When you decide that you have to have to store files on a network drive, you then will need to figure out what you want to do with them in order to ascertain what sort of NAS you will need. Lots of house and prosumer NAS units can also run third-celebration apps like Transmission (a BitTorrent client) and Plex (a media server), so you can set your NAS to download, transcode, and serve movies automatically to all your devices once they are available online.
The benefit of this setup is that your files will be stored on a device you control, rather than an on the internet service that can go down due to the fact as well many corporations are accessing it at the exact same time, or due to the fact of other technical issues, like a cloud server complicated going down in Iowa.
A built-in Universal Storage Module slot allows transfer to and from USM-compatible transportable drives at speeds 3 instances faster than USB 3.. These portable drives can then be taken off site for a different level of backup, or can be inserted into a diverse NAS to develop a full NAS to NAS backup system.
I have been using Synology DiskStation 2-Bay Network Attached Storage for years ( latest model is DS215j ), but if you believe your media library will develop considerably in the future, I would recommend you begin off with a four-bay model such as Synology DS414j so you can develop into it even if you only begin off with two drives.
But if you want a central repository for your family’s iTunes library, or a place where everybody can share files with out pillaging 1 another’s hard drives, or if your household network has both Macs and Windows machines, these two Apple solutions aren’t enough.