Hello guys, I need some advice about a home server NAS, I've in mind to buy one to store all my data ( movies/anime/music... ) I'm tired of external hard disk drive and I'm running out of space.

A 2 bay NAS that has a good value/price

Which one would fit my request?
Hard disk to put in it? (WD RED?)

Thanks in advance.

I generally dislike those little nas boxes but for low volume use they're alright

2-bay so I'd say you're looking at RAID1 + most of them you can attach a backup drive via USB

WD Reds are fine. Read the manual for the nas before you buy it because usually they have a list of compatible drives

Netgear ReadyNAS are ok
QNAPs highly rated. h0m3r bought a qnap and I'm pretty sure he slept with it for a while
Synology probably alright but no direct experience

I can vouch for Synology.

We have 1 at work for a small company that sub-let our building and we provide IT support for them. It works well.


I myself have a DS214Play, I bought it for storing my media and as a backup of my files (always have a spare copy on my PC as well). It works very well and the reason I opted for the DS214Play is partly cost (4 bays were out of my budget) and it has a Hardware Transcoding chip. Cracking bit of kit!

Not to mention the Disk Station apps are great too.

I suggest building your own if you have the time and ability.

You mentioned anime... I can't find any actual information about this but it's a safe bet that any of those NAS boxes that have hardware transcoding will not handle 10bit which is what the majority of anime releases are since a few years ago

Generally I'd agree with nick, just didn't think it was worth mentioning because you had already mentioned you wanted a 2-bay thing. I know cost, space, electricity use can be a concern

I've been using server 2012 with deduplication for a while. pretty nice

Obviously building your own NAS is a much better solution if you have the space, time & money. I considered doing this but I just don't have the space. A nice little 2 Bay Nas sits downstairs by our Router and serves the purpose nicely.

I've got mine in RAID1, with an ext. HDD attached to the back.

Coincidentally saw a thread about people discussing the real-world speeds of the synology ones https://vpsboard.com/topic/7208-synology-lan-speeds/

Thanks all for your feedback, very helpful.