If you're a video editor, drone pilot, or photographer in Australia and your storage situation is a shelf of external drives you only half-remember the contents of, you've already outgrown that setup. A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is the solution that working creative professionals converge on. A centralised storage device that connects to your studio network, holds tens of terabytes, protects your footage against drive failure, and can serve multiple editors simultaneously. This guide explains exactly what to buy, how much you need, and what it costs in Australia. Without jargon and without sitting on the fence.
For a full overview covering hardware, setup, and workflow planning, see our complete NAS video editing guide.
In short: For a sole Mac editor cutting ProRes or high-bitrate footage → QNAP Thunderbolt NAS ($2,200-$2,500 AUD for 4-bay). For a collaborative studio of two or more editors → any 10GbE-capable NAS ($700-$2,600 AUD) plus a 10GbE switch ($300-$500 AUD). Fill with IronWolf or WD Red Pro NAS-rated drives. Don't use consumer desktop drives. Read the rest of this guide to understand why. The differences matter more than the price.
Who this guide is for
This guide is written for three types of Australian creative professionals who all arrive at the same problem from slightly different directions:
Video editors. Solo operators and small studios (2-5 people) working in Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or Premiere Pro. Mac-based, professional workflows, often shooting ProRes or BRAW. The drive graveyard is real: a shelf of WD My Passports, LaCie SSDs, and Seagate portables that once made sense and now represent a chaotic archive nobody wants to manage. The trigger is usually bringing in a second editor. Suddenly you need shared access to footage, and passing drives around is not a workflow.
Drone pilots turned business owners. Commercial drone operators who discovered a monetisable skill and now find themselves drowning in footage they have no infrastructure to manage. DJI or Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera footage in multi-terabyte quantities, often with government or council clients who are starting to include data retention clauses in contracts. One government aerial contract can generate 20TB of raw footage with no plan for storage, no RAID, and no backup. The gap becomes catastrophic very quickly.
Photographers scaling up. High-res RAW shooters transitioning from portable SSDs to something permanent. Similar storage volume to video (high-resolution RAW files at scale add up), similar redundancy problem, often working solo from a home studio.
If you're in any of those categories, the NAS story is the same: a centralised device that holds your footage, protects it against a single drive failure, and gives everyone on your team access without passing drives around. For a broader guide covering all creative disciplines. Designers, photographers, and multimedia professionals alongside video editors. See Best NAS for Creatives Australia.
The storage problem every AU creative professional hits
It starts with one external drive. Then a second for backup. Then a job that generates so much footage the first drive fills up and you need a third. Within a year or two, most working editors have a shelf of drives they only half-remember the contents of. They sort of know what's on each one from muscle memory, but finding a specific job from 18 months ago means plugging in three drives and searching. The drives aren't labelled systematically. It works. Barely. Until it doesn't.
Two things typically break the drive graveyard system:
Scale. File sizes grow. 4K RAW, 6K, 8K, high-bitrate drone footage. To the point where SSD portables aren't practical capacity-wise and desktop externals aren't fast enough for editing. A single government aerial contract can generate 20TB of raw footage with no plan for what to do with it. He had footage, a client, a delivery deadline, and no infrastructure. The NAS conversation that followed covered storage capacity, RAID, hot vs cold storage, and data retention requirements. And resulted in a system he could set up and not think about again for years.
Collaboration. The moment a second editor joins the studio, the drive system collapses. The workaround. Sitting next to each other, working on different parts of a project on separate drives, physically handing drives across and stitching work together. Is not professional and does not scale. Three people makes it untenable. A NAS solves this: one shared storage device on the network, multiple editors accessing footage simultaneously as if it were a local drive.
Both scenarios end in the same place: a NAS. And both scenarios benefit from buying once and buying correctly, rather than trying to extend a drive system that has already run its course. If you're wondering whether you're at that point, the why editors outgrow external drives guide covers the full journey.
What a NAS actually does for your workflow
A NAS is a small dedicated computer whose only job is to manage storage. It holds multiple hard drives in a RAID array. In a fault-tolerant configuration such as RAID 1 or RAID 5, data and redundancy information are distributed so the array can tolerate a specified number of drive failures. It connects to your studio network (or directly to your Mac via Thunderbolt), serves files to every connected device, and runs 24/7 in the background without requiring you to manage it day-to-day.
