Which NAS & what size drives do I need?

[Enquiries]

My question is what is the best strategy for buying hard drives for a NAS? I need to back up about 14 GB today but once Time Machine backups begin expanding, I believe I'll need more space. Would it make sense to purchase a 4-bay NAS and 2x16TB drives, adding a 3rd HD when I need additional storage? Or, fill up all bays with 4x8TB drives?

[TribalHound]

I'm going to assume you meant 14TB today, and not 14GB.

In which case you'll be needing a 4 bay NAS (a 2 bay could cope, but doesn't give you much head room).

IN a 4 bay, you can start with 2x16TB HDDs in a Raid 1 configuration, giving you 16TB of available storage plus some coverage that allows for 1 disc failure.
You can add a 3rd 16TB later and migrate to Raid 5, giving you 24 TB total and add 4th 16TB as a Hot Spare, so the NAS rebuilds itself in the event of a failure.

If you think you need more than 16TB, either get bigger drives to start (upto 22TB) or start with 3.

In short though, the best strategy is buy the biggest practicable drives you can afford to start with - even if you leave empty bays at the beginning. You can add drives to increase storage as budget allows. If you start with smaller drives you then have to replace them later, meaning you're buying twice.

The final thought is where will your NAS be located? The bigger the drive, the louder they get. So 4 x 22TB is going to be quite a distraction in a main living area. Robbie's addressed noise in some recent videos, so be sure to check them out before you make a purchase.

Hope this helps.