2 months ago
- Soldered LPDDR RAM on x86 NAS eliminates memory upgrades, creating a permanent ceiling for heavy workloads and a single point of failure.
- Persistent 1GbE ports in mid-range NAS, with 10GbE locked behind high price premiums, using multi-gigabit as an artificial segmentation tool.
- Vendor drive lock-in policies restrict third-party HDD/SSD usage, requiring proprietary drives for full features, increasing costs.
- Fixed low-capacity OS drives (eMMC, UFS 3.1, or small M.2) create a permanent failure point and consume expansion slots.
- PCIe lane throttling and mismatched connectivity: advertised high-speed ports are often wired to slower lanes, causing severe bandwidth bottlenecks.
- Recycled hardware generations: old architectures re-released with minimal changes (e.g., swapping 1GbE for 2.5GbE) but no genuine platform upgrades.
- Hard drive capacity squeeze: smaller drives phased out, high-capacity drives diverted to enterprise, leaving a narrow expensive middle ground.
- DRAM-less SSDs using HMB suffer severe latency spikes under sustained NAS workloads, while NAND channel counts are reduced.
- Escalating software memory requirements force higher baseline RAM, while manufacturers use obscure or relabeled RAM modules, risking stability.
- Software homogenization: many new NAS OS are nearly identical Debian derivatives, reducing differentiation and limiting user choice.
- Conclusion: These trends shift NAS from open, modular storage to locked-down appliances, raising total cost of ownership and driving users toward DIY solutions.