From an editor's perspective, a properly configured NAS looks like a very large, very fast drive attached to your Mac. Footage lives there. Every editor in the studio connects to it simultaneously. When you finish a job, it goes into the NAS archive. When a client needs footage from three years ago, you find it in seconds because it's organised, indexed, and not on a drive you can't locate.
The NAS can coordinate backups to a separate NAS, cloud service, or external device, but RAID inside the NAS is not itself a backup. A two-drive NAS in RAID 1 (mirror) protects against one drive failing. The other has a complete copy. A four-bay NAS in RAID 5 tolerates one drive failure with better storage efficiency. This is not the same as a backup. RAID protects against hardware failure, not accidental deletion or ransomware. But it's a critical foundation that the drive graveyard system never provides.
The three storage tiers: how a NAS is actually organised
Most NAS guides explain RAID configurations at length but skip the storage architecture that determines day-to-day editing performance. For creative professionals, the three-tier model is the concept to understand:
Hot storage. NVMe SSD cache. Small, fast NVMe SSDs installed in the NAS serve as a write buffer and read cache. NVMe behavior depends on the NAS operating system and cache configuration; it may provide read caching or a synchronous-write log rather than staging every saved file before copying it to HDD storage. Read performance from NVMe cache varies with the NAS model, cache mode, working-set size, storage pool, network connection, protocol, and client workload. This is what replaces the Thunderbolt SSD speed your Mac is used to from direct-attached portable SSDs. When editors say NAS editing "feels like a local drive," NVMe caching is why.
Warm storage. SATA SSD. Some builds include a SATA SSD tier for active current-project footage: faster than HDDs for random access, cheaper per GB than NVMe. Many editors skip this tier and let the NVMe cache handle active-project performance, reserving HDD capacity for everything else.
Cold storage. NAS-grade HDD. The bulk of your NAS capacity: IronWolf (Seagate) or WD Red Pro drives rated for 24/7 operation. Completed projects, raw footage archives, client deliverables retained under contract. Capacity is the priority here. 8TB, 12TB, 16TB per drive in a multi-bay enclosure. Slower than SSD but the cost per terabyte makes HDD the only practical choice for bulk video storage at Australian retail prices.
Whether an HDD array can sustain a ProRes workflow depends on the array, stream data rate, network path, concurrent workload, and client. SSD cache does not guarantee faster sequential video playback; an SSD storage volume may be more appropriate for active projects. The hot vs cold storage guide covers this architecture in depth, including how to configure cache tiers in QTS and DSM.
How much storage do you actually need?
This is the question most editors get wrong. Usually by underestimating. The calculation depends on three variables: what codec you shoot, how much footage you generate per week, and how long you're required to retain it.
Rough codec benchmarks per hour of footage:
- H.264 / H.265 4K (DJI drones, Sony mirrorless): 10-30 GB/hour
- BRAW 4K Q3 varies substantially by camera, sensor mode, frame rate, and scene complexity; use the camera manufacturer's published storage-rate table rather than a single 50-120 GB/hour range.
- ProRes 422 4K: 200-300 GB/hour
- ProRes 422 HQ 4K: 300-400 GB/hour
- ProRes RAW 4K: 150-350 GB/hour depending on camera
An editor shooting 40 hours of ProRes 422 footage per month, retaining completed jobs for 12 months under client contracts, needs 40 hours × 250 GB × 12 months = approximately 120 TB of raw storage before RAID overhead. RAID 5 reserves capacity equivalent to one member drive, so the percentage overhead depends on the number of drives; 25% applies only to a four-drive array. That's ten 16TB drives in RAID 5 or eight 20TB drives.
Most editors find their initial estimate is too small. A 4-bay NAS with 8TB drives gives 24TB of usable storage in RAID 5. Enough for many sole editors starting out, but smaller studios will grow into it within 18 months. Build in runway: buy one size larger than you need today. The storage capacity planning guide has a full codec-by-codec calculator and worked examples for different shooting volumes.
The connection decision: Thunderbolt, 10GbE, or 2.5GbE
The storage capacity and drive selection are only half the decision. The connection between your Mac and the NAS determines whether it actually performs for editing. This is where most buyers make their most expensive mistake.
