Thursday, November 26, 2020
Network-attached storage (NAS) enclosures are small servers that allow you to do some incredible things at home and in the office. Whether you plan on creating and running a media server using Plex Media Server or manage a file storage solution, a NAS enclosure is precisely what you require. The thing is it's easy to buy the wrong NAS.
There are so many models to choose from, and multiple vendors offer similar enclosures at varying price points. This does mean you can score some deals on new enclosures, especially as we move towards the end of the year. We're here to help you make the right decision and save some money in the process.
QNAP 2-bay Personal Cloud NAS
Use code 2BFSTNW88A in your shopping cart with a valid Newegg email login. This is a great NAS for beginners, especially at this price. The diskless system includes a 1.7GHz quad-core processor and 1GB DDR3 RAM. It also has two Gigabit Ethernet ports and three USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports.
Best NAS Deals Available Now:
- Best NAS for Black Friday: From $136
- More info: Getting the best NAS deals for you
- What about Plex? What to look for
- Best NAS Hard Drives From $60
Choosing the best NAS involves a few factors, namely price, processor, and the number of drive bays. The better the processor, the more drive bays available, and advanced features like 10Gb networking can inflate prices quickly. Whatever you happen to be looking for in a NAS, we've rounded up some of the best enclosures available on offer right now.
Today's Best NAS Deals
- Synology DiskStation DS420+ — $400 (Was $500)
- WD My Cloud Home 4TB NAS — $175 (Was $200)
- Synology DiskStation DS220j — $136 (Was $170)
But if you do have an idea as to what you plan on using the NAS enclosure for, we've compiled lists of the best NAS for your home and what to look for if you're trying to set up a NAS for Plex. There's something here for everyone!
Best NAS deals for Black Friday
The best NAS for Home starts off as the most affordable NAS you can buy. The more budget-friendly enclosures aren't anything special but do allow you to configure everything to your liking and have a NAS up and running. More pricey NAS options here come rocking faster processors, more RAM, and drive bays.
QNAP 2-bay Personal Cloud NAS
Use code 2BFSTNW88A in your shopping cart with a valid Newegg email login. This is a great NAS for beginners, especially at this price. The diskless system includes a 1.7GHz quad-core processor and 1GB DDR3 RAM. It also has two Gigabit Ethernet ports and three USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports.
WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra 8TB NAS | $95 off at Amazon
The My Cloud EX2 Ultra takes things to the next level, with the NAS offering 8TB of storage, 1GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and a hassle-free way to back up data and share files across your home network.
WD My Cloud Home 4TB NAS | $30 off at Amazon
Western Digital's 4TB My Cloud Home is an all-in-one NAS enclosure that offers a 4TB hard drive out of the box. It is very easy to set up and use, and offers decent mobile apps that let you stream content and back up data from all your devices.
Synology DiskStation DS220j | 20% off at Amazon
Synology's more affordable DS220j NAS enclosure doesn't come with an Intel CPU, nor can you bump the RAM up should you encounter any performance issues, but what it does offer is amazing value for a two-bay NAS. If all you need to do is store files and backup a few devices, this is a solid solution.
Synology DiskStation DS420+ | $100 off at B&H Photo
If you need a little more performance and storage space, there's always the excellent Synology DS420+. This NAS enclosure has it all, including four drive bays, upgradable RAM, and two Gigabit LAN ports.
Getting the Best NAS Deal for you
Scoring the best deal is one thing, but getting the right deal for you is incredibly important. We want you to spend your money wisely. There's no point buying a NAS that won't be able to do what you need it to, just because it's the enclosure with the steepest price drop. This is why we recommend NAS enclosures based on specs and then price.
It's important to decide what you want to use the NAS enclosure for. Once you've got that sorted, price is then a factor to consider, allowing you to stick to a limit. If you're not comfortable paying out for a more expensive NAS at full price, there's no reason why you should pay a similar amount for one that's discounted.
NAS enclosures are usually priced well, depending on the processor, drive bays, and other specifications. But when we're enjoying big events like Black Friday, retailers will use all kinds of tactics to make you think a deal is better than it is. Be wary of prices that are inflated to appear like deals. We use tools like CamelCamelCamel that help us spot great deals, and you should use it too.
What about Plex?
Choosing the best NAS for Plex is a little more tricky since the processor becomes vastly more important, if not the most important, deciding factor. If you plan on storing and streaming 4K content, you'll need to make sure your recipient devices (TV, consoles, PCs, etc.) support the same format your media is saved in. If not, the NAS will need to transcode it, which requires considerable performance. These NAS will be able to handle 4K transcoding.
Best Black Friday NAS Hard Drives Deals
You could install some old desktop-class hard drives inside a NAS enclosure and call it a day, but that wouldn't work well. Hard drives used in desktop PCs simply aren't designed to run continuously and be hammered by countless users. It could work, but you'll likely run into reliability issues.
Hard drives designed specifically for NAS come rocking some advanced features, which is reflected in the price. These drives come rocking advanced features like vibration protection and better components that can withstand lots of data being read and written. Since it's Black Friday, you can find some of these drives on sale right now, like the massive 6TB Seagate IronWolf for $156. There are yet more advanced NAS drives, like the Western Digital Red Pro series, which cost more but come with faster motors and additional features.
Seagate IronWolf Pro 125 SSD 480GB
Seagate's IronWolf Pro SSD range is incredibly fast compared to NAS mechanical drives. This 480GB drive can hit data transfer rates of up to 545MB/s. It's also quiet and there are no moving parts. The only drawbacks are price and lack of capacity.
Western Digital Red Pro 4TB
The Western Digital Red Pro series comes rocking 7200RPM motors for faster data transfer speeds and is available in capacities ranging from 2TB to 14TB with support for up to 24 bays.
Toshiba N300 12TB
Toshiba's NAS drive range is pricey, but well worth the investment. These drives are built with NAS in mind and are perfect for 24/7 operation. They have a reliability rating of 180TB per year and sport 7200RPM motors. If you want among the best drives, this is one of them.
Seagate IronWolf 6TB
Seagate IronWolf is one of our favorite range of NAS drives, rocking slightly slower 5600RPM motors, but comes with 256MB of cache and is rated to run continuously. They're also pretty affordable with this 6TB capacity drive coming in at $156.
Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB
The IronWolf Pro series is similar to Western Digital's offering in that you get faster drives with better support for NAS deployment. You'll be able to throw numerous of these drives into an enclosure and expect excellent performance.
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