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Tag: NAS

2.5G vs 10G Ethernet home network comparison with switch, NAS, and network cables
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2.5G vs 10G Ethernet: Which Home Network Upgrade Makes Sense?

Technology marches on, and keeping up with the times always raises the same question: When is an upgrade worth the cost? I remember when I first moved to gigabit networking. Prices have dropped since then, but it still surprises me how many devices in 2025 are stuck on older, slower Fast Ethernet. For homelab hobbyists, choosing anything below gigabit today would be unusual. Above that, the choices are: 2.5G, 5G, and 10G Ethernet.

Quick Answer: Should You Choose 2.5G or 10G Ethernet?

For most home networks, 2.5G Ethernet is the practical upgrade. It is cheaper, works over existing Cat 5e or Cat 6 wiring in many homes, and is fast enough for faster internet plans, Wi-Fi access points, and everyday file transfers.

10G Ethernet makes more sense when you have a NAS, homelab servers, large media files, video editing workflows, or multiple high-speed devices moving data across the local network. The best answer for many homes is not 2.5G everywhere or 10G everywhere, but a hybrid setup: 2.5G to most rooms and 10G links between the router, main switch, and NAS.

Upgrade Path Best For Main Tradeoff
2.5G Ethernet Most home users, faster internet, Wi-Fi access points, desktops Not as fast for NAS or server-heavy workflows
10G Ethernet NAS, homelab, large file transfers, video work, server links Higher cost, more heat, more careful hardware choices
Hybrid 2.5G + 10G Homes that want speed without rebuilding everything Requires planning switch uplinks and key devices

Future Proofing with the Right Cabling

As part of my recent renovations, I’ve been looking at ways to future-proof my infrastructure. The wiring I had installed is Cat 6, which has been the recommended standard for years and while there are newer options, Cat 6 supports higher data rates and distances, including 10G Ethernet up to 55 meters (180 feet)—more than enough for a residence.

But do you really need 10G? The cost-benefit question for home setups is still up for debate, though prices are slowly coming down.

The Internet vs. Local Speed

The first question is: what’s the speed of your internet connection? Even if it’s slower, there are still reasons to benefit from faster networking inside your home. For years, gigabit outpaced typical internet connections. But now, 1G and 2G internet plans are becoming more common—whether or not they actually deliver those speeds is another debate.

Why Faster Networking Still Matters

So why upgrade beyond gigabit? One reason is Network Attached Storage (NAS). I’ve written before about building a NAS. At the end of the day, a NAS is just a giant storage box—and when you’re pulling data from it, you want those files to arrive as fast as possible.

Serious homelab enthusiasts argue that now is the time to skip straight to *10G networking*. And there’s a solid case for that.

The Cost of 10G Hardware

A quick Amazon search shows this $33 PCI-E network card that uses a single SFP+ port. Dual SFP+ ports are only a few dollars more. I have an empty slot in my NAS, I could have this in there tomorrow. Switches with 10G ports used to be out of reach, but today I’m seeing options with 2.5G ports plus one or two SFP+ ports rated for 10G.

For those unfamiliar: SFP+ is a modular port that supports fiber optic or copper Ethernet modules, making it flexible for future upgrades.

A Hybrid Approach: 2.5G + 10G

My plan is to run a router with both SFP+ and 2.5G ports, with one of the 10G uplinks feeding a downstream 2.5G switch. That gives me:

  • A noticeable speed increase now
  • Flexibility to add faster devices later
  • The option to interconnect switches at 10G speeds

It’s not the full leap to 10G everywhere, but it’s a balanced, future-ready upgrade path for my homelab.

 

 

Published on October 9, 2025
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Self-hosted photo library setup with phone, laptop, and home server, illustrating Immich as a Google Photos alternative
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Best Self-Hosted Photo Solution: Why I Chose Immich

I am a big believer in the concept of multiple redundant backups. And few things are more important than memories and the family photos. I have built a NAS and have been keeping my important files on it, with the files backed up in two other locations. However, I had not done that for my photos. I have them in multiple locations, but I am paying for hosting.

One of my solutions is free…in a way. I back up to Amazon Photos, as it is included with Amazon Prime. However, so was Prime Video until they added ads, so it is not a guarantee this will continue and I never use it to retrieve photos, just as an extra location. The most popular photo sharing and storage site is probably Google Photos right now, though there are plenty of alternatives. I have stuff there as well.

I needed a place under my control to organize and share my photos, not just a disorganized archive. It was time to migrate to a less expensive self hosted solution, backed by my NAS for storage. Then I could incorporate my existing multi location backup system to keep the files safe.

Quick Answer: Is Immich the Best Self-Hosted Photo Solution?

