2026-08-23

Raspberry Pi prices have settled but they're still not exactly cheap, especially once you add a case, HAT, and decent storage adapter. This XDA write-up walks through building a proper DIY NAS using one of the growing crop of affordable rival SBCs — boards that often ship with native SATA or NVMe support, more RAM, and competitive price tags.

For homelabbers, this matters because a NAS is typically the first "always-on" box people build. The Pi 4/5 can do the job, but USB-to-SATA bottlenecks and limited RAM make it a compromise. Boards like the Orange Pi 5 Plus, Radxa ROCK 5B, or similar alternatives now offer PCIe lanes, dual 2.5GbE, and 8–16 GB RAM out of the box — features you'd normally need a full x86 mini PC to get.

The honest caveats: software support on these boards isn't always as polished as Raspberry Pi OS or Armbian on a Pi. Expect some tinkering with drivers, especially for less mainstream chipsets. Community documentation can be thin, and if you pick an obscure board you might be on your own when something breaks. Power supplies and cases are also less standardised, so budget for extras.

That said, if you're comfortable with Linux and want a low-power NAS that doesn't choke on Plex transcoding or large rsync jobs, an SBC with native storage interfaces is genuinely a better starting point in 2025 than a Pi with a USB enclosure.

If you go this route and need to repurpose old M.2 drives for external backup or cloning duties, our M.2 NVMe/NGFF SSD Enclosure – USB-C 10Gbps for Drive Cloning is a handy companion. For the SBC itself, check Orange Pi 5 Plus or Radxa ROCK 5B on Amazon — compare specs and stock before you commit. Either way, read the source article first; it's a solid practical walkthrough.