Mac owners upgrading to macOS 27 will need to replace their AirPort Time Capsule for Time Machine backups. We picked five diskless NAS enclosures that cost less than $300 to fit the bill.

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on September 14 without support for Apple Filing Protocol, or AFP. AirPort Time Capsule and AirPort Disk depend on AFP for Time Machine backups. The company's updated support document says Time Machine continues to work with third-party network-attached storage devices that support Server Message Block, or SMB. The five options below support network backups from a Mac, although availability and sale prices can change.

These prices cover the enclosures rather than complete storage systems. Buyers must add at least one compatible drive and connect the NAS to an existing router through Ethernet. The macOS change doesn't disable the AirPort's router or Wi-Fi hardware. It specifically prevents Macs running macOS 27 from using an AirPort Time Capsule or AirPort Disk as a Time Machine destination. Anyone with files stored only in an existing Time Capsule backup should restore them before upgrading.

All of these network attached storage devices come in under that cost. TerraMaster F2-425 offers the most processing headroom. It provides two SATA drive bays, an Intel N5095 quad-core processor, 4GB of DDR4 memory, and 2.5GbE networking.