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I finally got around to setting up a network attached storage (NAS) system last year, and now I honestly have no idea what took me so long.
The NAS serves as a backup device for all of the PCs in our household, and for good measure all of the data on the NAS is backed up to the cloud. It also functions as a Plex media server, allowing us to stream music, videos, and photos to phones and TVs in the house. And with 4TB of storage, it’s also where I store other files that don’t need to be on my PC, since I don’t need to access them every day.
I spent a fair amount of time and money choosing the hardware for my setup. But right now Newegg is running a few bundle deals that make it pretty easy: you can pick up a Synology NAS and two 4TB hard drives for as little as $350.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Storage
- Synology DS216se NAS + two 4TB HGST hard drives for $350 – Newegg
- Synology DS218 NAS + two Toshiba 8TB hard drives for $700 – Newegg
- Synology DS218+ NAS + two 10TB HGST hard drives for $850 – Newegg
- SanDisk 128GB microSDXC card for $36 – Newegg (coupon:Â EMCPSRY57)
- Select external hard drives for 10% off – Newegg (coupon:Â EMCPSRY59 )
Laptops
- Refurb HP Envy x360 13″ convertible w/Core i7-7500U/16GB/512GB/4K for $800 – Woot
- Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA 12.5″ convertible w/Core M3-6Y30/4GB/64GB for $470 – Walmart
Other
- Logitech MK360 wireless mouse & keyboard for $20 – Staples
- Refurb Harman Kardon Onyx Studio Bluetooth speaker for $40 – Woot
- 16-pack of Panasonic Eneloop AA 2100 rechargeable batteries for $25 – Amazon
- Select PC game downloads for $7.50 and up – NeweggFlash (15% extra off with code NEFPSDG15)
- Krypton Pilot episode for free – Microsoft Store
You an find more bargains in our daily deals section.
Turning to the merits and away from the typo, I can see this if you’re also using it for a media server. But for just backup of a few computers I would prefer simple USB drives, with Cloud backup. Less cost and less energy use.
It’s a lot easier to set up an NAS as a set-it-and-forget-it system. I don’t need to plug anything in to back up my computer. As long as I’m connected to my home network, any new files are automatically synced to a folder on the NAS.
and that is seriously cool
4TB Drives
Whoops. You are correct. That would be a much less impressive system if it had two 4GB drives. 🙂
You’d have to really search hard to find 4GB drives now-a-days.
Agreed. My first pc was 6gb but that was back in 1999
My first PC had a 20 MB drive, and I never used half of it! It was something like the one in the top right picture.
https://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/zenith_l/
You darn kids! My first hard drive was 20 MB (yes, megabytes)!
I’m pretty sure my first HDD had something like 20MB… but my first PC didn’t have a hard drive at all: https://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8bits/xl/800xl/800xl.htm
The 1st pc i used had 2 5.25″ floppy drives to load DOS to the ram, I think. But it wasn’t mine. I only used it to play load runner which I sucked on since I was too young to know how to play properly.
Yep. My first work computer used these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_Box