With a NAS you get a lot of storage space and functionality and you can also decide for yourself what happens with it. But which NAS should you buy? We've tested 19 current NAS devices with space for two or four drives for you.
Although NAS is the abbreviation of 'Network Attached Storage', you can no longer dismiss a NAS as a hard drive with a network connection. A modern NAS offers so many possibilities that if you really only need storage space, a NAS is not the right choice at all. Then the NAS is much too complex and there are other solutions with which you can also save a lot of money. Also read: What exactly can you do with a NAS?
A NAS is the right choice if you not only want to store a lot of information securely, but also want to be able to use and share that data with others. Like looking up a document you haven't used in a year, streaming a movie while lying on the beach, or uploading the latest photos and sharing them with your family right away. With a NAS you actually build your own cloud.
Disks and Storage
Only you can determine how much storage space you need. After that, you have to decide how many hard drives you need for that. It is important to know how many hard drives will be in the NAS. If you are also going to store indispensable documents on the NAS, then it is obvious to set up the NAS with RAID. RAID is a technique that protects all information on a NAS against the consequences of a failed hard drive. Without RAID, all information is stored once on one of the disks in the NAS. If a drive fails, the data on that drive is lost...unless you chose RAID. RAID uses some of the storage capacity to store recovery data that allows the NAS to recover the lost data in the event of a hard drive failure.
There are several possibilities with RAID, indicated by levels. If you have a NAS with two disks, you can configure RAID1. The NAS stores all data twice, once on one drive and once on the other. The two disks are then literally a copy of each other.
The advantage is that when one of the two disks crashes, all the data is still on the other disk. The disadvantage is that you lose half of the total storage capacity on this protection. Although RAID always costs storage capacity, the more disks in the NAS, the space required for data recovery decreases. For example, with four disks you can also choose RAID5 and then you will only lose one of the four disks to the recovery data. With four 4 TB disks, you're left with 12 TB in RAID 5, while with two much more expensive 8 TB disks in RAID 1, you have to settle for 8 TB.
Disk Formats
Choosing the right RAID is not always easy, especially when the disks also differ from each other. In addition, there are also other RAID levels that are not mentioned here in the article, such as RAID0 and JBOD that do not protect the data at all. Do you find RAID difficult or are you afraid of making the wrong choice? Then it is good to know that many NAS devices nowadays arrange this for you. The NAS then decides which RAID configuration is most favorable based on the number of disks. Examples include SHR from Synology, SimplyRAID from Seagate, and X-RAID from NETGEAR.
Memory and processor
In addition to the number of disks, the processor and the amount of memory are especially important. The processor is without exception an ARM processor or an Intel processor. Intel did not enter this market until later, but has mainly usurped a position at the top of the NAS offering. For a long time, the Intel processors were less energy efficient than the ARM models, but Intel has now largely made up for that. The Intel processors, on the other hand, had more computing power, which allowed them to convert video images in real time to a different codec and resolution, so that a movie could also be streamed to a tablet or smartphone. A trick that the latest ARM processors now also master. Intel and ARM are in a fierce competition to develop the fastest and most energy-efficient processors, every NAS benefits.
Exactly how much computing power and memory is needed depends entirely on the use of the NAS and the number of concurrent users. For storing and sharing files and streaming a movie, any NAS will do. If there are more users or if you are going to use more advanced functions such as transcoding films, hosting a photo website or virtualizing a PC, a faster processor and above all more memory are welcome. One or two GB of memory is really the lower limit or not even sufficient anymore. At the same time, gains can be made by disabling unnecessary functions or even removing parts.
Connections
Another important part of the hardware is the number of connections or ports. USB ports are increasingly USB 3.0, but not always. The presence of only USB 2.0 really suggests that an outdated chipset is being used that can't handle USB 3.0 at all. A common application is connecting an extra drive to, for example, back up the NAS or copy data to the NAS. For the latter, it is useful if there is at least one USB port on the front of the NAS, which is not always the case. You can also connect a USB printer to the NAS and then share it on the network.
