Budget Starter NAS Advice

[Enquiries]

Hi!
I'm looking into a NAS after wanting one for years so I can finally consolidate my various external drives full of data into one central location. I am a techie person but I am still a bit new to NAS stuff so I wanna seek advice of people more experienced.
Right now I'm looking for a simple budget 2 bay NAS to start out because my income is limited, and I plan to upgrade later on someday when money is better.
Right now I'm looking at the Synology DS220J as it fits the budget nicely. I'm a photographer and also shoot a lot of video, so I have a lot of media, editing projects, and other related files to store as well as general files.
The NAS will just be for storage and archival, any editing would be done on local storage and then stored on the NAS when finished.

I don't plan to use Plex or anything like that, I just need a simple file server since my Chromecast with Google TV handles all my content just fine in VLC without encoding. I might also use it for Time Machine backups from my Macs.

For drives I have loyalty to WD so I'd go with CMR Reds, likely 8TB, but with the finances I might need to stagger the purchases. Can I start with a single drive in the NAS and then add the second later and let it configure the RAID 1?

Do you think a DS220J fits my needs or should I look into something better? The low RAM amount makes me wonder about long term software support/security updates but I'm not sure.

Thank you!

[ed]

Yes, for simple backup and storage using DS220J is a good choice. It is not very fast. If you do think you might actually access any multimedia then DS218play would be a better choice.
You can start with SHR or basic mode and add an additional drive later.
RAM is a limiting factor here. 500GB RAM limits how many apps can run at the same time.

I hope this helps.

[willt]

I would pass on the DS220J. I have had one for 2 years and I regret not spent more money on a NAS with better processor and more ram - been using mine as a file server for four laptops (tons of business pictures and videos) in addition to 2 cameras. Performing some maintenance on the DS220J is a pain because its processor is slow (1.4Ghz) and low non-upgradable memory (512Mb). Plus, this NAS collects dust a LOT.
I am switching to a DS220+, as still needs to stay under $400.
Hope this helps.