Replacing NAS With Windows PC - Need Recommended Custom-Build Site

glasskuter · Mar 9, 2026

@nuspieds From your description you're prepared to spend thousands to build such a NAS setup that will be used for nothing but backups. While I don't understand it, it's your thing and it seems you have made up your mind how you want to go about it so, I'm not here to change your mind. My only advise to you is to use NVMEs optimized for NAS storage.

Western Digital Red SN700 nas nvme - (also comes as sata ssd)
Seagate IronWolf nas nvme

These say they are nas-optimized as well, but I have no knowledge of the brand's reliability
TeamGroup MP44
Gigastone Enterprise / Pro

Samsung 990 PRO and Samsung 990 EVO PLUS are NOT NAS-optimized but are often used anyway

If you go with HDDs, WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf Red are good.

I wouldn't use Windows 11 OS either, but TrueNas, a Linux distro designed for NAS.

nuspieds · Mar 15, 2026

glasskuter said:
Western Digital Red SN700 nas nvme - (also comes as sata ssd)
Seagate IronWolf nas nvme

Thanks for these suggestions, @glasskuter!

I had already settled on NVMe but have no experience regarding which brands are better but for my QNAP, I'm using WD Red HDDs.

For the record, the NAS configuration I have and would want again is also in the 4-digit price tag. But, yeah, my NAS is predominantly for storing my backups and other important files.

nuspieds · Mar 15, 2026

hdmi said:
My suggestion: use StableBit DrivePool instead of Storage Spaces.

Thank you, @hdmi!

I currently have RAID 5 for my QNAP and learned about Storage Spaces so that I would be able to setup the same in Windows. But I never heard of DrivePool and, after looking it up, wow, it certainly is interesting!

I found a reddit post stating that with full duplication, DrivePool ensures that the duplicate files are stored on different physical drives, so I do get my RAID 5 functionality (as in I can lose a drive without any loss of data), correct? But now that I think about it, what happens with DrivePool when I would replace that defective drive? As with RAID, does it automatically rebuild?

hdmi · Mar 16, 2026

RAID 5 doesn't duplicate files. Rarther, it uses parity data to rebuild the array if only one disk fails within the array. This parity data is spread across all the disks within the array. When compared to "full" duplication, RAID 5 gives the advantage that the parity data takes up significantly less storage space than storing each file twice. However, RAID 5 has multiple drawbacks, and one of these drawbacks is that a lot of persistent misconceptions exist about RAID 5.

In StableBit DrivePool, choosing to let its protection use full duplication so it protects all the files in the pool without any exceptions is the best option if you prefer high reliability plus easy replacement of a defective drive. I believe this page answers pretty much all questions about replacing a drive in it:

StableBit - The home of StableBit CloudDrive, StableBit DrivePool and the StableBit Scanner

stablebit.com

Also, DrivePool plays exceptionally nice with BitLocker Drive Encryption.

nuspieds · Mar 16, 2026

You know, I haven't been intrigued and excited like this about software since forever, it seems like!

Thanks for the link...I read through other parts of the manual to get a better understanding and, wow, I am sold!

Yeah, I know RAID 5 uses parity data and I've had to replace a bad disk, and it truly was seamless! Having this RAID functionality was my biggest concern when setting up this new PC because I have never done it before and in the QNAP, it's just a matter of clicking some options because it is native functionality. So that's when I landed on an article about Storage Spaces as the way to achieve it.

The file duplication across the entire pool certainly meets my needs but it is even more impressive that you can also do it at the folder level. Wow!

hdmi said:
Also, DrivePool plays exceptionally nice with BitLocker Drive Encryption.

This is great to know but I was surprised not to see it covered in the manual, as I'm sure there must be some considerations and/or things to be aware of when using BitLocker.

Again, thanks for the reference!

x509 · Mar 16, 2026

Fishmill said:
They have limited locations. Very few in the western half of the US. I think they will build whatever you want for the cost of the parts plus X. I am not sure what X is.

Microcenter is doing an almost complete rebuild, including a new case and motherboard. X=$300 flat rate. By the way, they charged $80 to do a diagnosis of my system, and identified the motherboard as the culprit for a non-functioning system. At least at my local store, the service (and rebuild) guys are friendly and very knowledgeable.

