New to NAS and need some guidance

[m021478]

Never owned a NAS before, but I'd like to fix that and I could use a little guidance. My intended uses:

• Plex Media Server
• Data backup/syncing (to replace Dropbox)
• Photo storage/backup/syncing (with good photo management, searching, browsing, etc)
• Remote File Access (from laptop or mobile device)
• Shared file access (from various computers of everyone in my family)

Not interested in building my own rig and I'd much rather buy something pre-built and ready to go out of the box, so I'm looking at something from Synology right now. The number of options are overwhelming, though.

I will be the only user, so it's unlikely that I'd be watching Plex, backing up data, and browsing photos simultaneously.

Having never used a NAS I don't know yet if I'll use it as a standalone device connected directly to an ethernet cable, or if I'll connect it to my Mac Studio desktop computer, which I typically leave on and running all the time.

My Spectrum internet service is 1 Gbps down, 40Mbps up. I currently use an Eero Pro 6e, which supports a maximum wired speed of 2.5 Gbps.

Any suggestions for a RAID 0 option from Synology? What about a RAID 5 option?

Not sure if there is any other relevant information that would be helpful, so let's start there. Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

 

[McScooby]

UNAS Pro or could wait for the rumoured desktop NAS.

 

[Bigwaff]

Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

In general, NAS is meant to be a stand-alone device on your network, not attached to computer, hence, the name Network Attached Storage. You'll be connecting it to your network using ethernet. Your use cases are pretty basic and any of the Synology consumer products should suffice. Where your scenario may get complicated is determining your NAS storage needs as different RAID configurations will determine the capacity and number of disks you add to your NAS. I have a DS218 2-bay (purchased used on eBay) w/ 4.5TB drives. This gives me 4.5TB storage. I can lose a drive w/out losing data. I use it for the same purposes as you except swap the photo use case for Time Machine backups. Synology has a 3rd party package center (like an app store) from which you can download/install Plex Server. Everything else you want to do, Synology provides out of the box.

How much NAS storage are you considering?

 

[eyoungren]

Never owned a NAS before, but I'd like to fix that and I could use a little guidance. My intended uses:

• Data backup/syncing (to replace Dropbox)

LOL. I use my NAS AND Dropbox.

Daily backups from all Macs/PCs go to my NAS. Weekly backups go to the hard drive on my MacPro that has the Dropbox folder on it. All Macs and PCs connect to my MacPro on the weekend and backup to the Dropbox folder. That pushes weekly backups of every Mac/PC to Dropbox.

So, one local backup (on my NAS) and one off-site backup (Dropbox).

My only advice is to get lots of storage. I have two NAS devices and both are 6TB each. The NAS that handles all my computer backups has around 850mb left. Which is why I have a second NAS.

All the things you want to do with a NAS go out the window if backups are taking up most of your storage.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Another vote for Synology, for the features you mentioned.

How much data do you want to plan for? Two medium to large drives mirrored might be the lowest cost, most reliable hardware option, just as in Bigwaff's example.

If you go Synology, don't be tempted by their lowest-end offerings. The are cheap because they are underpowered, and performance is reflected by that. I would probably go with at least the DS224+.

DiskStation DS224+ | Synology Inc.

Compact data storage for edge deployments

www.synology.com

 

[CrushRoller]

Synology. I use quite a few different models at work and at home. The good thing is that you can start small and then expand it.

 

[eyoungren]

Another vote for Synology, for the features you mentioned.

How much data do you want to plan for? Two medium to large drives mirrored might be the lowest cost, most reliable hardware option, just as in Bigwaff's example.

If you go Synology, don't be tempted by their lowest-end offerings. The are cheap because they are underpowered, and performance is reflected by that. I would probably go with at least the DS224+.

DiskStation DS224+ | Synology Inc.

Compact data storage for edge deployments

www.synology.com

I have the Synology DS213j, which I bought used off eBay for like $60. I just use it for the basic functionality (file server). But it came with the hard drives, so I think I got a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, the drives are only 3TB each so I'm waiting until they die before adding larger drives.

 

[hobowankenobi]

I have the Synology DS213j, which I bought used off eBay for like $60. I just use it for the basic functionality (file server). But it came with the hard drives, so I think I got a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, the drives are only 3TB each so I'm waiting until they die before adding larger drives.

I have an old J series too, somewhere. It always worked, but performance was slow/limited. For things like backup, no issues being a little slower.

 

[eyoungren]

I have an old J series too, somewhere. It always worked, but performance was slow/limited. For things like backup, no issues being a little slower.

My primary Mac is a 2009 MacPro running Sonoma and my home network is Gig-E. So, the advantage of anything faster is likely to be lost on me. In that context, my Synology does just fine.

