After both my HP Microservers started acting up and the expense of other 'proper' NAS devices I decided to downsize to a piNas with dual USB 3.0 SSDs for storage, so inaudible.
Based it on a Raspberry Pi 4 4gb for £40ish and another £20 or so for the case, power supply, 32gb microSD card for OS/boot. Admittedly the 2TB SSD cost £130 and could have had a 2.5" HDD equivalent for half the price but I prefer a silent solution.
Did get a couple of other microSD cards to try different stuff, just swap cards for a different OS.
After trying Twister OS I went back to Raspbian and set up DLNA, SAMBA, and Plex Server for now. Replaced most of my TV streaming devices with a Roku 4k capable stick which has a Plex client app, along with all the other main streaming apps (NowTV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, ...), so now have a minimised set up that does all I need for now.
Setting up the stuff on Raspbian is easy enough using the online guides, though using the command line (Linux) feels cute in an old skool way. I set up RDP so can leave the piNas always on and remote desktop in from my main PC to do any tweaking or install new software.
So I don't see the point or feel the need to spend hundreds on say a Synology NAS or other poncy overpriced 'prosumer' gear. The only thing they may offer is beefier cpu for transcoding but I've re-encoded my old stuff to h.264 mp4 that is broadly compatible so no transcoding required.
Works for me, for now.