For my needs, Immich is the best self-hosted photo solution because it feels closer to a modern Google Photos replacement than a simple file browser. It offers mobile app uploads, photo organization, map views, face and object recognition, sharing links, and a familiar interface while letting me keep the storage under my own control.

But Immich should not be treated as your only backup. It is a photo-management system, not a complete backup strategy by itself. If you self-host your photos, you still need multiple copies of the original files, ideally in more than one location.

Option Best For Big Caveat
Immich A modern self-hosted Google Photos-style experience Still requires a separate backup strategy
PhotoPrism Self-hosted photo browsing and organization Different feel and workflow than Google Photos
Google Photos Convenience, sharing, and cloud access Storage costs, privacy tradeoffs, and less control
Amazon Photos Extra photo storage for Prime members Useful as another copy, but not the system I want to depend on
NAS folder structure Long-term file control and backups Not a polished photo-browsing experience by itself

Immich

I had heard a lot about different self hosted solutions, but the most popular one I keep hearing about of late is Immich. Immich is in beta, but it is meant to reach stable this year. It already seems to be extremely stable, but it warns that you should have a backup strategy outside of it, as it is not meant to be a backup strategy by itself. I already have one, once I include this in the pipeline.

immich screenshotImmich is a full fledged system for photo sharing and organization. It supports showing photos on a map, face and object recognition, and more. I can easily share photos with expiring links or ones that will last forever. There is an API I can use to integrate with other systems.

While there are alternatives, such as Photoprism, Immich has a familiar design language, modern features, and offers a mobile app which can automatically backup your photos into Immich.

Immich Is Not a Backup Strategy By Itself

This is the part that matters most. Immich can organize, display, and sync photos, but that does not mean the photos are safe if Immich is the only place they exist.

For me, Immich makes sense because it fits into a broader system. The photos live on storage I control, and that storage can then be backed up to multiple other locations. That is very different from uploading everything to one service and deleting the originals.

A good photo setup should survive:

  • a failed hard drive
  • a mistaken deletion
  • a bad software update
  • a server migration
  • a cloud account problem
  • the slow realization that a “free” storage plan is not guaranteed forever

If you are self-hosting photos, the goal should not be fewer backups. It should be better control over how those backups happen.

Please remember, if you simply upload to Immich, or any service, and purge all other copies, that isn’t a backup.

Published on August 25, 2025
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A New 4 Bay Network Attached Storage(NAS) Option: The Aoostar Mini PCs

In a previous post, I had mentioned how tempting the Aoostar Mini PC was if I’d needed a 2 bay NAS. I’d wanted a 4 bay NAS. Of course, the 2 bay would be perfect for a remote backup receiving location, over my primary location, where I would want more redundancy. I’ve already ended up with 2 4 bay NAS options, but I’d looked at Aoostar, and they’d promised a 4 bay version at the time. But now, apparently they have it.

It hasn’t made its way to Amazon, where I often link because I don’t like having to wait for things to be drop shipped from the factory, but it is on the manufacturer’s website. If this had been available a few months ago, this would have probably been my purchase. It has the N100 processor I like as a budget low power processor, a good SATA chipset, decent looking ventilation…supports an NVME slot for the drive, 2.5 gigabit LAN…

It is just a lesson, there is always something new around the corner. You can either wait, or get the best available and not sweat the small stuff.

 

Published on July 5, 2024
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Home NAS server with drive bays and network cables, illustrating TrueNAS vs Unraid vs OpenMediaVault NAS software
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TrueNAS vs Unraid vs OpenMediaVault: Choosing NAS Software

I have gone through a lot of evolution of computer technology over the years, not only the technology, but my thinking. I remember my first server, which doubled as a NAS. It was a yellow full tower server system and had wheels . Why yellow? It was really inexpensive. But it was also really overbuilt for what I needed. I never filled all the bays and I never used it to its full capacity. And technology changed. I started building smaller, rather than overbuilding. I’ve gone from desktop, to laptop, to small PC, to mini PC, which is an evolution conversation in itself.

When my home built NAS died in the middle of the night some years ago, I ran to the store and bought a commercial NAS, because I was at the point in my life where I didn’t want to deal with another home build. So I went with a NAS and then a dedicated home server next to the NAS. And that was partly because the commercial NAS software was limiting and the manufacturer has stopped updating my model, but also because the hardware in NASes is always behind what you can get if you build it yourself. So, by investing in a NAS case, a motherboard, and using open-source, I can in future swap out the motherboard, upgrade the RAM, etc and continue…provided I keep to the same software platform.The lifespan is much longer.

