KitGuru Annual Awards 2013

While the huge performance improvements provided by Solid State Drives has created a good market for memory manufacturers, there has been another interesting/positive knock-on effect for the technology market.

As people opt for 120/240GB drives inside their main system, a decision has to be made about where to store your real data.

KitGuru likes the idea of having a pair of internal hard drives – as well as the addition of a NAS on your network for a specific back up.

Both the internal drives and NAS systems give Western Digital and Seagate business – so no danger of them going out of business any time soon.

With a 4TB drive now weighing in at just under £150 and a 5TB version expected in 2014 – the cost to populate a good NAS with a pair of drives has never been so low.

When evaluating NAS, one company has stood out in recent years and 2013 is no exception. That company is Synology and our favourite product over the last 12 months has been the Synology DiskStation DS214.

Here's how our in-depth review concluded in the middle of October:-

“Synology are at the top of their game in terms of Network Attached Storage, and this DS214 device reinforces that. Easy to set up, great flexibility, plenty of processing power and memory – alongside a great operating system and plenty of apps as well as solid integration for mobile devices”.

At a touch over £200, this is a great option for home or small business use and while the unit itself does a good job of being all dark and moody, the packaging tells you that Synology takes green issues seriously and won't be doing any unnecessary spin ups.

You can read our review, over here.

KitGuru's choice for NAS Product of the Year 2013 goes to the Synology DiskStation DS214.

You can buy from Overclockers UK, from this link.

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