I'm power user and wabt to choose home nas os. I will yse 5 hdd and 3 nvme. I want to utilize same nas for docker containers and some vm's. I have generic hardware already.

Sonar Pro

Vote: Unraid

Unraid is the best choice for this power user's home NAS setup with 5 HDDs and 3 NVMEs on generic hardware, prioritizing Docker containers and VMs alongside flexible storage.[1][8] Unraid excels in **drive flexibility**, allowing mix-and-match HDD sizes and easy expansion without rebuilding arrays—ideal for 5 HDDs—while supporting NVMe SSDs as read/write cache pools for performance.[1][2] This beats TrueNAS's rigid ZFS vdev requirements, which demand matched drives and make adding storage cumbersome without buying pairs.[1][5] It offers **native Docker and VM support** via KVM/QEMU, perfectly matching the user's needs for containers and VMs, with a vast Community Apps ecosystem for easy deployment—more intuitive than OMV's plugin-dependent setup or TrueNAS's steeper curve.[1][4][8] As a power user with generic hardware, Unraid's user-friendly web GUI, full CLI access, and low resource demands (no ECC RAM mandate like TrueNAS) ensure seamless operation without complexity.[1][3] OMV is too basic/reliant on plugins, TrueNAS overkill for home use, Synology hardware-specific, and Windows Server resource-heavy with licensing costs.[1][4]

Claude Haiku 4.5

Vote: Truenas

TrueNAS is the optimal choice for your specific use case as a power user with mixed storage and virtualization needs. Storage flexibility: TrueNAS excels at managing both HDDs and NVMe drives efficiently. Its ZFS file system provides superior data integrity, compression, and snapshots—critical for a 5+3 drive setup. You get enterprise-grade storage management without proprietary limitations. Virtualization & containerization: TrueNAS Scale (Linux-based) natively supports both Docker containers and VMs through KVM/QEMU. This eliminates the need for separate hypervisors and allows seamless integration of both workload types on the same system. Generic hardware compatibility: TrueNAS runs on standard x86 hardware without requiring proprietary motherboards or certification. Your existing hardware will work without vendor lock-in. Power user advantages: TrueNAS offers advanced features including granular RAID configuration (you could use RAID-Z2 or RAID-Z3 for your HDDs), ACLs, replication, and comprehensive monitoring. It provides shell access and full control for experienced users. Comparison context: Synology locks you into their hardware. Unraid has licensing costs and less robust storage management. OpenMediaVault is simpler but lacks native VM support. Windows Server adds unnecessary overhead and licensing costs. TrueNAS balances professional-grade features with open-source flexibility—ideal for a power user wanting unified storage and compute.

GPT-5.4

Vote: Truenas

TrueNAS is the best fit for a power user with generic hardware, 5 HDDs, 3 NVMe drives, and a plan to run both containers and VMs on the same box. Its biggest advantage is ZFS. With your drive mix, ZFS gives you strong data integrity, snapshots, replication, and flexible use of NVMe for cache, metadata, or high-speed pools. For a serious home NAS, that matters more than ease-of-use features. TrueNAS also handles advanced storage layouts better than most alternatives. If you care about performance, reliability, and learning a platform that scales beyond basic home use, it is the strongest storage-first option here. For apps and virtualization, TrueNAS supports containers and VMs well enough for a power-user homelab. It is not as simple as Unraid for beginners, but it is more robust and technically solid once configured. Why not the others: Unraid is easier and very flexible, but its array design prioritizes convenience and mixed-drive expansion over peak storage performance and data model rigor. OMV is lightweight and capable, but more DIY and less integrated for this use case. Synology is great on Synology hardware, not generic hardware. Windows Server is the weakest choice here for a modern home NAS with this storage-first workload. If your top priority were simplicity and app ecosystem, A would be very defensible. But for a power user who already has hardware and wants the strongest NAS foundation plus VMs and containers, D is the best overall choice.

Grok 4.1 Fast

Vote: Unraid

Unraid is the best fit for a power user's home NAS on generic hardware with 5 HDDs and 3 NVMe drives. It excels in flexible storage pools, allowing mismatched HDD sizes in a parity-protected array, while NVMe drives can form fast cache pools or SSD arrays for apps/VMs. Unraid provides seamless, user-friendly Docker container and KVM VM support via its web GUI—no complex setup needed. This matches the user's requirements perfectly without the hardware restrictions of Synology (C) or the licensing costs/overhead of Windows Server (E). Compared to OMV (B), which requires more plugin tinkering for robust VMs/Docker, or TrueNAS (D), which favors matched ZFS pools and has a steeper learning curve for casual home use, Unraid offers the easiest path to a mixed-workload NAS with excellent community support and stability.

Kimi K2.5

Vote: Unraid

As a power user with generic hardware and a mix of 5 HDDs and 3 NVMe drives, Unraid offers unmatched flexibility. Unlike ZFS-based solutions that require matched drive sizes for optimal efficiency, Unraid allows you to maximize capacity across heterogeneous drives while still providing redundancy via parity. Unraid's Docker implementation is arguably the best in class for home NAS use, featuring a polished web UI, easy template management, and excellent community app support. VM management is equally straightforward with robust GPU passthrough capabilities and intuitive configuration. The 3 NVMe drives can be flexibly allocated—use some as cache pools to accelerate the HDD array, and dedicate others to high-performance VMs or container appdata, something other solutions often handle less elegantly. While TrueNAS Scale is a strong competitor, its ZFS foundation is less forgiving with mixed drive sizes and demands more RAM. OpenMediaVault requires more manual setup for complex VM/Docker workflows, and Windows Server brings unnecessary licensing costs and overhead. Synology DSM on generic hardware violates licensing and lacks reliability.

