The short answer
On a one-drive mini PC like our Beelink EQi12, OpenMediaVault is the default answer: it is free, runs in 1 GB of RAM, and treats your single NVMe plus USB drives as ordinary Linux disks. Choose TrueNAS when you can add real drives and want ZFS checksums; choose Unraid when you own mismatched drives that will grow one at a time and will pay $49–$249 for the app ecosystem.
That is the opposite of the usual “TrueNAS first” advice you see in NAS roundups, and the reason is physics, not preference. The EQi12 has exactly one internal drive — a 512 GB WD PC SN540 NVMe — and TrueNAS’s own hardware guide wants a 16 GB boot device separate from your data pool, plus at least two matched drives to form one. On this hardware, every data disk lives behind the USB controller, and that is a path we have measured. The rest of this page turns the three operating systems’ published requirements against the numbers we actually measured on this box, so you can see which requirement list your hardware can satisfy.
One honesty note up front: we have not installed TrueNAS, Unraid or OMV on the EQi12. The hardware numbers below — 623 MiB/s NVMe, 301 MiB/s on the fast USB ports, 12 W at the wall — come from our own test log on this exact machine. The OS-side facts (RAM floors, pricing, release names) come from each project’s documentation and store pages, verified September 2026 and linked inline. We make no claim about how any of the three feels to run on this box; we show which of their published requirements a one-drive mini PC can and cannot meet.
Where this page fits among our storage pages
We have several storage pages with different jobs, and this is the only one that answers “which NAS operating system”:
| Page | Answers this question |
|---|---|
| This page | TrueNAS vs Unraid vs OMV for a mini PC — which requirement list does my hardware satisfy? |
| ZFS & RAID storage planning | Once you have picked ZFS: which RAIDZ or mirror layout for your drive count and sizes? |
| NVMe vs USB SSD vs network share | Where should each workload live across the measured 623 / 301 / 112 MiB/s paths? |
| Windows + Docker vs Proxmox on one mini PC | The hypervisor alternative: run containers on Windows or move to Proxmox on the same box? |
| RAID capacity calculator | Usable-capacity math for any layout before you commit. |
The division of labor with the planning guide is deliberate: that page assumes you have chosen a ZFS layout and calculates usable space; this page decides whether ZFS — and the OS shipping it — fits your hardware at all.
The measured hardware: what a $200-class mini PC actually offers
Every number in this table comes from our EQi12 measurement data (CC BY 4.0), captured on the exact machine in question:
| EQi12 component | Measured / verified spec | Why it matters for a NAS OS |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel i3-1215U, 6C/8T | Clears every OS minimum; Quick Sync handles media duties |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4-3200 (2×8 GB) | Above TrueNAS’s 8 GB floor; no ECC (TrueNAS says ECC recommended, not required) |
| Internal storage | 1× WD PC SN540 512 GB NVMe, 623 MiB/s sequential | One internal drive total — this is the defining constraint |
| USB storage paths | 301 MiB/s on the fast ports; one repeatably near USB 2.0 class | Where any additional “drives” would live |
| Network | 2× Realtek GbE, 890.75 / 902.57 Mbps measured | Dual GbE works on all three OSes; no 2.5G to exploit |
| Power | ~12 W at the wall idle, ~13 W QSV transcode (Windows) | Sets the running-cost band regardless of OS |
| Boot | UEFI, USB boot supported | Unraid’s classic USB-boot model works; OMV/TrueNAS install to internal storage |
Read as a requirements matrix, the picture is lopsided: the RAM and CPU rows pass everywhere, and the storage row fails TrueNAS’s shape while fitting OMV’s perfectly.
What each OS officially requires (and what it costs)
The facts below are from each project’s own documentation and store, checked September 2026.
| Requirement | TrueNAS Community Edition | Unraid | OpenMediaVault 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | Debian Linux (25.10 “Goldeye” line, 25.10.7 maintenance) | Custom Linux, Slackware-derived | Debian 13 “Trixie” |
| Filesystem | OpenZFS only, built in | XFS array + optional ZFS/Btrfs pools | ext4, XFS, Btrfs; ZFS via omv-extras plugin |
| Min RAM (official) | 8 GB, +1 GB per drive after the first 8; 16 GB for VMs/iSCSI | Modest; more if you add ZFS pools | 1 GB minimum, ~8 GB recommended |
| Boot device | 16 GB SSD, separate from data | USB flash drive classic; internal boot supported since 7.3 (May 2026) | 8 GB drive, separate from data disks |
| Data drives to start | 2+ matched drives for a pool | 1 parity + 1 data (or start with none) | 0+; single disk is a valid start |
| Mixed drive sizes | No (match within a vdev) | Yes — the core feature | Via mergerfs + SnapRAID plugins |
| Docker apps | Catalog + Compose | Community Applications (largest catalog) | openmediavault-compose plugin |
| Price | Free | $49 Starter (6 devices) / $109 Unleashed / $249 Lifetime; 1 year updates, then optional $36/yr | Free (GPL) |
Three things jump out of this table for a mini PC owner:
- TrueNAS’s minimum viable pool needs drives you do not have. Two matched drives plus a separate 16 GB boot device means three storage devices before you store anything. A one-NVMe mini PC satisfies none of that internally.
