How to choose a 9-bay NAS in 2026
Nine bays is almost exclusively TerraMaster territory (T9-423/T9-523 tower units) plus QNAP's 9-bay enterprise racks — a form-factor play for buyers who want rack-scale capacity without the rack.
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 9-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.
| Model | Vendor | CPU | RAM | Drives listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QNAP TS-932PX | QNAP | AnnapurnaLabs Alpine AL324 ARM Cortex-A57 4-core 1.7GHz processor | 4 GB SODIMM DDR4 | 676 |
| QNAP TS-h973AX | QNAP | AMD Ryzen Embedded V1500B 4-core/8-thread 2.2 GHz processor | 32 GB SODIMM DDR4 | 614 |
| QNAP TS-932X | QNAP | AnnapurnaLabs Alpine AL324 ARM Cortex-A57 4-core 1.7GHz processor | 8 GB SODIMM DDR4 | 428 |
| QNAP TS-h987XU-RP | QNAP | Intel Xeon E-2334 4C 8T 3.4GHz, up to 4.8GHz | 16 GB ECC DDR4 | 412 |
| QNAP TS-983XU-RP | QNAP | Intel Xeon E-2124 4-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz) | 8 GB UDIMM DDR4 ECC | 370 |
| QNAP TS-983XU | QNAP | Intel Xeon E-2124 4-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz) | 8 GB UDIMM DDR4 ECC | 364 |
| QNAP TS-h977XU-RP | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core/16-thread processor, burst up to 4.4 GHz | 32 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 354 |
| QNAP TS-977XU-RP | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 5 2600 6-core/12-thread processor, burst up to 3.9 GHz | 8 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 341 |
| QNAP TS-977XU | QNAP | AMD Ryzen 3 1200 4-core/4-thread 3.1 GHz processor, Turbo Core 3.4 GHz | 4 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 337 |
| QNAP TVS-951X | QNAP | Intel Celeron 3865U 2-core 1.8 GHz processor | 2 GB SODIMM DDR4 | 318 |
| QNAP TS-963X | QNAP | AMD G-Series GX-420MC 4-core 2.0 GHz processor | 2 GB SODIMM DDR3/DDR3L | 304 |
| QNAP TVS-972XU | QNAP | Intel Core i3-8100 4-core 3.6 GHz Processor | 4 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 279 |
| QNAP TVS-972XU-RP | QNAP | Intel Core i3-8100 4-core 3.6 GHz Processor | 4 GB UDIMM DDR4 | 279 |
| TerraMaster T9-450 | TerraMaster | — | — | 207 |
| TerraMaster T9-500 Pro | TerraMaster | — | — | 207 |
| TerraMaster T9-423 | TerraMaster | — | — | 205 |
| TerraMaster D9-320 | TerraMaster | — | — | 164 |
| QNAP TS-h966TX | QNAP | Intel Core i3 6-core processor, up to 4.4 GHz | 8 GB SODIMM DDR5 | 129 |
Drives the most 9-bay machines share
Cross-checked against every 9-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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST16000NM001G | Seagate | Enterprise | 17 of 18 models | price |
| ST14000NM001G | Seagate | EXOS x16 | 17 of 18 models | price |
| MG05ACA800E | Toshiba | MG05ACA**** | 16 of 18 models | price |
| ST6000NM021A | Seagate | Exos 7E8 | 16 of 18 models | price |
| ST8000NM0206 | Seagate | Exos X10 | 16 of 18 models | price |
| ST10000NM0086 | Seagate | Exos X10 | 16 of 18 models | price |
| WD40PURZ | Western Digital | Purple | 16 of 18 models | price |
| ST6000VN0033 | Seagate | Surveillance | 16 of 18 models | price |
| MN06ACA800 | Toshiba | MN06ACA*** | 16 of 18 models | price |
| ST4000NE0025 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 16 of 18 models | price |
| ST6000NE0023 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 16 of 18 models | price |
| MN06ACA10T | Toshiba | MN06ACA*** | 16 of 18 models | price |