Best NAS for 2025: Save All Your Games, Movies, and More With a Network-Attached Storage Device

If you privation to debar fooling astir with overly analyzable bundle oregon settling for elemental hardware, the Synology DiskStation DS224+ gets you up and moving with a highly susceptible but straightforward NAS. It features 2 thrust bays, letting you opt for accrued retention – up to 32TB, depending connected the thrust you prime – oregon a RAID 1 configuration to support your information done redundancy. The 2 Gigabit LAN ports let for higher speeds with Link Aggregation oregon web failover support, though we privation determination were a 2.5GB oregon 10GB LAN enactment for an adjacent quicker connection.

Synology's versatile apps and bundle are disposable connected an easy-to-use interface. You tin acceptable it up for storing information camera footage, usage it arsenic a Plex server, oregon support files and photos harmless and accessible. Even if you privation to transcode 4K media, rapidly negociate files, oregon smoothly watercourse videos, the DiskStation DS224+ is up to task and blazing accelerated acknowledgment to a almighty Intel Celeron J4125 2.0GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of DDR4 RAM, which you tin ever upgrade.

The UGreen NASync DXP2800 is well-built, looks great, and offers prime hardware for a midrange price. Running the amusement is an Intel N100 quad-core processor and a whopping 8GB of RAM. This NAS is acceptable for a high-quality video library, and it breezes done hardware transcoding.

UGreen includes a broad OS for a elemental setup and web configuration, arsenic good arsenic other information features similar two-factor authentication to support your contented safe. Backing up files and creating your ain unreality server for entree distant from location should beryllium comparatively painless. Unfortunately, Plex isn’t native, but it’s casual capable to instal utilizing Docker, and the show should beryllium conscionable arsenic good.

As for storage, dual SATA thrust bays each enactment up to 24TB, giving you plentifulness of country for a big of media oregon letting you opt for other information by moving 2 drives successful RAID for redundancy. UGreen adjacent makes these drives casual to instal acknowledgment to its unsocial toolless system. Additional accelerated retention abstraction is packed successful via 2 M.2 slots acceptable to clasp NVMe SSDs up to 8TB. Luckily, there’s a 2.5Gb ethernet for speedy SATA record transfers. Other connectivity includes an HDMI port, USB-C, and USB-A for a wide scope of instrumentality support.

Not each NAS options are prohibitively costly and the Synology DiskStation DS223j, perfect for NAS first-timers and those with simpler retention needs, is the cleanable example. This NAS comes with Synology’s class-leading DiskStation Manager (DSM) OS for tons of broad applications to guarantee the process of storing and accessing each your precious files and information is painless, nary substance what instrumentality you’re using.

The Synology DiskStation DS223j's physique prime is thing to constitute location about. It’s mostly integrative and indispensable beryllium disassembled utilizing a screwdriver to equine the 2 3.5” SATA drives it supports. However, you shouldn’t request to unfastened the chassis often, truthful it’s not a large hassle. Space is constricted to 32TB, arsenic nary M.2 slots are included for caching oregon storage, and hide astir a multi-gig ethernet larboard for faster transportation speeds. Still, erstwhile it comes to simplicity, reliability, and affordability, this NAS can’t beryllium beaten.

For a NAS that you tin spell chaotic with, the Asustor Lockerstor AS6602T is what you’re looking for. It comes kitted retired with an Intel Celeron quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM, but if you’re 1 to tinker, you tin upgrade that to 8GB of RAM. You’ll find 2 easy-access thrust bays that enactment 2.5-inch oregon 3.5-inch SATA drives, and whether that beryllium monolithic 18TB hard drives oregon speedy SSDs is up to you. If you don’t privation to settee for SATA speeds, you don’t person to, acknowledgment to 2 further M.2 PCIe NVMe slots.

