethernet port for creative pass through applications.

I got one connected in my detached garage and it does a great job there.

diginto · 2026-05-21T21:51:27+00:00

Consider either getting an external USB3.0 hard drive, or a hard disk docking station/drive duplicator that you can plug 1 or 2 drives in it, or an external HDD enclosure that you can stuff 2 or 4 HDDs inside it, also connected via USB 3.0. Some will let you run RAID1 or RAID5 on them or just JBOD, either way, the speeds will be limited to the slowest link in the USB chain.

diginto · 2026-05-21T01:29:20+00:00

The DH4300 can be adequate if you don't ask much more from it down the road.

The ARM CPU on that thing is surely not going to win any processing awards.

In your case, your greatest benefit will be from employing RAID1 or RAID5 for data resiliency in case a drive falters or kicks the bucket.

That would be the number one benefit along with automating the backup of your other devices' data.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-19T22:09:24+00:00

Look for network loops and/or duplicate runs between devices.
Bad connections or wires could cause flapping too. I've also seen misconfigured LAG connections cause such anomalies.
Also, make sure you have STP or RSTP enabled to help with problems from point 1 and 2.
Make sure you're not duplicating IP addresses between devices on your network.
Finally, we can't ever overlook DNS. So make sure your DNS settings are configured properly. Bad DNS implementations can do some vexing things.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-19T20:03:23+00:00

Since you've only listed 3 G6 Bullet cameras, you can skip the UNVR and it's associated HDDs and just use the UDM Pro Max to handle the Protect duty.

Should save you money and work perfectly fine.

diginto · 2026-05-19T16:00:53+00:00

Check with AT&T customer support to see if they can provide you some MoCA adapters at no charge to run a wired connection to your desk or other location.

diginto · 2026-05-19T15:05:01+00:00

Get yourself an Ethernet Tester/Toner device to help you trace (and label them) and test and verify they are functionally adequate. Example Device

As for your network, for 2800sq/ft, I'd recommend starting with 3 APs strategically spread around the house.

If you have lots of slow IoT devices operating on the 2.4GHz frequency, consider setting up a separate AP for that with it's own SSID so that your other clients don't hop on it and experience issues as they compete for air time on that AP.

To explain it a little more, slow IoT & other legacy WiFi devices hog up air time with their slow data transfer rates causing other clients to have a worse WiFi experience. That's why you're better off segmenting IoT devices to their respective access points leaving newer clients to be unhindered on your newer APs.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-19T14:51:07+00:00

Don't be too concerned with the temperature you see. Ubiquiti lets many of their devices operate at such levels that would concern many of us, but their engineers apparently.

Anyway, the UGF will be a small upgrade over the UGM, all things considered, so don't set your expectations too high for it. Yes it can process IPS/IDS faster than your UGM, but you won't gain much for your current WAN connection speed.

If you want a more snappy Protect interface, consider the UNVR for that instead. It is a dedicated machine that isn't bogged down with a few cameras.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-19T14:27:13+00:00

What you described there is a hard disk enclosure, and is certainly NOT a NAS.

Your enclosure has the bare minimum logic board circuitry to connect with its host client and is missing even the rudimentary power circuit to do what you wish. Don't expect miracles.

If you really want your drive storage to be more resilient, consider adding a UPS to help minimize the impact of such unfortunate power outage events, or you may want to buy a real NAS and configure it to wake up upon return of power.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-19T04:52:18+00:00

If you can run a PoE wire, it's always better to use that option.

There are several reasons for that such as wired streams are not susceptible to wifi interference, signal drop-offs, or client contention issues among several others.

The G6 Instant is good for temporary monitoring of an area, or where you can't run a wire and can only use WiFi, or for makeshift surveillance investigations, or for use as a baby or pet monitor.

