Spec my friend a NAS please!

[kaktus]

Gents

Friend is looking for a NAS and has the following requirements:

Absolute requirements:
- At least 2 drive bays (he wants to raid mirror them)
- 1 touch backup from USB drive (he has a lot of sensitive data spread across about 34 independent USB drives and wants to be able to plug each one in and just click a button to copy the files over to the NAS)
- User friendly

Bonus requirements:
- Ability to encrypt or otherwise secure the stored data if possible (not necessary but would be a nice bonus)
- Media Server for his kids (transcoding is not necessary but would be a bonus)
- Cheap (<£350 including 2x 2TB or 2x 4TB drives)

I haven't looked at NAS since I bought my DS214play.

Any suggestions?

 

[Spooter]

Synology is still the way to go if you want a hasle free solution.

Good software, easy to setup, just forget about it.

This model

Synology DiskStation DS216+II

- Intel Celeron dual-core CPU,
- AES-NI hardware encryption engine
- Real-time transcoding of 4K Ultra HD source content

Cost about £250 add £100 for 2x2TB disk and your sorted.

 

[kaktus]

Thanks - I had compared that model with the DS216, DS216play, Qnap TS-231, Qnap TS-251A and Qnap TS-253A and I agree that the DS216+ii seems to have everything he needs and is cheaper than the Qnaps.

It does lack the HDMI out, 1 additional lan port, 2 additional USB 3.0 ports, a remote control, 3GB less ram but if im being honest, I don't see how any of these are of interest to anyone who isn't planning to run this box as a desktop media player if im not mistaken?

the HDMI out and remote control are totally pointless without that scenario as well