I got a free enterprise HP tower that was eol 5-6 years ago and put freenas on it. It's stil going strong. And it still beats a modern 8 bay synology.
(I've since expanded the lab, but this NAS is still with me)
I've had 2 HDDs go belly up in that time and had to replace those, but RMA was no problem since it was within 3y warranty. Due to RMA process I also bought a spare replacement , so now I have a cold spare waiting.
Power? Well... napkin math: it's ~60-70 W not counting the HDDs. I'm sure I could find something that goes to sleep (~0 W), but mine is on 24/7, and that's ok because I want my scrubs and data integrity. My more recent Truenas Scale build is more cpu, more better, more everything and sips 30-35 W idle. That one is also on 24/7. Anyway the delta between my old and less old hardware is 30-35 W at $0.10/kWh is ~$1/year/W x 35 W is about $ 35/y.
An 8 bay synology is $ 1000... yeah, I'll pay the power bill.
I also backup everything important to Onedrive (i.e. not my steam cache).
DIY - no regrets
I got a free enterprise HP tower that was eol 5-6 years ago and put freenas on it. It's stil going strong. And it still beats a modern 8 bay synology.
(I've since expanded the lab, but this NAS is still with me)
I've had 2 HDDs go belly up in that time and had to replace those, but RMA was no problem since it was within 3y warranty. Due to RMA process I also bought a spare replacement , so now I have a cold spare waiting.
Power? Well... napkin math: it's ~60-70 W not counting the HDDs. I'm sure I could find something that goes to sleep (~0 W), but mine is on 24/7, and that's ok because I want my scrubs and data integrity. My more recent Truenas Scale build is more cpu, more better, more everything and sips 30-35 W idle. That one is also on 24/7. Anyway the delta between my old and less old hardware is 30-35 W at $0.10/kWh is ~$1/year/W x 35 W is about $ 35/y.
An 8 bay synology is $ 1000... yeah, I'll pay the power bill.
I also backup everything important to Onedrive (i.e. not my steam cache).