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The WD PR4100 is ideal when you have an extensive collection of media files. Its top-notch variant has a 72TB storage capacity and WD’s cloud storage apps for easy cataloging. Further, it offers excellent specifications that allow using Plex and transcoding for streaming on portable devices.
DSM also includes Cloud Station ShareSync, which allows you to use your NAS to sync files across devices, similar to a service like Dropbox. You should consider a NAS if you have more than one computer at home, since you can back them all up to the NAS rather than connect an external backup drive to each computer. And if you want to protect your data and backups from theft and natural disasters, a good NAS is capable of uploading files directly to a cloud backup service, too. Network attached storage boxes have gone from mere storage devices to what are essentially desktop departmental or small business servers.
Network Attached Storage
We rounded up the best options for use at home from the likes of Apple, WD, and Seagate, among others. QNAP TZ500 4-Bay NAS is one of the most popular and high-performing 2-bay NAS products. While QNAP TR-002 launches with a $949 price tag, it is still a great product at a low cost.
However, you must remember that you can use Plex without the transcoding feature and stream content in its native resolution. This is one of the essential features to consider if you intend to view your video files remotely. While on the go, the difference between a 4K video and a 1080p video may not be so apparent. Hence, you can save considerable network traffic by transcoding a 4K video to 1080p. 2.5GbE port with link aggregation delivers up to 5Gbps network speeds.
Best mid-tier NAS
The TerraMaster F5 offers some unmatched advantages over its competitors. It comes with simultaneous dual 4K transcoding and six layers of safety features to keep your file secure. Hence, it is perfect when you want to set up Plex and secure all your precious home videos. The F5 comes with an Intel Celeron J3355 processor (2-Core, 2MB Cache, and up to 2.50GHz). It also features 2GB DDR3 RAM, which you can upgrade to a 4GB DDR3 for customization. And, it offers you the full range of drive storage with support for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA HDD/SSD storage.
If cloud-based servers don't meet all of your storage needs, consider a NAS solution. We selected a handful of devices that passed our reliability torture tests and offer superior usability and feature sets. Andy Zahn has been writing for Lifewire since 2019 and is experienced in the field of computer technology. As an avid photographer, he is acutely aware of the importance of backing data to a secure and easily accessible location. He selected only NAS drives he would personally consider buying and chose models based on the integrity of the brand, as well as the features and price point of the specific NAS.
Easiest to manage RAID, but barely any server features
The most significant change in routers this year has been the increasing popularity of whole home Wi-Fi systems. One of the biggest challenges with routers is ensuring a fast, reliable connection everywhere in your home. Even if you place your router in a central location, distance or certain building materials may prevent the signal from getting everywhere you need it. To address this, several router companies have devised systems that use multiple nodes that you place throughout your home, which create a mesh network of sorts. Most systems come with two or three nodes but you can typically add more as needed.
We also had issues with any 4K video using the DTS audio codec, in which no sound would play. Files that didn't require any transcoding, like MP4 files, played flawlessly on all devices. On-the-fly transcoding is dependent on the file format, the various codecs, and the device you're watching the transcoding file on, so your mileage will vary here. After testing five new two-bay network-attached storage devices and comparing them against our previous picks, we found that the Synology DiskStation DS218+ is the best home NAS for most people. The fastest NAS we tested, it offers powerful hardware for the price, includes AES-NI hardware encryption acceleration for added security, has upgradable RAM, and comes with software that's easy to use.
Like every NAS we considered for this guide, the DS218+ has two drive bays. Unlike other options, the drive bays are tool-less, so you don't need a screwdriver to install a drive. The DS218+'s interface, DiskStation Manager, is one of the most user-friendly operating systems on any NAS device. DSM has a toolbar on the top where you can access the main menu, notifications, and login options, search for files, and check on system health. Below that toolbar, you have a desktop where you can access Package Center (a store of sorts filled with add-on software), the file browser, the control panel , and a support area offering video tutorials, FAQs, and more.
Unfortunately, it lacks basic features and third-party app support, including stuff like Plex, which even the WD model has. Its read and write tests were also extremely slow compared with the results from other NAS boxes we tested. When we reached out to Apollo for clarification on these results, representatives replied that the Cloud 2 Duo uses in-flight encryption by default and the user cannot disable it.
Random reads are less important when it comes to NAS, but still worth noting. TerraMaster’s device was pretty firmly in the middle of the pack here. Here, Synology’s budget device did better at 728Mbps, while the QNAP TS130 came in at 625Mbps.
You can even keep the price pretty low with something like a Raspberry Pi–powered NAS for around $200, though even with a Raspberry Pi 3, a NAS like that won't be very quick. If you're curious about installing FreeNAS, this YouTube guide walks you through the process, and this forum post includes a list of hardware recommendations. The QNAP TS-251B is a good choice if the DS218+ is out of stock, or if you want to display media on a TV. It is almost as fast during file transfers as the DS218+ and adds an HDMI-out port so you can hook it up to a TV for media playback. It uses the same QTS management interface as QNAP's other NAS devices—we like Synology's DSM software a little more, but it's largely a matter of preference.
Both the DS218+ and TS-251B are fast for home file storage and background tasks like backing up your family's laptops, downloading torrents, and automatically transcoding videos from a queue. Many routers can become NAS devices when you attach external drives to them. This can be a cost-effective solution, but overall satisfaction with routers as NAS devices was lower than any dedicated NAS device. Linksys was the top-rated router-as-NAS with an overall satisfaction rating of 7.8, but that's not really enough to earn an award. Interestingly, both Linksys and Asus routers rated better than Seagate's NAS for storing files for access on the home network. However, none of the router-based NAS devices received very good satisfaction ratings for remote access to files.
Many NAS units also support a JBOD mode ("Just a Bunch of Disks"), which lets you address each drive as a separate drive letter and save data to discrete drives within the NAS box. This is no safer than just basic striping; any data you save to a given drive is still vulnerable to the failure of that specific mechanism. To mitigate this, some JBOD NAS management software allows users to combine disks into one or more logical volumes and even apply redundancy measures across volumes. This is usually entirely dependent upon the software used to manage the NAS, however, so be sure to understand your NAS drive's software capabilities before purchase, particularly if you're a small-business buyer. Usually, the user has the option to reconfigure the drives to gain the capacity of the second drive, if desired.
The Noctua NH-L9i may be a small fan but it’s incredibly powerful. In fact, Noctua even rates this cooler high enough to handle an Intel Core i7, meaning we’ve got headroom with a future CPU upgrade. Yes the hardware of the (home and SOHO-targeted) NAS is ok, but the software makes them unbearable IMHO. I will never buy such a NAS anymore, but either build myself again, or just buy a cheap dell server (e.g. a T330 with 8 drives).
The company receives excellent marks for their ease of setup and reliability. Apple's rating of 9.2 for satisfaction with reliability did edge out Asus, which scored 9.1, but both are excellent ratings and slight improvements over last year. Asus and TP-Link tied for top marks for satisfaction with setup (9.1). This question is only asked to respondents whose routers are less than a year old. Asus had the best overall satisfaction rating among new routers by far, earning a score of 9.1.
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