Perhaps you’ve obtained one of many greatest gaming PCs or greatest laptops, and also you need one thing to simply again up or switch all the valuable knowledge saved on them. Certain, they is perhaps outfitted with the greatest SSDs, otherwise you’ve obtained stable exterior arduous drives hanging round holding recordsdata, pictures, and content material. However nothing compares to an incredible NAS (network-attached storage) drive, like our favourite, Synology DiskStation DS224+.
TL;DR – These are the Best Network-Attached Storage Options:
The most effective NAS drives provide vital storage alternatives and hook into your house community, letting you rapidly switch knowledge to and out of your units. Smartphones, tablets, desktops, and laptops could be related to the identical community concurrently, and it is simple to sync them up, making NAS ultimate for media libraries. Nevertheless, NAS doesn’t come low cost, so select fastidiously. Fortunately, we’ve narrowed your search to eight wonderful choices for numerous use instances.
Best Network-Attached Storage
Best Network-Attached Storage
In order for you to keep away from playing around with overly advanced software program or settling for easy {hardware}, the Synology DiskStation DS224+ will get you up and working with a extremely succesful however easy NAS. It options two drive bays, letting you go for elevated storage—up to 32TB, relying on the drive you choose—or a RAID 1 configuration to shield your knowledge by means of redundancy. The 2 Gigabit LAN ports permit for increased speeds with Hyperlink Aggregation or community failover assist, although we want there have been a 2.5GB or 10GB LAN assist for an excellent faster connection.
Utilizing this NAS is easy thanks to Synology’s versatile apps and software program out there on an easy-to-use interface. You may set it up for storing safety digicam footage, use it as a Plex server, or preserve recordsdata and pictures secure and accessible. Even if you would like to transcode 4K media, rapidly handle recordsdata, or easily stream movies, the DiskStation DS224+ is up to process and blazing quick thanks to a strong Intel Celeron J4125 2.0GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of DDR4 RAM, which you’ll be able to all the time improve.
Best Finances Network-Attached Storage
The Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T gives a pleasant stability of high quality {hardware}, a trendy design, and a modest value that gained’t make you draw back from including a NAS to your house. It’s obtained loads of oomph thanks to the Realtek RTD1296 ARM quad-core 1.4 GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, so this NAS is prepared for a high-quality video library, together with decoding for 10-bit 4K video. The great OS and apps make for a simple setup, so that you’ll be backing up recordsdata and creating your personal cloud server very quickly.
This NAS delivers dual-drive bays, supplying you with room for loads of storage or letting you go for further safety by working two drives in RAID for redundancy. You’ll be sticking to SATA drives within the Asustor Drivestor 2 Professional AS3302T, although, as there aren’t any M.2 slots. However for those who’re searching for velocity, utilizing a SATA SSD allows you to profit from increased speeds by utilizing this machine’s multi-gig Ethernet.
Best Extremely Low-cost Network-Attached Storage
For those who’re simply dipping your toe within the NAS sport or have extra meager wants, we suggest the Synology DS120j. At beneath $100, this machine is tremendous inexpensive and straightforward to use, making it an incredible decide for NAS first-timers. The DSM totes numerous purposes to guarantee the method of storing and accessing all of your valuable recordsdata and knowledge is painless it doesn’t matter what machine you’re utilizing.
The Synology DS120j is a single-bay machine, so house is extra restricted than others on this record, although you should utilize up to a 16TB drive. There’s additionally no hardware-based video transcoding, so some recordsdata want to be transformed beforehand. It doesn’t work with Plex, both, so if media streaming is your high precedence, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Best Network-Attached Storage for Energy Customers
For a NAS which you could go wild with, the Asustor Lockerstor AS6602T is what you’re searching for, because it comes kitted out with an Intel Celeron quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM, however for those who’re one to tinker, you possibly can improve that to 8GB of RAM. You’ll discover two easy-access drive bays that assist 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA drives, and whether or not that be huge 18TB arduous drives or speedy SSDs is up to you. For those who don’t need to accept SATA speeds, you don’t have to, thanks to two further M.2 PCIe NVMe slots.
When you kind out the {hardware}, you will get your community sorted. The Asustor Lockerstor AS6602T is prepared for velocity with twin 2.5Gb Ethernet ports that may be mixed utilizing hyperlink aggregation for a wild 5Gb connectivity. It’s easy to arrange the NAS for quick backups, virtualization, or perhaps a highly effective media heart, and it’s additionally obtained an HDMI 2.0 port on the again and helps 10-bit 4K {hardware} decoding to ship a 4K HDR expertise.
Best Multi-Bay Network-Attached Storage
Do you’ve got a boatload of recordsdata, knowledge, and different content material you need on NAS for safekeeping and easy accessibility on a number of units? Then a correctly chunky storage answer just like the Synology DiskStation DS1821+ is for you. This one comes at a excessive value, north of $1,000, however you will be prepared for the longer term with loads of expandability.
