Ask HN: Recommendations for a Home NAS

Hi all,

I have seen people asking similar questions here, but questions and answers are either old or target more towards a DIY NAS then buying something off the shelve.

We are a two person household — one of us is a hobby photographer and is looking for a save spot to store the photo archive. The other one is a developer with a faible for Linux. However, since it should carry our backups, I do not want to use a custom built NAS, but rather use a ready to use system (that provides me with some guarantee). So here is what we'd ideally need:

* 2-4+ TB Space in a RAID1 (Two-Bay is enough) * 4 or more GB Ram and a decent processor to handle 4k Video Streaming * If possible, the ability to run custom server services (e.g nextcloud, mailserver) * 1Gb-Ethernet * Timemachine compatible if possible

Do you have brand or device recommendations? My two favorites so far are the Synology DS216 play and the QNAP TS-251.

Thanks!