AIM FOR AT LEAST 2GB OF MEMORY, ESPECIALLY IF YOU WANT TO RUN HEAVIER APPS LIKE LIVE TRANSCODING OR VIDEO SURVEILLANCE.

BUYER’S GUIDE

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE DEVICE:

CPU

If you can afford it, a NAS box with an x86 processor (Celeron, Core, Pentium, Atom and the like) can offer more power than their ARM brethren. That’ll be handy if you plan on running a lot of NAS apps.

MEMORY

Aim for at least 2GB of memory, especially if you want to run heavier apps like live transcoding or video surveillance.

INTEGRATED OR DOWNLOADABLE APPS

A wide range of available apps and services can be useful.

HIGH-SPEED NETWORK PORTS

Dual Gigabit ports allow the NAS to serve more devices at once.

SMARTPHONE/ TABLET COMPATIBILITY

Mobile apps can be used for a variety of tasks, from NAS setup, to remote access to files and even media streaming.

MEDIA FEATURES

Many NAS boxes now support streaming media to many different types of devices via multiple protocols, such as DLNA . Some models even include the capacity to stream to Chromecast and Apple TVs.

EASY, PREFERABLY TOOLLESS INSTALLATION

To easily add more storage capacity on the go, not needing to fetch your tool kit is a real boon.