Hi all,
I’m looking to make my home setup a bit more professional and at some point I will get a NAS. I retired my Drobo a few years ago but I am guilty of cluttering my desk with a bunch of external hard drives and I want something a bit more substantial for the future.
For those who’ve already bought a NAS, beyond the basic question of brand (probably Synology or Qnap), I’d appreciate any insight on features that I should consider or that might catch me out if they’re not in cheaper models.
My initial thoughts are:
- at least 6 or 8 bays
- redundancy (ie RAID)
- 2 1/2” bays - preferably optimised for flash drives only
- 10 gig Ethernet for future proofing
- easy to expand. Will probably start with a few drives and add more over the years
- Mac & Windows - if that’s even still an issue these days
- Built in Wifi (?)
Anything else? When I bought my Drobo over 10 years ago, the main feature was its ability to mix different drive sizes. Not sure if that’s something which has spread to other brands.
I’d like to think I’ll never have to purchase another spinning hard drive again, so the entry level FS model from Synology looks interesting but expensive:
This Qnap is cheaper but with different features:
All advice is welcome!
-Chris
