From QNAP to TrueNAS
This is a short overview of how my QNAP server evolved into the system it is today. It received more memory, a new OS, an additional PCIe module, and more.
Getting Started
A few years ago, I decided to move out of the cloud and bring my data home. As an admin with limited experience at the time, I chose to play it safe and bought a QNAP TS-453B NAS. Here’s a quick hardware rundown:
- CPU: Intel® Celeron® J3455, 4-core 1.5 GHz (burst up to 2.3 GHz), 64-bit x86
- GPU: Intel® HD Graphics 500
- Max Memory: 8 GB (2 × 4 GB SODIMM DDR3L)
- Drive Bays: 4 × 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s
- M.2 Slot: Optional via PCIe adapter
- Power Usage: ~30W (typical)
I chose this NAS mainly for its ability to use hardware transcoding in Plex (which probably deserves its own write-up 😄). For storage, I installed:
- 4× Seagate IronWolf 4TB NAS drives (RAID 5)
This setup worked well initially. Plex ran smoothly with transcoding, and performance was decent—but I soon hit the 8 GB RAM ceiling.
1. Memory Upgrade
Despite QNAP and Intel’s specs stating 8 GB as the max RAM, I decided to test the limits. I purchased:
- 2× 8GB Kingston KHX1866C11S3P1K2 (DDR3L, low voltage)
After installing and nervously powering on the NAS... it booted. Everything ran smoothly, and years later, it’s still perfectly stable.
2. PCIe SSD Module Upgrade
I wanted better performance, especially write speeds. Knowing the TS-453B supports an additional PCIe module, I installed:
- Dual M.2 PCIe adapter
- 2× Kingston SA2000M8/250G NVMe SSDs
My plan was to use them as cache, and they’ve been rock solid to this day.
3. OS Change: TrueNAS
With increasing concerns over QNAP security vulnerabilities, I decided it was time for a change. My goal: install a new OS (TrueNAS) on the SSDs in RAID 1.
Unfortunately, the TS-453B can’t boot from PCIe SSDs—at least not easily. Replacing the DOM was an option, but too risky. Instead, I opted for USB boot:
- 2× SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 (64GB)
- One for the installer, one for the OS
After backing up my data, I installed TrueNAS Core, reconfigured the drives as RAIDZ1, and now enjoy 10.44 TiB usable capacity.
Later, I upgraded to TrueNAS SCALE and have been running it happily ever since. Even SMB performance improved—I now saturate my 1 Gbps home network.
What's Next?
I might post more details about my current setup, including configurations and benchmarks. For now, I'm just glad to have a reliable, performant, and self-managed NAS at home.
