How to choose a 16-bay NAS in 2026
Sixteen bays and beyond is enterprise: QNAP's 16-bay racks dominate the field, TerraMaster's U16 series offers value towers, and UniFi's Enterprise NAS (16 bays, 25G SFP28) is the newest option with dual hot-swap PSUs. At this scale, buy drives the vendor lists — full stop.
Current-generation picks
The models you can actually buy new today — one card each, with the official drive-list depth most spec sheets never show:
All 16-bay models, ranked by official drive-list depth
CPU/RAM shown where the vendor publishes them (Synology/QNAP specs); "drives listed" = rows on the vendor's own compatibility tool. UniFi consoles follow spec-based requirements instead of a whitelist — their rows link to the requirement breakdown.
| Model | Vendor | CPU | RAM | Drives listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QNAP TS-1673AU-RP | QNAP | AMD Ryzen Embedded V1500B 4-core/8-thread 2.2 GHz processor | 16 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 640 |
| QNAP TL-R1620Sep-RP | QNAP | — | — | 586 |
| QNAP TVS-h1688X | QNAP | Intel Xeon W-1250 6-core/12-thread processor, up to 4.7 GHz | 32GB ECC UDIMM DDR4 | 578 |
| QNAP TS-h1677XU-RP | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core/16-thread processor, burst up to 4.4 GHz | 32 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 402 |
| QNAP TS-h1677AXU-RP | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series 8-core/16-thread processor, burst up to 5.3 GHz 1 | 32 GB UDIMM DDR5 | 380 |
| QNAP TS-h1683XU-RP | QNAP | Intel Xeon E E-2136 6-core / 12-thread processor | 128 GB UDIMM DDR4 ECC | 371 |
| QNAP TL-D1600S | QNAP | — | — | 355 |
| QNAP TS-1635AX | QNAP | Marvell ARMADA 8040 ARMv8 Cortex-A72 4-core 1.6 GHz processor | 4 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 344 |
| QNAP TVS-EC1680U-SAS-RP R2 | QNAP | — | — | 342 |
| QNAP TS-EC1680U | QNAP | — | — | 332 |
| QNAP TS-EC1680U R2 | QNAP | — | — | 332 |
| QNAP REXP-1620U-RP | QNAP | — | — | 328 |
| QNAP TS-1683XU-RP | QNAP | Intel Xeon E-2124 4-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz) | 16 GB UDIMM DDR4 ECC | 327 |
| QNAP TS-EC1679U-SAS-RP | QNAP | — | — | 314 |
| QNAP TVS-EC1680U-SAS-RP | QNAP | — | — | 313 |
| QNAP TS-1677XU-RP | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8-core/16-thread processor, burst up to 4.1 GHz | 16 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 312 |
| QNAP TS-1655 | QNAP | Intel Atom C5125 8-core processor, 2.8GHz | 8 GB non-ECC UDIMM DDR4 | 301 |
| QNAP TS-1685 | QNAP | Intel Xeon D-1521 4-core 2.4 GHz processor, Max turbo to 2.7 GHz. | 8GB UDIMM DDR4 | 299 |
| QNAP TDS-16489U R2(QES) | QNAP | — | — | 287 |
| QNAP REXP-1600U-RP | QNAP | — | — | 286 |
| QNAP TDS-16489U R2(QTS) | QNAP | — | — | 283 |
| QNAP TDS-16489U | QNAP | Intel E5-2620 v3 6-core 2.4 GHz processor x2 1 | 64GB RDIMM DDR4 | 281 |
| QNAP TS-1673U-RP | QNAP | AMD R-Series RX-421ND 4-core 2.1 GHz processor (Turbo Core to 3.4 GHz) | 8 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 281 |
| QNAP TS-1679U-RP | QNAP | — | — | 268 |
| QNAP TL-R1600PES-RP | QNAP | — | — | 267 |
| QNAP TS-EC1679U-RP | QNAP | — | — | 264 |
| QNAP TS-1677X | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 3 1200 4-core/4-thread 3.1 GHz processor (Turbo Core to 3.4 GHz) | 4 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 242 |
| QNAP TVS-1672XU-RP | QNAP | Intel Core i3-8100 4-core 3.6 GHz Processor | 8 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 221 |
| QNAP TS-1635 | QNAP | — | — | 218 |
| TerraMaster U16 | TerraMaster | — | — | 172 |
| TerraMaster D16 Thunderbolt 3 | TerraMaster | — | — | 163 |
| QNAP ES1686dc | QNAP | — | — | 145 |
| QNAP TVS-h1677AX | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 5 7000 series 6-core/12-thread processor, burst up to 5.1 GHz 1 | 16 GB UDIMM DDR5 | 139 |
| QNAP REXP-1610U-RP | QNAP | — | — | 125 |
| QNAP TL-R1620Sdc | QNAP | — | — | 120 |
| QNAP QAI-16700 | QNAP | — | — | 117 |
| QNAP ES1686dc R2 | QNAP | — | — | 115 |
| QNAP EJ1600 v2 | QNAP | — | — | 82 |
| QNAP ES1640dc v2 | QNAP | — | — | 72 |
| QNAP ES1640dc | QNAP | — | — | 50 |
| QNAP TS-h1655XeU-RP | QNAP | Intel Atom C5125 8-core processor, 2.8GHz | 8 GB non-ECC SODIMM DDR4 | 49 |
| QNAP EJ1600 | QNAP | — | — | 46 |
| QNAP TVS-AIh1688ATX | QNAP | Intel Core Ultra 9, 24 (8P+16E) core, 24 Threads, up to 5.6GHz | 48GB ECC UDIMM DDR5 | 36 |
| QNAP ES1686Adc | QNAP | — | — | 34 |
| QNAP TS-1673U | QNAP | AMD R-Series RX-421ND 4-core 2.1 GHz processor (Turbo Core to 3.4 GHz) | 8 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 30 |
| TerraMaster U16-725 | TerraMaster | — | — | 22 |
| TerraMaster U16-725 Plus | TerraMaster | — | — | 22 |
| Ubiquiti Enterprise NAS | UniFi | — | — | spec-based |
Drives the most 16-bay machines share
Cross-checked against every 16-bay model's official list on this site — the safest part numbers when you're not sure which box you'll end up with:
| Drive | Brand | Series | Listed on | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WD1005VBYZ | Western Digital | Gold | 29 of 47 models | price |
| WD2005VBYZ | Western Digital | Gold | 29 of 47 models | price |
| ST6000VN0033 | Seagate | Surveillance | 29 of 47 models | price |
| ST4000NE0025 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 29 of 47 models | price |
| ST6000NE0023 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 29 of 47 models | price |
| ST8000NE0004 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 29 of 47 models | price |
| ST10000NE0004 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 29 of 47 models | price |
| HUS722T1TALA604 | Western Digital | Ultrastar DC HA210 | 29 of 47 models | price |
| HUH721212ALE600 | Western Digital | Ultrastar DC HC520 | 29 of 47 models | price |
| MG05ACA800E | Toshiba | MG05ACA**** | 28 of 47 models | price |
| WD121KRYZ | Western Digital | Gold | 28 of 47 models | price |
| WD2005FBYZ | Western Digital | Gold | 28 of 47 models | price |