I have the my graphics library, artwork and media (music, movies, TV shows, etc) on this NAS and I've never had any problems.

 

[mk313]

I am no NAS expert, but I did get a synology DS223J last year to do local Time Machine backups & it works great (also photo backups) but if I were using it for anything more demanding, I think something with more RAM would be welcome.

 

[nathansz]

Old Mac mini and and a four bay hard drive enclosure works for me for everything in your list

 

[Bigwaff]

Old Mac mini and and a four bay hard drive enclosure works for me for everything in your list

Old Mac mini file sharing and TM backups using deprecated AFP or wonky old version of SMB?

 

[splifingate]

My Synology 922+ just sits there (sipping power), and waits to consume that which I share.

Apart from the occasional (voluntary) Account management/updates, all I am required to do is entertain the possibility of adding content/data.

 

[nathansz]

Old Mac mini file sharing and TM backups using deprecated AFP or wonky old version of SMB?

Not sure to be honest I just know it works (wherein lies the appeal)

It’s a 2018 running sequoia so you tell me

Was running a 2012 until recently with no problems but the machine itself was dying

I looked into nas boxes but they seemed pretty expensive and I didn’t want to have to screw around with Linux

 

[ThailandToo]

LOL. I use my NAS AND Dropbox.

Daily backups from all Macs/PCs go to my NAS. Weekly backups go to the hard drive on my MacPro that has the Dropbox folder on it. All Macs and PCs connect to my MacPro on the weekend and backup to the Dropbox folder. That pushes weekly backups of every Mac/PC to Dropbox.

So, one local backup (on my NAS) and one off-site backup (Dropbox).

My only advice is to get lots of storage. I have two NAS devices and both are 6TB each. The NAS that handles all my computer backups has around 850mb left. Which is why I have a second NAS.

All the things you want to do with a NAS go out the window if backups are taking up most of your storage.

I have four 8TB Thunderbolt drives. Better than a NAS. Much faster and simpler. I would agree with the Dropbox or some cloud storage in case of data loss on the NAS, theft, fire, water or etc.

 

[eyoungren]

I have four 8TB Thunderbolt drives. Better than a NAS. Much faster and simpler. I would agree with the Dropbox or some cloud storage in case of data loss on the NAS, theft, fire, water or etc.

The only Mac in my home with Thunderbolt is the work issued 2023 M2. And both Thunderbolt ports are being used, one for a dock and one to drive my 30" Cinema Display (the dock drives my other 30" Cinema Display using DisplayLink).

I could probably use the Thunderbolt port on the dock, but this Mac is for work. My boss said when hired that I could use work issued Macs however I wanted. But I prefer to use them just for work and my own Macs for my stuff.

That leaves me with my youngest Mac, a 2011 MacBook Air. It's got a dock, but no Thunderbolt. Specwise, it would just be way overloaded for the types of things I am doing with my MacPro.

Obviously, my 2009 MacPro has no Thunderbolt. I do have a USB-A drive attached to my MP, but it's USB 2.0 and primarily used to store older work files that I offload from the work M2.

Lastly, there is one more Mac, a 2015 MBP which is the first work issued Mac I was given. Again, no Thunderbolt.

It does down from there, all the way back to a B&W PowerMac G3.

 

[ChrisA]

Never owned a NAS before, but I'd like to fix that and I could use a little guidance. My intended uses:

• Plex Media Server
• Data backup/syncing (to replace Dropbox)
• Photo storage/backup/syncing (with good photo management, searching, browsing, etc)
• Remote File Access (from laptop or mobile device)
• Shared file access (from various computers of everyone in my family)

Not interested in building my own rig and I'd much rather buy something pre-built and ready to go out of the box, so I'm looking at something from Synology right now. The number of options are overwhelming, though.

I will be the only user, so it's unlikely that I'd be watching Plex, backing up data, and browsing photos simultaneously.

Having never used a NAS I don't know yet if I'll use it as a standalone device connected directly to an ethernet cable, or if I'll connect it to my Mac Studio desktop computer, which I typically leave on and running all the time.

My Spectrum internet service is 1 Gbps down, 40Mbps up. I currently use an Eero Pro 6e, which supports a maximum wired speed of 2.5 Gbps.

Any suggestions for a RAID 0 option from Synology? What about a RAID 5 option?

Not sure if there is any other relevant information that would be helpful, so let's start there. Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

A "NAS" is by definition attached to the network, usually with an Ethernet cable.

If it attaches to your computer then it's just a big disk drive, and all those functions like Plex server and file sharing are done using software that runs on your computer.

