Synology NAS - Before You Buy

[@bunsenburner2693]

A pricing index & value proposition would be a good addition to this series. I believe this would be helpful for your viewers to understand where each sit in the scale. As always, great vids!

[@JoshMatcuk]

It would be cool to see a review of the software, especially since you mentioned Synology's focus on software.

[@mikefields1873]

I appreciate this video. I snagged a 920+ yesterday morning. I thought about building my own since I just built my PC for the first time. You mentioned (in a previous video), that building your own NAS requires a ton of setup and experience. My thought was since I'm new to a NAS type system. Buy a Synology, get familiar with the platform, then build my own once this becomes obsolete.

[@HenriZwols]

That's a lot of information that would have scared me of buying a Nas. I bought a Synology because frankly it's the only brand I had heard of. What worked for me is: if you know nothing about Nas, buy this one because it's easy to use. My old Nas I only used as networked storage for manual backups. I've been using a Synology for a few months now and have automatic backup on several devices and DS-audio/video/photo which I can access from anywhere, not just my home. Setup was dead simple.

[@thierryroethlisberger7633]

Having Synology Systems since many years, I must say that I‘m very happy. Good quality, many functions and reliability.

[@RozgarAhmed]

How do you find the new DSM 7?

[@cloudmover]

I'm a digital artist with a large family a Plex library, 10 external drives and a mountain of old CD archives. I needed a NAS. After watching half(?) of your videos I came to the conclusion that I should purchase a Synology NAS. Synology seems to have the sweet spot of power, relative ease of use, software support and cost. I picked mine up a few weeks ago when they were on sale and am VERY happy. Thank you for all you do.

[@doug350zTT]

What did you go with?

[@cloudmover]

@@doug350zTT I purchased the DS920+ with two 6TB and two 8TB Seagate IronWolf drives. I heard that WD had some "issues" with their drives and NAS boxes in particular so, I went with Seagate. No issues with the NAS so far. Plex runs fine. My wife and I back up our daily work and the kids back up their homework. I also set it up so that my family members around the country can upload and view our collected family photos. That in itself, has been worth the price of the Synology.

[@doug350zTT]

@@cloudmover thank you .. very much appreciated

[@ELEVOPR]

Isn't it true that Synology's warranty works like this. You buy a machine from them, it usually comes with a 3 year warranty, it fails in 6 months, they send you a Refurbished replacement, Now that Refurbished replacement fails 6 month later, You call them up and they tell your refurbished replacement has failed,. Synology tells you, you are out of luck because you 3 year warranty has already been replaced by a refurbished unit that comes with no Warranty? WTF where is my 3 year warranty, Synology? So now you wish you repair your machine, they tell you they have no repair service available and tell you, that you have to buy a new Machine? Is the above correct? If you don't answer, I won't be surprised because you rarely answer. If you don't answer I will take it as a yes that is their warranty works, but you refuse to tell the truth about them? Not saying you are refusing to talk about their bad warranty "If there is one", but that is what I will assume and others will assume also when you don't answer a question like this. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks.

[@burkec33]

Yes, hardware may be expensive, but it the trade-off that I accept for reliability and software applications and updates. Been running a DS214 for over 5 years and just purchased a DS920+. No regrets for my needs.

[@SteelPanthers]

I spent the last few months researching the various NAS solutions. Watched this video as well as numerous others. Despite my needs for local network storage and device backup (phones, laptops, XBOX HD, etc) it was not an easy decision. I am not a PLEX user right now but may be in 2021. I am not a user who pulls data from NAS on a regular basis. And I suspect most folks will reply that a simple one drive solution would have worked nicely instead of going all in on a DS920+ or choosing a more budget friendly NAS solution. Overkill is what I expect a number of you may say. But there is a case to be made that even simple home storage will benefit from a reasonably priced robust NAS that has room to grow. I went back and forth on Buffalo, QNAP, Synology, Asustor, and TerraMaster before landing on the DS920. I have to say that what mattered most was a robust and well tested software platform as well as additional software solutions. The DS920+ is not cutting edge when it comes to hardware and for some users who need rapid data access, especially in a business setting where data is getting pulled regularly, then a 2.5G port or 10G port might make sense. I chose the 920 over the 420 for its expandability down the road. I don't see a tremendous need for super fast data transfers and went with a reliable and well tested software solution verse a cutting edge hardware choice (some will say Synology is still behind the "current" curve let alone cutting edge). The 920+ was exceptionally simple to setup as a NAS off my router. It runs very quiet when handling the routine backup tasks. Besides handling local backup tasks it has been very efficient in handling my cloud backups in off hours (while we all sleep). Have to say I am very happy with the Synology solution, the software behind the hardware, and numerous third party software choices.

