Just today I was watching an ad while streaming sports that said when it comes to storage “Bigger Is Better“. Now you know my inspiration to write this post on best NAS hard drives to pick in 2020.
Let me draw your attention to the times we are living in.
It doesn’t matter how much storage space we have, it’s always less. In PC and phones alike
Doesn’t matter how much RAM you have, google chrome always wants more.
Add in the creative workflows we are now getting used to.
Don’t forget taking selfies we won’t even see after a couple of months.
More space is a dire need of the time.
NAS hard drive is an incredible answer to your storage needs especially if you also want to add redundancy and to your storage.
Don’t know what that means.
No problem, neither do I.
Lol. I am just kidding.
Talking about storage and best NAS hard drives, I am pretty sure you have an old hard drive lying around in your house.
And do you also know there are more than 8 creative ways you can use your old hard drives for?, yup even the dead ones.
Check these posts out,
Alright then, Let’s Go ahead and first look at,
What Is A NAS Drive? : Choosing The Best NAS Hard drives
NAS drive or Network Attached Storage is a storage solution that allows you to store and share your files over a network in addition to providing redundancy and security to your data and media files.
NAS drives are even more useful if your use case like mine involves media files that you want to make available across all devices connected to your network.
With a NAS drive, you will have a centralized location where you can conveniently store all your backups and access all your files remotely.
NAS drives are available in two forms in the market.
There are ones that have storage units built in and then there are ones to which you can add your own drives.
The edge to getting a NAS drive with empty slots is you will be able to expand your storage in the future depending on your need at the time.
The slight disadvantage to this being the increased upfront cost you will encounter when buying the drive and separate disks.
Keep an eye out for NAS drives starting to deploy quad level and Penta level cells too.
This will arguably increase storage at the same time driving the price down.
Now let’s go ahead and look at the best NAS storage devices that you can pick right away!.
1. Best Overall NAS Storage Device
Synology NAS Diskstation (DS1819+)
If budget is not a concern then the Synology DS1819+ is the perfect buy.
The unit comes with 4GB of RAM (expandable up to 32GB), eight drive bays and is a perfect pick for power users.
The maximum capacity that you can look to hit with the DS1819+ is 60TB.
Which can be expanded to a monstrous 180 TB using an appropriate expansion unit.
The high capacity DS1819+ is perfect for freelancers and video content creators that deal with huge video and image file sizes.
If you are a freelancer or a content creator I understand the need you might be having to save a backup of your files in a secure way to access later.
And if that is indeed the case more drive bays in the DS1819+ will provide more RAID alternatives for you.
RAID is a method via which your NAS drive storage is configured for backup and data loss recovery.
What this in simple terms means is that in the event of one or more mechanical drives failing, your data will still be secure.
All of these features make the DS1819+ one the best Best NAS hard drives to get your hands on right away.
2. Best Entry Level NAS Drive
Synology NAS DiskStation DS218j
If you are looking for a non-pro NAS drive to store a few home backups and media files in, Synology DS218j is a perfect choice.
With relatively low prices the DS218j offers excellent features.
A dual-core CPU, a 113 mb/s read-write speed, hardware encryption engine and app support for Windows, Android and iOS makes the Synology DS218j worth investing in.
Please take note that the DS218j is a diskless drive which means you will have to pick separate hard drives for the two available slots.
3. Best NAS Hard Drives For Streaming 4K Video
Synology NAS DiskStation DS718+
The two NAS drives discussed above are likely to be picked up by people looking specifically to store data.
The Synology DS718+ is something that will appeal to everyone because of its video streaming capabilities.
DS718+ supports both H.265 and H.264 and can transcode 4K video on the fly.
And because of DS718+’s capability to both store and stream media, many people get it to use for Plex, Kodi, Emby and other similar applications.
If you have ever worked with plex servers you will know that it is a big challenge to transcode 4K video on a low power device.
When done this leads to a lot of buffering so the capability of DS718+ to transcode H.264 and H.265 on the fly is an appealing feature for anyone that wants to build a media server.
Apart from this Synology NAS DiskStation DS718+ features a quad-core processor, AES hardware encryption, read speed of 336MB/s, and write speeds of 185MB/s.
