John Vanderaart is happy to answer reader questions, such as whether you can speed up your NAS by replacing the HDDs with SSDs.
I want to speed up my NAS because it is way too slow right now. Is that possible by replacing the HDDs with SSDs?
Hans deB.
If the HDDs are the slowing factor, then the NAS can indeed be speeded up by replacing the HDDs with SSDs (see picture). But again, “If the HDDs are the slowing factor!” You can do that (smartly) by replacing the HDDs 1-by-1 with SSDs of (minimum) the same size (= storage capacity). Mind you, that of course only works if a HDD can be removed without any problems; that is the case with RAID5, among others. You may still need to consult and control the NAS dashboard via the web browser, because it is possible that the installed and yet to be formatted SSD needs to be controlled. But you will notice that…
An SSD is always – much – faster than an HDD. That could really boost your NAS!