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AOOSTAR WTR PRO 4 Bay NAS (Ryzen 7 5825U, 3x NVMe, 2x 2.5G LAN, HDMI/DP/USB-C) US$376.29 (~A$599.57) Del @ Aoostar AliExpress

1510
AUSS80
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On sale is this NAS and Mini PC from Aoostar that's packed with features and offers a lot more performance than the usual NAS offerings. This is due to the AMD Ryzen 7 5825U 8 core, 16 thread CPU and AMD Radeon graphics that makes it suitable for use as a powerful NAS, mini PC or media streaming box. Especially since it has a HDMI 2.1 port, DisplayPort and a full feature USB-C port with 4K output and PD100W input.

Featuring 4 2.5/3.5" SATA bays (not hot-swappable), 2x M.2 NVMe Gen3 x4 slots and an M.2 WiFi slot that can be turned into an additional SSD slot (good for the OS drive) using an adapter. For RAM there's two DDR4-3200 SODIMM RAM slots with support for up to 64GB. It has 2.5G dual LAN for connectivity.

In terms of I/O they've opted to add the ports to the side with 2x 2.5G LAN, 2x USB 3.2, 2x USB 2.0, DP, HDMI, USB-C, MicroSD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack and the DC port. On the rear there is a large 120mm fan to keep the system cool.

While barebones it still comes with Windows 11 Pro and you can install any other OS like TrueNAS, XPEnology and more.

  • Add "NO RAM NO SSD" and "AU Plug" to the cart
  • Apply the coupon AUSS80 at checkout

AU$ based on current Mastercard rate, GST inclusive and stacks with cashback.

Alternatively they sell an Intel N100 version for ~A$150 less which only includes a single M.2 NVMe slot and a single RAM slot.


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Comments

  • +24

    For converting the WiFi Slot to an M.2 NVMe x1 slot you can find the adapters cheap on AliExpress like this for example. You're only going to be able to fit a 2230 or 2242 sized SSD and you can snap off the other ends on the adapter to fit either. Stick your OS on that SSD so that you can use RAID with the other two NVMe x4 slots :)

    I recommend getting either a Samsung PM991a for <1TB or WD SN740 for 2TB.

    While the fan is quiet you can turn it off or change it's settings in the very unrestricted BIOS under "/advanced/hardware monitor/system fan". Since it uses a 4pin connector you can swap it out for another.

    • Fan off (0x70) = 30
    • Fan start (0x71) = 35
    • Full speed (0x72) = 80
    • +1

      I got the n100 version from AliExpress, I like it so far it came with an adapter in the box which was a surprise. Not sure if the space is different inside the Ryzen but I was able to use a full sized drive but was forced to magyver some foam from the packaging to hold it in place instead of using the screw.

    • Clear, can fit a 2280 SSD as per this users efforts, using a M.2 adapter key.

      https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1i80cmw/nvme_ssd_i…

  • +7

    There's also a version of this available with the Intel N100 chipset which would probably be a better choice if you're planning on running Plex with GPU passthrough. I have the 2-bay Intel version running ProxMox booting from a high-endurance SD card, with the GPU passed through to Xpenology, it's pretty much perfect for my needs.

    • +1

      Yep the Intel N100 is linked in the deal. It's about ~A$150 less after discounts.

    • +1

      I have the N100 version running Proxmox and it works a treat. One VM for TrueNAS, one for Home Assistant OS, and one for an Ubuntu Desktop when I need to run the TP-Link Omada software controller. Highly recommend.

      • Is promox a NAS o/s like truenas, dsm, etc?

        • No its a hypervisor like VMware. You can run truenas or DSM within it as a guest virtual machine.

        • It's a hypervisor where you run VMs and LXC containers.

      • +2

        I happened across this video the other day: Don't Overlook This Slot - Hardware Haven. You can put an e-key m.2 Google Coral TPU in the wifi slot. Good for running Frigate NVR. I wish I learnt this before I rebuilt my Home Assistant / Frigate server.