All of these features make Synology NAS DiskStation DS718+ one of the best NAS hard drives to pick up if your priority is entertainment.
4. Best Budget NAS Drive (With Disks)
WD My Cloud Personal NAS
I mentioned this in the first section of this post.
NAS drives come in two different forms. With disks and without disks.
While NAS drives that offer a lot of expansion capability offer flexibility at the same time they do set up back with upfront additional costs.
Therefore, I feel it is imperative for me to pick a good budget NAS drive that has INCLUDED disks and would be relatively light on your wallet.
The WD My Cloud Personal NAS Drive is available in 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB storage capacities.
As far as pricing is concerned you can pick one with 2TB capacity within the 300$ price bracket.
WD My Cloud supports USB 3.0, has an ethernet port and is plug and play user-friendly.
If you are looking for the best NAS hard drives that are budget-friendly and are easy to set up without the hassle.
WD My Cloud NAS Drives are your perfect pick.
5. Alternative Budget NAS Drive
QNAP TS-231P
I figured you also might be interested in a NAS drive that is not from Synology just to see how other products scale up.
QNAP is the one of the most effective competitors to Synology in the NAS drive space.
The QNAP TS-231P is the perfect alternative to Synology’s NAS DiskStation DS218j for anyone that is looking for a perfect entry-level NAS Drive that is not Synology.
The features of QNAP-TS-231P include An ARM Coretex-A15 dual core processor, AES 256-bit drive encryption, two GbE LAN Ports, 1 GB Of RAM and three USB ports.
If you are looking to build an entertainment server you will be quite glad to know that TS-231P supports Chromecast and AirPlay.
Best NAS Hard Drives
Now once you have picked the best NAS for your needs it is imperative for you to choose your own SSD to slot into it.
And as such for quite some time now the WD Red NAS Hard Drives have been the market leaders in the segment.
And therefore will be the best NAS hard drive that you can pick up without giving any additional thought.
Great features of the drives include the inhouse NASware 3.0 technology that the company claims to provide increased reliability and performance when used with NAS drives.
The storage capacity will range from 750GB to 14TB.
And depending on what model you pick up you can either choose a 2.5-inch or a 3.5-inch drive with cache sizes of 16MB, 64MB,256MB, or 512MB.
Best NAS Hard Drives: The Next Best Thing
The next best thing that you can opt for as far as best NAS Hard drives are concerned is the Seagate IronWolf NAS Internal Hard Drive.
The inherent capacities range from 240GB on the lower scale to a massive 16TB at the top.
Some version include data recovery tools as well.
For people who love hoarding massive amounts of data, the extra 2TB data that Ironwolves offer in their top model won’t appeal that much when compared with WD Red NAS Hard Drives.
The cache size peaks to 256MB, depending on the versions that you opt to go for.
Conclusion
I think you should now have a good idea as to which NAS Hard Drive will fit your needs.
As you might have noticed Synology is kinda like the king of the jungle as far as NAS Drives are concerned and for all the good reasons.
The company’s reliable and flexible OS coupled with its capability to provide app support across all platforms provide Synology the necessary edge.
Let me just lay out the choices again in the form of a quick summary to help make your decision clear.
- Best Overall – Synology DiskStation DS1819+.
Just the best. Choose this if the budget is not an issue.
- Best Entry Level – Synology NAS DiskStation DS218j
Excellent features for a relatively low price.
- For Streaming And Media – Synology NAS Diskstation DS718+.
H.264 and H.265 support and transcodes 4K on the fly.
- Budget NAS Drive With Disk – WD McCloud.
Budget And Plug And Paly User-Friendly.
- Beast Budget Alternative –QNAP TS-231P.
A worthy competitor to Synology.
- Best NAS Hard Drives – WD Red NAS Hard Drive
Market leaders and reliable NASware 3.0 tech.
- Best Alternative NAS Hard Drive – Seagate Ironwolf NAS Internal Hard Drive
High capacity and good range.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it.
And I also hope the post provided you the necessary clarity to choose the best NAS Hard Drives for your needs.
Comment below if you have any queries and I will be happy to answer the.
Take great care of yourselves and I will see you in the next one.
Tadaa!
