alt Hacker NewsSomebody else shared this, but I'm the blog's author. I think you're asking good questions, but they're not from the point-of-view of the people who actually benefit from these blogs.
I've answered the "You build one every year?" question quite a few times over the years.
These blogs have a shelf life. After about a year, newer hardware is available that's a better a better value. And after 2-3 years, it starts to get difficult to even find the many of the parts.
I don't replace my NAS every year, but every now and then I do keep my yearly NAS for my own purposes, but 2026 won't be one of those years.
> How does one establish the reliability of the hardware...?
One guy on the Internet is--and always will be--an anecdote, I could use this NAS until its hardware was obsolete and I'd still be unable to establish any kind of actual reliability for the hardware. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or money required to elevate beyond being a piece of anecdotal data.
However, there's a sizable audience out there who have realized that they need some kind of storage beyond what they already have, but haven't implemented a solution yet. I think if you put yourself in their shoes, you'll realize that anything is better than nothing in regards to their important data. My hope is that these blogs move that audience along towards finding that solution.
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> One guy on the Internet is--and always will be--an anecdote
It seems like you have a specific person in mind as the audience member (yourself?), but the piece could benefit from a wider view. Given your hardware choices, reliability seems to not be a factor at all, but near-term cost (at the expense of long-term cost).
I'm not expecting you to personally test your hardware choices, but make choices based on the aggregate accounts of others, like the rest of us.
I would imagine the mean audience member would want to buy something they can set and forget, which would necessitate the reliable choice. That is wholly different than a person who is excited about tinkering with a brand new NAS each year
> One guy on the Internet is--and always will be--an anecdote
That's true of course. The problem, in my view, is that this is how everyone on the internet acts especially the "reviewers" or "builders" or "DIYers". It's not just you, so don't take this as a personal attack.
Almost all articles and videos about tech (and other things now too) do the equivalent of "unboxing review". When it's not strictly an unboxing, it's usually like "I've had this phone/laptop/GPU/backpack/sprinkling system/etc for a month, and here is my review"
I stopped putting much weight on online reviews and guides because of that. Almost everyone who does them uses whatever they are advertising for _maybe_ a month and moves on to the next thing. Even if I'm looking for an older thing all reviews are from the month (or even day) it was released and there is very little to non a year or 2 after because understandably they don't get views/clicks. Even when there are later reviews, they are in the bucket of "This thing is 3 years old now. Is it still worth it in 2025? I bought a new one to review and used it for a month"
Not to mention that when reviewers DO face a problem, they contact the company, get a replacement and just carry on. Assuming everyone will be in the same position. From their prospective, it's understandable. They can't make a review saying "Welp, we got a defective one. nothing to see here". On the other hand, if half the reviewer faced problems, and documented it, then maybe the pattern will be clearer.
Yes, every reviewer is a "one guy on the internet" and "is--and always will be-- an anecdote". No one is asking every reviewer to be come Consumer Reports and test hundreds of models and collect user feedback to establish reliability scores. But at the same time if each did something similar it would be a lot more useful than what they do.
I'll give you a concrete example off the top of my mind --a Thermapen from ThermoWorks.
When I was looking for "the best kitchen thermometer" the Thermapen was the top result/review everywhere. Its accuracy, speed and build quality were all things every review outlined. It was a couple of years old by then and all the reviews were from 2 years ago. I got one and 6-8 months later, it started developing cracks all over the body. A search online then showed that this is actually a very common issue with Thermapens. You can contact them and they might send you another one of the older models if they still have them (they didn't in my case) but it'll also crack again. Maybe you can buy the new one?
May sound petty to put that one example on the spotlight, but very similar thing happened to me with a Pixel 4, a Thinkpad P2, a Sony wireless headphones, a Bose speaker, and many more that I'm forgetting. All had stellar "3 week use reviews". After 6 months to a year and they all broke down in various ways. Then it becomes very easy to know what to search for and the problems are "yeah, that just always happens with this thing"