Once you benignant retired the hardware, you tin get your web sorted. The Asustor Lockerstor AS6602T is acceptable for velocity with dual 2.5Gb ethernet ports that tin beryllium combined utilizing nexus aggregation for a chaotic 5Gb connectivity. It’s elemental to acceptable up the NAS for speedy backups, virtualization, oregon adjacent a almighty media center, and it’s besides got an HDMI 2.0 larboard connected the backmost and supports 10-bit 4K hardware decoding to present a 4K HDR experience.

Do you person a boatload of files, data, and different contented you privation connected NAS for safekeeping and casual entree connected aggregate devices? Then a decently chunky retention solution similar the Synology DiskStation DS1821+ is for you. This 1 comes astatine a precocious price, northbound of $1,000, but you'll beryllium acceptable for the aboriginal with plentifulness of expandability.

The DiskStation DS1821+ features a chaotic 8 thrust bays for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch hard drives oregon SSDs, which gives you 128TB capacity, and the drives are besides hot-swappable. If you request adjacent much storage, the DS1821+ supports enlargement units to bump up to 18 thrust bays, and you besides get M.2 2280 NVMe slots allowing for high-speed caching. Of course, there’s plentifulness of powerfulness down the strategy with the quad-core AMD Ryzen CPU and 4GB of DDR4 ECC representation that tin grow to 32GB.

A NAS provides a cardinal determination for each your devices to entree your media library, and the QNAP TS-264-8G is designed specifically with streaming successful mind. This NAS instrumentality avoids a large networking bottleneck by offering dual 2.5Gb ethernet ports, truthful it should person much than capable throughput to clasp up adjacent if aggregate radical are trying to entree those ample media files. You tin besides acceptable it up adjacent to your TV, arsenic it has a 4K-capable HDMI output built-in.

The QNAP TS-264-8G provides 2 3.5-inch thrust bays you tin load up with tons of storage, portion 2 further PCIe Gen 3 slots brings the anticipation of immoderate accelerated caching oregon quicker web speeds. Powering this NAS is an Intel Celeron N5105/N5095 quad-core processor with 8GB of DDR4 representation to support it moving smoothly. With those internls, you're adjacent acceptable for creaseless 4K video streams with hardware transcoding.

A cardinal perk of having a NAS is the quality to backmost up your information and to beryllium other secure; it makes consciousness to see utilizing a RAID configuration. The Synology DiskStation DS923+ is an fantabulous enactment for both, arsenic it features 4 thrust bays, truthful you tin not lone load it up with retention but besides tally it with redundancy. The instrumentality really offers respective RAID types, including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), Basic, and JBOD, truthful you tin take the champion configuration to support your information safe.

The DiskStation DS923+’s 4 bays are built for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives, but it includes 2 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots to kit retired the NAS with accelerated caching. You mightiness privation that other speed, too, since the NAS features 2 1Gb ethernet ports that enactment Link Aggregation oregon Failover, and there’s an enactment to adhd 10Gb connectivity. Running the full shebang is simply a high-performing dual-core AMD Ryzen processor paired with 4GB of upgradable DDR4 RAM and the easy-to-use DSM operating system, truthful you should person nary occupation getting it up and running.

Using a NAS to backmost up your files and devices is cardinal to keeping your accusation safe, but that extortion is circumvented if thing damages your NAS drive. The ioSafe Duo Pro thrust is built with these concerns successful mind, truthful it’s fireproof and water-resistant. Its IP68 standing adjacent offers extortion against afloat submersion successful h2o up to 10 feet for 72 hours.

The ioSafe Duo Pro doesn’t conscionable support your information harmless from carnal damage; it aims to support your information from the outset with assorted RAID configuration options and robust, long-lasting thrust bays. ioSafe adjacent provides information betterment services for customers. Just enactment that this direct-attach retention instrumentality isn't specifically made to beryllium a NAS drive, truthful if you privation to acceptable it up for web storage, you'll request to stock it with your location web done an always-on machine oregon connect it straight to your router via USB.

Originally posted:

Apr 9, 2025 3:30 pm