        • Thanks, that's great to know! Fortunately I have a fully-offline Reolink NVR that only gets access to Home Assistant and not the internet and that seems to do detections just fine, but if I ever redo it and use Frigate I'll make sure to do this!

      • +2

        FYI - Omada Controller is now a native app in TrueNAS Scale. Might save you needing the Ubuntu VM?

        • Thanks heaps, I'll give it a crack! Must be really fresh because I can see it on the apps page but not many people talking about it online.

        • IDK I'm having all these issues with Docker "apps" in truenas 24.10.1, gonna just move back to debian or ubuntu server

  • +1

    Would this support ECC RAM?

    • +3

      TechpowerUp database suggests it does support ECC. But whether or not its supported by the bios is another story….I'd be keen to know for sure though.

      • I read in a youtube comment for a review on this that it does.

  • The n100 will be able powerful enough to run dockers, right?

    • +5

      Yep. Even with an Intel N95 you can run Promox with a few VMs.

      • +1

        agreed.. I'm running Intel N5095 (slower than Intel N95) and it is happily running 9 dockers 24/7 (the 'arrs suite', jellyfin and scrutiny (hdd monitor)). I've only got 1080p source media on my NAS but it has handled transcoding to multiple apple mobiles with ease (transcoding video and audio).

    • +1

      Easily. I'm running about 20 docker containers, cloud sync software, Plex etc. plus a native home assistant VM and my CPU utilisation is about 5% peak.

      • Could truenas run docker in parallel?
        Sorry I am new to nas
        Could this machine be a nas and vm server at the same time?

  • +2

    Love an AOOSTAR

  • +2

    Any idea what ball-park range of idle power consumption this should have when all the rust drives are spun down in sleep mode?

    • <10W

      • Thank you. That sounds amazing - now really tempted…. resist….

  • +1

    All the best claiming warranty on these, my symbology NAS died and it’s taking ages to get the warranty claim sorted

    • +8

      You buy these without the expectation of warranty realistically - either it's DOA, which AliExpress is usually pretty good with, or it works, and if it dies later on for whatever reason, you just have to open it up and fix it or salvage what you can.

  • How's the power draw for the n100 vs ryzen?

    • Interested in this too.. can the Ryzen just slow down such that it doesn't use much (an extra stick of ram might use a little more though?)

    • +1

      My N100 of this system with all drives install both hdd and ssd consumed about 30-35 watts, which is alright considering 5w*4=20 and 10w to 15w for system draw with 2 ssds.

    • Ryzen is slightly higher, but generally… If you're running HDDs without putting them to sleep then the difference is negligible enough to ignore.
      Different story if you want to opt for SSDs and are willing to pay the price premium to see a payoff in energy bills… However many years later
      And the payoff can be disregarded if you own solar

  • +5

    Time to finally replace the n40l and Gen 8 … thanks Clear.

    • +2

      Lol i was about to say… hp micro server replacement??

    • +5

      n40l

      I miss the days when the N40L was an OzBargain staple

      • I built an Intel n5095 8 bay NAS recently, but I'm still running my 2x n36l microservers when I need to (non video related backups).

        • What was your setup for the 8bay?
          Do you have the parts you used?

          • +2

            @BanannaMan: n5095 mini-itx NAS motherboard from ali express (12 SATA ports) - was about $180 AUD delivered.
            16GB Corsaire Vengeance DDR4 3200 SO-DIMM - amazon - $44
            Jonsbo N3 mini itx NAS case - PLE - $229
            thermaltake toughpower SFX 550W PSU (total overkill for thi) - PLE - $159
            6 x SATA thin cable ( ADCAUDX or similar) - amazon - just makes connecting SATA backplane to motherboard so much neater - $24

            • @gizmomelb: Very clean thanks mate - you got a great price on that motherboard too!
              You using all 8bays? What OS/services are you running on it?