Fishmill said:
Prices generally are VERY competitive.

hdmi · Mar 17, 2026

nuspieds said:
but I was surprised not to see it covered in the manual, as I'm sure there must be some considerations and/or things to be aware of when using BitLocker.

First, make sure that drive C: is fully protected with BitLocker (verify that the encryption has completed successfully for the drive). Next, if we can assume that your PC has TPM 2.0, you can run the PowerShell script below as an administrator to enable BitLocker with Auto-unlock on each of the five storage drives (for that, you can adjust the 1st line of the script as needed). You will be prompted to set a password for each of the drives, make sure to remember these passwords. (You can choose to use the same password for them all if that's what you prefer.) Optionally, you can use a password manager to keep the passwords, but then you also need to ensure that the password manager is reliable. The script also generates (on your desktop) a text file containing the recovery keys. Make sure to keep them in a safe spot (why I told you to protect drive C: before you run the script). Otherwise, anyone can use your recovery keys to steal your data.

Powershell:

$poolDrives = "E", "F", "G", "H", "I"
$backupPath = "$env:UserProfile\Desktop\BitLocker_Recovery_keys.txt"
foreach ($drive in $poolDrives) {
    Write-Host "--- Drive $($drive): ---"
    $result = manage-bde -on "$($drive):" -Password -RecoveryPassword
    $result | Out-File -FilePath $BackupPath -Append
    manage-bde -autounlock -enable "$($drive):"
    Write-Host "Recovery key for $($drive): is in `"$BackupPath`"" -ForegroundColor Cyan
}

Depending on the speed of the drives and how much data you have stored on them, the encryption can take a while to complete. It will automatically resume where it left off if you reboot while it is still in progress. If you want, you can monitor its progress on each of the five storage drives.

Powershell:

while($true) {
    Clear-Host
    Write-Host "--- BitLocker Encryption Status Monitor ---`n" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    $drives = Get-BitLockerVolume | Where-Object { $_.VolumeType -eq 'Data' }
    foreach ($volume in $drives) {
        $percent = $volume.ProtectionStatus
        $progress = $volume.EncryptionPercentage
        $status = $volume.VolumeStatus
        Write-Host "Drive $($volume.MountPoint)" -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Yellow
        Write-Host " [$status]" -NoNewline
        if ($progress -lt 100) {
            Write-Host " - $progress% encrypted" -ForegroundColor White
        } else {
            Write-Host " - 100% encrypted" -ForegroundColor Green
        }
    }
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 10
}

Each time when the PC starts up, as soon as you go in Windows so that drive C: will be unlocked, BitLocker will automatically unlock the five storage drives so, next, StableBit DrivePool will recognize them immediately.

Do not enable BitLocker on the pool itself.

If you move one of these drives to a different PC, you can use the recovery key to get in. Before you do, make sure that this different PC is protected. You don't want to proliferate your sensitive data onto an unprotected C: drive or onto a PC that is rife with security holes. A lot also depends on the environment (the kind of security factors that are external to the PC).

Win7ine · Mar 17, 2026

Just finished setting up something you may want to consider: Ugreen DXP4800 + now running Windows 11 Pro after adding 8GB DDR5 to the stock 8GB.
It has a total of 3 NVME PCie 4 slots (2 easily accesible, 1 is occupied with the original 128GB SSD with UGOS O/S ) and 4 bays for 3.5" SATA HD's.
Also it offers two ethernet ports: 2.5Gb (i226) and 10Gb(Marvell AQC113C)

hdmi · Mar 17, 2026

Win7ine said:
Just finished setting up something you may want to consider: Ugreen DXP4800 + now running Windows 11 Pro after adding 8GB DDR5 to the stock 8GB.
It has a total of 3 NVME PCie 4 slots (2 easily accesible, 1 is occupied with the original 128GB SSD with UGOS O/S ) and 4 bays for 3.5" SATA HD's.
Also it offers two ethernet ports: 2.5Gb (i226) and 10Gb(Marvell AQC113C)

He said he needs 6 NVMe slots instead of only 3, though. If I had an oil well sitting in my backyard, I would build my own PC with an Asus ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming WiFi and an Asus ROG M.2 PowerBoost module and call it a day, but he also said that he doesn't want to build stuff so, that's that I guess...

