Help choosing/confirguring NAS

I convert everything to .flac and throw them on SSD’s and use a hot swap HDD enclosure into a USB port of my source. I could network those files via windows but why?
SSD’s are the way to go for storage, they will last forever since you’re not writing/deleting to them as an OS does. The thing to pay attention to is what the source is capable of seeing.
Yes, I run SSD’s in RAID on my PC knowing eventually they’ll burn out but I game and look for every edge...*laffs

So you are hard wired to the drive?  How about if I want the drive in the basement, wired to my home network?  Can I stream with my iPad or other streamer with no concern whether the NAS is “mapped”?

What router are you using ? I connect an external hard drive to my Netgear router which runs a DLNA  server it's  on the network  no need to even have a computer running. 

Netgear WNDR 4500.

Good.  It seems less complicated than I imagined.

Thanks.

Storage is now more affordable for personal use.
Storage / Memory.
HDD more than SSD.
SSD drives greater than 1TB are still relatively costly.

If you are seriously considering NAS.
Think more along the lines of storage.
As stated a Network UPnP can be as simple as an app / device.
File size determines requirements for gear performance and capacity.
NAS / Servers typically have multiple bay configuration for backup redundancy.
Two to Four TB capacity HDD is a good starting range for capacity.

Windows can be a bit fussy.

I use Asustor and WD Red.
I can recommend these.
Asustor offers a large range of NAS / Server models.
And a well developed user interface. ADM.