Best NAS Solution for Homelab

[Enquiries]

Hi
Listing down some of the use cases.

1. I would be storing some family videos and Photos (650 GB approx) with the possibility of some more in the future.
2. Movies and TV shows. Would like to stream both Movies/Shows and Family videos via Plex/Jellyfin.
3. Time Machine backup for 2 MacBooks, 2 Windows Laptops(Only important files), a few Mobile Phones.
4. Would like to create and mount a few volumes to a Mini PC/Server for setting up a few databases, storing logs from different services running in containers/VMs.
5. A simple shared volume maybe to share files on the network.
6. Other typical homelab use cases.

What would be the best NAS and Drives combo for these use cases?
I have budget constraints and I am confused between choosing raw performance vs extra capacity as in should I go for a more powerful 2 Bay NAS vs a less Powerful 4 Bay NAS.
The pricing here in India is on the higher side for everything ( Synology DS220+ costs ~$511 here compared to ~$299 in the US)

[ed]

For your use case, a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS based on celeron processors such as the Synology DS220+ or the DS720+ would be a good choice. These models offer enough storage capacity for your family videos and photos, as well as space for future expansion.

In terms of drives, I recommend using hard drives specifically designed for NAS use, such as Western Digital Red or Seagate IronWolf. These drives are optimized for use in a NAS environment and are more reliable than standard desktop drives.

In terms of performance, Celeron-based NAS may not offer the best performance, but they will provide you with enough power to stream your movies and TV shows via Plex or Jellyfin and to backup your laptops and mobile phones using Time Machine.

Consider the size of the drives you would like to use. If you are going to store large amounts of data, you should consider getting large capacity hard drives such as 10TB or 12TB.

You can also look into RAID configurations. RAID 1 can provide data protection by mirroring data across two drives, which can help to protect your data in case of a hard drive failure.