[@phillvallace]

I've been wanting a NAS for over 10 years but the price of them have always put them beyond what i can really afford so have been just external hard drives which can be rather annoying at times so might make the plunge and use my life savings on one in a year or two, maybe something like the DS2419 when they make a new release of it with AMD CPU & ECC memory. In my country only Synology is available or DIY a build & use freeNas or unraid. Synology is tempting for ease to get up & running & more power efficient. But what worries me is if the Unit's cpu or motherboard dies you can't just put another one in like a PC, so could cost more long term needing to buy a whole new machine as time goes on, also my bigger question is, if the unit has a failure how does one get the data of the HDDs???

[@ERUtheWINDRIDER]

I never understood that comparative between Synology and Apple. I have been using apple devices for about 8 years (forced) in the past and hated them every single day because of the limiting software, but I love Synology. I just buyed a 920+ to replace the 214 play that I had for 7 years now. I would love to see a movie/tutorial about changing the old nas unit with a new one keeping the disks, I have some ideas but maybe you have a better one. (my old 214 play does not have btrfs and I cannot just switch the disks)

[@sholtomac]

Scraping the barrel a bit with some of these points. Feels like padding to keep the video longer.

[@ZechMadox]

u have a problem with that?

[@PendelSteven]

8:41 Personally I think that is the strength of a NAS. The N is for Network. Note that I use the word 'data', which can be any file: audio, video, photo's... - Good for when multiple people work on the same data - Good for if you want to acces - and work with your data from any location in the world Not for 'backing up'. There are plenty of 16+ Tb external drives to back your files up locally. Some with Mirror Raid if you want redundancy.

[@PendelSteven]

Oh. And if you have multiple computers, it's also easy to acces the data on a NAS. I forgot. So it can act as a mediaserver.

[@ilyakopyl]

Just pulled the trigger on DS920+, got it on a Black Friday sale on amazon. Apparently, it is back-ordered due to large number of orders, and I'll be receiving mine sometime in January.

[@carminevelvet]

There trending $602 usd now! Sorry dude, Mine should be delivered within a week. At least you got one! 🔥

[@goldbug007]

Got mine off Amazon a couple days before black friday. C$650 delivered. Got it 5 days later.....

[@carminevelvet]

@@goldbug007 😬

[@dantonsmaxim]

Synology owners or future buyers should note that the day after the warranty expires you are on your own. They refuse to supply any parts or service for any older unit. Their policy is a one way one; Manufacture, user, landfill.

[@nascompares]

Sorry to hear that Danton. Are you able to share more on your experience here? Always good to hear more on how brands and consumers interact, positive or negative

[@dantonsmaxim]

@@nascompares A part of the correspondence "2020-11-19 If you've tried different power cords and outlets, and the unit still does not power on, that would indicate a hardware failure on the unit. Unfortunately the serial number provided indicates the DS1813+is no longer under warranty, so we would not be able to replace it. Also, Synology USA lacks a full blown repair facility, so we cannot offer repair services for your unit at this time, either. Now if you decide to replace the NAS with a newer model, then I would recommend using our NAS selector tool to assist you with that process: 2020-11-26 We can't provide any schematics. 2020-12-22 15:47:12 We do not sell or offer replacement motherboards. Our original recommendations sent on 11/19 would apply then, as we do not have a repair facility either. " The problem was solved> I replaced the Synology with a new 8 bay NAS which was considerably less in price and much more powerful ( a Mitx mobo with an i5 cpu) running TrueNAS; all parts are off the shelf. iXsystems also sells TrueNAS and they will supply parts even after the warranty has expired. I will not say anything bad about Synology products, it is their business model that sucks. They build upon a one way model.. Consumer -> Landfill. Just imagine 1 day after your auto's warranty expires the factory/dealership refuse to service it.

[@ricknunez2814]

Hi iam looking for nas that will automatically download pictures from phones and other computers is a DS 418 still good

[@djsargex7777]

excellent, well-presented, concise & clear review. I've had a lot of problems with other brands, think Synology is my next buy.

[@danceto9720]

You probably can connect the hdmi cord to both the laptop to the tv, that way which you need a lot of ports to do so. That probably would of work.

[@ajv_2089]

Any updates on DSM 7?

[@bens5186]

I’m holding off buying until it’s out. Would love an update on DSM 7 also.