              Im still rocking my Synology 4 bay with a 5 bay expansion, ARR suite and plex

              • +1

                @BanannaMan: yeah I bought it mid last year from memory and just had it sitting around until I could pick up the Jonsbo N3 (they were out of stock for ages). Only using 5 bays so far (5x10TB), 1 drive redundant SHR - though want to add another 1 or 2 drives when I can afford them. Arr's suite and Jellyfin running - total overkill, though the CPU do most of the heavy lifting when initially building and then expanding the array.. 36TB (usuable) took me about a week to build and test. The main complaint I have about the N3 is it needs an SFX PSU (and they're overpriced), if it could have fitted a slim ATX I would have been happier (and saved some cash). The N5 was too big for my needs, though I have considered decommisioning the two HP n36l microservers and building a second N3 system and moving the N36l disks into it.

                • @gizmomelb: Oh how much is the PSU difference between a slim ATX version? Didnt even consider that honestly..

            • +1

              @gizmomelb: Neat, everytime there is a deal on a NAS, I wonder whether I need one, as I'm just casually backing up my photos from the phone and a simple proxmox -> truenas -> immich server is taking care of it with an SSD and internal HDD inside a Dell optiplex

              • +1

                @TaurusHead: yeah I ran KODI using USB drives for years but then decided I wanted to archive my DVDs (then blurays) so I could clear out the bookshelves. Then I wanted to re-encode them to shrink them, then archive my PS1 and PS2 games etc.etc. hence the multiple NAS boxes for different archives. I've yet to set up home cloud for photos etc. but is fairly high on my 'to do' list. Mostly I'm just running Arrs suite (though I have recently began to remove various packages because I just don't use them - mostly I just use sonarr to rename tv series so I can then scrape metadata easier), for movies I manually run 'the media manager' a freeware app for windows to rename and scrap metadata. I'm only a recent (literal 2 months ago) jellyfin user and was highly impressed with it and it integrated with my KODI HTPC (an intel n100 mini pc) easier than I thought. Just in the past few nights I installed the jellyfin bookshelf plugin and I've been adding all my CBR, CBZ, PDF - Heavy Metal magazine, Vampirella, Filmgoria magazines etc. their covers are lovely to look at on the large tv (hmm I wonder if somehow they could be used for a screensaver).

                • +1

                  @gizmomelb: Cool, will probably buzz you when I'm doing some serious implementation on my servers, if that's okay

                  • +1

                    @TaurusHead: no worries.. oh and we used the apple time machine app initially to save data from an apple laptop which had a dud battery charger port (motherboard replacement needed). That was what actually prompted me to build the NAS, then I migrated data and apps from one of the HPs.

    • +1

      Mines still going! Used as a backup server for my main nas, running truenas

    • Was thinking the exact same thing! Currently running a xeon powered gen8 and an intel 9600k plex box, can easily consolidating both into one of these box

  • +8

    I bought this a few weeks back, and ended up returning it as it stopped booting after installing a second nvme.
    Thankfully my drives still booted after I put it back in its original clunky case.

    Was super easy to return via AliExpress.

    While it worked, it was very quiet, and drew around 10W with 3 drives and 1 nvme when idle

    • +1

      Eh thanks for the power draw info. Just saw after asking above!

  • Great machine, with fnOS is even better.

  • Does this have built-in hardware RAID support?

  • +1

    Saw review a few days ago, its pretty cool, i'd go for the n100 tho. For quicksync for plex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4yewC7mKA

    • +1

      why not quicksync with jellyfin? no plex licence to pay then.

      • +1

        in my instance, i have a lifetime plex pass, but yes, i guess trans-coding in general.

        Even though its free, some of my colleagues have tried Jellyfin but then because of issues and ease of use, have gone to plex.

        They've had a better experience, both in setup/config and usability.

        • Fair enough, I'm only a recent (version 10.10.x) jellyfin user, so it may well have been bad to use with previous versions. I was impressed though with my first time use in a synology docker container. It detected the intel QSV and was easy to add media and scrape metadata for all the video and audio I threw at it. Last night I installed the jellyfin bookshelf plugin and threw a difficult folder full of CBR and CBZ at it and it scraped all of them with no hassles. I'm stil using KODI (with the jellyfin plugin) for my media playback / decoding but it does limit me to just the one library each for tv shows and movies (I can add the other separate libraries from jellyfin, but then KODI just merges them.. I want the tv series and anime tv series kept apart thanks), so maybe I'll have to shift to using the jellyfin app on the tv instead of KODI.

