The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/BladeBlur on 2025-02-16 12:28:46.

I am very new to the world of NAS. Up until recently I have gotten external drives to store video footage, from camera to games. A lot of the stuff I capture now is in 4k so obviously file sizes are going to be massive so I decided instead of buying so many 8tb-12tb external hard drives, I should just buy several big HDDs and put them together in an array.

However, the problem is I am not sure if I should get a DAS or NAS for that. What I care about most is storing the excess data and using it to edit video if necessary. Transfer speeds in that case are important.

I currently have both the Terramaster D5-300 and the Synology DS923+. I’d like to sell one and keep the other and the question is which?

On one hand, I hear a lot of people LOVE Synology and don’t think too highly of Terramaster. And in the long run they are the superior choice.

On the other hand, I think NAS for me is overkill since I only use this for myself and not a small business. In addition because I want to plug it to the laptop I use directly I had to get a USB to 2.5gb adapter since Synology don’t support direct USB connections. In addition it seems making the Synology work involves in getting a lot of additional components. Besides the adapter I had to get 32gb worth of RAM (which frankly I am not sure exactly what is the benefit). Not to mention I heard using SSDs for write and read cache is also beneficial. All of those expenses are a lot especially since I already had to spend a lot of money on the drives alone.

Making a RAID drive was quicker on the Terramaster and I didn’t have to create a network folder like I did with Synology. But I don’t want to have a situation I transfer all my stuff and then there is a random error and I must start from scratch. I guess another benefit I keep hearing with Synology is SHR being superior to RAID5 on Terramaster but I am not too familiar with all the raid types.

I’d appreciate any help and thank you for your time!

EDIT: I know the Synology Assistant warns you if one of the drives is about to fail, does Terramaster have something similar in case that happens?