whats the best NAS for mac?

I use a 2TB Time Capsule. I think it works great. I put over 175 movies and 2000 television episodes on the Time Capsule. There is only a few second buffering in the beginning and there is no lag when I stream videos at home. I have two Macs and a iPhone using 802.11g and 802.11n and both streams very well.

Option click on iTunes to open the programme. Select new library and navigate to your NAS drive. iTunes will open with nothing in it. Start dragging files to iTunes like a regular import. I must warn you, this is very time consuming. You can also use the Finder to transfer files to the NAS drive and then drag the file already in the NAS drive to iTunes just to tell it where it is. When you do this, make sure that iTunes knows tour iTunes Libaray is located in the NAS drive and not the internal drive.

Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Media folder location

1st, i would not recommend using a time capsule as the location for your precious iTunes media files because

• you can not use time machine to back up whatever is stored on the TC's internal drive
• if there is a problem with the TC, it will be very difficult to retrieve the files from the TC's drive

2nd, you don't have to start with a new, empty library. copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on your Mac to the new location, then launch iTunes while holding the option (⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder you copied to the new location.

if you opt for a NAS, i would recommend this particular model (what i'm using) since Synology products are very Mac friendly. setting it up in a RAID 5 configuration provides additional protection in case a drive fails and the on board backup software lets you back up the RAID to an USB drive.

Has anyone tried Drobo FS? http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo-fs.php

Their video clips are all using Macs. TimeCapsule main concern is the lack of a second disc. Can't mirror the data so if the disc goes so goes your data...

I like the Drobos too!

Other popular choices are Synology or QNAP, these 2 are particular good for entry level

http://www.nasreview.org/compare/Qnap-TS-219P-vs-Synology-DS211

I have a 6 months experience with a variety of NASes and I'd recommend qnap for power users and newbies.

We need the fastest machine ,the most reliable ,and the easiest to setup and maintain. Price is a concern. Do Not waste your time ,and money, in building your DIY nas. It won't satisfy your needs.

I have beein using a Synology DiskStation DS1010 for over one year. The NAS is pretty Mac Friendly and fast. I use features on it like AFP and TimeMachine and use their full line of iphone/iPad apps to access my photos and music collection !

I also use Synology Surveillance Station, which I believe, is only one Surviallnce system that can be used in Mac Safari. Their surveillance mobile app DS cam is also a plus, athough some functions can still be improved.

I agree with you. TimeCapsule is OK for backups as long as you arcive the backups but with only one drive you're kinda out of luck if and when it dies. Synology just released a new two drive model on Nov 1 "DS 212 and DS 212 + I've ordered one and also ordered two 3 TB drives to stick into it. They also have other units with 4 + drives for RAID 5 and so on. But for home users two drives mirrored is fine, I'll keep a 3rd drive handy just in case

one of the drive has an issue. What I really like about Synology is the software and how user friendly it is, also the fact that it's actually a version of Linux (embedded) and Synology is very Mac friendly! I've also used FreeNAS for a few years on some old pc boxes but finally had enough with poor software support and things that just didn't work, but what would expect for free! LOL

I have had since a month or 2 a Netgear ReadyNas ultra 6 (RNDU 6000) with 3 x 2 TB hard disk.

I do not advise these NAS. A Synology NAS is more MAC friendly.

I must say that Netgear was the first with a update for the FireFly iTunes server (problems with Lion system en iTunes).

Just a quick update on my seach and selection. First as mentioned I was attracted by Drobo FS NAS solution. After I visited the shop I was a bit let down by the design of the housing and felt it was bulky. I checked other similar products and yes Synology DS1511+ looked very slick but again too big. I have little space in my office and all the 5 HDD NAS became to me a no go solution.

I started to look at 2HDD solution but then came across the DS411slim... 4x 2.5" HDD (laptop HDD) which means I can have up to 2 disks failure in RAID mode (I stick to 1 Disk failure config since it is personal use) and quiet like a church on a Monday hence using 16W only! The downside is the price... I nonetheless went for it, added 4x 1GB HDD (WD Scorpio Blue) and the setup and software DMS 3.2 was just a breeze. Even upgraded to Lion and soon after the upgrade was available. The only downside which I have read in other blogs is when the DS411slim goes to sleep mode, it appears the fan is idle rising temperature on Disk#4. When you login again, the system shutsdown for overheating. Synology's support has been very responsive and offered even to swap my DS411slim. However since the last update on DSM3.2, I have not encountered the overheating again. Will give it a few weeks to see if they solved the fan idle issue.

Thanks for sharing about the new DS212J, many Mac friends asked me to help them with similar setup but were setback by the cost. This 2HDD model might just make the cut.

I myself also use Synology DS411+ (my first purchase was DS107). I gotta admit; picking Synology is the most pleasing decision. Espeically the Lion OS that came out -- Synology rolled out a new firmware just a several days before Lion launched.. To support Time Machine's new network protocol.

I've read some forums saying that some brands are still struggling to get Time Machine and shared folders to work properly in Mac. Ouch!

I agree with the posts above about doing mirrored RAID solution. When one HDD dies, you can replace it and it will begin copying over to new HDD automatically. Orange LED will turn green once it is done. Two bays are good. I choose 4 bays just to increase from 1 HDD fail-safe to 2 HDD fail-safe.