Synology and other brand NAS's are great, very simple to setup and maintain. They come with great support, power efficiency and decent build quality.
If you were to get a custom built one, it can end up costing you less, a Synology 2 bay (without drives) goes for £150 cheapest I saw brand new, plus you get very minimal specs, only usable as a NAS and nothing more if you're planning on running more stuff like game servers or many containers in the future.
Depending on the OS you use for the custom NAS, it can be incredibly versatile and offer great functionality and expandability, you can 100% achieve the same things you would with a Synology.
Although it's rarely ever "plug & play" like an OEM NAS is, configuring and troubleshooting can take a while especially without basic understanding of the OS.
It's fun and interesting to work on but if all you need is a working, reliable machine that you can plug in, put some drives into and have it work, I'd suggest spending the extra bit on a Synology or another brands NAS.
Synology and other brand NAS's are great, very simple to setup and maintain. They come with great support, power efficiency and decent build quality.
If you were to get a custom built one, it can end up costing you less, a Synology 2 bay (without drives) goes for £150 cheapest I saw brand new, plus you get very minimal specs, only usable as a NAS and nothing more if you're planning on running more stuff like game servers or many containers in the future.
Depending on the OS you use for the custom NAS, it can be incredibly versatile and offer great functionality and expandability, you can 100% achieve the same things you would with a Synology.
Although it's rarely ever "plug & play" like an OEM NAS is, configuring and troubleshooting can take a while especially without basic understanding of the OS.
It's fun and interesting to work on but if all you need is a working, reliable machine that you can plug in, put some drives into and have it work, I'd suggest spending the extra bit on a Synology or another brands NAS.