5 brilliant weekend NAS upgrades that cost almost nothing

A NAS is easy to set up in a corner and then forget, but even a few free or inexpensive upgrades can make it more useful and more reliable in the long-term. You don't even need to do much—these are 5 ways to improve your NAS without breaking the bank or using up your entire weekend.

Add Docker for extra services

Don't skip on self-hosting

Self-hosting often involves a dedicated PC, mini PC, or server rack, but a NAS is also a great way to try out self-hosting without investing in extra hardware.

To self-host on a NAS, I'd recommend using Docker (or some similar approach). Docker runs all of your services in isolated containers, so you can freely experiment with new services without risking your data or your current services. If it doesn't work out, you just delete it—again, with no risk to anything else.

I'd recommend starting with some lightweight services you'll actually use first . A VPN like Wireguard is a good candidate; a Pi-hole, which can block ads, trackers, and even some malware, is another great starter option. If you have a media library that doesn't require transcoding , you could also get away with a Plex or Jellyfin server.

Once you get a feel for how much demand a service puts on your system, you can add more from there. Just remember that NASes are usually optimized for power-efficiency and reliability over pure computational power—there are things you can self-host on a dedicated homelab that will be completely unusable on a NAS.

Upgrade the network adapter

Gigabit may not be enough

Many modern NAS units use solid-state drives (SSDs) for storage, and if you have one, it is possible that the network adapter on the NAS is actually limiting your transfer speeds.

Even SATA SSDs—which are the slowest SSDs available —have transfer speeds up to six gigabits. Many consumer routers come with a 1 gigabit Ethernet (1GbE) port, which presents a significant bottleneck.

If the rest of your network supports speeds higher than 1 gigabit, and the storage in your NAS is fast enough to take advantage of extra speed, then a faster Ethernet adapter can be an expensive, worthwhile upgrade.

There are two things you need to check first:

• Whether your NAS supports USB Ethernet adapters

• What the fastest USB port on your NAS is

Not every NAS will support a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, so be sure to double-check that before you spend any money. Additionally, you need to know what the fastest USB port on your NAS is. Even USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 (formerly USB 3.0 or 3.1 Gen 1 Superspeed) supports transfer speeds up to 5 gigabits, which gives you plenty of margin to install a 2.5GbE USB-to-Ethernet adapter.

Quiet the NAS with padding or anti-vibration mounts

A mechanical drive can be loud

NASes are usually pretty quiet, but they're not totally silent. There are two big sources of noise: fans and vibrations mechanical hard drives.

Fans are obvious, and there isn't a lot you can do about the sound from an integrated fan without causing heat problems for your NAS. However, you can often do something about the noise from mechanical hard drives.

A mechanical hard drive's vibrations often translate through the NAS case directly into whatever it is sitting on. I once owned an external hard drive in an enclosure that would make my thin metal desk hum like someone was playing a note on a synthesizer.

There are two easy ways to address that. First, try adding vibration damping feet or a pad under the NAS. That will help damp any resonance that might produce audible sounds. It is also inexpensive and doesn't involve opening your NAS. If you have a clean silicone potholder, try putting your NAS on that as an experiment—if it helps, the damping pad is probably a good choice.

If the NAS itself is producing the noise from the vibration, you can purchase special mounting hardware that gets sandwiched between the drive and the drive's bracket. Many NASes include that anti-vibration mount by default, so don't buy it until you confirm that your NAS doesn't have it.

Whatever you do, don't block airflow. No computer thrives without adequate airflow to cool off, and carelessly inserting silicone or foam pads to damp vibration could easily obstruct essential airflow if you don't place it strategically.

Add UPS for graceful shutdowns and power surges

Don't risk your storage

A small uninterruptible power supply (UPS) isn't the most exciting upgrade, but it could protect your NAS from brownouts, abrupt outages, or even power surges—all of which can cause data corruption or worse.

You don't have to spend a ton of money either. You don't need your NAS to remain running for hours on end during a prolonged outage, you just need to be sure it doesn't get abruptly powered off during an update or while it is writing data.

That means most inexpensive UPSes will work. Just be sure to buy a unit that can communicate with your NAS over USB to send a shutdown signal from a reputable brand.

Schedule drive health checks

An ounce of prevention is worth $1000 of data recovery services

Your NAS needs be able to tell you something is wrong before it becomes a problem. If you haven't configured health checks, you should do it as soon as you have the opportunity.

I suggest enabling SMART monitoring and scheduling both short and extended tests during hours when you aren't using the system. You also need to set up alerts or push notifications; finding out a drive was having issues in retrospect isn't any help at all. Just be careful not to schedule everything at once.

Many NAS units have software packages available from the manufacturer that can handle this for you. There are also third-party Docker packages that do it too. Most of them will get the job done, just find one that you like enough to actually use.

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Don't waste your NAS's potential

The average home NAS unit can be an integral part of a homelab or a robust backup solution, but only if you actually capitalize on its capabilities and take the proper precautions. Most of the time, your NAS is sitting idle, and you could easily run a handful of useful services to take advantage of that. Similarly, you need to make sure to take care of your NAS if you're going to rely on it—excess vibration, power problems, and data loss can all be prevented with $80 and a weekend of tinkering.