        • +1

          They will never tell you what those issues are because they don't exist or Plex has the same ones (locked down containers and passing through the iGPU come to mind). Usability I open the jellyfin application on a TV find show and press play. Much difficult. JellySeer exists for media requesting. There's just something fundamentally wrong with paying for a media app that is primarily going to be used on the seven seas.

          There can be some argument made Plex handles metadata better in some circumstances but as long as the basics are correct I really don't give a damn about metadata.

  • Do these have a proprietary motherboard shape that means they can't be upgraded in a few years? I picked up an old model Synology NAS off the footpath, then realised that I can't put another motherboard in, which is a shame as the drive chassis and fans etc are set up very well.

    • +1

      Yes they do. If you don't want proprietary you're going to need a custom built PC.

      • Cheers, Clear!

    • that's what dremels are for. a mini-itx motherboard should probably fit easily enough and you can get them with on board n100 cpus for less than $200.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLF-46Das4

  • +2

    To have fun I prefer build one myself. But the price tag is near around. So not a bad deal!

  • -3

    Any idea who the OEM is?

  • Would this run Plex and be able to transcode 4k to 1080p on more than one stream at the same time?

    • +3

      AMD CPUs are not supported by plex.

      The N100 version would do a few 4k to 1080 streams.

  • +4

    Recently did a bunch of research on a homelab upgrade and my conclusion was the 5825u CPUs are a gem for homelab use. They absolutely SIP power (15W TDP), they're very cheap, they're very performant for their price, lots of cores/threads, DDR4 SODIMMs are relatively cheap. For VMs/containers they were what I settled on for my upgrade.

    There's an argument for the N100 for quicksync but for everything else the 5825u is 3-4x faster in multi threaded workloads and 50% faster on single threaded. I don't have the numbers but surely having 16 threads vs the N100s 4 while also being much faster per thread, even if you do software transcode I would imagine the 5825u is still doing much better. There's some discussions on this over in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeServer/comments/1go1khp/n100_or…

    • +2

      Whilst your not wrong, ive found just cause the 5825 is faster, there is not any real need for it to be faster if all your doing is transcoding. My n100 barely hits 30% CPU transcoding 4 x HD streams. Guess it really comes down to the use case.

      • Wow this n100 sounds amazing i wonder why synology doesnt use it

        • I'm running auxxxilium configured as a Synology FS6400, on my Intel N5095 NAS and it supports hardware igpu transcoding, SHR etc.etc.

          As for AMD software vs hardware transcoding - this forum post on jellyfin has some opinions as to quality being inferior with the AMD and recommending direct play if used externally to the LAN, instead of transcoding - https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-hw-transcoding-performance-amd-…

      • +4

        Sure, that's why I said "There's an argument for the N100 for quicksync but for everything else the 5825u is 3-4x faster in multi threaded workloads and 50% faster on single threaded."

        If you really just want to transcode and absolutely nothing else AND you want to save some money the N100 is the go. For anything else the 5825u is absolutely destroys the N100 many times over. Even in transcoding the 5825u is actually better, but it has a higher price.

    • You didn't mention the most important part. 5825u has ecc support. I wouldn't touch a nas without ecc.

      • ok. thanks for the chuckle.

    • absolutely SIP power (15W TDP)

      You'd be surprised, but most modern desktop CPUs are actually very efficient and can also be undervolted to have very low wattage.

      What makes them look bad is incessant need to "boost" CPUs for higher benchmarks, just for them to run hot, loud, and inefficient. You end up at a very poor place on the power / performance curve, so you can usually easily retain like 90% of the performance for 50% power draw.

  • +1

    I found a good review:

    https://youtu.be/Ct4yewC7mKA

  • Intel one cheaper and better for plex.

  • +2

    For $600, you can get a B450 ITX, 3600, 2xDDR4, ATX PSU and a SFF case for 4 bays and still have change left

    • What about the time involved?

