Editorial, 21 Aug 2026. Specs from maker pages and recent street reports. We have not burned these units in. Affiliate tags are not live.
First NAS for a one-person lab
Two bays and boring software if you want backups that restore. Four bays and 10G if you already know you will run Docker on the box.
Drives are the real bill. A diskless chassis price is a teaser. Budget NAS-rated 4–8 TB disks on top, then a spare. Anyone quoting a NAS without drive math is selling a chassis.
The short list
| Box | Why | Street, 2026 | Skip if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synology 2-bay class (DS224+ / current plus) | DSM is still the thing you forget about. Photos, Hyper Backup, and a restore story people have actually used. | Diskless often around $300. | You need 10G today or you hate the Synology app tax. |
| UGREEN DXP4800 Plus | Intel, DDR5, 10GbE plus 2.5GbE in the box, Docker. Hardware beats the Synology at the same money. | Diskless often $500–700 depending on shop. UGOS is the question, not the NIC. | You want “set it and forget it” more than ports. |
| DIY plus TrueNAS / Unraid on a mini PC | Cheapest path if you already like pain. | N100 plus a USB DAS or a real HBA. | This is your first backup box. Do not. |
Rule
The first NAS is a backup target, not a Plex flex. If the copies are not automatic and off the laptop, you bought a toy. Put 10G on the shopping list only after 2.5G is actually full.