One thing to think very hard about is how to backup the NAS. If all your important data is on it, then it needs the usual backup system. This means three copies of the data at a minimum and at two geographic locations. You might need a cloud service (I use Backblaze) for off-site backup or maybe a second NAS at a remote location. Or just admit that none of your data is important and don't worry about losing it.

As for RAID options, wider RAIDs give better utilization of the disks. A simple mirror uses half the disk space for redundancy. So you need to buy two 8GB drives to have 8GB of usable space. But if you have five drives in RAID5, you get to use 80% of the total space for data. In both cases, one full disk drive is used for parity data.

RAID is not a backup. It is a way to combine multiple disks to make one bigger disk. Today, disk drives top out at 24GB, so if you need more space (on one volume,) you need RAID

Synology is very good for your list of uses. Buy a 4-bay "plus series" and be done with it. Then buy four drives. But please note the controversy around Synology. Synology now wants you to buy Synology-branded disk drives and RAM, as they say it is more reliable. But some hobby users are cheap and want to use "whatever is lowest cost". It is very much like Apple selling soldered-in RAM while some users would prefer "whatever is lowest cost" RAM.

 

[ChrisA]

All the things you want to do with a NAS go out the window if backups are taking up most of your storage.

If all your data is on the NAS, what is left on the computer to backup?

 

[CrushRoller]

Keep in mind that NAS alone is not a backup! All Synology units have a USB3 port where you connect an external hard drive and backup your NAS using an included program like HyperBackup

 

[Ifti]

I prefer QNAP when it comes to NAS. I have experience with Synology too, but feel the QNAP GUI is more refined. Saying that, I havent used Synology in a long while now.

Personally I moved to external SSD storage via TB - just easier to use and didnt really have any need to share data locally in the end. I didnt like using a NAS for Time Machine backups - easy enough to setup and works well, but if I ever needed to restore a whole system I don't want to mess about with network share's and trying to connect to them in order to reach and restore my backup. I just want to be able to plug in a fast drive, and perform a fast restore with minimal fuss. Hence I used local drives as backups (all SSD), and then stored an extra copy of all my files on the NAS as an additional backup to fall back to if my local drives failed for whatever reason.

IMO - Think of and use the NAS as a file share - whether local or remote - not as a means of primary backup.

 

[wyliej]

Regarding RAID levels:

RAID 0 (name notwithstanding) provides no redundancy, and will fail if any disk in the array fails. It is less reliable than a single disk as a result. It does provide excellent performance (read/write performance of one disk multiplied by the number of disks in the array). Do not use this unless you know exactly what you are doing, need the performance (maybe for high-speed temp space), and know exactly what you are doing.

RAID 5 is obsolete for large multi-TB disks. Do not use this in 2025 (or 2015). It also has poor write performance and is only safe if you use a battery-backed write cache.

The only RAID levels that you should consider in 2025 are RAID 1 (mirror), RAID 10 (stripe of mirrors), and RAID 6 (double-parity version of RAID 5).

Yes to Synology.

As noted above, figure out your backup plan (another Synology, located off-site, maybe at a family member's or friend's house) would work for daily backups, but you should have offline copies of your data as well.

 

[Ifti]

Having a second off site NAS as backup is always desirable, but come on, the OP is new to NAS and considering his first NAS purchase. Let the guy get used to a single NAS before picking up a second and dealing with setting up a sync or a backup between the two!

 

[gilby101]

Never owned a NAS before, but I'd like to fix that and I could use a little guidance.

or if I'll connect it to my Mac Studio desktop computer, which I typically leave on and running all the time.

Why a NAS? Just attach suitable disks to the Mac Studio.

• Plex Media Server
• Data backup/syncing (to replace Dropbox)
• Photo storage/backup/syncing (with good photo management, searching, browsing, etc)
• Remote File Access (from laptop or mobile device)
• Shared file access (from various computers of everyone in my family)

Your Mac Studio can do all of this. For less additional cost.

Nevertheless, if you want to expand your skill set, enjoy new technology, etc. then go ahead with a NAS.

 

[eyoungren]

If all your data is on the NAS, what is left on the computer to backup?

Perhaps I was unclear. The NAS I use for backups is for ALL my Macs and PCs. Not just one.

The data on my Macs and PCs are still on their individual drives. It's just backed up to my NAS. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for backups.

 

[klasma]

Regarding Synology, be aware that they are moving away from the consumer/enthusiast market. Starting with their 2025 Plus models, only Synology-certified drives are supported (which currently means Synology-branded drives only), and use of any other drive models is actively blocked by DSM (the Synology NAS operating system).

In addition, fewer of their models support hardware transcoding than there used to, and spec-wise their hardware has been rather stagnating (processing power, network port speeds).