Thunderbolt (QNAP only). Direct-attach from your Mac to the NAS via Thunderbolt cable. No router or switch is required, but QNAP uses Thunderbolt Networking/T2E: the Mac connects by IP and mounts the NAS as a network share in Finder. Actual Thunderbolt-networking throughput varies with the NAS, RAID layout, drives, protocol, client, file size, and concurrent activity; benchmark the intended configuration rather than assuming fixed HDD or cache speeds. This is the right connection for sole Mac editors who need SSD-comparable editing speed. It's also the right answer for any editor who came from Drobo, which offered Thunderbolt before the company ceased operations in 2023.
10GbE Ethernet. Network connection delivering 850-950 MB/s of real-world throughput. The right answer for studios with two or more editors who need simultaneous NAS access. All editors connect their Macs to a 10GbE switch; the NAS connects to the same switch; everyone accesses footage over the network as if it were a shared drive. Requires a 10GbE switch ($300-$500 AUD) and potentially a 10GbE adapter for each Mac that doesn't have the port built in. Mac Studio includes one 10GbE port, and the 2023 Mac Pro includes two; verify the exact Mac model being connected.
2.5GbE. Built into most current NAS units and many home routers. Delivers 250-280 MB/s. Sufficient for sole editors working with H.264, H.265, or compressed BRAW. Whether 2.5GbE is sufficient depends on ProRes resolution, frame rate, stream count, storage performance, protocol overhead, and concurrent activity. Often the right starting point for editors who aren't yet cutting high-bitrate ProRes and aren't ready for the 10GbE infrastructure cost.
The full decision tree. Including codec-by-codec bandwidth requirements, team-size thresholds, and AU pricing for switches and adapters. Is in the Thunderbolt vs 10GbE guide.
Which NAS for Mac video editors in Australia?
For Mac editors, the brand shortlist is short. The Thunderbolt question narrows it immediately.
QNAP is the right choice for sole Mac editors who need direct-attach speed. QNAP and selected UGREEN NASync models offer Thunderbolt networking; availability, software maturity, support, and Australian distribution should be compared before recommending a platform. QNAP's relevant models for Australian buyers:
| QNAP TVS-h674T (6-bay, Thunderbolt 4, dual 2.5GbE, optional 10GbE via PCIe expansion) | ~$4,775 AUD diskless from QNAPShop Australia at the time of checking. Best single-editor Mac NAS available. |
|---|---|
| QNAP TVS-h874T (8-bay, Thunderbolt 4, dual 2.5GbE, optional 10GbE via PCIe expansion) | ~$3,500-$4,500 AUD. Scorptec, PLE. For studios with large archive capacity needs. |
| QNAP TS-464 (4-bay, 2.5GbE, no Thunderbolt) | ~$700-$850 AUD. Scorptec, Mwave, Umart. For editors who don't need Thunderbolt and are budget-conscious. |
| QNAP TS-h886 (six 3.5-inch plus two 2.5-inch bays, four built-in 2.5GbE ports, optional 10GbE via PCIe, no Thunderbolt) | ~$1,500-$1,900 AUD. Scorptec, PLE. For collaborative studios on 10GbE. |
Synology is competitive in collaborative studio scenarios where Thunderbolt isn't required. DSM (Synology's operating system) is widely praised for its cleaner, more intuitive interface compared to QNAP's QTS. Which matters when multiple people in a studio occasionally need to manage the NAS. Synology's Hybrid RAID (SHR) is also the closest equivalent to Drobo's BeyondRAID for editors who valued that flexibility. The key Synology models for collaborative studios:
| Synology DS925+ (4-bay, dual 2.5GbE; no 10GbE expansion slot) | The E10G22-T1-Mini is not compatible with this model. |
|---|---|
| Synology DS1525+ (5-bay, optional 10GbE expansion) | ~$900-$1,100 AUD. Scorptec, Mwave, PLE. |
| Synology DS1823xs+ (8-bay, 10GbE built-in) | ~$2,200-$2,600 AUD. Scorptec, PLE. Full 10GbE studio NAS with headroom for growth. |
The full QNAP vs Synology breakdown. Including macOS SMB compatibility, AU distributor availability, and a decision guide for every scenario. Is in the QNAP vs Synology for Mac video editing guide.
