EVERYTHING you need to know BEFORE buying Rack Mount Synology

[@alank1995]

So glad the company is working with you. Your channel is the first place I go for anything Synology related.

[@SpaceRexWill]

Thanks man!

[@ExodusC]

As someone with a home server rack, I hate having to buy the regular DS models and sit them on a rack shelf. I'd love the space efficiency of an RS unit. If it were quieter, I could live with everything else. It's certainly possible to design quiet rack mount systems. My UniFi gear is super quiet. But you're right, most companies assume this is going in a DC surrounded by full-tilt 20mm fans spinning at thousands of RPM. This RS sounds quiet compared to most of the stuff in the DCs I've been in.

[@SpaceRexWill]

Completely agree. The standard RS1221+ is really the highest end RS unit that Synology sells that is office ready. Anything past that and they assume its going in a colo

[@jeffreytotaro7051]

Excellent video Will! I have the RS1221+ and I love it. I added the expansion unit (as you know) some months ago and it's all working really well. It's nice to have all this info in a concise format. When I was looking for a rack mount, I did have to figure a lot out and I'm glad I ended up with the unit you recommend!

[@PeterHonig.]

The fan spin-up reminded me of an airshow I attended where I was about 30 ft away from the Thunderbirds as started up their F-16s.

[@NetITGeeks]

This is why I can't push myself to buy Synology products....the fact that they force down their own branded hard drives! Not that I support QNAP, but at least they test more high capacity drives like 24TB WD Red Pros on most of their NAS units and actively support it. I know QNAP had few cyber attacks, but since I am using for home use, I don't care. I can't support a company that force down their own parts like Apple or in this case Synology. The right to repair and and freedom to choose is important to some of us. Thank you so much for a great in-depth video.

[@belaircomputerguyllc4001]

Will - since I have been watching you, I've gained a tremendous amount of respect for your no nonsense videos, seemingly absent of income bias. You're so amazing for being the .1% of youtube channels who values their subs over money. That being said, what is your honest opinion of trueNAS setups? It is widely agreed that Synology charges a hyper premium for mediocre hardware. Let me say that Synology "just works" so good on them for that, but I'd love to know your opinions on trueNAS.

[@ystebadvonschlegel3295]

PLEASE Please post the fan mod video - i’ve read some on it but afraid to do. You are my go-to synology guy and I own the last model version of this 12 bay rack mount nas and with all the drive bays full it it constantly shifting fans up and down and it’s too loud.

[@peter.klesken]

Amazing advice. You just saved me a lot of money! Thank you!!!

[@mbe102]

Are you... watching my house? Mine just arrived yesterday, lmao. What the heck lol. JK, but, the timing is wild on this video haha.

[@MarkWebbPhotography]

Rack mount solutions also have a ton more mass and metal cages to absorb vibrations. I have both and when I touch the thin gauge metal on the DS unit I can actually feel the vibrations. With my RS units that have a heavier gauge metal I can't actually feel any vibrations. Excess vibrations can lead to premature failure but then again I have drives that have survived 8 years in both conditions so it might not matter as much in a small deployment.

[@aklem001]

Great video. Thanks for confirming the noise of the units,

[@Shahzad8021]

Very good analysis. I was always wondered why people buy these units.

[@ken830]

I ended up with the RS2423+ to replace my aging DS1815+ last year... But that's because Synology left me with no choice.. It was either the this or the DS1823xs+ and the XS series don't officially support SHR(2), which is really annoying. Just have to use the script to get rid of the non-Synology drive-compatibility warning.

[@willn69]

You didn't mention another "con" of the rackmount systems...... I have not been able to find one made by Synology that has hardware transcoding. I have a RS1219+, the predecessor of the RS1221+, and really like it. I use Plex a lot and continue to have issues due to transcoding. It would be nice if the rackmount systems had that. I did see your video about adding hardware transcoding to a NAS. I will be following that video in the near future to see if that helps. Thanx as always for the great videos.

[@CBoneDeluxe]

I debated between the DS1821+ and the RS1221+. I went with the DS1821+ because it has 2x NVME slots, and is quieter and cheaper. Only downside is it takes 4u in my rack using a shelf instead of 2u if I had went with the RS1221+.

[@overflightstock5485]

Great video as usual. You've helped me a lot over the years. I have a RS3618xs with RX1217 expansion. I'll be needing another expansion unit soon. I love the units and hate the noise. My use case requires for a lot storage that only needs occasional access. I've repopulated the units with low noise fans which help a lot. 99% of the time the NAS is idle. I am intrigued with your comment about redoing the cooling curve, I think you said? Is there a way to hire you for consultation ?

[@IntoxicatedVortex]

When it comes to mounting Synology on rails you need to be *reeeeeeeaaaaaally* careful with the rail length. Synology rails are *loooooong* as and will not fit into a rack that, say a half depth RS1221+, would fit into with plenty of room to spare. Check your minimum Synology rail length if you feel you need/want rails. I am a big fan of the rackmount NAS though, as it provides a greater density of storage that desktop doesn't. In the example of an RS1221+ vs a DS1821+, if you've already got rack mount devices in a rack, the DS1821+ will take more space due to its greater height. So unless you're able to effectively utilise its left/right width saving all you manage to do is to lose 1U of rack height with that choice. The trick is understanding how it is you're going to want to allocate your overall space taking into account your other devices. But yeah, Synology RS series are noisy, even the RS1221+. Unless you have a hearing problems you don't want to be in the same room as an RS1221+. I have one… needed to swap the fans out for Noctua.

