So classic noob situation - been running everything off local machines my whole life and just starting to look at a NAS solution. I’ve got 4 uses for it and wanted to double check if a NAS is right for me, and a product recommendation after some research. I’m techy enough for msot home use situations but I’m really looking for something that’s setup and forget. I’d be using it for 4 things:
- General file backup for games, photos, movies, docs, etc.
- Streaming those stored movies over the home network to my TV, etc.
- Being able to play games that are accessing the files over the network (hoping this is possible? I’ve seen some people store Steam games on their NAS and it seems to work fine?)
- I’m starting a small business making indie games and need somewhere to store media assets, project files, etc.
My PC died recently and especially with point 4, I realised I was dead in the water until it got fixed. A NAS seems like a really good future proof option for if something like that happens again so I can keep working/playing/watching.
After some reading, I’ve found the Synology DS420+. To me, it seems very straight forward to just have a nicely managed unit, and I was thinking of only using 2 of the 4 bays now so that I can upgrade more storage in the future when I need it.
Very keen to hear your thoughts and thank you!