[@gilbertlynds3930]

I started with Netgear and had problems then went Asustor the 604T was good then went to 6404 and no end trouble. Built my own Unraid which was good but huge and had to downsize. went to Synology DS418Play and havent looked back so now staying with them. Other peoples experience may be different but for me Synology hits the spot

[@Gaijin101]

On a 920+, I tried a kingston 8gb 3200mhz ddr4 sodimm. Didnt work. A kingston and adata 8gb 2666mhz sodimm worked. Just a PSA.

[@carlos_mann]

Just started looking into purchasing something like this for my massive music collection. I have several terabytes of music that I've been wanting to have all of it in 1 central location instead of multiple hard drives. Which one would you suggest 🤔 I have well over 15 tb spread throughout multiple external HDs. And just wanting to be able to have access to everything at once, so I can minimize some of the duplicates & clutter that I have, digitally.

[@MrCREWCRUSHIN95]

I love my Synology - but I am also aware that *when* it goes down or has issues - there is no support at all in the U.S. for fixing it. (So I have heard). That bums me out.

[@theedge508]

Terrible service period ill give up with mine

[@mystvearn83]

Thanks for the video. I am just getting into NAS.

[@stanleysoman5179]

I didn't hear anything necessarily anything bad in this video. These are general remarks, no real drawbacks I should be aware of. I bought a Synology DS920+ just days ago. I think it was worth it, they have hardware encoding/decoding, great apps, up to 20GB ram support, among other great things. I was expecting what would be the real competitor, it is not mentioned in this video, so much for saying guest house to hotel, I'm left wondering what Synology is, and why its the "copper" option, what is the gold standard, the hotel of NAS? I thought it was the "hotel" and not the guest house of NAS according to your analogy but I'm open to what you had intended... I'm happy I bought the Synology and look forward to seeing how it fares.

[@Top5best]

So I can just have my team upload the videos directly to my NAS? Where I can right away upload to YT, rather than Google Drive where I have to first download the videos, then upload..?

[@suitcafe]

Yes you can. Your team can use FTP and upload video and photos directly to the NAS from any location. You can designate the folders they should upload to and lock out anyone you would like from viewing what they are not supposed to when connecting to the NAS via remote log in or FTP.

[@svenhoff2653]

I am looking for a 4/5 bay NAS at the moment. Is there another NAS Company that has something like SHR? I really like the option to use my 3TB drives now and be able to upgrade (mix) with bigger drives in the future.

[@satamototo]

0. DSM is open source based and there is XPENOLOGY that runs DSM on much more properly priced server hardware from HP, Dell, etc. That way you get 150% over Synology accordingly to your 60/40 ratio.

[@thebritishindian1]

I tend to move country every few years. After one of these is set up, can you just plug it into a router in a new country and it’s going to go? Or do certain settings like IP addresses need to be changed?

[@ardentdfender4116]

Been watching a ton of your videos since I subbed about a week or so ago. Settled on getting a DS1520+. Saw some talk about the DSM 7.0 software. But I’d really like to see some in depth coverage of what’s actually in the software and the different things it can do for the user or home user. If the great software is a focal point of Synology NAS then it be great to know some the big things it can do.

[@le_med]

I tried WD (solid but can t transcode). I tried Drobo (can t trasncode but solid). I tried Qnap (constantly rebooting and rebuilding, doggy software). I tried Netgear (required tech support restore). Of all the different brands I tried in the last 4 Years Synology has been a winner hands down no competition whatsoever. Plex plays like a beast and not a single issue yet with my DS1520+ running 5 x 12TBs

[@ckenisell]

What's a good solution for playing back a 3D movie? Plex can't do 3D.

[@overlordddrp]

The lack of LUKS might be worth mentioning. ecryptfs is not very good

[@tiffenberg]

Hi. Currently have DS119J. Like the product and software, however, it often locks up for hours (even a couple of days), due to the low hardware specs. Support have said to only have essential apps, which is frustrating. I'm a home user, so have PC files - docs/photos/videos backed up, with minimal new files added on a regular basis. Main change is uploading of photos from mobile, when connected to WiFi. I would like to stream music and videos without it taking an age to load. Which of the Synology products would you recommend please? Thanks

[@nascompares]