Once your NAS is configured, the step-by-step application setup guides cover the three main NLEs used by Australian creative professionals: DaVinci Resolve on NAS (PostgreSQL collaboration, file map, path mapping), Premiere Pro on NAS (Productions setup, cache rules, fixing Media Pending), and Final Cut Pro on NAS (safe storage patterns, SMB configuration, sparse disk image workaround).
Which drives to buy. And which to avoid
The NAS enclosure is only part of the purchase. The drives you install determine reliability, performance, and whether your warranty claim is accepted.
Buy: Seagate IronWolf or IronWolf Pro, WD Red Plus or WD Red Pro. These are NAS-rated drives designed for 24/7 operation, vibration compensation in multi-drive enclosures, and compatibility with NAS firmware. IronWolf Pro and WD Red Pro are the professional tier. Higher workload ratings, longer warranty (5 years vs 3 years), better suited for business-critical footage archives.
Do not buy: Consumer desktop drives (WD Blue, Seagate Barracuda), surveillance drives (optimised for sequential write, not random access editing), old mixed-capacity drives from previous builds, and SAS drives in SATA bays. Drives outside a NAS model's compatibility list may have limited support or functionality and can cause instability; warranty consequences depend on the vendor's terms and whether the component caused the failure.
The specific mistake that stings the most is SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives in a RAID array. Several WD Red models were quietly shipped with SMR technology. DMSMR behavior depends on the workload; it is particularly unsuitable for sustained random-write workloads such as ZFS resilvering, so verify the recording technology and NAS compatibility before purchase. Always verify CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) before purchasing. The NAS drive compatibility guide covers exactly which models to buy at current AU prices, the CMR/SMR distinction, and IronWolf Pro vs WD Red Pro for different workloads.
The three mistakes that sink AU NAS builds
Mistake 1. Wrong drives. Installing consumer desktop drives (WD Blue, Seagate Barracuda) in a NAS. These aren't rated for 24/7 operation, lack vibration compensation, and degrade severely during RAID rebuild. RAID rebuild time and secondary-failure risk vary with drive capacity, RAID level, array condition, controller, and workload. Keep a separate backup and use drives validated for the NAS. Buy IronWolf or WD Red Pro. Nothing else.
Mistake 2. Wrong connection. Buying a Thunderbolt NAS then connecting it over Ethernet, or buying a 2.5GbE NAS assuming it's fast enough for ProRes 4K HQ. The NAS hardware spec and the connection are two separate decisions. Confirm the full path. NAS port → cable → switch → Mac. Before buying. The connection speed guide covers every scenario with codec-level bandwidth requirements.
Mistake 3. Underestimating capacity. Buying a 4-bay NAS with 4TB drives because "that's 16TB, surely enough." After RAID 5 overhead it's 12TB usable. After six months of 4K footage it's full. NAS expansion mid-life is expensive and disruptive. Use the RAID capacity calculator and build in at least 12 months of runway beyond your current shooting volume.
Remote access and client delivery from your NAS
Both QNAP and Synology include remote access tools that let you share footage previews and deliverables with clients directly from your NAS. Without uploading to Frame.io, Dropbox, or WeTransfer. QNAP uses myQNAPcloud; Synology uses QuickConnect. Both give your NAS a stable internet address and handle the connection even if you're behind CGNAT (common on Australian NBN connections).
The honest caveat: Residential NBN upload speed varies widely by access technology, retail plan, congestion, and provider; check the actual service's measured upload speed. make live remote editing over the internet impractical for high-bitrate footage. ProRes 422 HQ bandwidth varies with frame dimensions and frame rate; calculate it for the footage being edited rather than using a single 186 MB/s figure. Upload throughput depends on the NBN technology and plan; use the service's measured upload rate rather than assuming 7-10 MB/s for an “NBN 100” connection. The gap is large. Remote access via NAS works well for compressed H.264 client review files, downloading final deliverables, and remote file management. Not for live streaming ProRes timelines. For a full setup guide covering myQNAPcloud, Tailscale, and how to handle CGNAT, see the QNAP remote access setup guide.
The data retention angle: turning storage cost into client revenue
Client contracts increasingly include data retention clauses. Retention periods vary by client and contract and should be confirmed before calculating capacity or pricing an archive service. For editors, this is a storage cost that most absorb silently. It doesn't have to be.