DeepSeek V3.2

Vote: Unraid

Unraid is ideal for power users with generic hardware due to its flexible storage that supports mixed drive sizes without requiring identical disks. This fits perfectly with your 5 HDD and 3 NVMe configuration, allowing efficient use of all drives. It offers robust built-in support for Docker containers and VMs through an intuitive web interface, reducing setup complexity while maintaining advanced features. This aligns with your need to run both services on the same NAS. Compared to other options: OMV requires more manual configuration, TrueNAS has a steeper learning curve, Synology isn't compatible with generic hardware, and Windows Server is overkill and costly. Unraid balances ease of use with power user capabilities.

Claude Opus 4.6

Vote: Unraid

Unraid is the best fit for this specific use case for several compelling reasons. First, Unraid handles mixed drive configurations exceptionally well. With 5 HDDs and 3 NVMe drives, Unraid's approach is ideal — it doesn't require drives to be the same size or type. You can use the HDDs in a parity-protected array and assign the NVMe drives as a cache pool or unassigned devices for VMs and Docker. TrueNAS (ZFS) would want matched drives in vdevs, making a mixed 5+3 setup awkward. Second, Unraid has first-class Docker and VM support built directly into its GUI. The Community Applications plugin gives you a massive library of Docker containers with easy templated setup. KVM-based VMs are managed through a clean web interface with GPU passthrough support. This is exactly what you need for running containers and VMs on the same box. Third, since you have generic hardware, Unraid runs on virtually anything — it boots from a USB drive and has excellent hardware compatibility. No need for HCL-approved components like TrueNAS sometimes demands for optimal ZFS performance. Fourth, Unraid's cache pool feature lets you leverage those 3 NVMe drives as a high-speed tier for Docker containers, VM storage, and write caching before mover shifts data to the array. This is a natural and elegant way to use your mixed storage setup. OMV is capable but less polished for VM management. TrueNAS Scale supports Docker (via apps) and VMs but the mixed drive topology is less flexible with ZFS. Synology requires their proprietary hardware, so it's eliminated. Windows Server works but is overkill, costly, and not purpose-built for NAS workloads. For a power user with mixed drives wanting Docker + VMs on generic hardware, Unraid is the clear winner.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: Unraid

Unraid is practically purpose-built for this exact home lab scenario, offering the best balance of flexibility, performance, and hardware compatibility. First, its unique storage array handles generic hardware flawlessly. You can pool your 5 HDDs for bulk storage (using one or two for parity) while only spinning up the drives actively in use, which saves power and reduces wear in a home environment. Second, Unraid excels at tiered storage. You can configure your 3 NVMe drives as dedicated cache pools (e.g., a RAID 1 mirror plus a standalone drive, or a ZFS pool). This allows you to isolate your Docker 'appdata' and VM virtual disks on lightning-fast NVMe storage, ensuring maximum performance without bottlenecking your bulk HDD array. Finally, Unraid features a deeply integrated Docker ecosystem with a massive 'Community Applications' store, alongside incredibly robust KVM-based virtual machine support that makes PCIe passthrough (like assigning a GPU to a VM) exceptionally easy. While TrueNAS is a great power-user alternative, the rigid expansion rules of traditional ZFS vdevs make Unraid the vastly superior choice for a scalable home environment.

Qwen 3.5 397B

Vote: Unraid

Synology is excluded because it requires proprietary hardware, and Windows Server is inefficient for this use case. While TrueNAS is powerful, it often demands specific hardware configurations like ECC RAM and HBA controllers for optimal ZFS performance. Unraid is the ideal choice for generic hardware. It offers exceptional compatibility with existing components without strict requirements. The OS is designed specifically for combining storage, Docker containers, and VMs in a home lab environment. Your 3 NVMe drives can be configured as a cache pool to accelerate Docker and VM workloads. The 5 HDDs provide flexible storage capacity without the rigid expansion constraints of traditional RAID, allowing easy upgrades later.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable overwhelmingly endorsed Unraid for its unparalleled flexibility in handling mixed drive sizes and its intuitive 'Community Apps' ecosystem, which perfectly suits a home lab environment. A principled minority, led by GPT-5.4 and Claude Haiku 4.5, staged a defense for TrueNAS, arguing that a true power user should never compromise on the data integrity and professional-grade ZFS file system features that Unraid lacks. Ultimately, most models, including Claude Opus 4.6 and Gemini 3.1 Pro, concluded that the convenience of Unraid's cache pools and easy hardware expansion outweighed the rigid technical overhead of its competitors.

No agreement after 1 rounds of discussion. Final vote: Unraid: 7, Truenas: 2

Strongest Arguments

• Unraid: Unraid allows you to maximize capacity across heterogeneous drives via parity without the rigid vdev requirements of ZFS, while its tiered storage model elegantly uses NVMe drives to accelerate Docker and VM workloads.
• Truenas: For a serious power-user homelab, enterprise-grade ZFS features like snapshots, replication, and superior data integrity are more critical than user-interface polish or drive-size flexibility.