Impressed you got as much running on the 256MB memory! It's a decent enough entry level device for 1 task at a time, but the memory just a near instantaneous bottleneck. in order to fully avoid this happening with any regularity to you, I would recommend MINIMUM a DS220+.Aside from the more powerful and capable CPU (so tasks will be done quickly AND will lesser % being utilised), it also provides 2GB of DDR4 memory (so 8x what you have now and an 800-1000Mhz faster type). Additionally, that memory can be upgraded to 6GB officially (and a pinch more unofficially I might add). I KNOW it's noticeably more expensive, but the time you will save and the other features and abilities it provides that you do not even have current access too will make it worth the investment. Read my review here (he said, arrogantly!) - www.google.com/amp/s/nascompares.com/2020/06/01/synology-ds220-nas-hardware-review/amp/

[@Gaijin101]

Awesome video. Thanks. Looking forward to the other brands. Thank god i didnt make a wrong choice for my use case(920+). It is so app/internet/network access focused and for the most parts works ok. Just some minor gotchas like having to set certificates before reverse proxies for ssl to work correctly. Sadly tho it lacks a proper CLI for automated administration on users and what not. Its very GUI centric.

[@mukkaar]

I would just go straight to TrueNAS if you need anything for business or prosumer. It's much more powerful and secure platform. They offer prebuilt systems or you can build you your own, and setting up is relatively easy if you just follow tutorials even for a noob. Nextcloud plugin especially is really nice.

[@thomasfree6774]

Question: is there an optimal ratio between protection storage and available storage?

[@nascompares]

To be honest, there is no golden rule I can point arm I think you should have at least 2 backups at all times and that they should vary in rotation method (ie time managed with versioning, diffs only, etc) but also ensure that multiple sites (physical) are used. When it comes to protection Vs available locally (RAID etc), I think a 2 disk redundancy for business/prosumer, 1 disk for personal...but always have the backups

[@rudolfabelin383]

Thanks! I'm still making up my mind.

[@oOVeritasOo]

Thank you man :) got me all the info i needed. - subscribed

[@nascompares]

No worries. Glad I could help dude.

[@davidhunt5682]

I sent my synology back because of the Internet Access part.

[@richmax13]

I have a question, I have a 918+ with all bays having wd8tb drives. I will be buying the expansion unit, and will be buying wd12tb drives for it. Question is would it be better to put the bigger drives in the main unit and the 8tb drives into the expansion unit???? Please help!

[@MrCREWCRUSHIN95]

For all intents and purposes - the expansion unit will be a new nas volume. *DO NOT* attempt to make one large pool/volume with main unit and the xpansion unit. Create a new Volume with the discs in the xpansion unit and all will be well.

[@jormol]

@@MrCREWCRUSHIN95 On the DS218+ it would need to be a separate pool, but the 918+ should have the functionality of making it 1 large pool, if I understood correct.

[@pinkipromise]

i watched a lot of your videos. ended up getting 4x 12TB wd elements and intel j4005 nuc. same processor as a 420+ but 3x cheaper. will run snapraid on usb 3 instead since its safer than brtfs and raid 5

[@adiands850]

hi, I can't find any intel j4005 nuc videos on this channel. Did you get your j4005 based on NASCompare's videos or other research? Also how is your experience now after 1 year?

[@philindeblanc]

you can do all the sw of Synology if the $1000 hardware doesn't FAIL. So many have had issues, its just not worth it.

[@Tigerskunk]

Been using a Synology Ds412 plus for work as a cloud backup. With a USB drive for backup. Upgraded to a 419slim to shrink space used. The Ds412 has been moved to off-site location to do a drive sync backup through a VPN connection. Each with its own USB backup drive. Only problems have been on the Ds412 locking up one time. Got going by removing the Wd red drives and install a temp laptop drive. System booted and I did a dsm up date. Put the wd red back and it updated the dsm on them and still works. 2nd problem has been after the latest dsm update, I can't get the two Synology to connect directly in VPN. They would before. But now I have to connect to my Qnap ts-431x2 from the off-site and then network to the Ds412 using the second network ports for a separate connection from the rest of the network the Qnap is on.

[@WhiteDieselShed]

Synology DS420j or NETGEAR ReadyNAS 214 ??? Netgear is £40 cheaper... Its to replace an aging DLINK NAS that was not very good from the start. Browsers say its unsafe when connecting to it and windows 10 update stopped access entirely the other day. Time to retire it.

[@WhiteDieselShed]

@Super Mario Yeah I did manually add a certificate but that lasted just a few days before it failed gain. Its the whole NAS vanishing from every windows 10 PC this week that is pushing me to replace it. The support from DLink was never great. Anyone know any forums for NAS questions? Thanks.

