ASK NC

Hi there. I am a home user but can take on more than a basic system setup (used to be in the software game, although who am I kidding, I love user friendly platforms). My husband and I are looking for a NAS so we can have a centralized place for our photos (that we take on our mobile phones, no actual cameras are involved), documents (very basic PDF scans of personal documents), DVDs that we upload from original disks (will use Plex or something like that to manage), and general backups. I am an android user, my husband is a iphone user. We have 1 macbook at home for our home computer and 2 tvs. We want it to be quiet bc we are tiny homers (home is about 400sqft). Right now we use icloud and google one cloud storage to manage our data but are not happy bc it is spread out and does not allow us to easily manage our photos and music to our liking. We want automatic backups from our phones for photos and the ability to listen offline to music/watch movies (we travel a good amount).

Hi there! Based on your needs, I would recommend looking into the Synology DS220+ or DS420+. Both of these models are great for home use and can handle your basic needs for centralized storage, backups, and media streaming.

For storing your photos, you can use the Synology Photos app which allows you to automatically backup your photos from your mobile devices and provides features for organizing and sharing your photos. For your documents, you can simply store them in a shared folder on the NAS.

For streaming media, you can use the Plex app on the NAS which will allow you to stream your movies and music to your TVs and mobile devices. You can also use the Synology's built-in media server if you prefer.

Both of these models have a compact design and are relatively quiet. You can also use SSDs for storage to improve performance and noise if needed. And because Synology is platform-agnostic, it will work well with both your iPhone and MacBook.