I could run all my applications on the NAS, especially with the new hardware, but I want something that acts like an appliance…something that only is storage and storage related functions. I don’t want to clutter it with other things, even though it means another system to run server functions. Last time, I installed Linux and configured it. But there is software to make a computer a dedicated appliance, so it eliminated all the work I had to do to get everything working.

Quick Answer: Which NAS Software Should You Choose?

For a homebuilt NAS, the best software depends on what you want the box to do. I chose TrueNAS because I wanted a storage-first appliance with ZFS and a strong focus on data integrity. Unraid is often better if you want flexibility with mixed drive sizes and an easier app/server experience. OpenMediaVault is a good free option if you want something lighter and more traditional without paying for Unraid.

NAS Software Best For Main Tradeoff
TrueNAS Storage-first NAS, ZFS, data integrity, snapshots Less flexible with mismatched drives and can feel more appliance-like
Unraid Mixed drive sizes, easy expansion, apps, home-server flexibility Commercial license and a different storage model than traditional RAID/ZFS
OpenMediaVault Free, lightweight NAS setup on standard Linux May require more tinkering depending on plugins and use case

There are three popular options for NAS software…TrueNAS, Unraid, and OpenMediaVault.

TrueNAS has a commercial and a community version. It comes in the classic Core version, based on FreeBSD and the newer Linux based Scale. I get the impression impression Scale is the future for the project. Scale allows for containers and virtual machines if you want to run your applications on top of it. For the drives, it offers ZFS and the ability to deploy object storage similar to Amazon’s S3. ZFS is an incredibly robust filesystem.

Unraid, by comparison, is also commercially supported, with a license cost of $49 to $249, which includes the software. The most expensive membership at $249 is lifetime, which means updates for life, and the others offer updates for a year with a fee to upgrade after that. Even with no updates, some security patches are still offered for the older versions. The advantage of Unraid is it can manage drives that vary in size, speed, brand, and filesystem…so no RAID technology. Instead, it uses a dedicated parity drive, and offers a cache drive for speed.

Openmediavault is somewhere closer to Unraid in its simplicity, but has no commercial cost. It seems to be in the middle of the option here and can veer toward the Unraid feature set or the TrueNAS ones.

I ended up with TrueNAS, because I wanted the features it offered for data storage.

That choice also fits how I separate my setup: the NAS should mostly be storage, while other services can live on separate server hardware. For the networking side of that build, see my guide to 2.5G vs 10G Ethernet for a home network.

I’ll be talking more about that, but setting it up took more time to restore my data than it did to set it up. It is now handling 100% of the file serving the previous server did. I still have backup and other redundancy functions to configure, but I’m 100% back online.

Published on May 31, 2024
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Building My New Network Attached Storage(NAS): A Change of Plans, Keeping Up With The Jonsbo

Despite the fact that my ODroid H4+ had an issue, I still remained committed to the course of action of building a NAS to replace my commercial one. So, even as I pursue the Odroid H4+, I decided to explore the other option I’d explored. My original plan was build a mini-ITX NAS. And so, feeling nervous about the ODroid future, I decided to revisit that plan.

I really wanted a low power, small NAS, but while I liked the simplicity of the Odroid 4 drive case, the experience of assembling the case made me a bit concerned about how running a case that is supported entirely by the drives might work out. I decided, since I need to have a secondary location to store the backup for the NAS, I would use this for that, and I’d go more conventional for the primary location. That is a bit more than I’d budgeted for, so this is going to have to last me a while.

On reading a lot of commentary on Mini-ITX NAS cases, I had decided on the Jonsbo line of NAS cases. There’s the Jonsbo N2, which supports five hard drives, or the slightly larger Jonsbo N3, which supports eight hard drives. While I opted for the N2, I can understand some wanting the extra space for future expansion.

The budget board I opted to try is also a N100, the same line I’d been advocating for. There are a variety of variations of this board sold. For example, by CWWK. Or HKUXZR. Or Dytebeply. With minor variations, these boards contain 6 SATA ports…5 of which are via an expansion chip, which may cause throughput issues. They also have 4 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports and 2 M.2 ports on the board. Reading a lot of reviews of these boards, it takes a long time to post, may have limited RAM options, but a lot of people are using these boards, it seems. I’ll be talking a bit more about how I might set up the options I’ve chosen.

If I only wanted a 2 drive NAS, the Aoostar mini PC would be tempting.

The next challenge is how I am going to configure this. There are a lot of decisions, even once I have the hardware.

Published on May 27, 2024
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Odroid H4 Update: Things Take a NASty Turn- My SATA Dream Deferred

When things go wrong, I admit to a certain amount of anxiety about whether or not things will turn out well. I was so excited about settling on the ODroid H4 as my NAS system. It was small, flexible, had the processor type I wanted…When it showed up last week, I was disappointed that a work trip meant I couldn’t assemble it immediately.