    • -3

      If you're talking about an Ali quality B450 ITX board running a headless 3600 due to the lack of iGPU, yeh nah

      The best setup is still a Flashstor 6 with upgraded RAM running TrueNAS + a separate cheap N100 mini PC for VM's and services

      As for these cheaper AIO NAS units, will be interesting to see their long term heat, vibration and reliability results from running 4x OzB standard issue 3.5" enterprise refurb drives 24/7

    • +1

      Those CPUs are nowhere near as efficient as the Ryzen 5800U or Intel N100

  • +4

    My years old NAS dream is waking up again …

  • +2

    Can i program a NAS to take backup of all photos from different devices at home including phones, laptops, tabs etc?

    • +2

      Can with phone and tablet. With my synology, when my mobile connected to my wifi (ie im coming home) it will upload all my NEW photos, automatically. It knew to upload new ones only not duplicating

      • So is it software specific of Synology or the one in deal can be tinkered for the same?

        • +1

          Both. Synolgy o/s and software. But probably other nas also can.

          • @CyberMurning: Could true nas do this?

            • @hishaken: I run Immich as an app under TrueNAS Scale, and connect to it remotely from my phone via Tailscale to do backups (and remote collection access). Trying to kick the Google Cloud habit.

              Not hard to set up and an impressive ( and growing ) feature set. Can do ML face recognition and keyword indexing. if your storage server doesn't have the grunt, those ops can be offloaded to another machine (my desktop PC with a proper GPU, not even on the same LAN, but on the same tailscale network)
              .

    • +2

      I do this to a SMB share using SMBsync 2 on Android.

    • +3

      You could try XPEnology—it’s an open-source version of Synology and supports most of the features Synology offers.

      I’m personally a fan of OpenMediaVault. It supports Docker and VMs now, and the lib repo is pretty solid, so you’ll probably find something to handle photo syncing without much hassle.

      If you’re up for getting more hands-on, you could check out TrueNAS or Unraid for greater control and flexibility. Both have large communities and extensive library support. Unraid does come with a fee though.

      • With openmedia can we get all those arrs running via dockers?

        • dockers or plugins

      • it’s an open-source version of Synology

        No it's not, it's just stealing Synology's software and running it with a custom bootloader.

        • It's called fork.

          • +1

            @Swing: It's not a fork. Much of the Synology interface is closed source, so there isn't anything even public to create a fork from. Xpenology is really just taking a factory system image from Synology, and using a custom bootloader to make it appear as though it is running on Synology hardware. You don't have a licence to run that software.

            • @renza: auxxxilium is the current version for running DSM 7.2.x on any hardware. Adds back video station and other apps which Synology removed due to them not wanting to pay HEVC licence fees. I ran/run XPenology / DSM 5/6 on my HP n36l microservers, DSM 7.x is nicer in that it has more up to date security patches. https://github.com/AuxXxilium

              • @gizmomelb: Thanks for posting this.

                I have the exact same micro server lying about and I always wanted to try DSM to see what it's all about.

                • +1

                  @TightLikeThisx: you're welcome.. I'll admit I had some head scratch moments initially configuring auxxxilum - make sure to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor to the n36l / whatever hardware when you're doing the initial setup - as you choose which model synology NAS you want to emulate (pretty much always choose FS6400 so you're not limited by anything), then you can choose the add-ins like re-enabling HEVC video support, re-adding video station and other apps which synology recently removed from DSM 7.2.2. You can also create a synology account and register the 'emulated' synology NAS you're making so you can connect from the internet using their DNS, however I feel that's going way beyond taking the mickey and telling synology you're using a hacked version of their DSM seems like asking for way too much trouble, so I don't advise doing that. Once the initial config is done it creates the boot loader and when that boots it's the normal procedure for installing DSM - ie: go to another computer and follow the instructions here - https://kb.synology.com/en-af/DSM/tutorial/How_to_install_DS…

                • @TightLikeThisx: oh - I don't know if the n36l will have the grunt to run DSM 7, but it does happily run DSM 5 and 6 (I still have those on my 2x n36l, however they have never ran dockers etc.. they have only been used as SMB shares)

    • +2

      Yes relatively easy with syncthing

      • syncthing rocks

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