QNAP TS-AI642 6 Bay AI NAS with a Power-efficient ARM Processor and NPU for AI-Powered Video and Image Recognition Applications (Diskless)

I was very weary of getting a NAS box.I have always ran a PC machine using Windows 10 or the new Windows 11 as a server to do file management. I can honestly say I’ve done that for the last 25 years. So I decided to make a big change in 2023 since my server had crashed And my components, two is mainly the power failed that I decided to go a different route.I made the right choice. I looked for many days and a week on the type of box and brand to get and chose his brand and I am glad I did. As I said, it’s easy to set up and my pros and cons will be below, Just do your research on what you’re looking for and how you want your file management to be set up. Planning is key.My setup:4 SSD 4tb drives in two RAID1, and 2 6tb WD gold drives in RAID1. I will eventually have all SSD drives.PRO:Light weight, drives slide in nice, quiet, multiple connections and options. With six drives it stays pretty cool. Can get to remotely and really easy. No more cloud services for me. The power is a brick which is a plus because I could just get another brick and the system will keep running. It also has a fan inside which can be replaced but it is very quiet. if you’re worried about redundancy, then buy another power supply and keep it on hand in case this one burns out I don’t suspect that will happen but it’s the only way if you’re wanting to be protected and not have any downtime if this happens in the future.CON:For me, the biggest was as well-built as a system is when you have more than one spinning drive it does have a vibration sound that comes from it. I have tried different feet and different pads, and no matter what the sound is still there. It’s not like it’s so loud. You can’t tune it out but it’s enough that it’s annoying And the only way for me to get out of it and my environment is to get rid of the spinning drives. Another negative is the front door does not slide off that easy at least for me but that’s not really a bad negative since I’m not going to get into it that often. Another big con is as a tech, I have mini hard drives, that I would like to put Into the system since it is hot swappable, but in order for the system to read that it has to be formatted in the brands, boot records and format. So the alternative was to get a separate enclosure from another brand and use the external USB 3.0 to see external drives. Now, if you take all your drives and format to this brands format, then you shouldn’t ever have a problem. But I brain drives in from my clients from time to time and I thought I could just put them in there and read them and that’s not the case, because each client might be a different format on their drives it could be a GPT or an MBR, or a Linux or some other brand. so the only solution for me, was to get an external drive. I found a 5 Bay Dr. that I can plug-in and this QNAP sees it perfectly and I can do anything and use any drive in that system and QNAP uses it.That’s really it. It was a great investment and I would highly recommend it. In fact, I’ve already bought one for another customer and set them up on the exact same set up. They too needed to be able to access. Older drives from different brands. So please keep that in mind, but if you don’t need that type of set up, then this unit will work for you perfectly and it’s not a negative.