Tonight, I got out the YouTube video from Hardkernel, and started constructing. I took my 4 hard drives and used them to assemble the frame of the case, then put the plastic spacers on the board as shown in the video, then attached the SATA cables and power cable, as shown, which I bought with it. I have SATA cables, but I didn’t have anything like the power cables, and they came as a set. According to the video, it should be 2 200mm cables, and 2 250mm cables for the drives further apart.

I put the top on, and put it in the slot, and tried to attach the cables, but quickly realized that the first one was too short to go to the bottom. I realized I’d gotten 4 identical cables. So I unhooked the top and went to take off the cables. I thought I would try a longer one I already had, although I was worried that would still create a problem with the power cable. I’ve built many computers over the years. To remove a SATA cable,, there is a locking connector you gently push in on, then release. 3 came out, the 4th, when I pushed the release and gently removed the cable, and the connector came up with it. I didn’t pull or yank on it. I tried to reseat it, but I didn’t think that would work. My assumption is, as to other ones seemed secure, that it was not secure initially. I wasn’t optimistic about getting the connector to work again, and I need 4 drives, so this rendered the item useless to me.

So, now comes the anxiety. Will Ameridroid claim human error? I don’t think it was, but the fact that they write in their return policy that if an item is deemed to not be defective by them, they will charge a 25% restocking fee makes me nervous. This is not because I had any bad experiences with Ameridroid, but because I now have to wait nervously to know if I’m going to be out the money.

It also makes me a bit nervous about ODroid and their manufacturer, Hardkernel. Maybe I shouldn’t have bought a product that was just released? Maybe I should have gone for something from a more established provider? Does the manufacturer stand behind their product? I have limited experience with them, but people seem to generally like them.

They say don’t sweat the small stuff, but I hate sometimes how one bump in the wrong can make me question a less conventional route. It’s hard to pick your hardware and assemble it. I’m already regretting my last upgrade for not leaving enough room for future proofing. Is this going to go the same way? What advice do you have for me?

Published on May 15, 2024
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Building My New Network Attached Storage(NAS): Introducing the ODroid H4 Series

I’ve been back and forth between a commercial Network Attached Storage(NAS) product and a homebuilt NAS product. But for the last iteration, I had given up on something I built and moved to a commercial product. But I’m finally ready to go back to homebuilt. Except this time, I’m going to try TrueNAS, because my barrier is always how much time I spent tinkering with it.

I debated a variety of different system configurations and decided I wasn’t going to have my NAS also handle other server duties. It’s primary job would be to run applications. I have a server for that. I just want to run functionality related to file serving, and TrueNAS offers most of that out of the box…although there are more decisions to be made. It isn’t a pure drop in replacement.

So, I settled on the N100 series of CPU processors. Generally available, reasonably priced, and more than enough power for what I wanted. Looking around, that meant I needed to pick a case, a motherboard, etc. While looking, I stumbled across a product just launching, from Hardkernel, who makes the Odroid line of products, which are single board computers. I’d rejected single board, wanting a x86 compatible processor, but the newly launched H4 series is just that.

There are three models, the H4, H4+, and H4 Ultra. The H4 and H4+ use the N97 processor, and the Ultra ups that to an i3 N305. The basic difference between the H4 and the H4+ for me is that is offers 4 SATA ports. The power profile of this thing is perfect for a headless server. They offer a mini-ITX conversion kit, but they also offer 4 different designs of metal cases you can buy, and DC adapters to power them. Case Type 4 allows for 4 SATA hard drives, a fan, and the board. It is essentially 4 cut pieces of metal you can assemble, as well as screws and a fan. The picture in this post is courtesy of their site.

It doesn’t look like a normal NAS, or a computer…it looks like an appliance, which is what I want. I sourced the equipment through Ameridroid, who is the O-droid provider in the US and who I have dealt with minimally before. This included ordering the type 4 case, the board, and the power adapter. That ran me a little over $200.

It also limits me. If I install the operating system on an NVME SSD, plus the 4 SATA drives, I can’t grow the system with additional drives. Any changes become a drive replacement, or a system replacement. But I’ve stuck with only 4 drives up until now in my commercial unit, and even in the home built ones I’ve had in the past. It allows me to have a good mix of redundancy and performance.

Redundancy in the same system is not the same as a backup though. I will be talking more about that as I learn about the options TrueNAS offers, and will talk a little about my backup strategy in future.

We’ll see what happens when the board comes and if I made the right decision.

 

Published on April 28, 2024
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