Desk RAID Devices

[gutz00]

Hi everyone,

I am off to college now. I have a MacBook Pro as my daily driver and a desktop for more intensive/windows based work (video editing, finale, gaming) - I was wondering if anyone has a network based RAID NAS they could recommend that could sit atop or under my desk. The plan is to have a mini switch (like 5 ports) for all my devices. I would like to be able to partition it so I could run time machine on it (also, how large of a partition should I have for time machine) and use it as a full blown backup and storage solution. (Yes, I do plan on running the non time machine partition in exfat - much like a lot of my drives I install). My laptop has a small 500GB SSD in it so it's great for on the go but not bulk long term storage.

Any recommendations would be great and appreciated.

[Electronics Wizardy]

ID give synology a go for a simple plug and play nas box. Also look at qnap. IP over thunderbolt support might be nice here. Both of these companies have models with enough network jacks you can use them as a switch.

 

Also these nases are file level boxes normally, so you don't set the file system, it will manage that all for you, and just send the files you want from things like time machine.