All-flash setups are the latest addition to the NAS ecosystem, with more manufacturers releasing devices that favor SSDs over hard drives. As someone who has tested several NAS units over the past year, it’s a trend I can happily get behind. After all, you get a fairly portable storage server that supports blazing-fast transfer speeds, barely contributes to your energy bills, and is as quiet as a (Dell KM555) mouse.

So, you can imagine my response when LincPlus reached out to me to cover their LincStation N2 NAS. After tinkering with the device for two weeks, I’ve grown very fond of it. Its pros outweigh its (fairly minimal) cons and, at the current price, it’s hands-down the best budget-friendly all-SSD NAS for data hoarders as well as casual users.

LincPlus sent me the LincStation N2 for review, though the company had zero input on the contents of the article.

Pricing, availability, and specs

Although LincPlus announced the LincStation N2 a few weeks ago, the NAS is still in its Kickstarter phase. The LincStation N2 has a single model that’s equipped with 16GB of memory and includes an Unraid license. At the time of writing, you can nab one by pledging approximately $309 on Kickstarter, though you should expect the retail model to cost slightly more than its early-access counterpart.

It’s a compact 6-bay NAS

That supports 10GbE connectivity

All-flash NAS units are famous for their small footprint and compact design, and the LincStation N2 is no different from its brethren. The upper part of the NAS has a plastic build while the lower half is made of metal, with an LED panel underneath the power button adding some extra aesthetic appeal to the device. While it’s nowhere near as tiny as the Aiffro K100, it’s compact enough to fit in most desk setups and server racks without hogging too much space.

It’s compact enough to fit in most desk setups and server racks without hogging too much space.

Flipping the device over will let you access four drive bays for your M.2 SSDs, and the left slot also houses a USB drive with Unraid pre-installed. Meanwhile, the other two drive bays lie hidden under the power button and are designed for 2.5-inch SATA drives rather than M.2 SSDs. As such, you can technically pair smaller HDDs with your storage server (though I’d never recommend using them in a RAID setup with your SSD-only array).

On the ports front, the LincPlus LincStation N2 is equipped with an HDMI port and four USB ports: two Type-A ports capped at USB 2.0 speeds, while the other Type-A and Type-C connections offer faster 10Gbps transfer rates that the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface is famous for. The LincStation N2 also includes a 10GbE port to ensure your SSDs aren’t held back by slower Ethernet standards.

Unraid makes the NAS even better

A NAS-centric distro is always superior to a proprietary OS

Pre-built NAS devices often feature in-house operating systems, which can range from borderline unusable to fairly decent. But there’s no denying that a proper NAS OS has more features and capabilities than the majority of proprietary operating systems. LincPlus circumvents this issue by including an Unraid license with the NAS, making the device even more cost-effective.

The LincStation N2 provides a 1-year Unraid subscription, though you won’t lose access to your storage arrays once the license expires. Rather, you’ll keep receiving security updates until the Unraid version included in your subscription reaches its EOL. As such, you’ll only need a new license if you want more updates.

Aside from that, Unraid pairs exceedingly well with the LincStation N1. The ability to mix and match different drives without suffering from a reduced storage capacity is a major highlight of the operating system, and the same can be said for its simple UI and massive app store. Honestly, I don’t have any complaints about the device aside from one issue…

Unraid pairs exceedingly well with the LincStation N1.

The CPU, however, is far from ideal

An Intel i3-N305 would have made the N2 my dream NAS

If you look at the hardware, the LincStation N2 has solid specs despite its inexpensive price tag. Aside from the 10GbE port and six drive bays, the N2 includes 16GB of memory that, despite being soldered to its motherboard, is more than enough for the device. But alas, I can't say the same about the processor.

Don’t get me wrong, an Intel N100 CPU makes a lot of sense for a NAS in this price range. But once you compare it with the rest of the specs on the LincPlus LincStation N2, it stands out as a major bottleneck. Sure, you can run your favorite containers and apps on the CPU, but the 4-core, 4-thread N100 will hit its limit once you throw virtual machines into the equation.

But my biggest beef is with the limited PCIe lanes available to the processor. For starters, you’re capped at Gen 3 speeds, and its meager nine PCIe lanes can prevent the 10GbE connection from spreading its wings.

With a single 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, the real-world transfer speed averages at 750MB/s and fails to go past the 810MB/s mark. For a budget-friendly NAS, it’s not bad by any means, though I would have preferred it if the LincStation N2 featured an i3-N305 instead of the N100. After slotting in two more NVMe drives into the NAS and adding them to a BTRFS array, the transfer speed was more or less the same.

However, the NAS performed splendidly on CrystalDiskMark, with both the 1-drive and 3-drive configurations hitting solid read/write speeds. Containers and community apps ran fairly well, and I got most of my favorite self-hosted services working on the NAS as long as I didn't have any virtual machines running in the background. Speaking of, the N2 could handle a NixOS VM with two cores and 8GB memory, though running more than one virtual machine at a time would result in performance drops – something that I blame entirely on the N100.

Containers and community apps run fairly well, and I got most of my favorite self-hosted services working on the NAS.

Should you buy the LincPlus LincStation N2?

The LincPlus LincStation N2 is perfect for you if:

• You want a compact NAS that can double as a decent container-hosting machine.
• You’re on the lookout for a solid all-SSD NAS that includes a 10GbE port.
• You need a budget-friendly storage server.

You might want to stay away from the LincStation N2 if:

• You want a powerful NAS that’s great for home lab workloads.
• You prefer hard drives to SSDs.
• You need a NAS that can hit 10GbE speeds.

For a $309 device, I’d say the LincStation N2 is an absolute steal. Heck, if LincPlus decides to retail the device for under $450, it’d still be better than other SSD NAS devices in this price range. The 6-bay design is really neat for users who want extra storage, while the 10GbE connection can provide decent transfer speeds even with the bottleneck that's the N100 processor. Plus, you get an Unraid license included with the NAS, making it even more appealing for folks who prefer the OS over OpenMediaVault and TrueNAS Scale.