u/bluepr0

I have been researching which NAS I would buy in 2026, so I put together a comparison of current-ish x86 NAS models from brands like AOOSTAR, UGREEN, Minisforum, Beelink, ACEMAGIC, TerraMaster, LincPlus and ZimaCube.

The goal was not to crown one universal winner. I wanted a practical shortlist depending on number of bays, price, CPU, network, M.2 slots and whether the machine is flexible enough to run something like TrueNAS, Proxmox, Linux, etc.

Criteria

• x86 only. No ARM.
• 2 to 6 main 3.5" drive bays.
• Must have a clear way to install the OS on eMMC, SSD, NVMe or a dedicated system drive without sacrificing a main data bay.
• No Synology, QNAP, Asustor or UniFi in this comparison. I wanted more open/flexible x86 boxes.
• No all-flash / 0-bay units in the main table.
• No models above roughly 1,200 EUR once normalized.
• Prices were taken from official manufacturer stores.

Price normalization

One annoying part of comparing these devices is that some come ready to use, while others are barebone.

So I used a minimum baseline:

• 2-4 bay NAS: at least 8 GB RAM + system storage path.
• 5-6 bay NAS: at least 16 GB RAM + system storage path.
• 8 GB DDR4: 85 EUR.
• 8 GB DDR5: 125 EUR.
• 16 GB DDR5: 250 EUR.
• 256 GB NVMe: 50 EUR.

This is not perfect equivalence. If a NAS already includes more RAM, more system storage, better networking or more M.2 slots, I leave that as an advantage. I only add what is needed to reach a basic usable baseline.

Value metric

For a rough CPU value metric I used:

Global/EUR = sqrt(Geekbench Single x Geekbench Multi) / normalized total price

I used the geometric mean so single-core and multi-core both matter without manually deciding a weighting. This is not an official Geekbench score and it is not a universal "best NAS" score. It is just a value indicator.

Also, comparing a 4-bay and a 6-bay NAS purely by CPU/EUR is not perfectly fair. You still need to choose based on bays, networking, OS, expansion, noise, power consumption, support, etc.

Top results by CPU performance per euro

Rank	Model	Bays	CPU	Normalized price	Global/EUR
1	Minisforum N5 Air	5	Ryzen 7 255	769.00 EUR	7.24
2	AOOSTAR WTR Pro	4	Ryzen 7 5825U	467.49 EUR	7.07
3	Beelink ME Pro N95	2	Intel N95	332.49 EUR	6.02
4	AOOSTAR WTR Max AMD	6	Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS	878.12 EUR	5.76
5	UGREEN DXP4800 Pro	4	Core i3-1315U	679.99 EUR	5.40

Cheapest models after normalization

Rank	Model	Bays	CPU	Base price	Normalized price	Global/EUR
1	Beelink ME Pro N95	2	Intel N95	332.49 EUR	332.49 EUR	6.02
2	UGREEN DXP2800	2	Intel N100	379.99 EUR	379.99 EUR	5.12
3	ACEMAGIC N3A	4	Ryzen Embedded R2544	279.00 EUR	414.00 EUR	4.45
4	UGREEN DXP2800 GT	2	Ryzen Embedded R2514	429.99 EUR	429.99 EUR	4.00
5	LincPlus LincStation S1	4	Intel N97	459.00 EUR	459.00 EUR	4.34

By category

2-bay

Model	CPU	RAM / system	Network	M.2	Normalized price	Global/EUR
Beelink ME Pro N95	Intel N95	12 GB LPDDR5 + 128 GB SSD	5GbE + 2.5GbE	3x NVMe	332.49 EUR	6.02
UGREEN DXP2800	Intel N100	8 GB DDR5 + 32 GB eMMC	1x 2.5GbE	2x NVMe	379.99 EUR	5.12
UGREEN DXP2800 GT	Ryzen Embedded R2514	8 GB DDR4 + 64 GB eMMC	1x 10GbE	2x NVMe	429.99 EUR	4.00
TerraMaster F2-424	Intel N95	8 GB DDR5 + added NVMe	2x 2.5GbE	2x NVMe	462.31 EUR	3.94

