Mini PCs make excellent secondary backup servers, but they'll never replace a dedicated NAS

Published Aug 8, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Ayush Pande is a PC hardware and gaming writer. When he's not working on a new article, you can find him with his head stuck inside a PC or tinkering with a server operating system. Besides computing, his interests include spending hours in long RPGs, yelling at his friends in co-op games, and practicing guitar. When you’re building a Network-Attached Storage, you’ve got quite a few options at your disposal. You can opt for a pre-built chassis if you want a simple and straightforward setup, though its first-party distribution and a lack of customization options makes it a bit of a problem for hardcore users. Or, you can go all out and build a custom backup workstation that’s outfitted with a dedicated HBA, high-speed network card, and dozens of HDDs. I’ve even seen tinkerers recommend mini-PCs to beginners who want to dip their feet into NAS units. Call me a stickler for the rules if you must, but I’m a bit against that advice. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with using a mini-PC for simple file-sharing or remote snapshot replication operations, and it’s actually pretty effective in 3-2-1 backup environments. But if you’re looking for a dedicated data archival and backup workstation, you might want to look into something else. Or, at the very least, take the caveats of such a setup into consideration before you try turning your mini-PC into a NAS. You’ll have to contend with limited drive bays on a mini-PC-powered NAS SSD-only storage pools are far too expensive these days When it comes to storage servers, their drive bays are something you really want to take into consideration before everything else, including the operating system powering the rig. Sure, you might be able to back up your most important data on a single 1-2TB storage drive if you’re too meticulous in your planning. But as someone who has gone through the same dilemma, let me confirm that between self-hosted media servers providing a neat exit to cloud-based platforms and essential files growing in size (and capacity) over time, you’re going to need that extra HDD real estate. Unlike dedicated hybrid or HDD-based chassis, mini-PCs are really limited on the drive bay front. Modern mini-PCs tend to ship with a maximum of two M.2 SSD slots, leaving hard drives out of the picture altogether. Even if you do grab a home server-centric system, chances are it only has a single slot for 2.5-inch drives, so your options for upgrading the storage capacity of your miniature NAS are rather limited. Not to mention, relying entirely on SSD pools for data archival tasks isn’t a good idea. For one, their prices have gone up significantly over the last couple of months, so you’ll have to splurge out quite a bit if you want to add a secondary NVMe drive to your mini-PC – money that could be better spent on grabbing a dedicated NAS (or building one) that supports bulky HDD bays. Although SSD-only pools aren’t as terrible as people make them out to be for everyday tasks, their tendency to lose charge (and by extension, data) when left unplugged for months makes them downright awful for long-term archival tasks. DAS setups have their own caveats if you want to use your mini-PC for hardcore NAS tasks External drives and Direct-Attached Storage solutions might work well for expanding your mini-PC’s storage provisions, especially if the device in question has really fast USB ports. Truth be told, they’re not terrible for simple archival tasks, but if you’re planning to use something like ZFS for routine backups, even a DAC would be less than ideal. Even on high-end systems, external drives connected via USB controllers are far too unreliable, and a short disconnection during a scrub task or scheduled backup is all it takes for your data to go poof. That said, these tiny systems make for killer secondary backup servers Their energy efficient nature complements 3-2-1 backup workflows well Switching gears to a NAS-centric scenario where mini-PCs are pretty useful, I have to admit that they can function as robust secondary backup machines. To be more precise, they can add extra redundancy to your most essential files once you pair them up with a dedicated NAS. After all, even with a bulky storage workstation, there’s still the possibility of data loss from hardware failure, theft, and other untoward accidents. So, you can leave your mini-PC running in a different location, preferably one that’s miles away from your home lab, and have it pull important files from your local NAS. Couple that with their high energy-efficiency, and you can have a remote snapshot replication rig that only sips a handful of watts even when it’s receiving entire datasets. Personally, I use a 2-bay NAS for this task, but as long as you power on the system and its SSDs every few days, a mini-PC can be a decent secondary backup rig. As for the network aspect, Tailscale is my preferred tool for a 3-2-1 backup pipeline, but if your local network isn’t cursed with CGNAT, you can also configure custom WireGuard containers on both machines. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro $600 $700 Save $100