NAS alternative for offloading work. If you replace a clunky Qnap NAS with a Pi 5 based NAS, you have the option to move more than the database to the NAS. You can move workload to a Web server in the NAS then use Web services for the connection. Instead of issuing 22.3 database updates, you send one Web request. The Web server has the code to update related tables. Works well with the Pi 5 running the Web server on a PCIe 3 connected NVMe.
My experience of NAS and Qnap dates back to ancient history. When botulinum neurotoxin was a poison, not a beauty treatment, and there were things called magnetic disks. I might be biased. A Pi 4 was a nice replacement for the Qnap two disk boxes I worked with but the Pi 4 did not have a lot of spare processing or IO speed. The Pi 5 has heaps to spare and makes a fine target for NAS, router, and Web server tasks.
The Pi 5 lets you choose a wider range of languages. I would run up the Web services part using a PHP framework or CMS.
My experience of NAS and Qnap dates back to ancient history. When botulinum neurotoxin was a poison, not a beauty treatment, and there were things called magnetic disks. I might be biased. A Pi 4 was a nice replacement for the Qnap two disk boxes I worked with but the Pi 4 did not have a lot of spare processing or IO speed. The Pi 5 has heaps to spare and makes a fine target for NAS, router, and Web server tasks.
The Pi 5 lets you choose a wider range of languages. I would run up the Web services part using a PHP framework or CMS.
Statistics: Posted by peterlite — Sun Nov 23, 2025 12:03 am