Editors who understand their own infrastructure costs can build a data retention service offering into their client quotes. The NAS that holds 100TB costs a fixed amount. The incremental cost of holding a client's 5TB archive for 12 months is calculable. And billable. The NAS infrastructure converts from a business expense into a revenue-generating service.
This framing is covered in detail. Determine whether the Australian Privacy Act 1988, the GDPR, or both apply to the particular business and client relationship; obtain legal review before supplying contract clauses. In the data retention guide for video production. It's the most unique business-model insight in this cluster and the article most likely to get shared in AU freelancer communities.
If you came from Drobo
Drobo was the NAS brand of choice for Mac-based creative professionals through the 2010s. Thunderbolt connectivity, simple BeyondRAID management, and the ability to mix drive sizes in a redundant pool made it the obvious choice for non-technical editors. Drobo ceased operations in 2023. If you're running a Drobo that's ageing or already failing, you need a migration plan now. Not when it fails with your footage on it.
QNAP is the natural replacement for Drobo users who depended on Thunderbolt. Synology's Hybrid RAID (SHR) is the closest operational equivalent to BeyondRAID for editors who valued flexible drive pool management over Thunderbolt specifically. Both paths have been taken by the Australian editing community; both have well-documented migration procedures. The Drobo alternatives guide covers the full replacement decision, including how to recover data from a failing Drobo before migrating.
What this costs in Australia: realistic budgets
At current listed prices, the enclosure-and-drive subtotal is about $3,435 AUD for the entry-level TS-464 build, $8,771 AUD for the Thunderbolt build before NVMe storage, and $10,925 AUD for a current six-drive 10GbE build before the switch, client adapters and cabling. A fully configured Australian setup can therefore start above $3,000 and readily exceed $10,000. Editors who come from the editing forums expecting this number aren't surprised. It's comparable to what they paid for their editing machine or camera body, and it's a decision they expect to last 5-7 years.
| Entry level. Sole editor, 2.5GbE, H.264 workflow | QNAP TS-464-8G ($1,039) + 4× IronWolf 8TB ($599 each; $2,396) = ~$3,435 AUD total. |
|---|---|
| Mid-range. Sole Mac editor, Thunderbolt, ProRes workflow | QNAP TVS-h674T-i5-32G ($4,775) + 4× IronWolf Pro 12TB ($999 each; $3,996) = ~$8,771 AUD before adding any NVMe SSDs. |
| Collaborative. Two editors, 10GbE studio | do not base a new build on the end-of-life TS-h886, which has four built-in 2.5GbE ports rather than built-in 10GbE. A current six-HDD-bay alternative with built-in 10GBASE-T is the TS-855X; QNAPShop lists it at $3,131 AUD but currently shows it as sold out. With 6× IronWolf Pro 16TB drives at $1,299 each, the NAS-and-drive subtotal is ~$10,925 AUD before a compatible switch, client adapters and cabling. Confirm stock and reprice the complete network before purchase. |
| Growth path. Start Thunderbolt, scale to 10GbE later | QNAP TVS-h674T ($2,300) + drives ($700) now. Add switch ($300) + adapters ($500) when second editor joins. No NAS replacement needed. |
All prices are approximate AUD from Scorptec, PLE, and Mwave. Last verified February 2026. Check retailer before purchasing as NAS pricing shifts with AUD/USD exchange rates. NAS hardware prices in Australia are fairly consistent across retailers. The meaningful differences are stock depth, pre-sales knowledge, and after-sales support, not price. For a $2,000+ purchase, buying from a specialist (Scorptec, PLE, DeviceDeal) over a marketplace seller provides meaningfully better recourse if something goes wrong. Australian Consumer Law protections apply to all purchases from Australian retailers and extend beyond manufacturer warranty periods where appropriate.
Use the RAID capacity calculator to model different bay count and drive size combinations before committing to a configuration.
Related reading: our NAS buyer's guide.
Architecture and engineering studios with large CAD or BIM workflows have similar NAS requirements to video editors. Our NAS for Architects and Engineers guide covers the right hardware and network setup for that use case.
Use our free Transfer Speed Estimator to estimate how long large transfers will take over your connection.
Want a complete build plan for your video editing NAS? Our Video Editing Studio Build Plan covers 10GbE setup, RAID throughput, multi-editor permissions, proxy workflow, and archive strategy. $39 AUD, instant PDF.
