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NASGRADE

Free download · buyer worksheet

The NAS Buyer’s Checklist

The one-page checklist we run every NAS purchase against — so you decide on specs, not marketing. Print it, walk any unit down it, and see the gaps before you spend on the wrong box.

What's inside

  • Every spec that actually decides a buy: bays, iGPU/QuickSync, RAM ceiling, ECC, 10GbE, drive-lock
  • The transcode check — will it do 4K, and how many streams
  • A power line: idle-watts and the annual cost that runs 24/7
  • The buy-once sizing prompt so you don’t migrate a full array next year
  • Bays now vs. bays in two years
  • iGPU with QuickSync?
  • CMR drives only
  • RAID level + failures survived
  • ECC — needed for your filesystem?
  • 10GbE — can the storage feed it?
  • Drive-lock — locked or open?
  • Idle-watts + annual power cost
  • UPS sized to load (sine-wave)
  • 3-2-1 backup plan in place