How to choose a 3-bay NAS in 2026
4 NAS models across 1 vendors ship with 3 drive bays. The table below lists every one of them with its official drive-list depth — read each model page for the vendor's own tested drives.
All 3-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-351 | QNAP | Intel Celeron J1800 2-core/2-thread processor, burst up to 2.58 GHz | 4 GB SODIMM DDR3L | 371 |
| QNAP TS-332X | QNAP | AnnapurnaLabs Alpine AL324 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 4-core 1.7GHz processor | 4 GB SODIMM DDR4 | 339 |
| QNAP TS-364 | QNAP | Intel Celeron N5095 4-core/4-thread processor, burst up to 2.9 GHz | 8 GB RAM | 278 |
| QNAP TS-328 | QNAP | Realtek RTD 1296 ARM Cortex-A53 4-core 1.4 GHz processor | 2 GB DDR4 RAM, not expandable 1 | 160 |
Drives the most 3-bay machines share
Cross-checked against every 3-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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST6000VN001 | Seagate | IronWolf | 4 of 4 models | price |
| WD10EFRX (Red NASware 3.0) | Western Digital | Red Plus | 4 of 4 models | price |
| WD4003FFBX | Western Digital | Red Pro | 3 of 4 models | price |
| WD40PURZ | Western Digital | Purple | 3 of 4 models | price |
| ST6000VN0033 | Seagate | Surveillance | 3 of 4 models | price |
| MN06ACA800 | Toshiba | MN06ACA*** | 3 of 4 models | price |
| ST4000NE0025 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 3 of 4 models | price |
| ST6000NE0023 | Seagate | IronWolf Pro | 3 of 4 models | price |
| ST8000VN0022 | Seagate | NAS | 3 of 4 models | price |
| MN05ACA800 | Toshiba | MN05ACA*** | 3 of 4 models | price |
| MN04ACA400 | Toshiba | MN04ACA*** | 3 of 4 models | price |
| ST4000VN008 | Seagate | IronWolf | 3 of 4 models | price |