I use a Synology DS920+ And have been very happy with it. I have time machine running for several MacBooks. I also use it as a Jellyfin server.

The Synology setup is easy and it is smooth to add new drives. Just remember to add the smallest drives first. If you have two 4 tb drives setup, don’t buy a 2tb drive to add more space, but going up to an 8 is no problem.

I use unraid and used it for Time Machine back ups.

I also use it for smb shares. For captureone libraries and apps, like renpy games

Start with 2 8tb wd red they’re 122$ on Amazon right now. One parity and one data. You’ll have 8 tb to use.

Then pick up and eBay pc 8th gen or more from dell or Lenovo or hp for about 200. 8th get i5 allows a good plex setup for media sharing

The easy thing is to get a NAS like Synology or Terramaster. You can definitely build one from tutorials online, but I’m at a stage in life where I don’t have the time.

I have set one up for Time Machine in the past, but have switched to CCC direct to the NAS.

I had a home built NAS running first FreeNAS and then Ubuntu, but eventually switched to a Synology which I am very happy with. Saturates my 10gb network and is super easy to manage and set up stuff like network time machine volumes.

Some good options here. I’m a fan of TrueNAS from iX Systems. Very easy to build your own but I’ll admit my last box I just bought their mini and put in my own disks.

I’d avoid QNAP although they’ll do the job.

If you want something more turn-key, go for a Synology box. Go for something with at least 2 drives like a DS220j for less than $200 or the slightly better DS223 for about $250. Just pop whatever drives you want in there, I’d suggest server-grade, NAS drives or SSD for better reliability. Setting this up to work with Time Machine is very easy and there are tons of walkthroughs online for setting that up.

For a more DIY approach, you can build a TrueNAS box (formerly FreeNAS). Tons of tutorials you can follow online that will tell you everything you need to go this route.

One thing to note, a NAS will only be available on your home network without additional configuration. TailScale is my recommendation if this is something you want to do.

My router has a USB port and supports time machine backups over Wi-Fi. I just connected an external hard drive and it works very well. It ended up being the easiest solution for me without needing to invest in a whole NAS.