I tend to go overkill when it comes to home networking and server infrastructure. I’m considering replacing my QNap, with what I assert is the world’s worst software, with a homebrew and unRAID.

I’m just wondering if anyone has any experience doing this or not. For a few years I ran a raid 5 array on an old gaming PC, and then I swapped to qnap for “what if there is a fire, how do I grab and run with a computer that can act as an anchor for a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier”. That’s worked for the last 5 years, sort of, but I swear they make everything 10x harder than it has any right to be.

I was considering 4 x 10tb hdds and 3x2TB Evo 990 Pros, in a cache pool and/or 2x2TB in an SSD pool for docker containers and 1 2TB for the cache pool. I’m just not entirely sure where unRAID itself ends up going; the cache pool?

Aside from that question, any other “gotchas” that you’ve experienced? Any comparisons with qnap would be greatly appreciated, too.