- Unraid’s license buys flexibility this hardware cannot express. Mixing drive sizes and growing one disk at a time is exactly right for a tower of mismatched HDDs — and nearly moot when your expansion path is two USB ports.
- OMV’s shape matches the box. One internal disk as a data share, USB for overflow, 1 GB RAM floor, Debian underneath, exit cost of “just an ext4 disk”.
The USB caveat that decides TrueNAS on this class of hardware
Because the storage story is where mini PCs diverge from tower NAS builds, it deserves its own numbers. We measured three USB-A paths on the EQi12 sustaining useful SSD speeds while one repeatably negotiated near USB 2.0-class throughput — the full per-port breakdown is in the EQi12 USB storage test. The headline:
| Storage path (measured on this box) | Sustained rate | Role in a NAS OS |
|---|---|---|
| Internal NVMe (WD SN540) | 623 MiB/s | OS + apps + hot data, on all three OSes |
| Fast USB-A ports + SSD | 301 MiB/s | Acceptable for bulk media shares |
| Slow USB path + SSD | Near USB 2.0 class | Avoid for any pool member |
| SMB over 1 GbE | 112 MiB/s | The client-side ceiling anyway |
That last row is the strategic insight: over a single gigabit link, a client can pull at most ~112 MiB/s. The 301 MiB/s USB ports are already 2.7× faster than the network can deliver, which is why OMV-on-USB-storage is tolerable and why TrueNAS’s pool integrity features — brilliant on real hardware — are partially wasted behind a USB bridge that your network cannot saturate anyway. ZFS self-healing needs a second copy of the data to repair from; on a single-drive mini PC there is no redundancy to heal with, so you are running TrueNAS for checksums-and-detection, not correction. That is still worth something (it tells you that a file rotted), but it is a weaker pitch than the full ZFS story.
The power angle: the OS matters less than you think
We measured the EQi12 at about 12 W at the wall at idle on Windows and about 13 W during a Quick Sync transcode. Swapping the operating system does not change the silicon: the same SoC, the same single NVMe, no spinning disks to spin down. Unraid’s per-drive spin-down — a genuine running-cost feature on eight-disk HDD towers — has almost nothing to do on a box with no HDDs. If electricity cost is your driver, the hardware choice dominates; our home server power cost calculator turns the measured watts into a bill number for any of the three OSes.
Which one for which situation
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One-drive mini PC, files + a few Docker services | OMV | Free, 1 GB RAM floor, single internal disk is a valid start, Debian underneath |
| Mini PC + USB/SATA drives of mixed sizes, growing over time | Unraid ($49+) | Mixed sizes and one-disk-at-a-time growth are its core design; best app catalog |
| You will add 2+ matched real drives (internal or DAS) and data integrity matters | TrueNAS CE | ZFS checksums, snapshots, replication; 8 GB RAM floor is met |
| You actually want VMs and clustering, storage secondary | Proxmox instead | Hypervisor-first; ZFS native; see our same-hardware comparison |
| You have not bought drives yet | Plan first | Run the ZFS/RAID planning guide before spending |
A citable fact block
Data for citation, from the EQi12 Measurement Data repository (CC BY 4.0), measured on Beelink EQi12 (i3-1215U, 16 GB DDR4-3200, WD PC SN540 512 GB):
| Measurement | Value | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| NVMe sequential read (WD SN540) | 623 MiB/s | Sustained file copy test, EQi12 internal M.2 |
| USB-A storage path (fast ports) | 301 MiB/s | USB 3.x port, SSD enclosure, sustained copy |
| SMB over single GbE | 112 MiB/s | Wired Realtek GbE, sustained share copy |
| Wall power, idle | ~12 W | Windows, stack stopped, at the wall meter |
| Wall power, QSV transcode | ~13 W | 4K60→1080p60 Quick Sync workload |
OS requirements and prices cited above are from TrueNAS, Unraid and OpenMediaVault official documentation and store pages, verified September 2026; pricing changes, so confirm before buying.
The bottom line
Match the OS’s storage model to the drives you actually have, not the drives NAS roundups assume you have. Our mini PC has one NVMe and measured USB paths behind it — that is OpenMediaVault territory, free and honest. The day this box gains two matched real drives, TrueNAS becomes the better long-term answer at the same price; the day it becomes a home for mismatched leftover disks, Unraid’s $109 Unleashed license starts earning its keep. All three run Docker and all three will saturate a gigabit link — which means for a one-drive mini PC, the free option and the paid options land closer together than any marketing table suggests.
Sources
- Unraid store pricing and Summer Sale 2026 blog (Starter $49 / Unleashed $109 / Lifetime $249, optional $36/yr update extension), unraid.net, verified September 2026.
- TrueNAS hardware guide and 25.10 release notes (8 GB RAM floor, 16 GB separate boot device, 2+ matched drives minimum, +1 GB per drive after eight), truenas.com, verified September 2026.
- OpenMediaVault 8 prerequisites and filesystem documentation (Debian 13 base, 1 GB RAM minimum, ZFS via omv-extras plugin), docs.openmediavault.org, verified September 2026.
- All hardware measurements: EQi12 Measurement Data (CC BY 4.0) and EQi12 home server stack (MIT).