Best nas for home media server Which One really Worth It?

General Discussion
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I researched the best NAS for a home media server to find the right option for storing, streaming and managing my personal media library. After checking expert comparisons and real user feedback, two models consistently stand out as top recommendations:

However, I am still having trouble deciding which one would better suit my needs. I care about smooth Plex streaming, long-term reliability, ease of use, storage expandability, and overall performance for a home media server setup.

Has anyone used either of these? Which one would you recommend – the simple, stable Synology DS225+ or the more powerful and modern UGREEN DXP4800 Pro? Any advice or personal experiences would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance

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Are you asking with the intent of running TrueNAS on them? Because in that case, the maximum RAM capacity of the Synology (6 GB per Synology) is less than the minimum required for TrueNAS (8 GB).

Now, if you’re planning on running their respective native OSs, then the TrueNAS hardware requirements aren’t very relevant–but in that case, you’re really asking in the wrong place.

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Thanks for pointing that out. I should have clarified I was asking about using their native OS for a home media server, mainly for Plex and general storage, not running TrueNAS itself. I posted here because I thought people with storage and NAS experience might still have useful insight. Based on that, would you lean toward the Synology for reliability and software, or the UGREEN for stronger hardware? Curious what you’d choose for long term use.

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I mean, you have to expect that pretty much everyone here is going to lean toward TrueNAS, not either of those closed-source NAS OSs. I’ve dabbled with Synology’s DSM, but not enough to really form much of an opinion on it. I have a UGREEN 6800, but I’ve been running TrueNAS on it (which is pretty easy to do, and there are a couple of other threads here where people are running TrueNAS on UGREEN hardware).

But if you want a recommendation between those two using the factory OS, I just can’t give one.

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I generally find synology offensively expensive for what it offers in terms of hardware… thats about all the non-TrueNAS opinions I have for a NAS.

IMO you can make your $ go further building your own & tossing TrueNAS on it :stuck_out_tongue:

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At the Kickstarter prices, I thought the UGREEN units were attractive; that’s why I bought the 6800. But at retail, I think they’re a little pricey. But again, no experience with their OS; I never even booted it.