Let me start by saying the FreeNAS Mini is not your average plug-and-play NAS. This compact beast packs serious power with its 8-core Intel Atom CPU and 16GB ECC RAM, making it ideal for tech enthusiasts who want robust storage solutions.

The hardware quality is top-notch - the case feels premium, drive installation is smooth (though instructions could be clearer), and I love the hot-swap capability. Performance over dual gigabit NICs is impressive, especially when load balanced.

Where things get interesting is the software. FreeNAS with ZFS offers incredible features like snapshots, data integrity checks, and compression. The dataset approach is brilliant - way more flexible than traditional partitioning. But be warned: you'll need to invest time learning FreeBSD and ZFS concepts.

I've used this for media serving, backups, and even ran some VMs. The plugin system expands functionality tremendously (though some plugins can cause stability issues). The web interface makes most tasks manageable once you're familiar with it.

Now for the downsides: Support can be hit-or-miss. While hardware issues were resolved well in my experience (iXsystems replaced faulty motherboards), software support relies heavily on community forums where responses vary in quality.

The SATA DOM boot device is a potential weak point - I'd recommend mirroring them or using SSDs instead. Also, while generally reliable, some users report motherboard failures after a couple years.

Bottom line: If you're tech-savvy and want enterprise-grade storage features in a compact form factor, this is fantastic. But casual users might find Synology or QNAP more user-friendly. Just be prepared for a learning curve and occasional troubleshooting.