Easy-to-use software: Each NAS manufacturer has its own operating system.

A NAS that includes hardware encryption acceleration offers read and write speeds that are much faster than those of a model that relies solely on software encryption. (It can also protect sensitive data on a NAS that’s on a larger network, or one that attackers could target.) Some NAS boxes can also encrypt data before backing it up to a cloud service, providing an extra level of protection in case the cloud service is hacked.

Hardware-level encryption acceleration: File encryption is good to use even if you access your NAS exclusively inside your home network, because it protects your data if someone breaks into your house and steals your NAS or your disks.

Most NAS devices released within the past year have at least 2 GB of RAM, so we stuck with that as our minimum.

CPU and RAM: We preferred a reasonably powerful dual-core Intel Celeron processor, but we didn’t rule out ARM-based configurations as long as their processing speeds were similar.

If you opt for a cheaper model, you usually sacrifice read and write speeds or end up with a less-polished operating system. More than that, and you’re entering more complex and powerful business-class territory.

Price: For home use, you don’t need to pay more than around $250 to $350 for a two-bay NAS (not including the price of the hard drives, unfortunately).

Single-drive NAS devices don’t provide this sort of data protection, and NAS boxes with more bays introduce more complex RAID configurations, such as RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10, that require more planning and research to configure. As a result, your data remains safe and accessible even if a drive fails. This setup gives you half the NAS’s actual amount of storage for files: For example, a NAS with two 8 TB drives in RAID 1 still has 8 TB of total space available ( equivalent to about 300 Blu-rays), not 16 TB.

For most home uses, a two-drive NAS is just right because it protects your data by mirroring the contents of one drive to the other (a configuration known as RAID 1, or a mirrored array).

Two drive bays: Hundreds of NAS devices are available, and you can find models with one, two, four, eight, or more drive bays.

Best nas for home plex