[@SpaceRexWill]

good point! Luckily the RS1221+ can just be front post mounted and does not require the rails

[@Dextermorga]

Thank you. I have on my buy list RS822+ and noctua fans. Only wondering when there will be new model since I can wait for a year.

[@brianfritz575]

The Synology "Drive Tax" is mostly a slimy cash grab by Synology. I was unhappy enough with their approach, that I purchased from another vendor. There is no reason they cannot work well with industry standard drives!

[@dozerd42]

You said that you built a "Supermicro 2U", but that b-roll looked like 3 or 4U. Do you have a video of your build? How loud is it? I'm interested in building one myself...

[@JingerVideo]

Thank you for the tutorial! I always wanna know more about racks.

[@Saintel]

Great video. Where can I find that fan config file you were talking about?

[@RogierYou]

I am in the middle of updating my DS1517+ after it has been in storage for more than 2 years and moved from the USA to EU.

[@wpattison]

The whole verified/unverified drive thing can change with a software update too - I suspect we'll see a DSM rollout in the future where Synology will start tightening the screws to make their line go up on Synology drives.

[@SpaceRexWill]

They actually took a step back in DSM 7.2 from where they were earlier Though still possible

[@arigornstrider]

​​@@SpaceRexWillfor the drive compatibility, you have to check the specific model in the compatible parts section of the website. Most of their higher end business and enterprise units that list this support warning have Seagate, WD, and other drives on the compatible list. As long as the third party drive is on the list, no warning is shown. I am deploying UC3400 units for cluster storage, and it's the same thing. They actually don't offer any Synology SAS SSDs for these SAN units, so I purchased Seagate 3.8TB enterprise SAS SSDs from the compatibility list and they work fine. If you buy consumer HDDs and throw them in the higher end Synology units, they will probably throw warnings because consumer drives are usually installed one or two in a decktop case with rubber grommets to isolate vibrations. 12 drives in a 2u case will rattle each other to death, where the ironwolf pros and other mid to high end drives are manufactured to specs to reduce vibrations and tolerate more external vibrations. The compatibility list is there to help people find reliable drives for the unit when the person searching isn't aware of factors like vibrations.

[@sitte24]

There are scripts that will add any non-Synology drives, RAM, etc to the compatibility list so that those units won't be upset about the non-official hardware. Just configure it to run at boot and your solution will look more professional. Of course you need to tell your customers anyways

[@ryguyver]

Strange, I'm looking at the same exact page now for the RS2423+​/​RS2423RP+ (website region set to US) and the storage notes differ from what you are showing. They simply list: "Synology only guarantees full functionality, reliability, and performance for Synology drives listed on the compatibility list. The use of non-validated components may limit certain functionality and result in data loss and system instability. "Compatible drive type" indicates drives that have been tested to be compatible with Synology products. This term does not indicate the maximum connection speed of each drive bay.". Wonder if they saw your video and changed the language to be even more vague?

[@ITSupport-q1y]

Thanks, great info as always.

[@ystebadvonschlegel3295]

They are LOUD. Source: own them.

[@JayantBB78]

Please compare TrueNAS Mini. Desktop and Rack mounted. You might change your opinion.

[@AdamMcReynolds]

do you have a recommendation for 1u rackmount synology nas for typical home user running plex and file/media backup?

[@ahmedalkabouni4401]

Hey cool video. I probably had not bought the SA3610 if we had the video for 1 year😂 Because of the noice. But we will have an extra room for it. For me the choice was the cpu a bit. Would you see that as an con for a SA3610 in stead of a desktop? We are using security camera and office with multiple Virtual machines.

[@SpaceRexWill]

The VMs really are the only time most people will ever hit a limitation the CPUs of the DS units, so that probably would be worth it

[@ahmedalkabouni4401]

@@SpaceRexWill yes i think so to🤙🏼

[@lextacy2008]

You missed one big reason people may want to pay more for a rack mount. Rackmounted equipment can be locked up, but the desktop units are free range to the elements like spills, trips, theft, ect.

[@SpaceRexWill]

You can always get a shelf!

[@GerhardAEUhlhorn]

Good to know. Thanks!

[@KCkohler]

I’m thinking about getting the rs422+ what do you think of that one?

[@SpaceRexWill]

So it comes down to if you every think you will need more space than what the 4 bay can provide

[@BrianDavids]

I would look at the ds1522+. You can add 10GbE plus better specs. Also gives you 5 bays.

[@KCkohler]

@@BrianDavidsI really wanted to have small short depth rack mount to slot just under my UDM pro. I currently have about 97Gs of photos and videos I have to 200gs iCloud plan from Apple I expect it won’t get full for years

[@DataHoarders]

7:41 how many pools 3? I wish Synology didn’t cap at 108tb per pool.

[@SpaceRexWill]

That unit is not capped to 108TB per pool

[@DataHoarders]

@@SpaceRexWillooh…..Interest piqued!!!

[@BrianDavids]

I’m running an rs1221+ with 8 20tb seagate drives. Storage pool is at 127.3TB.

[@theglowcloud2215]

How does a Synology-branded drive "integrate" with DSM? See, shit like this drives people away, but Synology will just label them "enthusiasts" and write off alienating part of their customer base.

[@kristopherleslie8343]

Honestly a rack mount server is cheap. But synology is penny pinching.

[@TheTrulyInsane]

Really wizh synology would do better on the hardware.

[@darrellpatenaude3825]

Right then and there. I would never buy a synology nas. requiring me to run their drives. no thanks. bugging me that i am not using there drives. no thanks. I'll stay away from this company

[@gregkeeyako]

Require their drives? I have Seagates in mine.