Cloud vs. Edge: Why choose a local NAS over iCloud, OneDrive, etc.? Cost, privacy, performance?

Cost, privacy, sometimes performance, mostly because I can run it the way I want it to, so control

Use Case: What tasks would your NAS handle? Jellyfin, Frigate, backups, AI/ML?

My current NAS does all of it, jellyfin, home assistant, backups, LLMs, all the docker apps, etc.

Performance: How key is CPU power, power efficiency, or upgradability (e.g., PCIe slots)? Your LAN speed (1, 2.5, 10, 25 Gbps)?

I have multiple minipcs, 7840HS, N150, etc. NAS is a 5825U. Don't care about pcie slots, can always get an egpu dock if I want later and the 780M is "good enough" for LLMs especially since vram is no longer the limiter with GTT (can do ~112GB VRAM on a 7840/8845HS w/ 128GB RAM if one wants to, but t/s is slow)

LAN speed is just gigabit. If I wanted to upgrade I could get a 2.5gbe managed switch but I just don't currently see the need to. Keeping it simple where I can.

Storage: Preferred drive bay count (2, 6, 8+)? NVMe cache for reads/writes? Ideal capacity (10 TB, 50 TB+)?

4-6

no nvme cache needed, but nvme storage pool used for current NAS.

capacity doesn't matter, can buy/shuck/get used enterprise drives myself.

OS: TrueNAS, Unraid, OpenMediaVault, Linux, or no preference? TrueNAS because ZFS. Or give me a ceph option.

Design: Appearance matter? Displayed or hidden? I don't like trashcan look, synology form factor is nice/aesthetic.

Budget: Ideal price (excluding drives)?

$300-500

Pain Points: What frustrates you about NAS or cloud solutions? Killer feature to switch?

NAS: coil whine, poor QC, no PCIe slot (or it costs way too much)

cloud: subscription hell

switch: already use self-hosted minipcs/NAS.

Your thoughts will build a better NAS. Would you back this on Kickstarter? Thanks!

No, for multiple reasons:

unless you have something unique to bring to the table that aoostar/ugreen/etc. have not brought to the table yet, and

don't do a kickstarter, it has historically been full of scams (such as storaxa if you look them up). Put it on a platform that guarantees a product for money such as a shopify storefront, etc.