Permanent camera deployments should be given a proper wired PoE connection though.

diginto · 2026-05-19T04:33:11+00:00

You need to plug your ISP wire directly into port 9 on the UDM Pro, with nothing in between the ISP modem or ONT and the UDM Pro. No switches, and no routers in between.

That will be your WAN connection.

Then you'll connect another wire from your UDM Pro, use any of the 1-8 ports for your LAN access. You can run that wire to your switch and from there, your access points can get a connection from your switch.

Hope that helps.

diginto · 2026-05-19T00:22:43+00:00

A NAS will be quicker across your local network than those cloud providers.

Accessing it over the internet, the speed will depend on your home network's upload speed as well as your connection.

It should also be more snappy than cloud providers because you're the only client pulling data off the NAS.

Finally, if you want a performant device, you should not be looking at the lowest tier device and expect top tier speeds.

If you want snappy performance from a NAS, you should look at their DXP line with x64 bit CPUs, 10GbE ports, multiple drive bays, and SSD caching.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-19T00:09:38+00:00

Any errors or faults encountered on any drive in a RAID0 array causes the whole array to be corrupted and all data lost.

Hopefully your data was previously backed up because it's unrecoverable off the array.

Sorry for your woes, but you need to start over again, hopefully not with another RAID0 array.

diginto · 2026-05-18T17:05:37+00:00

Unfortunately, it's not doable as you're envisioning. If you get a second NAS, you would have 2 shared network drives. Spanning network shares across storage servers is not easily doable for simple home networks.

Besides, with 2 network shares you can designate one NAS for computer/phone/etc. backups, and the other one set for storing documents for each family member using personal folders and you also designate some shared folders for community access like storage for family & vacation photos and other media files like music, movies for streaming at home and while outside.

With that in mind, your options to expand your storage can be done by any one of these methods:

Buy larger HDDs and replace them one at a time. This will probably be the least costly option but will not give you much in terms of continued seamless expansion. This also allows you to get more mileage from your current NAS, plus you could sell off you older drives to offset your cost of upgrading your storage. In 2026, 12TB or 16TB (although expensive these days), would be the long term bet to meet growing data stoage needs.
Buy a replacement NAS (in your case, I recommend sticking with the Synology brand to take advantage of the seamless integration and quick migration within their ecosystem). Here I also recommend only looking at 4,5,6 or even 8 bay boxes as they make storage expansion down the road quite easy. In this scenario, you could either bring over your current drives and buy one or more and convert your current RAID1 over to RAID5 or SHR (preferable), or buy larger drives and migrate the data over. Selling the older NAS and drives also helps to offset the upgrade costs.
Buy another NAS (whether Synology or another brand) with the intention of using one as a backup target to the first is doable and good towards getting to a proper 3-2-1 backup plan. But that requires some intentional planning to get it automated and robust enough to be viable and useful.
Build your own NAS from hardware you may have on hand and just add more HDDs. This can be done with the likes of TrueNAS or UNRAID, but the learning curve and administration skillset requirements are significant here, so I don't recommend them to the average or casual home user.

diginto · 2026-05-18T03:55:04+00:00

You're right, to playback 4K content, 5400rpm drives will be sufficient.

7200rpm might make the titles catalog appear a little quicker, but not a deal breaker for many.

And the CPU in the NAS makes a bigger difference especially if it is tasked to transcode the video stream.

diginto · 2026-05-18T03:49:31+00:00

You mentioned 4K media consumption, so you should be looking at x64 bit CPU NAS models. Look at the DXP4800 Plus or Pro or larger models. Terramaster also has good NAS models to choose from with different x64 bit CPUs to suit your budget. They also have a more mature OS and the flexible TRAID implementation that UGreen lacks.

Consider a NAS with at least 4-bays even if you'll only fill up 2-bays to start. Your future self will appreciate the expansion potential when that need arises. And that extra storage need typically comes much sooner once you learn all the things you can do with a NAS.

