Amazon and Scan buttons are ordinary merchant searches. Commission tracking is not live on this version. Price is never shown here.
bayplan.co.uk
Enter what you already store. Get a bay, a redundancy class and a named enclosure. Then check the live Amazon UK price for that box — we never invent the ticket. Amazon and Scan links are merchant searches. Commission tracking is not live yet.
Typical picks
A Plus-class 2-bay if you are under 8 TB. A compact 4-bay once you cross it. Run the planner if your numbers are not typical.
Typical 2-bay Plus
A 2-bay that will serve a mostly Direct Play library. Still a mirror.
Not for: Households that may need hardware transcoding, or a target at 8 TB and above.
Typical compact 4-bay
A household that crossed the 8 TB line and wants a current compact 4-bay.
Not for: A verified hardware-transcode enclosure. The public UK page does not claim that.
Browse the set
Manufacturer studio photos of every box this planner will name. Check the live Amazon UK price — we never invent the ticket.
2-bay · Synology
A first NAS for photos, documents and phone backup. No media server.
Photo © Synology. Identification only.
2-bay · Synology
A 2-bay that will serve a mostly Direct Play library. Still a mirror.
Photo © Synology. Identification only.
2-bay · UGREEN
A 2-bay alternative in the plus class, if you prefer UGREEN to Synology.
Photo © UGREEN. Identification only.
4-bay · Synology
A household that crossed the 8 TB line and wants a current compact 4-bay.
Photo © Synology. Identification only.
4-bay · Synology
A 4-bay Synology Plus when capacity, not transcoding, is the constraint.
Photo © Synology. Identification only.
4-bay · UGREEN
A 4-bay UGREEN alternative in the same editorial class as the Synology 4-bays.
Photo © UGREEN. Identification only.
Start from a household
Each card is a real run of the engine — same rules as typing the numbers yourself. The photograph is the class of box that run names, or blank if none matches.
Usually a quiet 2-bay mirror · Synology DS223
A first NAS. Documents, phone dumps, a modest photo library. No Plex.
Run this plan
Usually a Plus-class 2-bay · Synology DS224+
A media library the TVs can play as stored. Plus-class hardware, still two bays if the target stays small.
Run this plan
Usually a 4-bay, single-parity class · Synology DS425+
Several terabytes already, another half-terabyte of video a year. Capacity, not transcoding, is the constraint.
Run this plan
4-bay class; no verified transcode enclosure in this version
Phones and TVs that cannot Direct Play the files you keep. We will not invent a transcode lab score.
Run this plan
Every input changes the output. The shared URL is the plan.
After a named match
01
Current library, yearly photo and video growth, horizon, headroom, media need. No decorative questions.
02
A planning target, 2-bay or 4-bay, redundancy class and performance class. Mutually exclusive rules. Fail closed to UNKNOWN.
03
Named enclosures open Amazon UK and Scan as search links. Prices, stock and the cart live on their pages. No purchase step is shown if nothing matched.
If you already know the class
2-bay NAS
Named 2-bay enclosures in the current set. Search, not a SKU.
4-bay NAS
Named 4-bay enclosures. Capacity line is 8.0 TB in the planner.
NAS-rated CMR drives
Desktop drives are a poor fit in RAID. Class only — no part number.
UPS
A NAS should shut down cleanly on a power cut. Companion, not the box.
Merchant search — price lives on Amazon or Scan. Commission tracking is not live yet. Disclosure
Method, in public
Layer 1
Current data, yearly growth, horizon, headroom. No invented overhead.
Layer 2
The 8 TB line, half-open intervals, and why transcoding jumps the queue.
Layer 2
Household language for RAID. What it saves you from, and what it does not.
Layer 2
No media server, Direct Play, or may-transcode. Coarse on purpose.
Buying
NAS-rated CMR, a size band from the plan, then a merchant search.
Buying
2 vs 4, RAID is not backup, why there are no prices, how the links work.
Trust
V, R and D. What this version will not invent. How merchant links work.