cover. I wouldn’t pick TrueNAS unless you specifically want ZFS and its app model.
Prebuilt: the DXP4800 Plus hardware is fine, but losing fan control, power management and hardware monitoring is exactly what people report losing when they replace a vendor OS — those bits usually live in the vendor’s own kernel modules or daemons. I haven’t run either of those two models, so I won’t vouch for them. Before buying, search “<model> + <target OS>” and look for a report from someone who actually did it; if you find nothing, assume it hasn’t been done.
Backups: 3-2-1 — a local USB drive plus one copy offsite. A Hetzner Storage Box (1 TB is around €4/month) with restic or borg gives you encrypted offsite copies over SFTP, and both handle dedupe and retention. Whatever you pick: test a restore before you trust it. An untested backup isn’t a backup.
Remote access: WireGuard on the FRITZ!Box is the right call and it sidesteps the dynamic IPv4 problem entirely — the box becomes the always-on endpoint. Just make sure you’re not exposing Nextcloud or Immich directly to the internet.
Disclosure: I write a small site where I record measured numbers for running these services on low-spec boxes. The one on how far 4 GB actually gets you is here: https://lowspechq.com/best/best-self-hosted-ai-4gb-nas/ — if you’d rather not have a link in the answer, delete this last paragraph; everything above stands on its own.
cover. I wouldn’t pick TrueNAS unless you specifically want ZFS and its app model. Prebuilt: the DXP4800 Plus hardware is fine, but losing fan control, power management and hardware monitoring is exactly what people report losing when they replace a vendor OS — those bits usually live in the vendor’s own kernel modules or daemons. I haven’t run either of those two models, so I won’t vouch for them. Before buying, search “<model> + <target OS>” and look for a report from someone who actually did it; if you find nothing, assume it hasn’t been done. Backups: 3-2-1 — a local USB drive plus one copy offsite. A Hetzner Storage Box (1 TB is around €4/month) with restic or borg gives you encrypted offsite copies over SFTP, and both handle dedupe and retention. Whatever you pick: test a restore before you trust it. An untested backup isn’t a backup. Remote access: WireGuard on the FRITZ!Box is the right call and it sidesteps the dynamic IPv4 problem entirely — the box becomes the always-on endpoint. Just make sure you’re not exposing Nextcloud or Immich directly to the internet. Disclosure: I write a small site where I record measured numbers for running these services on low-spec boxes. The one on how far 4 GB actually gets you is here: https://lowspechq.com/best/best-self-hosted-ai-4gb-nas/ — if you’d rather not have a link in the answer, delete this last paragraph; everything above stands on its own.