Best NAS for the Home in 2019

Best NAS for the Home Windows Central 2019

• Our pick: Synology DS218+
• Runner-up: QNAP TS-251B
• Budget NAS: Synology DS119j
• Mass storage: Synology DS1618+

Who should buy this NAS

You should purchase the Synology DS218+ if you're looking for an affordable NAS that can scale to cope with a large family or small office. Not only will you be able to keep backups and important documents safe, but also enjoy some media thanks to Plex support. It can handle movie and music streaming, surveillance recording and much more.

Is it a good time to buy this NAS?

Synology regularly releases a new model depending on the year, available upgrades from Intel, and how many models have already been rolled out. The DS218+ is from 2018 and makes it a worthwhile purchase. Picking one up now will not leave you feeling left out when a new model is eventually released.

Great value NAS

Synology's DS218+ is an ideal option for those who don't have vast amounts of PC-building experience to fall back on.

Powered by a competent dual-core Intel Celeron J3355 (2.0GHz) and 2GB DDR3L (6GB max) RAM, the DS216+ by Synology is not only a well-designed black box, but it is also a capable streaming machine for the home. The system supports H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-2 and VC-1 at a maximum resolution of 4K (4096x2160, 30 frames per second). This device will certainly put that shiny new 50-inch 4K TV to good use.

Its hot-swappable drive tray design allows for easy installation and maintenance, destroying the requirement for a screwdriver to remove or install a hard drive. Simply pull out, swap, re-insert, and you're good to go.

Two hard drive bays are joined by USB 3.0 and eSATA ports. This product does not come with any hard drives, but there are some great options available like the Western Digital RED NAS 3TB hard drive. Throw two of these beasts into the NAS to enjoy an instantaneous 3TB worth of storage using RAID for redundancy.

As a bonus, the unit comes packed with advanced features to allow for secure cloud storage and file synchronization. Popular services like Dropbox and Google Drive can be connected. Overall, this is a great, well-rounded package.

Alternatives to the Synology DS218+

The DS218+ isn't for everyone. If you only want to store a few files or need more bays for vast amounts of data, there are plenty of other options out there. We've rounded up a few recommendations to get you started.

While the NAS isn't powerful enough to transcode and stream 4K content, it's more than capable of handling most tasks you'd likely perform on the server. Support is offered for external services and platforms, and QNAP also makes it possible for multiple isolated Linux systems to run.

Instead of including a more expensive Intel processor, Synology opted for the Marvell Armada 3700 88F3720 CPU, which is perfectly fine for efficient NAS operation, but may struggle when you want to do more demanding tasks. In fact, as of right now, Plex isn't supported, but what the DS119j does well is offering exceptional value.

Do you require more than two bays? Most homeowners don't, which is where the exceptionally good DS218+ comes into play. Those who have an office at home, or work in one for a company will no doubt require more storage space, and this is when numerous drive bays make sense.

Choosing the right NAS for your home

The Synology DS218+ is an excellent piece of kit, allowing you to effortlessly set up a home NAS, regardless as to which model you choose. You've got an Intel processor that can handle even some HD transcoding, as well as anything else you need to throw at your home server.

But it's not the best option for everyone, which is where our other options come in. Whether you need ample storage space, the most affordable NAS available, or something that isn't made by Synology, we got you covered with this collection of the best NAS for your home.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

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