4-bay

Model	CPU	RAM / system	Network	M.2	Normalized price	Global/EUR
AOOSTAR WTR Pro	Ryzen 7 5825U	Barebone + RAM/NVMe added	2x 2.5GbE	2x NVMe	467.49 EUR	7.07
UGREEN DXP4800 Pro	Core i3-1315U	8 GB DDR5 + 128 GB SSD	10GbE + 2.5GbE	2x NVMe	679.99 EUR	5.40
UGREEN DXP4800 Plus	Pentium Gold 8505	8 GB DDR5 + 128 GB SSD	10GbE + 2.5GbE	2x NVMe	619.99 EUR	4.96
ACEMAGIC N3A	Ryzen Embedded R2544	Barebone + RAM/NVMe added	2.5GbE + 1GbE	2x NVMe	414.00 EUR	4.45
LincPlus LincStation S1	Intel N97	8 GB DDR5 + 128 GB eMMC	2x 2.5GbE	2x NVMe	459.00 EUR	4.34
TerraMaster F4-425 Pro	Intel Core 3 N350	16 GB DDR5 + added NVMe	2x 5GbE	3x NVMe	723.73 EUR	3.44
UGREEN DXP4800 GT	Ryzen Embedded R2514	8 GB DDR4 + 64 GB eMMC	2x 10GbE	2x NVMe	559.99 EUR	3.08

5-bay

Model	CPU	RAM / system	Network	M.2	Normalized price	Global/EUR
Minisforum N5 Air	Ryzen 7 255	16 GB DDR5 + 64 GB system SSD	10GbE + 5GbE	3x M.2/U.2	769.00 EUR	7.24
Minisforum N5 Pro	Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370	16 GB DDR5 + 128 GB system SSD	10GbE + 5GbE	3x M.2/U.2	1,199.00 EUR	4.93

6-bay

Model	CPU	RAM / system	Network	M.2	Normalized price	Global/EUR
AOOSTAR WTR Max AMD	Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS	Barebone + RAM/NVMe added	2x 10GbE SFP+ + 2x 2.5GbE	5x NVMe	878.12 EUR	5.76
AOOSTAR WTR Max Intel	Core i5-1235U	Barebone + RAM/NVMe added	2x 10GbE SFP+ + 2x 2.5GbE	5x NVMe	790.39 EUR	4.03
TerraMaster F6-425 Pro	Core i3-1315U	8 GB DDR5 + added RAM/NVMe	2x 10GbE	3x NVMe	1,017.17 EUR	3.61
ZimaCube 2 Standard	Core i3-1215U	8 GB DDR5 + 256 GB SSD + added RAM	TB4, no 10GbE according to FAQ	SSD + dedicated 7th SSD bay	825.94 EUR	3.55
ZimaCube 2 Pro	Core i5-1235U	16 GB DDR5 + 256 GB SSD	10GbE + 2x 2.5GbE + TB4	4 SSD slots / 7th SSD bay	1,139.57 EUR	2.80

My current takeaways

• Best raw value in my table: AOOSTAR WTR Pro, but it is barebone.
• Most interesting 6-bay / all-in-one option: AOOSTAR WTR Max AMD, mainly because of CPU, 5x NVMe and 2x SFP+ 10GbE.
• Best "cleaner" 4-bay option from a more mainstream NAS brand/store: UGREEN DXP4800 Pro.
• Cheapest interesting 4-bay: ACEMAGIC N3A, but I would treat it more like a direct NAS rather than assuming Proxmox + virtualized TrueNAS will be painless.

For example, a NAS can score very well on CPU/EUR and still be a bad choice for someone who wants something quiet, plug-and-play and supported for years.

What would you pick?

If you were buying an x86 NAS in 2026, what would you choose?

Would you prioritize:

• lowest price,
• 10GbE / SFP+,
• number of bays,
• Proxmox/TrueNAS flexibility,
• low power consumption,
• or a polished ready-to-use OS?

I also made a video about it (Spanish but English track available) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc2rRS8GxAc

I’ve been testing the Minisforum MS-01 as a compact “do everything” homelab box.

The idea was simple: can one mini PC realistically run all my network and homelab services, including the NAS?

In the video I tested:

• Proxmox as the main hypervisor
• TrueNAS virtualized as the NAS
• 2x NVMe drives in mirror
• Intel vPro / AMT for remote KVM access
• Idle and stress temperatures
• Noise levels
• Geekbench before and after changing the thermal paste for a thermal pad

A few takeaways:

• The MS-01 is not really in the same category as a cheap mini PC.
• The connectivity is the main reason it is interesting: SFP+, RJ45, Thunderbolt/USB4, PCIe and multiple M.2 slots.
• Virtualized TrueNAS worked well for this setup.
• vPro/AMT is old-looking, but very useful when you need access before the OS boots.
• The thermal pad helped, especially under load.
• It is not silent under stress, but the performance/connectivity/size combo is pretty strong.

