While you can simply use an external hard drive with all of your devices for sharing files and keeping all of your data in the same place, it is not the most practical option since it can only be connected to a single device at once. This is where NAS or Network Attached Storage devices come into play.
You can use these to easily access all of your data on all of your devices wirelessly. But compared to traditional storage devices, these are highly secure while offering various kinds of features that they offer. Since these features can be a bit confusing, we are here with the best NAS devices in India based on these factors:
- CPU & RAM: Unlike a typical external hard drive that you might have used in the past, these NAS devices offer various features along with encryption options along with other tasks that are handled by the integrated CPU and RAM. Some models come with a dual-core processor and some with a quad-core CPU and 1 GB RAM.
- HDD Slots: Almost all NAS devices allow you to install multiple drives inside them so that you can potentially have a lot of storage devices and allow you to add new drives without replacing older ones easily. You can generally find either 2 or 4 HDD slots in a NAS device for installing further HDDs.
- Connectivity Options: Once you have installed hard drives in your NAS, you would want to connect it to your devices for storage access. In that case, you should check the connectivity options to ensure that it can connect to multiple devices at once. You can find ports like LAN ports, USB ports, and others on the back and the front.
If you want to know more about NAS devices, then you will be glad to know that we have mentioned all of their details as well as a detailed Buying Guide related to these NAS devices as well as a FAQ section so that you can buy the right one after going through this article until the end.
Table of Contents
6 Best NAS Devices in India
[amazon box=”B075DDZ894, B01N2K147Q, B01CS9DYDK, B01AWH05GE, B00JKM0A36, B015S0Y50C” items=”6″ template=”table” tracking_id=”hz05-21″]Top 6 NAS Devices Reviews in India
1. Synology DiskStation DS918+ NAS Drive
Specifications:
- HDD Slots: 4 slots
- Maximum Capacity: 56 TB
- CPU: Quad-Core 1.5 GHz CPU
- RAM: 4 GB DDR3L, upgradable to 8 GB DDR3L
- Storage Speeds:Up to 225 MB/s
- Ports: 2 x 1 GbE LAN ports, 2 x USB 3.0 ports
- Supported RAID Types: Hybrid, basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10
- Hot-Swappable Drives: Yes
- Warranty: 3 years
Synology is the most popular brand out there when it comes to NAS devices and related accessories since it offers so many product options. And most of them offer excellent performance just like its DiskStation SD918+ NAS device.
The Synology DiskStation SD918+ is the best performing NAS device present in this article. It can offer exceptional performance thanks to its quad-core Intel Celeron J3455 1.5 GHz CPU that can go up to 2.3 GHz speed clock. This CPU is paired along with 4 gigs of DDR3L RAM that can even be upgraded to 8 GB for even better performance.
Such a RAM and CPU combination allows you to get storage access speeds of up to 225 MB/s while using this NAS drive. You can even increase the performance of this drive by using an SSD cache drive since it comes with dedicated M.2 NVMe SSD slots that offer even better performance than SATA SSDs since NVMe drives are much better cache drives.
Talking about the HDD storage itself, you get a total of 4 HDD slots in this NAS device. All of these 4 HDD slots are hot-swappable so that you can quickly and easily replace drives whenever you need. Such a feature can be handy to replace the drives if you want to reach the maximum storage capacity 56 TB by using four 14 TB HDD drives inside this NAS.
Its storage capacity can even be further increased by using the DX517 expansion unit offered by Synology that increases the slot count to a total of 9, resulting in a storage capacity of 126 TB. Despite having a high storage capacity, all of your files are still safe thanks to its AES-NI hardware encryption to prevent unauthorized data access.
If you are interested in setting up RAID in your NAS device, then you will be glad to know that this one supports almost all of them. It offers the support for Hybrid, basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10 types of RAID setup. These can be used to either create redundant drives or increase the overall storage access speeds of the HDD drives.
You get a total of 2 x USB 3.0 ports and 2 x 1 GbE LAN ports in this unit that should be more than enough for most users. All these ports allow you to easily share files, use the NAS as a multimedia server, create a backup of all your devices, or even connect IP cams to this unit and record videos in the HDD since it supports a total 40 IP cams along with 2 free licenses.
Pros:
- Offers excellent CPU and RAM
- Supports high storage speeds
- Includes hot-swappable drive support
- Offers support for SSD cache drives
- High maximum capacity rating
Cons:
- Quite an expensive NAS device
- Does not come included with any hard drive
2. Qnap TS-431P-US 4-Bay Personal Cloud NAS
Specifications:
- HDD Slots: 4 slots
- Maximum Capacity: 16 TB
- CPU: Dual-Core 1.7 GHz CPU
- RAM: 1 GB DDR3
- Storage Speeds: Up to 223 MB/s
- Ports: 2 x 1 GbE LAN ports, 3 x USB 3.0 ports
- Supported RAID Types: Hot Spare, Single, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10
- Hot-Swappable Drives: Yes
- Warranty: 1 year
Qnap is another highly popular brand when it comes to NAS devices. But unlike Synology, this one is much more affordable including its TS-431P-US NAS that offers great performance for the price.
Those of you who want a NAS device with decent performance and good capacity should consider the Qnap TS-431P-US. Unlike most other options, this one uses an ARM Cortex A15 dual-core CPU with a clock speed of 1.7 GHz. It comes along with 1 GB RAM in total which is decent for the given CPU as well as the price of this NAS drive.
Even though this NAS uses an ARM Cortex CPU, it still offers pretty decent speeds of 223 MB/s for read operations and 172 MB/s for write operation. While these speeds should be more than enough for most users, the performance of this NAS unit can be improved since it offers SSD caching support that allows you to add an SSD drive for better performance.
Although, the storage capacity of this NAS device is just average since its 32 bit CPU only supports up to 16 TB capacity in total. If that is enough for you, then you will have a great time working with this NAS since it comes with a total of 4 slots giving you a lot of upgrade options. All of these slots allow you to hot-swap the drives without needing to restart it.
If you are worried about the security of all your files stored on this NAS drive, then you will be glad to know that it also offers the support for AES 256-bit encryption. In simpler words, you can password protect all of your files so that no one else accesses it. You also get LED indicators on the front to check if the drives are being currently accessed.
Even though this NAS device runs on an ARM processor, it still offers excellent RAID support. You can use it to set up your hard drives in Hot Spare, Single, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10 as per your choice. Despite the RAID setup you are using, this NAS device stays quiet while offering optimum performance thanks to its silent 17 dB cooling fan.
As for the ports on this NAS device, it comes with 2 x 1 GbE LAN ports for connecting to the network and 3 x USB 3.0 ports for connecting other USB devices if needed. If you are interested in connecting IP cameras to it, you will find the support for a total of 25 IP cameras which includes 2 free licenses out of the box.
Pros:
- Decent CPU and RAM performance
- Offers SSD caching support
- Includes multiple input and output ports
- Comes with AES 256-bit encryption for optimum security
- Supports 25 IP cameras along with 2 free channels
Cons:
- Uses ARM CPU and not an x64 one
- Maximum capacity is a bit limited
3. Western Digital My Cloud EX Ultra 4TB 2-Bay NAS 3.0 USB BVBZ0040JCH-BESN
Specifications:
- HDD Slots: 2 slots
- Maximum Capacity: 28 TB
- CPU: Dual-Core 1.3 GHz CPU
- RAM: 1 GB DDR3
- Storage Speeds: Up