All-flash NAS was supposed to be the future, and SSD prices just pushed it back by years

Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with his head stuck inside a PC or tinkering with a server operating system. Besides computing, his interests include spending hours in long RPGs, yelling at his friends in co-op games, and practicing guitar.

On the surface, Network-Attached Storage rigs capable of backing up data, sharing files, and archiving documents sound simple enough to use. But as you go deeper into the storage server territory, you’ll come across all sorts of file systems, complex-sounding network shares, and a boatload of technical jargon.

Even on the hardware front, you’ve got different types of pre-built chassis to choose from, including those that ditch conventional HDDs in favor of SSDs. Having used and reviewed my fair share of these “all-flash” NAS workstations, I have to admit that they showed a lot of promise a few years ago. Unfortunately, with the SSD prices going absolutely bonkers as of late, they’re no longer ideal for most tinkerers.

Blazing-fast speeds and high portability are the biggest perks of all-flash NAS units

They don’t make a lot of noise, either

HDD-only NAS setups are definitely useful for storing data for long periods, but there’s one thing they’re absolutely bad at: speed. After all, mechanical drives have slow read and write speeds, and while that may not be an issue for scheduled backups and everyday archival tasks, they can be a bit of an issue when you need faster access to the contents of your network shares. Sure, you could allocate a lot of RAM to the read/write caches, but these workarounds are only useful for selective tasks, and not every file transfer task would benefit from them.

Typical all-flash NAS rigs, on the other hand, use fast SSDs to house all your data. Heck, NVMe drives are so fast that even their PCIe Gen 3 variants can easily throttle a 10 Gigabit network. If you’re planning to edit videos or access essential coding VMs over your home LAN, an all-flash NAS would be the better option than its HDD-only counterpart, as it would deliver a more responsive experience for your productivity tasks.

Not to mention, all-flash NAS rigs are extremely portable, especially the ones that support tiny NVMe drives. For reference, my 8-bay TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus occupies a fraction of the size as my bulky TerraMaster F4-424 Max rig, and the same holds true about the LincStation N2 and Aiffro K100. In fact, many 4-bay all-flash NAS rigs are about as compact as typical mini-PCs, which isn’t something you can say for 4-bay storage servers that require bulky 3.5-inch HDDs,

Likewise, you also get the noise (or rather, the lack thereof) benefit from all-SSD units. Since SSDs don’t have typical moving parts, they don’t make the typical clicking and spinning sounds that HDDs are infamous for during heavy workloads. Combine that with the fact that they don’t weigh a lot, and you can see why all-flash NAS servers make sense for frequent travelers who need access to ample storage on-the-move.

Unfortunately, modern SSDs have sky-high prices

Hard drives are more cost-effective in the day and age

Besides RAM prices, SSDs have also gotten extremely expensive in 2026, making all-flash servers a lot less viable for the average tinkerer. To put that into perspective, a brand-new 2TB hard drive can cost anywhere between $100 and $130, and you can spend an extra $20 to grab an HDD rated for enterprise tasks.

A typical 2TB NVMe drive, on the other hand, can cost upwards of $250, and that’s just the cheaper options. If you want something with a lot of write cycles, you’ll be looking at a $300 investment, which is extremely overpriced considering that typical HDDs cost a little more than a third of that amount. If you plan to buy even more of these drives, the costs can quickly add up, and you might just end up spending a lot more money on the SSDs than the all-flash NAS rig.

Worse still, the price of SSDs goes up the more capacity you want from a single drive. For a 4TB model, you’ll have to spend at least $450 if you go for some of the cheapest NVMe drives options out there, while higher-quality SSDs can set you back by $500–600. Contrast that with the $200-225 that an 8TB hard drive tends to cost, and you’ll see why it makes more sense to avoid NAS rigs that only include M.2 slots.

SSD-only NAS units aren’t very reliable for long-term storage

Besides the pricing factor, all-flash storage servers aren’t ideal for retaining data for long periods, especially in a cold-storage environment. You see, the NAND flash memory within SSDs uses electrical charges to store data, and if they’re left unpowered long-term, these charges can leak out and render your precious files irretrievable.

Of course, we’re talking anywhere between months and years, so you should be fine if you plug in the NAS rig (and its SSDs, by extension). But you’ll also want to avoid keeping the NAS in a hot/warm environment, as high heat can corrupt your data in a matter of weeks instead of months.

I’ve started using hybrid NAS units for my storage needs

Despite the portability and silent operation of all-flash NAS units, the unhinged SSD pricing makes it hard to recommend them. Instead, I’ve started recommending hybrid NAS rigs, which not only feature conventional HDD bays alongside dedicated M.2 slots for SSDs. That way, I can still use an SSD or two for storage pools requiring extremely fast data transfer, while my bulky, high-capacity HDDs can house essential files long term. And if I even want to access certain files while I’m away from my tinkering cave, I can always rely on Tailscale.