Choosing a NAS Device

savage362

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 16, 2003
1,389
Vermont
So it came to my attention last night that my thrown together array of external hard drives are nearly full. I think I'm around the 3-4 TB range right now. I've got less than 10 GB free and with storing music, movies, and tv shows on this drive, it's not likely to last much longer.

I've been considering the following options for a NAS that I can move all of my media to as well as use it for backing up the various laptops that live in my apartment:

Synology DS418
Synology DS218+

I'd like to keep it budget friendly, but don't have an actual budget for this. I'd rather have more space than I'll ever likely need rather than have to upgrade in 2 years. Besides using it as backup storage, I do run multiple Kodi instances throughout my apartment so I'd need to be able to incorporate the media folders on the NAS as sources within Kodi.

I don't plan on streaming anything to mobile devices or outside of my home network. What's your recommendation?
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
SoSH Member
Jul 24, 2007
12,152
Either is fine. Buy bigger drives, reliability has never been better, don't think about it again for a few years.
 

cgori

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 2, 2004
3,999
SF, CA
I've been considering the following options for a NAS that I can move all of my media to as well as use it for backing up the various laptops that live in my apartment:

Synology DS418
Synology DS218+

I'd like to keep it budget friendly, but don't have an actual budget for this. I'd rather have more space than I'll ever likely need rather than have to upgrade in 2 years.
I have a DS412+ - it's great for all the things you want and more. Based on this "more than I'll ever likely need" criteria I'd get the 4-bay, even if you only put 2 drives in to start. Agree with @Blacken, get large drives.
 

saintnick912

GINO!
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 30, 2004
4,967
Somerville, MA
I had a 411+ and moved to a 415+ when the first one was lost in a freak flood situation. The drives and file system moved over cleanly. It keeps itself up to date automatically and is generally a set it and forget it type thing. I have it upload some of the directories to an online backup directory (Google Cloud Nearline) and it does it transparently.
 

InstantKarmma

Boomer Sympathizer
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
I went with a QNAP TS-431p. It has 4 bays, and has the Plex Server in its app store. I put 2 4TB drives in it and installed Plex server. Since I've got the Plex app on my Amazon Fire Stick, I can watch all of my movies with a couple of clicks. As I recently told Rip, not having to get up and put a DVD into a drive to watch a movie is life changing.

I'm almost ready to cut the satellite TV cord.
 

LoweTek

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
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May 30, 2005
2,183
Central Florida
IK, did you have to rip all the DVDs first with MakeMKV or something or does Plex let you rip them directly?