A surveillance NAS is chosen on storage-capacity math and vendor-documented software presence, not on how fast it records: bay count and RAID level set how much footage survives a drive failing, and maker-rated-workload drives (Seagate's SkyHawk line, WD's Purple line) carry a published continuous-duty rating that ordinary NAS or desktop drives do not. This page selects on those facts only.
Updated
Synology names Surveillance Station on its own site as a DSM application; QNAP names QVR Pro / QVR Elite on its own site as a QTS application. Both facts are feature presence, sourced to each vendor's own page - not a claim about which recording experience is better.
Continuous camera recording is a different duty cycle from ordinary NAS file storage, and the drive industry publishes a specific class for it. Seagate's own published figures rate its standard SkyHawk line at 180TB of workload per year and SkyHawk AI at 550TB per year - see the SkyHawk page for the exact citation and current prices. That is a maker-stated annual workload ceiling, the same kind of spec as a drive's warranty term, not a speed claim - a drive without a published surveillance workload rating may still record video, it simply carries no maker figure to plan a duty cycle against.
Cheapest in-stock 4-bay (Synology DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless, $318.49) plus four WD Purple 4TB WD40PURX surveillance-class drives at $114.99 each = $778.45 for a complete 4-bay recording build, priced live today.
For channel-count-specific recorder sizing rather than a general-purpose NAS running a surveillance application, see the dedicated NVR recorder pages, priced by channel class.
| Brand | Model | Condition | Bays | CPU | RAM | Network | Wty | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UGREEN | NASync DH2300 2-Bay UGOS Pro | Used | 2 | โ | โ | 2.5GbE | 2yr | $224.78 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-233 2-Bay Desktop NAS Diskless QTS 5 | New | 2 | ARM Cortex-A55 (4-core) | 2GB | 1GbE | 3yr | $239.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS223 2-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | Used | 2 | Realtek RTD1619B (4-core) | 2GB DDR4 | 1GbE | 3yr | $251.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F2-425 2-Bay TOS 6 | New | 2 | โ | โ | โ | 2yr | $254.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | Used | 4 | Realtek RTD1619B (4-core) | 2GB DDR4 | 2x 1GbE | 3yr | $318.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS225+ 2-Bay DSM 7 | New | 2 | โ | โ | 2.5GbE | 3yr | $364.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-425 4-Bay TOS 6 | New | 4 | โ | โ | โ | 2yr | $365.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP2800 2-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 2 | Intel N100 (4-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2.5GbE | 2yr | $389.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS425+ 4-Bay Diskless DSM 7 | Used | 4 | โ | โ | 2.5GbE | 3yr | $550.05 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Lockerstor 4 Gen2+ AS6704T 4-Bay ADM | Used | 4 | Intel quad-core | 4GB DDR4 | 2x 5GbE | 3yr | $586.29 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-664-8G 6-Bay QTS 5 | Used | 6 | Intel Celeron N5105 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $631.47 | Buy on Amazon |
| QNAP | TS-464-8G 4-Bay QTS 5 | New | 4 | Intel Celeron N5105 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $639.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 Plus 4-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 4 | Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (5-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 10GbE + 2.5GbE | 2yr | $656.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 GT 4-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 4 | AMD Ryzen Embedded R2514 (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 | 2x 10GbE | โ | $659.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-425 Plus 4-Bay TOS 6 | New | 4 | Intel N150 (4-core) | โ | โ | 2yr | $699.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F4-424 Pro 4-Bay TOS 6 | New | 4 | Intel Core i3-N305 (8-core) | 32GB DDR5 | 2x 2.5GbE | 2yr | $730.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UniFi | UNAS Pro 4 4-Bay UniFi Drive | New | 4 | โ | โ | โ | โ | $735.72 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS925+ 4-Bay DSM 7 | New | 4 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 4GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $760.09 | Buy on Amazon |
| TerraMaster | F8 SSD Plus 8-Bay All-SSD | New | 8 | โ | โ | โ | โ | $764.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP4800 Pro 4-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 4 | โ | โ | โ | 2yr | $799.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP6800 Plus 6-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 6 | Intel Core i3-1215U (6-core) | โ | โ | 2yr | $939.15 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X All-Flash ADM | New | 6 | โ | โ | 10GbE | 3yr | $979.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP6800 Pro 6-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 6 | Intel Core i5-1235U (10-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2x 10GbE | 2yr | $1,099.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS1825+ 8-Bay DSM 7 | Used | 8 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $1,208.38 | Buy on Amazon |
| Synology | DiskStation DS1525+ 5-Bay DSM 7 | New | 5 | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4-core) | 8GB DDR4 ECC | 2x 2.5GbE | 3yr | $1,309.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| UGREEN | NASync DXP8800 Plus 8-Bay UGOS Pro | New | 8 | Intel Core i5-1235U (10-core) | 8GB DDR5 | 2x 10GbE | 2yr | $1,369.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Asustor | Lockerstor 6 Gen3 AS6806T 6-Bay ADM | New | 6 | AMD Ryzen quad-core 3.8GHz | 16GB DDR5 ECC | 10GbE | 3yr | $1,770.99 | Buy on Amazon |
Seagate SkyHawk, workload-rated drives ยท NVR recorders by channel count ยท Every 4-bay NAS ยท NAS Builder.
Vendor workload ratings differ by drive class, and that is a documented duty-cycle spec, not a performance claim: Seagate's own SkyHawk line is rated for continuous 24/7 recording at a stated annual workload (180TB/year for the standard line, 550TB/year for SkyHawk AI, per Seagate's own published figures - see the SkyHawk page for the exact citation). A drive with no published surveillance workload rating may still record video, but there is no maker figure to size the duty cycle against.
Synology names Surveillance Station on its own site as a DSM application; QNAP names QVR Pro / QVR Elite on its own site as a QTS application. Both are vendor-documented software features - we are stating that each vendor names one, not comparing how each performs.
As many as the camera count and retention period demand in storage terms - this is a capacity question, not a performance one. More channels and longer retention need more raw terabytes; bay count and RAID level then decide how many of those terabytes survive a drive failing. See the dedicated NVR pages for channel-class-specific sizing.
Cheapest in-stock 4-bay (Synology DiskStation DS423 4-Bay Diskless, $318.49) plus four WD Purple 4TB WD40PURX surveillance-class drives at $114.99 each = $778.45. Computed live from today's catalogue.
Different products for different scopes, not a performance comparison. A dedicated NVR is purpose-built recording hardware with channel counts baked in - see our NVR recorder pages. A NAS running a surveillance application is a general file server that also records cameras. Which fits depends on whether the box needs to do anything besides record video, not on which one works better at recording.
CMR (or ePMR), the same rule as every RAID array on this site. Continuous write workloads plus periodic array rebuilds are exactly the conditions that expose SMR's slow rewrite behaviour, and a surveillance array is a continuous-write workload by definition.