Results before the thermal pad

Test	Power	CPU temp	Noise	Geekbench 6
Idle	15 W	40 C	35 dBA	-
CPU stress	74 W	78 C	45 dBA	2671 single / 12525 multi

Results after the thermal pad

Test	Power	CPU temp	Noise	Geekbench 6
Idle	15 W	35 C	35 dBA	-
CPU stress	74 W	71 C	40 dBA	2732 single / 12688 multi

So in my case, the thermal pad mainly helped under load:

• CPU stress temperature went from 78 C to 71 C
• Stress noise went from 45 dBA to 40 dBA
• Power stayed basically the same
• Geekbench improved slightly, from 2671 / 12525 to 2732 / 12688

The video is in Spanish, but it has a translated English audio track available:

https://youtu.be/YMvysYODqmo

I recently rebuilt my homelab rack and used the opportunity to make the rack lighting actually useful, not just decorative.

The project is called Rack Assistant. It is an ESPHome-based firmware for an ESP32 LED controller that uses an addressable RGBW LED strip inside the rack to show status, warnings and per-rack-unit alerts.

Hardware

The rack is a 15U enclosed 19" rack, 600 mm wide and 800 mm deep.

For the lighting/control part I’m using:

• ESP32-based addressable LED controller
• Addressable RGBW LED strip mounted around the inside of the rack
• Separate power supply sized for the LED strip voltage/current
• Door/contact sensor exposed in Home Assistant
• Home Assistant as the automation layer
• ESPHome for the firmware running on the ESP32

The LED strip starts at the bottom-right of the rack and goes around the inside perimeter clockwise. In the firmware I define the LED ranges for the bottom, left side, top and right side. The two vertical sides are then mapped to the 15 rack units, so the firmware knows which LEDs correspond to each U position.

What It Does

The rack can run normal status effects, such as a soft blue breathing animation, but it can also react to events from Home Assistant.

Current features:

• Normal breathing/status effects
• Bright white work light when the rack door opens
• Smooth transition back to the previous state when the door closes
• Warning/error/success effects
• Internet-down effect
• Zone selection: whole rack, sides, top, bottom or selected U range
• Per-U alerts, for example U3-U4 in red if a NAS has an issue
• Configurable breathing brightness and cycle duration
• Rack-unit calibration inside the firmware

The idea is that Home Assistant handles the logic and the ESP32 handles the visual output. For example, HA can monitor Proxmox, NAS sensors, UPS state, network status or temperature, then tell the rack to show a visual alert.

Example Automations

Some examples I’m planning or already testing:

• If the rack door opens, switch the rack to bright white lighting.
• If internet goes down, show a red warning effect.
• If a UPS is on battery, mark the U positions where the UPS is installed.
• If a NAS disk or temperature alert triggers, mark only the U positions used by that NAS.
• If an issue clears, run a green success animation and return to the previous normal breathing mode.

Why I Built It

In a small 15U rack this is partly overkill, but it becomes useful when multiple devices are stacked close together. Instead of only getting an alert on a dashboard, the rack itself can point to the physical area that needs attention.

It also keeps everything local: ESPHome runs on the ESP32, Home Assistant provides the events, and the rack does not need any cloud service.

I made a video showing the rack build and the project in action. The video is in Spanish, but YouTube auto-translated English subtitles are available.

Links

• GitHub / firmware project: https://github.com/jcastro/rack-assistant
• Demo/build video: https://youtu.be/yduEquOz8uc

The video is in Spanish, but YouTube’s auto-translated English audio track are available and should be enough to follow the build and the Rack Assistant demo.

I’ve been testing the AOOSTAR MACO 6850H as a small Proxmox / home server mini PC and wanted to share some actual numbers, including a rough comparison against a few similar systems.

Disclosure: AOOSTAR sent me the unit. This is not an affiliate post and I’m not linking to any store here. I also can’t speak for long-term reliability or customer support yet, only for the unit I tested.

Tested config

• AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H
• 8 cores / 16 threads
• 24 GB RAM
• 1 TB Samsung NVMe SSD
• 2 x Intel I226-V 2.5 GbE
• USB4
• OCuLink
• Multiple M.2 options
• Tested with Proxmox VE 9.1.9

My use case was not gaming, but homelab / Proxmox: VMs, LXC containers, Home Assistant, Docker services, networking and low idle power.

