A lot of us probably don’t think much about backing up our data. We’ve got smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops all with tons of our data on them. Most days everything is fine, and having our data in just one place isn’t an issue. But, once in a while, the worst can happen. We might accidentally do something that bricks our tablet (or it might even spontaneously brick itself). Our phone might slip out of our pocket on the street and vanish into the ether. Who knows, that old hard drive we’d been storing all our photos on might finally give up the ghost and take all the photos with it.So, you definitely should be backing your devices up, and a NAS (network-attached storage) drive can be a great option for handling that. These devices hook into your home network, letting you transfer data to and from them. And, since you can have many devices connected to the same network at once, it’s easy to sync up with the NAS drive on all of your devices.And, backing up data is just one thing. You can also use the NAS to then access that data on other devices, making these drives awesome for media libraries. But, NAS drives don’t come incredibly cheap, as they’re doing a bit more work than your typical external hard drive, so you’ll want to choose carefully. We’ve selected the NAS drives that we think offer the best experience and performance for a variety of use cases, so you can find one that’ll suit your needs.
TL;DR These are the Best Network-Attached Storage Solutions:
1. Synology Diskstation DS218+
Best Network-Attached Storage
With two drive bays and zippy-fast write speeds, the Synology Diskstation DS218+ offers a lot for a reasonable price. Inside youll find a dual-core 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron processor and 2GB of DDR3L memory, which is expandable up to 6GB.Like most NAS devices, it comes running a Linux-based interface called DiskStation Manager which is pretty easy to navigate, and Synology has its own apps for streaming media through. You can also use Synologys cloud service to access your files remotely. Overall its fast, reliable, and easy to operate.
2. Synology DS120j
Best Budget Network-Attached Storage
If youre looking to start off small or have more meager needs, we recommend the Synology DS120j. Firstly, its just $100, making it the cheapest NAS device on our list. Secondly, its super easy to use, making it a great pick for NAS first-timers.Its a single-bay device, so its also more limited than others on this list. Theres also no hardware-based video transcoding (which means some files will need to be converted beforehand), nor does it work with Plex. In sum, there are much better options if media streaming is your priority; but for more basic use, the DS120j does the job nicely.
3. Asustor AS5202T
Best Network-Attached Storage for Power Users
Two drive bays. Two 2.5Gb LAN ports. A 1.0GHz Intel Celeron J4005 CPU. And yes, a big price tag but the Asustor AS5202T is perfect for heavy users thanks to its sheer power. The 2GB of DDR4 RAM can be expanded up to 8GB, and theres 4GB of flash memory to play with. Plus, the LAN ports give you the option of link aggregation for zippy 5Gb Ethernet, too.We also like the Asustor Data Master operating system, which has heaps of apps for media and productivity. The drawbacks? Its very expensive, and there are no drives included.
4. Synology Diskstation DS1618+
Best Multi-Bay Network-Attached Storage
Ok, this is the juggernaut, but if you have a media library thats grown out of control then its absolutely warranted. There’s a powerful quad-core 2.1GHz CPU and 4GB of memory inside (expandable up to 32GB), but the big story is the six-bay drives you get with it. Theoretically, you could pump this thing with up to 84TB of storage.Thats obviously going to be an insane amount for most people, but its good to know its there. We also really like the Synology DSM operating system, which is jam-packed with apps and functionality.
5. WD My Cloud
Best Network-Attached Storage With Included Disks
Available in a variety of drive sizes, The WD My Cloud NAS comes with its disks built-in, meaning everything is ready to go out of the box. Theres USB 3.0 support (for adding more hard drives) and its ready to work with both PC and Mac from the get-go.Overall, its good value, but you can also pick up the Mirror version, which comes with two drives and will create a copy of the backup on each (hence the name).
6. QNAP TS-251A
Best Network-Attached Storage for Media Streaming
If media and streaming are your chief reasons for buying a NAS device, we recommend the QNAP TS-251A. Its a powerful machine, with a dual-core Intel Celeron N3060 processor and 4GB of DDRL3 RAM (in the configuration we recommend, but you can get it with 2GB).But its the media tricks that really impress us. Chiefly, it comes with a remote for playback control, which is unusual for a NAS device. It offers 4K media transcoding, and theres an HDMI out so you can connect it directly to your 4K TV. Works great as a Plex server and wont look out of place on your TV stand either. You will have to purchase the drives separately, however.
What to Look For in Network-Attached Storage
Not everyone needs Network-Attached-Storage, but it can be used to cure certain networking headaches. Do you and your family/housemates all share the same network? A NAS device allows you to share files with all of those computers from one central unit. Dont want to backup all of your familys computers individually? A NAS device gives you a way to do it all on one drive.What are you using it for?
If either of the above scenarios resonates with you a NAS device may be worth considering. If you find yourself in a situation where multiple devices in your home need to access the same tools or files, a NAS device can do that. So its not just about storing things but accessing them too.The other reason for a NAS device is that you have a huge media library that youd like to be able to access from multiple computers/TVs/tablets/etc. You could turn your NAS into a Plex server, so everyone in the home has swift access to the same movies, TV shows, and music.
Go diskless? How many bays?
Youll find that most NAS devices come without disk drives, which means youll need to purchase them separately. There are exceptions to this, however, such as the WD My Cloud Personal Network Attached Storage which considering its made by Western Digital, makes a bit more sense.But in many cases NAS makers dont make hard drives, so theyll sell their device without any disks included. You may already own some disk drives, in which case a diskless system poses less of a problem, but check the manufacturers recommendations as some brands of disks may work better than others.
Bays are what the disk drives go into, so the higher the number of bays the NAS has, the more potential capacity there is. Generally, two or more bays are best; multimedia systems will often have more.
Hugh Langley is a tech journalist whos fascinated by wearables, health tech, the smart home, and more. You can find him tweeting (often nonsense) over at @hughlangley.
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