So it turns out that this thing was a complete disaster. The entire thing is plastic, including the drive sleds, rails and all mounting hardware. The decidedly cheap MediaSonic ProBox enclosures I bought years ago are far more better built. With that said, I'd be willing ti ignore the plastic nature of the QNAP here if it actually worked. It (not so) randomly disconnected all 8 drives three times in less than day. Two were while I was doing an rsync. That could be catastrophic. A friend of mine suspected it was a power issue. I've got the two MediaSonic units back in action. They have loud and annoying cooling fans as well as their police car like strobes:
Seriously look at this. Can you imagine having TWO of these in your bedroom? I covered the LED bars on both units with electrical tape. As much as I mock the MediaSonics, they have been extremely reliable, working 24/7 for years on end. Zero disconnects as well.
I'm now looking at two other options. One model went up in price by 20% since yesterday (thanks, Donny!) and the other is ...the OWC Thunderbay 8 I probably should have gotten in the first place. (To be fair to me, OWC is now owned by some vulture capital firm and their reputation has tanked in the last however many years.)