Each NAS has at least one gigabit LAN port. If there are more (two or four appear in the test), you can use them to connect the NAS to multiple networks or to make one very fast one via link aggregation of two network connections. For this it is important that the switch or router to which the NAS is connected also supports this.
Wifi is often included in the specifications of a NAS, but this does not work for any NAS straight out of the box. A WiFi USB stick that is compatible with the NAS is required, which is far from the case for every WiFi USB stick.
Operating system
Each brand of NAS has its own operating system. Without exception, these are Linux based and use a web interface for configuration. The different web interfaces try to make configuration easier by explaining or even carrying out a change step by step via a kind of wizard. Of all the brands in the test, only Thecus has not translated the operating system of its NAS into Dutch. All other brands have done that and in some cases even offer a very Dutch help function. The NAS operating system from Western Digital and to a lesser extent from Seagate excels in user-friendliness.
Packages
Synology and QNAP were the first to further strip the NAS operating system and make all non-mandatory components optional. The advantage of this is that it makes a NAS 'lighter' because functions that you do not use, do not take up the processor or part of the memory. So you win at no cost. Moreover, you can add all the missing functions that you do want to use very quickly. This is done in the form of a package, a mini-program that you install on the NAS from an app store on the NAS with a few clicks and that adds new functionality.
Examples of packages are media players, cloud backup, a search function, the possibility to synchronize the NAS with an online storage service, a photo editing program, a cms for websites, but also a spreadsheet program. All functions that can work on the NAS, but do not have to be present by default. If you want to use it, you can add it yourself. The frontrunners in these packages are QNAP, ASUSTOR and Synology. These brands develop many packages themselves, but also have others develop packages for their devices.
Apps and remote access
Once the data is on the NAS, you naturally want to be able to access it easily. And you also want to be able to easily add data to it. Sometimes even automatically and in any case also from other devices than just the PC. Every NAS manufacturer provides with its NAS a possibility to remotely access the data on the NAS. The exact way differs, but in practice this means that the NAS makes an outgoing connection with the cloud service of the NAS supplier. Wherever they are, your smartphone, tablet, PC and Mac make contact with the cloud service again via an app or small application. The usability of this depends entirely on the apps you can use and the functionality. In fact, they all meet, except for Thecus, which is necessary to update and improve apps.
Test method
For this test, 19 current NAS devices with space for 2 or 4 disks were selected. First, a selection is made. A financial choice has been made for this, the NAS for 2 disks no more than 400 euros, the NAS for 4 disks no more than 600. We test a maximum of two NAS devices per category per brand, unless one of the NAS devices is very different. used to be. Upon arrival, each NAS is equipped with the latest firmware and then tested for speed and functionality. The NAS sits on a separate test network together with the test system and a Linksys gigabit switch.
For the speed test, we use the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit, which simulates real-life situations such as playing an HD movie and working with Office files. As shown in the test results table, every possible RAID configuration has been tested for each NAS. To do this, each NAS is completely filled with hard drives and the RAID configuration is aborted after each test and the next configured.
Seagate NAS drives of 2 TB were used for storage. These drives are equipped with special firmware to provide years of reliable yet above-average load, and are therefore ideally suited for use in a NAS. The only exception is the WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra, which has been tested with its standard WD Red drives. During the configuration and testing of RAID1, the power consumption under load and at rest was also measured. All data from the various tests can be found in the tables accompanying this article. It also contains an overview of the most important functions and associated options, such as the number of packages and apps. In the magazine you will find a selection from the table, the complete table can be found online.
ASUSTOR
With the AS1002T and AS1004T, ASUSTOR introduces two NAS devices based on an ARM processor for the first time. According to ASUSTOR, budget models are intended to serve the lower end of the market (in addition to the premium NAS devices that ASUSTOR offers). The ARM processor is fast enough for most tasks, rather the small amount of RAM will limit the deployment of these two new ASUSTOR NAS.
