Read the full review of the Synology DS214se. It's just as good value in the UK and Australia - it's available from various resellers with different amounts of storage, but you'll find it disk-less from around £120 or AU$180. At the current price of just $160 (diskless) or $340 (4TB included), it's quite a steal.
It also comes with Data Replicator software for backing up your Windows computer. The server can house two internal hard drives to offer up to 4TB of protected storage space (in RAID 1) and it supports Time Machine natively. It runs DSM 5.0, and is designed as a budget NAS server for a small home. Thanks to the DiskStation Manger (DSM) operating system, Synology NAS servers are easily the best on the market in terms of performance, functionality, and reliability.
When it comes to NAS server, Synology has been the most well-known vendor. They are listed in review order with the latest review on top. On this list are the top five NAS servers that are affordable and will make a great backup server for a home. Apart from acting as a backup destination, a NAS server can also work as a streaming server, file sharing server, and even a personal cloud server, as well as many other functions you can't find in external hard drives. But if you have multiple computers, it's actually more economical to get a network attached storage (NAS) device that can take care of the entire network at the same time.Ī NAS server is similar to an external hard drive but instead of connecting to a computer using a peripheral connection (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, etc.), it connects to your router (or switch) using a network cable and makes the storage space available to every computer on the network. If you have a single computer at home, getting one of these great external drives will get the job done. Other boxes have their own integral storage that can go as high as 12 TB, but even those might have the option for expansion.I can't stress enough how important it is to have backups of your data. Some network attached storage boxes fit as many as eight. Imagine having two or four times the storage capacity of a desktop, available anywhere in range of your home network. For instance, a 2 bay network attached storage box will be able to accomodate up to two hard drives, while a network attached storage box with 4 bays will be able to accomodate four. The network attached storage box itself may have a number of bays that correspond to the amount of drives that can be slotted in. Solid state drives are getting bigger all the time, but if you really need a very large amount of gigs to store photos, video or audio files, disk drives are still the way to go.
The former tends to have more storage capacity, while solid state drives can access data a lot faster.
Thankfully, they come with plenty of space to slot in hard drives of both the disk and solid-state variety. Of course, these boxes are only as good as their ability to store data.
You can play movies and shows on your TV from a personalised library, store photos, videos, and work files for access wherever and whenever you need them. You put them somewhere central and link them up via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and presto you’ve got ready access to all the files and only the files you need without having to fill out the storage space on any of your devices. These machines are basically bare-bones PC towers with vastly expanded storage and network capacities.
Ever wished you had your own personal cloud storage that you could access from anywhere in the house without having to deal with upload and download times? With a networked-attached storage box you’ve got more or less exactly that.