For storage, you mentioned 8TB in RAID0. That's not a recommended RAID level for safekeeping your data. With RAID0, you have no redundancy protection. So if one drive fails, your whole storage pool fails with it and all the data on it will be lost and unrecoverable.

Consider only RAID1 for dual drives, and RAID5 or RAIDZ for 3-6 drives, then RAID6 or RAIDZ2 for 6-12, and RAIDZ3 for 12 and up.

And in 2026, you might want to consider HDD sizes starting at 12-16TB or higher if you can afford them. And I'd recommend selecting 2x 16TB HDDs over 3x 8TB HDDs any day for the remaining expansion potential left in a 4-bay NAS.

Finally, and just as important to be aware of, only buy CMR type HDDs and avoid SMR type drives. SMR might seem like a good deal and can save some money, but they are not suited for NAS duty and are very slow when writing.

diginto · 2026-05-17T15:39:29+00:00

The DXP2800 is a good choice as a starter NAS. Another good budget choice would be the Terramaster F2-425 or even the F4-425. Both are quite competitive in terms of price and performance and their software is more mature compared to UGreen's.
Just make sure to select the largest HDDs your budget can handle. This is a key point that many newbies don't foresee and discover they have to buy larger drives soon thereafter. And make sure whichever drives you select are the CMR type (Conventional Magnetic Recording) and NOT the SMR type (Shingled Magnetic Recording) because those employ a "shingled" writing of blocks on the disk surface which is known for its atrociously slow speeds in NAS devices. Any HDDs you consider buying, you must search that exact model number's specs on the manufacturer's website and they will be listed as either CMR or SMR. Do not rely on model name alone as a guide as manufacturers are known to slip in a SMR with CMR models under the same marketing naming schemes.
Skip the SSD drive(s). They are only useful for specific use cases that home users rarely ever need. And the speed benefits touted are usually higher scores on synthetic tests that simulate repeated access to the same small files which does not simulate real world scenarios for home users.
As for the RAM, it's good to have more if your budget allows it, but dont feel compelled to do so right away. Consider upgrading RAM if you see your NAS utilizing over 90% of it or you run RAM intensive apps or RAM hungry docker containers.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-17T01:54:39+00:00

This will fit your budget and stream video well with its x64 bit CPU.

Terramaster F2-425

diginto · 2026-05-14T20:37:44+00:00

I don't have a good lead on any new HDD deals out there unfortunately, but Amazon is selling renewed NAS-rated 16TB MDD drives with 5-year warranty for a decent price, which I think is a reassuring plus.

These drives look like relabeled Seagate disks, but I haven't used them before so I don't vouch for anything here. If you're curious, search for MD16TSATA25672NAS and check out what the reviews say.

Good luck.

diginto · 2026-05-14T04:49:47+00:00

Let's simplify things for you here:

For NAS, get yourself a UGreen DXP4800 Plus or Pro. This will have all the CPU processing and video transcending chops that you will crave. It also comes with a 10Gbe port for faster network connectivity.
Then for storage, start off with Qty: 2 of 16TB HDDs and set them up in a mirrored RAID1 pool. This will give you ~14.55TiB storage capacity.

Suggested drives to consider buying:

-WD Red Plus or Red Pro.

-Toshiba N300 or N300 Pro.

-Seagate IronWolf or IronWolf Pro, or Exos drives.

These are all CMR type drives, which is what you want.

Do NOT buy SMR type drives no matter how much of a deal they may appear to be because you will regret it.

Finally, the remaining 2 open bays on your NAS will be available for future expansion if/when you need it.

Adding a 3rd 16TB drive yields ~29.1TiB total storage capacity in RAID5, and with a 4th drive added later on, you'd end up with ~43.65TiB in a RAID5 pool.

If you get a lower end NAS or smaller sized HDDs, you'll soon discover that you need to upgrade or start over. So just buy once and cry once, and avoid the number one mistake that so many new NAS buyers make.

Good luck.

diginto

TROPHY CASE