Buying a 4-bay NAS – Guide

I want to build a storage for home. I want to use it as a backup for our 2 computers (we have mac and laptop as well), to store our movies and music. I want to have at least 4 bays and I do not know if it is possible to be able to use only 2 bay at the first time and later on buy and plug another NAS drives as well? I want to extend time to time in the future. Do you have any advice or where and how I can start to look for a solution for me.

The very cheapest option here is DS418j. It is a very simple backup NAS for your computers and mobile devices. It will allow you to store all sorts of multimedia and even play it locally on your mobiles devices and smart TVs.

Then next choice is DS418 which is next model up. It is still on the weak end of the NAS models. But this one can also stream some simple video files over the internet or convert multimedia into a format – the receiving device could play. But it is limited to a single user at the time.

Then the most popular choice is DS418play or DS918+. This is the top end of the range. It is made for multitasking, multi-user environments. It will work with all media and ensure that all backups are done in the background. The only difference between these options is a processor. The ds418play will be a good solution for 2-3 users and 918+ for 5+ users. The ds918+ is the best selling NAS of the year.

You can, and many people do fill it with only 2 or three drives. And then, later on, add more disks as they run out of space. This is a good and energy efficient way to grow your storage.

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