Help me buy a NAS

[Kingsly]

Hi everyone! My ancient MyCloud EX4 has been acting up, so it's time to move on. I actually just ordered an M1 Mac Mini which will share desk space with my rendering PC. I'd love to have both devices connected to the NAS through a switch. They'll share video editing duties (I am somewhat bound by plugin incompatibility...) so having a shared storage is kind of critical.

From my experience with the EX4, Windows 10 reallllly does not like older implementations of network storage. It always connected and worked right away with my iMac and Trashcan. The PC experience however was so bad I basically shelved it.
The Synology was highly recommended, but reviews said it doesn't play nice with Apple. So what would work seamlessly for both?

Use case is backing up Redcode raw files, video edits and film scans.

 

[cmaier]

Hi everyone! My ancient MyCloud EX4 has been acting up, so it's time to move on. I actually just ordered an M1 Mac Mini which will share desk space with my rendering PC. I'd love to have both devices connected to the NAS through a switch. They'll share video editing duties (I am somewhat bound by plugin incompatibility...) so having a shared storage is kind of critical.

From my experience with the EX4, Windows 10 reallllly does not like older implementations of network storage. It always connected and worked right away with my iMac and Trashcan. The PC experience however was so bad I basically shelved it.
The Synology was highly recommended, but reviews said it doesn't play nice with Apple. So what would work seamlessly for both?

Use case is backing up Redcode raw files, video edits and film scans.

I have used synology since 2013. Three different 12-bay models, in fact. And I have a house full of macs and no windows machines. So not sure what supposedly doesn’t work with macs.

They support time machine, mount as network shares, etc. I have an old mac that has a massive media library stored on one of the Synology nas’s, and serves video and music to the Apple TV’s in the house, and it works fine. I also have Plex server installed on the NAS itself and it works fine with Plex clients on ipads and such.

 

[Kingsly]

Thats good to hear! I forget the details, but it was implied that they do not mount as network shares, but rely on FTP or somesuch. What protocol does it talk to your macs with?

On the other hand, windows has smb v1 turned off by default, for obvious security reasons, so I'd like something that uses a more modern network share standard. Would assume Synology is up to par considering all the great reviews.