Best 2 bay NAS- Qnap 2018

When it comes to QNAP NAS Expansions, it is key to remember that the most popular NAS expansion from QNAP, The UX500P 5-Bay expansion and the UX-800P 8 –Bay expansion connect via USB 3.0 – so in all likelihood you can connect them to any QNAP NAS that features USB 3.0. However always check with us first at SPAN.COM to make sure to avoid disappointment. With most of the high end NAS 2-bays in 2018 such as the TS-251+-8G and the TS-253A from QNAP, will let you spread a RAID across both the 2-bay NAS and the expansion, to create one super volume (with perhaps a RAID 5 or 6 setup – something we at SPAN.COM can provide free of charge in our build and test NAS service). Though in the mid range NAS 2-Bays of 2018, you will often find that you will only see the expansion chassis as an independent volume, eg the unit will be a separate storage volume. 

Stepping away from the concerns of Power and top NAS hardware, we can look at the two most popular deciding factors for small home users and small businesses looking to buy NAS. Namely, which Network Attached Storage 2-bays of 2018 use the least power and make the least noise. These units ill sometimes be on for days or weeks and many will ponder how much they will pay on their electricity bill for the privilege of having 24/7 data storage access! For sheers power efficiency (taking into account the hardware and value for money at all times) this has to be a tie between the TAS-228 and the TS-228. Both units feature excellent NAS features whilst at the same time consuming noticeably less power both in NAS access and in standby and hibernation. Either of these NAS 2-bays will give you a good level of NAS server access and ability whilst keeping your power bill low.

If your data is important – you need RAID. Not to be confused with Backing up, RAID gives you the ability to save your data in the rare and unfortunate event of one of your hard drives failing. All of the 2-bay NAS devices in the QNAP 2018 NAS range offer JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1 options, but once the RAID is set up, it can affect your transmission (rad and write) speeds accordingly based on the units hardware. For an excellent balance of RAID setup against Read and Write speeds, we at SPAN.COM recommend the QNAP TS251+ and the QNAP TS253A as both have superior NAS CPU’s as well as quicker RAID Build and Re-Build speeds.

Whether you want to buy a Plex NAS or you want to buy a NAS that can comfortably and quickly transcode your media to your Network Attached devices, buying a transcoding NAS can be expensive. However the QNAP 2018 2-Bay range makes things easier when buying a NAS. For transcoding we recommend the QNAP TS-253A as it can transcode 4K natively and for a Plex Media Server NAS it can transcode 720p and 1080p to your iPad, iPhone, Android smartphone and tablets well indeed. However if you do not care about 4K NAS and want to buy a transcode NAS that is better suited to just 720p and 1080p transcoding, you should consider the QNAP TS251+ as it has the quad core intel 2.0GHz (which can boost upto 2.4GHz when needed) and transcode 3 HD media files at a time (offline too for later) on the fly. So once again, for a Plex Media Server that requires transcoding to your devices as well as native transcoding to the QNAP mobile apps, go for the QNAP TS-251+-2G or the QNAP TS-253A-4G for NAS transcoding.

The best Plex NAS for a Plex Media Server comes down to a few factors but more than any it comes down to the CPU. If you want to view and transcode Plex library movies in HD quality (720p and 1080p Plex Media) then you will have to choose between the QNAP TS-251+-8G and the TS-253A-8G as both of these devices have the best x86 NAS CPU’s inside their hardware. Of the two, if you intend to transcode more HD than anything else, go for the QNAP 251+ as it’s 64bit CPU architecture is better suited to this. If you want to view 4K media with the option for native transcoding as well as the odd HD Plex Media transcoding, buy the QNAP TS-253A NAS – which has 4K NAS support.

If you intend to share and distribute your NAS files to multiple users across your home and business network as well as sending over the internet, then you will need a superior NAS to handle more users. Below you can see the maximum user numbers you can distribute too for each 2-bay 2018 QNAP, as well as shared folder numbers and max connections. Straight away you can see that the £200+ and above NAS servers provide much wider support in terms of quantities and users. So, if you are a small business or an expanding business, you should will need to buy a £200-50 pound NAS at at least to ensure you are well covered for user access to your network attached storage device.

 TS-253B

2 TS-253A

3 TS-251B

4 HS-251+

5TS-251+

6 TS-231P2

7 TS-228A

 TS-231P

How and where do I sign up for Plex? How much does Plex Cost?

The Plex Application for your NAS, Mac, PC, Android device is free and available in the NAS App store, iTunes and Google Playstore at no additional cost. Though the free apps, serving as an excellent introduction, will soon feel limited and we advise that if you upgrade to the Plex Pass subscription service for vastly improved options and add-ons. To begin setting up your Plex Media Server, you will need to head over to Plex and set up your account (use the below link) so you can have all your movie, TV show, music, and photo collections at your fingertips. Anywhere you go, on the devices you love.

If however you wish to skip straight to the good stuff and set up your Plex Pass Membership immediately so you can get your Plex Media Server at 100%, use the link below to take walk you through setting up your Plex Pass today!