I have a DS220+, which frankly I love, but I’m looking to replace it soon. It only has 2 drives, Synology is pulling some fuckery with needing their branded drives and I’m staying on the 6.x firmware given what I’ve seen/heard with 7.x
All that being said, I’m trying to find something that is:
- At least 4 bays
- Small form factor (it shouldn’t be much bigger than the drives it’s holding)
- Capable of running Docker
- Capable of backing up to an S3 bucket
- Capable of backing up Windows Clients
- Habe a decent GUI (I can do CLI, but frankly, don’t want to)
I was thinking potentially QNAP, but didn’t know what else is out there. I really do like Synology and would have looked at one of their models but their vendor lock in move ticked me off. Maybe finding a used 420 or 920?
I was in a very similar situation as you when I decided to just go with Unraid and build my own. I got a Fractal Design 804 case and was able to put very modest parts in it (i5 6500) and it performs so much better. And now there’s no headaches with drives. I still have my 918+ but it’s only used as a local backup for my unraid. If you’re willing to shift perspective a little it can be very worthwhile. My small opinion…