Best storage drives for NAS 2022: Synology, ASUSTOR, QNAP, TerraMaster, and more

Traditional mechanical drives for the desktop can be used in the best NAS for home, but they're not built for continuous operation over prolonged periods. Leading brands in the storage business have enhanced drives available that are specifically designed for NAS installations. With the advancements made in SSD technology, NAS SSDs are coming to market, and we've rounded up some of the best drives around for your NAS.

What should you look for?

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Generally speaking, when looking for NAS hard drives, you will want to aim for a 7200 RPM drive with 64MB of cache. Hard drives will perform similarly between brands, but you'll want to pay attention to reviews, as well as features and specifications, to pick a drive that will handle everything you throw at it. Choosing the right hard drive is essential, especially for a NAS like the Synology DiskStation DS220+. An SSD takes things to a new level with read and write speeds, but you'll be paying a premium.

We've used the Seagate IronWolf for years without fault and find the drives to be well priced to boot. The same can be said about Western Digital Red, which is almost identical to Seagate counterparts. If you want to expand on your NAS storage, you'll want to aim big with the pricier Seagate IronWolf Pro and Western Digital Red Pro.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.