Install up to seven M.2 SSDs on one motherboard with new ROG M.2 PowerBoost tech

Here's how ROG M.2 PowerBoost allows you to install more M.2 drives in one system while enjoying more stable performance.

rog.asus.com

nuspieds · Mar 20, 2026

hdmi said:
First, make sure that drive C: is fully protected with BitLocker (verify that the encryption has completed successfully for the drive). ...

Yes, I do this now on my laptop (My Windows drive and two other data drives are all BitLocker-encrypted with auto-unlock) but my preference is to manually encrypt and monitor.

hdmi said:
Do not enable BitLocker on the pool itself.

After reading various parts of the manual from the link you had provided, it was clear that the pool itself is separate from the physical disks themselves and that is why, in the case of BitLocker, I would have expected at least the same type of verbiage, as you mentioned, in the documentation.

But, anyway, it all seems very seamless and I can't wait to try it out!

nuspieds · Mar 20, 2026

hdmi said:
He said he needs 6 NVMe slots instead of only 3, though. If I had an oil well sitting in my backyard, I would build my own PC with an Asus ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming WiFi and an Asus ROG M.2 PowerBoost module and call it a day, but he also said that he doesn't want to build stuff so, that's that I guess...

Install up to seven M.2 SSDs on one motherboard with new ROG M.2 PowerBoost tech

Here's how ROG M.2 PowerBoost allows you to install more M.2 drives in one system while enjoying more stable performance.

rog.asus.com

Or, you could build me one!

In all seriousness, now that you brought StableBit DrivePool to my awareness, the number of NVMe slots I require would change (as in reduced).

You see, the reason I originally mentioned 6 NVMe slots is because I wanted to replicate RAID 5, I thought Windows Storage Spaces was the only way to go, and per my understanding, the OS drive cannot be included in Storage Spaces; consequently 1 (OS) + 5 (RAID) = 6 NVMe slots.

But now that I am more than content with the DrivePool file duplication functionality, 4 NVMe slots would be perfectly fine (3 would be my absolute floor but there would have to be a drastic cost savings).

hdmi · Mar 20, 2026

nuspieds said:
Or, you could build me one!

In all seriousness, now that you brought StableBit DrivePool to my awareness, the number of NVMe slots I require would change (as in reduced).

You see, the reason I originally mentioned 6 NVMe slots is because I wanted to replicate RAID 5, I thought Windows Storage Spaces was the only way to go, and per my understanding, the OS drive cannot be included in Storage Spaces; consequently 1 (OS) + 5 (RAID) = 6 NVMe slots.

But now that I am more than content with the DrivePool file duplication functionality, 4 NVMe slots would be perfectly fine (3 would be my absolute floor but there would have to be a drastic cost savings).

Storage Spaces with "Parity" is notoriously slow so, generally, it is recommended only for "cold" or archival storage even though performance can be improved in enterprise settings using SSD write-back caching, and, another way to improve performance is mirror-accelerated parity in Windows Server (ReFS), which uses a mirror layer for incoming writes and later converts them to parity for storage efficiency (as parity sacrifices less storage capacity than mirroring). Storage Spaces with "2-way mirroring" works well with ReFS, but there are some pitfalls (for example, enabling the integrity streams with inheritance for an existing folder does not automatically add the integrity streams for existing files in that folder, and, for another example, if the power goes down, ReFS, DRT, and transactional metadata might not always be enough to avoid the so-called "write hole" so then you'd be looking at things like adding an UPS, turning off disk write cache, SSD write-back cache implemented in a separate storage tier, etc.).

nuspieds · Mar 21, 2026

And to think I was headed down the Storage Spaces path because I thought that was the only option.

Thanks again, @hdmi, for all the insights and details but, most of all, thanks for the DrivePool recommendation!

Replacing NAS With Windows PC - Need Recommended Custom-Build Site

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