The DiskStation DS1821+ encompasses a wild eight drive bays for 3.5-inch and a pair of.5-inch arduous drives or SSDs, which provides you 128TB capability, and the drives are additionally hot-swappable. For those who want much more storage, the DS1821+ helps growth items to bump up to 18 drive bays, and also you additionally get M.2 2280 NVMe slots permitting for high-speed caching. After all, there’s loads of energy behind the system with the quad-core AMD Ryzen CPU and 4GB of DDR4 ECC reminiscence that may broaden to 32GB.
Best Network-Attached Storage for Media Streaming
A NAS gives a central location for all of your units to entry your media library, and the QNAP TS-253D is designed particularly with streaming in thoughts. This NAS machine avoids an enormous networking bottleneck by providing twin 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, so it ought to have greater than sufficient throughput to maintain up even when a number of individuals are making an attempt to entry these giant media recordsdata. You too can set the QNAP TS-253D up subsequent to your TV, because it has a 4K-capable HDMI output built-in.
The QNAP TS-253D gives two 3.5-inch drive bays you possibly can load up with tons of storage, 32TB complete, whereas an extra PCIe Gen 2 slot brings the potential of some quick caching or faster community speeds. Powering this NAS is an Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core processor with 4GB of DDR4 reminiscence to preserve it working easily. Between its {hardware} and the PLEX integration, you are even prepared for clean 4K video streams with {hardware} transcoding.
Best Network-Attached Storage for Raid Configurations
A key perk of getting a NAS is the flexibility to again up your knowledge and to be further safe; it is sensible to think about using a RAID configuration. The Synology DiskStation DS923+ is a wonderful choice for each, because it options 4 drive bays, so you cannot solely load it up with storage but additionally run it with redundancy. The machine really presents a number of RAID sorts, together with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), Fundamental, and JBOD, so you possibly can select the perfect configuration to preserve your knowledge secure.
The DiskStation DS923+’s 4 bays are constructed for 3.5-inch and a pair of.5-inch drives, however it consists of two M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots to equipment out the NAS with quick caching. You may want that further velocity, too, because the NAS options two 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports that assist Hyperlink Aggregation or Failover, and there’s an choice to add 10-Gigabit connectivity. Operating the entire shebang is a high-performing dual-core AMD Ryzen processor paired with 4GB of upgradable DDR4 RAM and the easy-to-use DSM working system, so you shouldn’t have any downside getting it up and working.
Best Ruggedized Network Attached Storage
Utilizing a NAS to again up your recordsdata and units is essential to conserving your data secure, however that safety is circumvented if one thing damages your NAS drive. The ioSafe Duo Pro drive is constructed with these considerations in thoughts, so it’s fireproof and waterproof. Its IP68 ranking even presents safety in opposition to full submersion in water up to 10 ft for 72 hours.
The ioSafe Duo Professional doesn’t simply preserve your knowledge secure from bodily harm; it goals to shield your knowledge from the outset with numerous RAID configuration choices and sturdy, long-lasting drive bays. ioSafe even gives knowledge restoration providers for patrons. Simply observe that this direct-attach storage machine is not particularly made to be a NAS drive, so if you would like to set it up for community storage, you will want to share it with your house community by means of an always-on laptop or connect it instantly to your router by way of USB.
What to Look For in Network-Attached Storage
Not everybody wants Network-Attached-Storage, however it may be used to remedy sure networking complications. Do you and your loved ones/housemates all share the identical community? A NAS machine permits you to share recordsdata with all of these computer systems from one central unit. Don’t need to again up all your household’s computer systems individually? A NAS machine offers you a method to do all of it on one drive.
What are you utilizing it for?
If both of the above eventualities resonates with you a NAS machine could also be price contemplating. If you end up in a state of affairs the place a number of units in your house want to entry the identical instruments or recordsdata, a NAS machine can try this. So it’s not nearly storing issues however accessing them too.
The opposite purpose for a NAS machine is that you’ve an enormous media library that you simply’d like to have the opportunity to entry from a number of computer systems/TVs/tablets/and many others. You possibly can flip your NAS right into a Plex server, so everybody within the residence has swift entry to the identical films, TV exhibits, and music.
Go diskless? What number of bays?
You’ll discover that almost all NAS units come with out disk drives, which suggests you’ll want to buy them individually.
In lots of instances NAS makers don’t make arduous drives, in order that they’ll promote their machine with none disks included. You could already personal some disk drives, by which case a diskless system poses much less of an issue, however test the producer’s suggestions as some manufacturers of disks may fit higher than others.
Bays are what the disk drives go into, so the upper the variety of bays the NAS has, the extra potential capability there’s. Typically, two or extra bays are greatest; multimedia methods will usually have extra.
Hugh Langley is a tech journalist who’s fascinated by wearables, well being tech, the good residence, and extra. You could find him tweeting (usually nonsense) over at @hughlangley.
Danielle Abraham is a contract author and unpaid music historian.