Related reading: our NAS storage for YouTube creators.
See also: our complete Synology NAS Australia guide.
See also: our complete QNAP NAS Australia guide.
Is a NAS worth it for a solo video editor in Australia?
Yes, once you're regularly generating more than 2-3TB of footage per month or working with clients who expect footage retention. The economics work because the NAS replaces multiple expenses: the ongoing cost of external drives (which accumulate), subscription costs for cloud storage (impractical for large video files on AU NBN), and the productivity cost of managing a disorganised drive collection. A NAS may remain useful for several years, but service life varies and drives, backups, capacity, networking, and firmware support require ongoing planning. The question isn't whether it's worth it. It's whether you're at the point where the drive system is already costing you time and reliability.
Can I edit ProRes 4K directly from a NAS?
Yes, with the right connection. ProRes 422 HQ does not have one universal 4K data rate; required throughput varies with frame dimensions and frame rate. Thunderbolt NAS throughput varies with the model, storage pool, cache mode, protocol, client, file size, and concurrent activity; do not assume a guaranteed 1,000 MB/s cache rate. ProRes 4K HQ plays back comfortably, and multiple streams are possible. Over 10GbE Ethernet (850-950 MB/s real-world), ProRes 4K HQ from a single editor is fine with bandwidth to spare. Over 2.5GbE, suitability depends on the ProRes frame size, frame rate, number of streams, storage performance, protocol overhead, and background activity. For ProRes workflows, Thunderbolt or 10GbE is the right investment.
What's the difference between RAID and backup?
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) protects against hardware failure. If one drive dies, the array keeps running and you replace the failed drive. RAID does not protect against accidental deletion, ransomware, file corruption, or theft. Backup is a separate copy of your data stored elsewhere. Ideally offsite or on a separate device. The rule widely used in professional storage is 3-2-1: three copies of data, on two different media types, with one offsite. A NAS in RAID 5 gives you one of those copies. A second NAS, an external drive kept offsite, or a cloud backup service for critical masters gives you the others. RAID and backup are complementary, not alternatives.
Does a NAS work with Final Cut Pro libraries?
Yes, with important caveats. Final Cut Pro libraries can use compatible SMB or NFS shared storage; performance depends on the server, storage pool, network path, client, and project workload rather than NVMe cache alone. FCP stores project assets, renders, and proxy media in a single library package. For large projects on slower connections, this can cause sluggish library loading and proxy generation. Best practice for NAS-based FCP workflows: keep the active library's footage and media on the NAS (where the NVMe cache handles active reads), but consider keeping render files and scratch on a local SSD to avoid network saturation during export. For ProRes-native workflows where render files are minimal, NAS-based libraries work well over Thunderbolt or 10GbE.
Can my NAS also handle Time Machine backups for the studio Macs?
Yes. Both QNAP and Synology support Time Machine over SMB or AFP, allowing multiple Macs to back up to a shared folder on the NAS. Create a dedicated Time Machine shared folder with a storage quota (to prevent Time Machine from consuming all available NAS space) and enable the Time Machine service in QTS or DSM. The NAS appears as a Time Machine destination in macOS System Settings. This is a useful secondary function but not a substitute for offsite backup of your footage archives. Time Machine can protect Mac system files and documents, but footage also needs a separate backup; RAID redundancy inside the NAS is not a backup.
How long does a NAS last? When should I replace it?
NAS enclosure service life varies with hardware reliability, operating environment, firmware support, performance needs, and capacity requirements. The drives inside are the more likely failure point and should be considered consumable: Ratings differ by product line: standard IronWolf is rated up to 180 TB/year with a three-year warranty, while current IronWolf Pro is rated up to 550 TB/year with five years; WD Red Pro is rated at 550 TB/year with five years. Replace drives individually as they age or fail (RAID tolerates one failed drive while you source a replacement); replace the enclosure when firmware support ends or your capacity requirements exceed what the enclosure can hold. Buying an 8-bay NAS when you need 4 bays gives you 4 empty slots to grow into before you need to replace anything. Often a better investment than a smaller unit you'll outgrow in 2 years.
The drives you put in your NAS matter as much as the enclosure. IronWolf vs WD Red Pro, CMR vs SMR, NAS-grade vs consumer. Get this wrong and performance and reliability both suffer.