Power and thermals

• Idle power: 10.3 W average
• Idle CPU temperature: 43.3 C average
• CPU stress power: 63.2 W average, 76.3 W peak
• CPU stress temperature: 71.4 C average, 74.9 C max

Geekbench 6

• Single-core: 2024
• Multi-core: 9618
• Public result: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/17828559

NVMe

The NVMe link negotiates at PCIe 4.0 x4. In a non-destructive read test I got around 6072 MB/s, so at least on the read side the slot does not appear to be artificially limited.

Network

Both NICs are Intel I226-V 2.5 GbE. For a small Proxmox box, this is one of the things I like most about it. I generally prefer dual Intel NICs over random single-NIC mini PCs if the machine is going to run 24/7 as a server.

IOMMU / passthrough

IOMMU was enabled and the grouping looked useful for a mini PC:

• Intel NICs in separate useful groups
• NVMe in a useful group
• Radeon 680M also usable

I would not buy this only as a heavy passthrough box, but for a Proxmox homelab it is a good sign.

Rough comparison

I tried to compare complete systems with RAM + SSD where possible. Prices change all the time, so treat this as a snapshot, not a permanent ranking.

Mini PC	Approx. price	Config	CPU / GB6 multi	GB6 multi per EUR	Network
AOOSTAR MACO 6850H	376 EUR	24 GB + 1 TB	Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H / 9618	25.6	2 x Intel I226-V 2.5G
GMKtec NucBox M8	360 EUR	16 GB + 512 GB	Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H / 7361	20.4	2 x Realtek 2.5G, USB4, OCuLink
Beelink EQR7	478 EUR	24 GB + 1 TB	Ryzen 7 7735HS / 8684	18.2	network specs unclear / mixed listings
CHUWI UBox	440 EUR	16 GB + 512 GB	Ryzen 5 6600H / 7485	17.0	2 x 2.5G, USB4
GMKtec M7 Ultra	440 EUR	16 GB + 512 GB	Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U / 7450	16.9	2 x Intel 2.5G

This is not a perfect comparison because these machines differ in RAM, SSD, ports, BIOS, cooling and availability. But it gives a useful idea of where the MACO lands: it is not just good because of the CPU, but because the full package is strong for the price.

Cheap N100 / N150 comparison

N100/N150 systems are a different category, but I still looked at them because they are often recommended as first Proxmox boxes.

Mini PC	Approx. price	CPU / GB6 multi	GB6 multi per EUR	Notes
CHUWI LarkBox X N150	158 EUR	Intel N150 / 3010	19.0	Best value if it is actually available at this price
GMKtec G2 Plus N150	210 EUR	Intel N150 / 3010	14.3	Interesting if it returns under 200 EUR
GMKtec G3 N100	200 EUR	Intel N100 / 2595	13.0	Reasonable starter box if available
Beelink EQ14 N150	367 EUR	Intel N150 / 3010	8.2	Too close to Ryzen pricing for the performance

My take on this

If you can find a complete N100/N150 box for around 180-220 EUR, it still makes sense. It is enough for learning Proxmox, Home Assistant, Pi-hole, lightweight containers, Jellyfin, etc.

But once N150 systems get close to 350-370 EUR, the value proposition changes completely. For almost the same money, the MACO gives roughly 3.2x the Geekbench multi-core performance of an N150 system like the EQ14, plus much better expansion and networking.

What I liked

• Very low idle power for an 8c/16t Ryzen
• Strong CPU performance for the price range
• Dual Intel 2.5G
• USB4 and OCuLink
• Good NVMe read performance
• Useful IOMMU grouping
• Good fit for Proxmox, VMs and LXC containers

Things to keep in mind

• It is a mini PC, not a NAS chassis
• 24 GB RAM is enough for many homelabs (but it's soldered), but less flexible than 32/64 GB upgradeable systems
• I have not tested long-term reliability yet
• I did not measure fan noise with a dB meter
• If you only need a very small starter node, a cheaper N100/N150 can still be enough

My conclusion

If your budget is very tight, I would still look for a cheap N100/N150.

But if you are already around the 350-400 EUR range, the AOOSTAR MACO 6850H is one of the more balanced mini PCs I’ve tested for a Proxmox / home server setup: low idle power, strong CPU, dual Intel 2.5G, USB4, OCuLink and enough expansion to feel like a real homelab node rather than just a tiny starter box.

Youtube Video