For home, however, it is fine. However, a separate HDMI output is missing, so you cannot use these cheapest ASUSTORs as a media player. If you have an ASUSTOR with HDMI, you can install the ASUSTOR Portal and play movies in the highest resolution on a directly connected TV via Boxee or XBMC. A remote control is missing, but you can install the ASUSTOR remote control app on your smartphone and tablet for free.
ASUSTOR's ADM operating system offers a lot of functionality as standard and the number of expansion options is huge and very diverse. For synchronization with cloud storage alone, there is already a choice between all well-known providers from Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive to DropBox and Strato HiDrive. ASUSTOR offers good hardware and good software, now also in the lower price segment.
Web Interface Live Demo
The software is very important with a NAS. NAS vendors know this, and some offer the option to test their NAS software online. This way you can check whether it meets your expectations and wishes.
ASUSTOR
NETGEAR
QNAP
Synology
thecus
NETGEAR
The first thing you notice about NETGEAR is the excellent build quality of the NAS enclosure, both on the two- and four-drive NAS. Both models now also feature two LAN ports with link aggregation capability. The 214 also has a small display on which you can read system messages and information such as the IP address of the NAS. This is very useful. Version 6.4 of the ReadyNAS OS is user-friendly, but also a bit boring.
The packages are equally divided between business and home use, the latter category includes ReadyNAS Photos II, ownCloud synchronization and various downloaders and media packages. The quality of the packages is sometimes disappointing, especially with the apps not developed by NETGEAR itself. The growth also seems to have stopped, since the previous test hardly any apps have been added. A strength of NETGEAR is its use of the Btrfs file system. Together with the automatic X-RAID, it is NETGEAR's main asset to protect data on the NAS. Thanks to Btrfs, you can take an infinite number of snapshots of the data and always revert to an earlier version of a document. This works fine and integrates seamlessly with, for example, Windows Explorer. While both NETGEAR NAS devices feature an ARM processor, both feature real-time HD transcoding up to 1080p. However, the NAS can only stream, there is no possibility to connect a TV or other media device directly.
QNAP
QNAP is currently the most innovative NAS builder. For example, the TS-453A is the first NAS with two operating systems: its own QTS and Linux. At the moment the choice is still limited to Ubuntu, but Fedora and Debian will also be available. Connect a monitor, mouse and keyboard and you have a full-fledged Linux PC. The TAS-268 also runs two operating systems simultaneously, namely QTS and Android. Uploading photos under QTS and then displaying them directly on TV from the Android environment, it sounds nice ... but in practice the Android environment causes so many problems that even the QTS environment becomes unstable. In short, unusable.
But apart from this TAS-268, every QNAP NAS is a bull's eye. A beautiful operating system, good apps for smartphones and tablets to always have access to the files, and a record number of packages for many new functions for every NAS. Besides streaming, any QNAP with an HDMI output can be used as a media player. QNAP offers multiple NAS devices in each class, which makes it very difficult to buy the right QNAP, partly due to the inimitable numbering of the different NAS devices. Check carefully whether the desired functionality is supported by the intended model.
seagate
The 2- and 4-bay versions of the Seagate Nas Pro are largely identical, except the larger four-drive NAS has a nice LCD display for system information and alerts. On the smaller Pro 2 this is missing. The number of packages on the NAS is limited and has not changed significantly since last year. In addition to its own Defenx-based antivirus, there are for example Plex media server, a file browser, WordPress and various synchronization programs such as ownCloud, SyncboxServer, Pydio, and BitTorrent Sync and some more business applications. The quality of the packages is good, but the number is small and not very diverse. In addition, some packages have a significant impact on the performance of the NAS. For remote access to all files, Seagate Sdrive works fine on Windows and Mac, but does not have a version for iOS and Android. Multimedia is limited to streaming and has not been a top priority when designing these otherwise very solid and beautifully designed NAS devices.
