Best value 4/5 bay NAS?

[yatesd]

Hi Everyone,

I would like to start with 3 drives so I can leverage RAID 5. What is the best value for a 4/5 bay NAS based on deals available?

For instance, I am really considering the Thecus 5550. At Newegg I can grab for $359 with a coupon, free shipping, and no tax. This is at the upper end of my budget.

Pros:
Atom processor
2GB RAM
USB 3
HDMI
Recently updated software
Multi-Raid

Cons:

Thecus support versus Synology and QNAP. I am also tempted by the latest ReadNAS from Netgear.

Your thoughts? Should I just try to wait another month or so?

 

[yatesd]

I'll just add that I am coming from an HP Windows Media Server and this will be for home use. Primarily centralized storage of documents, music, photos, and videos. Will want to use for video/photo editing, cloud access, and DNLA support.

 

[stevech]

I'd not pay the premium for an Atom CPU.

Try the on-line demos of Synology and QNAP.

From your use case, sounds like a 2 drive NAS would do fine. Not high cost, esp if you have a couple of 2TB drives, or find a deal on them, and buy an under $200 2-bay NAS.