Advice

[Enquiries]

Thanks in advance for the offer of free advice. I am new to NAS but have spent the last couple days reading and still not sure on where to start. I have about 1TB in audio files (mp3 and FLAC) and about the same in photos and videos. Primarily I want to access my music library on my macbook without plugging in an external hard drive. I'd also like to access my photos and videos, but no particular requirement for face recognition or anything like that. So fairly simple needs but my budget is limited. I'm looking at used Synology and QNAP enclosures with used drives but this is where I could use some advice - on my budget am I better of getting a newer enclosure and smaller storage (with a view to replacing the drives in the future) or and older enclosure with higher capacity disks? Any suggestions would be welcome and I apologise if this has been covered somewhere already.
I overestimated my storage needs with scaling in mind but again, grateful for any advice.
Cheers,
Tom

[ed]

Hey Tom, diving into the NAS world is exciting, and you're on the right track! Considering your budget and needs, I'd recommend checking out either the Synology DS223 or DS224+. Both offer a great balance for your audio, photo, and video storage requirements. The DS223 with its 2-bay setup is efficient, while the DS224+ steps up with a quad-core processor, dual LAN ports, and the capability for flex transcodes. Given your budget constraints, opting for a newer enclosure makes sense, offering room for future upgrades as your storage needs evolve.