The original post: /r/homelab by /u/sidius_wolf on 2024-12-28 13:30:07.

I own a Synology 2-bay NAS that is about 6 years old. It’s just stopped getting major OS updates from Synology. It also doesn’t support Docker, which would be very handy.

I currently use my Synology as a Plex server with an Nvidia shield, backups and a general file server. I’ve enjoyed the simplicity of the OS. I’m pretty good with Linux (Software Engineer background) but don’t want to do an enormous amount of tinkering.

I was thinking of upgrading my Synology for the following reasons:

• Add more storage. I have to delete films and manage storage quite a lot with the 2 bay 4tb I have at the moment.
• Support some other streaming clients with Plex transcoding (not super urgent)
• Have access to Docker support for adding a Ghost blog.

Options I’ve considered:

• TerraMaster F4-424 Pro and install Unraid, TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault. It is currently on sale from Amazon for €550 which seems like an excellent price.
• Add a Mini PC and then install a Linux distro on it, and connect it on the network to the current 2-bay NAS. I have seem forum posts of people doing this but I can’t decide if having a NAS OS for a Mini PC is weird; or having 2 machines running instead of one.
• Buy an Aoostar (N100 or Ryzen) and also install Unreaid or TrueNAS. This works out a little cheaper than the TerraMaster but is from a much smaller company. I also might incur import duties.

Can anyone offer any advice? Please also feel free to suggest different options.