Storage & NAS

This section connects those choices in the order they need to be made. Start with the NAS operating-system comparison if the machine does not have a platform yet.

If Proxmox is already the base layer, use the storage-backend comparison instead; it answers a narrower question about where storage services should run.

The NVMe Expansion Compatibility Checker in Drives & Capacity currently covers four named ASUS boards and only their cited CPU-group and slot combinations. It does not infer passive-card support for another board from the chipset or the physical slot width.

Make the recovery plan before the parts list

Decide which data is replaceable, which data needs a second local copy, and which data needs an off-site copy before choosing a RAID layout.

RAID is only one layer: it keeps a pool available through certain drive failures, but it does not undo deletion, corruption, theft, or a mistake replicated across the array.

The RAID capacity calculator shows usable space and fault tolerance; the backup-tool comparison covers the separate recovery layer.

Once that plan is clear, move to the build and drive guides. Size the chassis and ports for the number of disks the pool will actually need, compare drive cost with the dated HDD price index, and include continuous power draw in the budget. That sequence prevents a cheap parts list from locking the system into the wrong OS, capacity, or recovery model.