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We had some issues five years ago with an early WD RAID device, but all indications are that the company best known for its network drives has overcome any early reliability issues. In fact, the biggest complaint we found among user reviews was that this is not an external hard drive, as the reviewer thought it was, but was instead a full-function NAS. It is, in fact, a very nice full-function NAS and gets our nod as best entry-level NAS for 2022.
If you want to give someone the ability to upload files to the NAS, give that user write permissions as well as read permissions. If someone should only download files, make them a read-only user. Thorin Klosowski wrote about consumer electronics for more than six years at Lifehacker and has extensive experience with Linux and DIY NAS devices.
Our pick: Synology DiskStation DS218+
Compatible with 3.5" and 2.5" SATA HDD, 2.5" SATA SSD. For better and stable perofrmance, please use dedicated NAS hard drives. It has 10 physical cores and 12 threads, which makes it perfect for running a media server and so much more. It has two cores and four threads, allowing you to do basic tasks and more on the server.
It’s possible to use a desktop-class OS like your favorite Linux distro or Windows, but we’d recommend something like FreeNAS or Open Media Vault if all you plan to do is store some files and maybe run a Plex Media Server. We’re using an M.2 SSD for the operating system, which frees up all four SATA ports for data storage. Samsung’s 970 EVO Plus range is one of the best SSD for NAS for not only NAS but desktop and laptop PCs too.
How to install Kodi and Netflix on your QNAP NAS in 2017
NAS is a way to increase the performance and capacity of a computer. With a high-end NAS, you can stream music files from your home media center to your laptop or tablet or transfer large files from one device to another. The operating system drive is where we’ll be installing the main software that will manage the server. To free up all SATA ports for drives, we’re opting for an M.2 SSD since the Mini-ITX motherboard has an available slot. This kit from Kingston is all you need for a DIY NAS, whether it’s a simple server for storing backups or running Plex Media Server.
The drive has two USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and support for popular cloud storage services and third-party apps. Synology is the leading brand in NAS storage technology and has been setting industry standards for quality and reliability for over 20 years. No official word on when or if Synology will release an 8 TB option; however, at first, we know of two nearly identical hard drives only a few feet apart that were released in July 2017, each with an 8 TB capacity. NAS devices, by nature, are meant to be connected to a network.
Understanding Hard Disk Drive Terminology
At the beginning of each test, I installed two 2 terabyte drives in each machine and made sure the RAID mirroring was active. I used relatively small drives for initial testing because the RAID rebuild process takes quite a while. That way, even if a drive completely fails, you can still access your data. You should be able to remove the failed drive, install the new drive, and keep working. The RAID will rebuild the redundancy on the new drive and your data remains secure. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services.
We don't generally recommend NAS drives with just a single bay, unless they are to be used strictly for backing up data that willalsoreside on computers on the network. (Some single-bay NAS drives will allow you to attach a second NAS device or an external hard drive, to that end.) You don't want the only copy of your data residing on just one drive on the network. The TS-230 is an affordably priced two-bay NAS device that is all about ease of use. It doesn’t offer the multi-gig LAN ports that you’ll find on more expensive models, but it does offer quad-core processing power, three USB ports, and one-touch backups.
The 10 Best NAS for Home Users in 2023 (With Use Case Recommendations)
It’s ideal for an Intel Pentium Gold or Core i K processor with a speed of DDR and latency of CL38. Should you require something with a little more performance, the Intel Core i K is a fantastic processor. It’ll work just fine with the motherboard we’ve selected above for the compact case, comes with 10 cores and 12 threads, and has beefier graphics for enhanced media consumption. Packed full of features, including six SATA ports, DDR5 RAM support, multiple PCI slots, and a solid power delivery design for the latest Intel processors.
The QNAP TS-233 is an affordable two-bay NAS designed for budget-conscious home users who’d rather store data in their own personal cloud than pay for a subscription-based cloud service. It’s easy to manage using the Windows-like QTS operating system and offers one-touch backups, but it lacks the multi-gig LAN and HDMI video ports that you get with more expensive NAS devices. The TS-233 packs some nice features into its stylish white enclosure, including two hot-swappable drive bays, a quad-core CPU, and a pair of USB ports for connecting external drives. Installation was easy, and the NAS turned in very respectable file transfer scores in testing. Moreover, it offers a nice selection of QNAP-branded and third-party apps that turn the TS-233 into a multifunction server. Like the WD My Cloud Home Duo, the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo is a simplified NAS and comes packed with hard drives already installed.
QNAP offers a vast range of features to empower your workflow with ease and ease your content-creating process. On the face of things, external hard drives offer a good solution. You can offload your computer’s hard drive onto the external drive and free up resources meant for more critical tasks. And you can lend the device to family and friends when you want to share your collection. Apart from Plex, there are individual apps allowing users to sync with Dropbox, Google Drive, and others, but no single backup app that hits all of these services at once. The NAS supports USB device backup, but has no one-touch backup button, so you’ll need to do this from within TOS.
Thus, it is perfect for users who want to customize their setup. Had a couple of TerraMaster units for performing workstation and small server backups. One of them cratered within 6 months and turned one of the drives into a paperweight. We wouldn't call the very best , but they provide options you might want to consider, especially at different price points and bay counts.
Other drive makers will have similar products available, as far as storage and interface technologies are concerned, though they'll differ somewhat in terms of capacity and pricing. WD's NAS-oriented equivalents to the IronWolfs, for example, are dubbed WD Red. If a given NAS is offered in both pre-populated and diskless form, we suggest checking out the cost difference and making sure that the drives that are provided in the populated model work out to a good value. With pre-populated-only NAS drives, the cost of the internal drives tends to be harder to distinguish from the overall cost of the NAS unit. Once you decide that you need to store files on a network drive, you then need to figure out what you mean todowith them, in order to determine what kind of NAS you need. I have been a technology journalist for almost 30 years and have covered just about every kind of computer gear—from the 386SX to 64-core processors—in my long tenure as an editor, a writer, and an advice columnist.
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