Synology
While creating this test, Synology released version 6.0 of the DSM operating system for Synology NAS systems. The operating system is now fully 64-bit, which should yield a significant performance gain on the Synology's with an Intel processor. There are also improvements in Cloud Station (DSM's synchronization and backup function) and in Note Station (for writing, sharing and synchronizing notes). The Photo and Video Station apps (for displaying photos and videos) can now also stream to Samsung Smart TV, AppleTV, Roku, and Chromecast. With the SpreadSheet app, you can now also create and share beautiful, web-based spreadsheets on the NAS, in which you can also collaborate in one shared sheet.
However, the great new functions cannot hide the fact that Synology is struggling to keep up with the high refresh rate of QNAP in particular. What is striking is that Synology mainly uses ARM processors throughout the consumer line and does not choose to build an HDMI output in the NAS. According to Synology, streaming is enough, but with other brands you get it 'free' as it were. The Synology NAS devices are not really cheap. In addition, the appearance of a Synology NAS is not surprising and none of the tested products has the quality of QNAP and sometimes ASUSTOR, Synology mainly uses plastic. Synology's NAS systems are still beautiful products, but to win another NAS test, you will have to go a step further and maybe two.
thecus
Thecus is high on the N2810, because the model has new hardware, a strong processor and is the first with the new ThecusOS 7 operating system. Nevertheless, it is precisely that operating system that is again the problem, it is simply not finished and the innovation is too limited. For example, if you open an item in the 'new' control panel, you are immediately returned to the old control panel and you never have to go back to the new control panel. There is a reasonably wide range of packages, but these are almost without exception not from Thecus itself and require significantly more knowledge and effort to get it working than with the other NAS brands. If you like that and you prefer a somewhat 'open' device where you can do a lot yourself, then Thecus is the right choice. The N2810 also has an HDMI port and the option to use the NAS as a media player. Thecus uses Kodi and XBMC, among others.
Western Digital
A new processor and double the amount of memory are enough for Western Digital to give the new MyCloud EX2 NAS the designation 'ultra'. This is quite striking, because with Western Digital, performance was never the most important thing. Even with the new hardware, the new MyCloud is among the less favored NAS devices in terms of specifications.It would have been better if the developers further increased the user-friendliness, because that is always the selling point for a WD-NAS and although it also performs well there, improvement is certainly still possible. Why is there no normal on/off switch? Why are all USB ports on the back and a button to make a USB copy is missing? Why not a small screen for system info and notifications?
The strong point of this NAS is the user-friendliness of the software: the software is extremely simple and where the going gets tough, the user gets clear explanations with pictures. However, the number of packages is very limited. Normally that's a minus, but on a NAS where performance quickly suffers from excessive use of extra software (due to the small specifications), that might be a good thing. The use of the Plex media server will also put pressure on the performance of the NAS, moreover, its functionality is already limited due to the lack of transcoding. The MyCloud EX2 Ultra is mainly a NAS for beginners who want to have their data backed up properly.
Conclusion
The question of which NAS you should buy can only be answered if you know what you want to do with the NAS. If you mainly need storage, if you want a safe place for your backups and if you only sporadically use related options such as streaming a movie or uploading photos from your smartphone, then any NAS will do. In that case, the price and ease of use are the most important factors, whereby the latter may best be translated as 'especially not too many options'. The WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra and also the Seagate NAS Pro are excellent choices. If you do make use of the extra options, or if you at least don't want to rule that out, you'll still end up at the well-known top 3. QNAP has clearly nestled itself at the top, as long as you ignore the failed TAS-268 . The price of a QNAP is often slightly higher than with direct competitors. If you'd rather spend a little less money, ASUSTOR, Synology, and NETGEAR are worth considering in order.
In the table above you will find all test results. Click here for a larger version.
Above you will find a selection from the table, the full table can be found here.