[@melvinsewak]

Thanks for the video

[@simondymond8479]

I moved from Drobo to synology. I am not an IT guy. But we had a rogue IT guy that turned out to be awful. He replaced our storage with Drobo. Then it went horribly wrong. He got fired before doing a lot of harm and I moved to synology. I am so glad I did. I did at one point have a problem with one of the synology NAS. They were so great. Drobo, not interested unless you pay more to fix their shit hardware. Bearing in mind, I sent one back to be repaired, they sent it back, with no changes at all. They are the utter lowlife of the NAS world. Synology were awesome. They dialed in, were talking to me, from the US, and helped me, big time. Drobo? Couldn't give a damn. Just wanted more money.

[@ugsita]

A nas taht gives you virtual machines, containers, and all of that stuff is not a NAS, it's a server.

[@goldenrool8018]

Recently decided to implement a NAS on my home network so have been researching vendors, key features and trends. No surprise, Synology emerges as offering some of the best solutions. Hardware is good and software seems the best. I doubt that I will buy one. WHAT??? It is Synology’s business mentality which I feel is not user friendly, on full display with the recent “J” Series / BTRFS debacle and the strategy of moving towards a closed proprietary platform. All because Synology wants to control it user base so that it can extract and extort, no matter how trivial the issue.

[@ShanyGolan]

So what's the bottom line of the video?

[@techster69]

Bottom line: do your research 😅

[@goMediaGenius]

Do you realize that when you talk fast we can’t understand you .....please captions !

[@daylemcneela6295]

You're 24 hours too late... should have posted this series before Black Friday... haha. Just ordered a Synology DS920+

[@aaronjohnson2547]

I bought one on prime day a few weeks back and loaded it with four 12 TB shucked WD elements drives. It has been working great except for the SSD caching just an FYI you have to use their approved nvme drives only which sucks you can't just throw in some random drives and you can't use the slots for pure SSD storage either it's really dumb. You can bypass this limitation but it's requires you to know linux commands. Overall I kind of wish I bought a qnap but at least it works well for docker and plex no issues so far.

[@carminevelvet]

@@aaronjohnson2547 thanks for mentioning the Hdd types. They have a compatibility list on their website. www.synology.com/en-global/compatibility?search_by=products&model=DS920%2B&category=hdds_no_ssd_trim&p=2

[@Gaijin101]

@@aaronjohnson2547 im using 2x Kingston A2000 as readwrite ssd cache with no issues in a 920+

[@daylemcneela6295]

@@aaronjohnson2547 thanks for that. Im using Seagate IronWolf NAS drives for storage but I wasn't sure if I could use normal NVMe or if I have to use a NAS NVMe so I didn't buy one. I believe I can add one at any time so I might buy one soon for SSD caching

[@aaronjohnson2547]

@@daylemcneela6295 use the list that Britney Evens posted. You can use standard nvme drives like the Samsung 970 evo but you have to make sure it's on their approved list I tried to use two intel nvme drives and it would not accept them I had to buy two new Samsung 970 Evo's.

[@carminevelvet]

Too late for me! 🤣 I snatched up a ds920+ for Black Thursday for an unbelievable price!

[@Gaijin101]

Aww man. I bought one 2-3 weeks ago. How much was the 920+ ?

[@mowomedia4801]

@@Gaijin101 $440 I got one too.

[@carminevelvet]

Yup! Around usd 478$ with tax

[@Gaijin101]

@@mowomedia4801 aww man so jelous haha. Mine was like 560usd. Haha. Have fun.

[@fwd79]

Very informative video. Just a request. If it's easier then please also upload in 4K, the videos get blurry on monitors. Thanks.

[@issamituk4365]

Thanks, nice video ,

[@waterbourne9282]

Yep, love my DS720+. My only concern is the China taking over Taiwan and then security of Synology devices.

[@nascompares]

Taiwan seems to be standing their ground quite well!

[@tamagochifromhell]

TLDR: Synology is the Apple of NAS market.

[@bobbymoss6160]

I finally order a Synology NAS after suffering through the WD mediocrity for the past 2 years.

[@nascompares]

That is going to be quite an upheaval for you in terms of software GUI and services - strap in buddy, it will be awesome!

[@lewislane1143]

Before you buy a Synology, stop and buy another brand. Asustor, Qnap or Terramaster.

[@RozgarAhmed]

Upgraded my DS718+ from DSM6 to DSM7 and Rack servers on the company, now we cant have a good Two-way sync option, MobileLaptop/pcSynology nas, support has been dropped for the DS Cloud Mobile app wich our IT engineer realized after upgrade. I can not downgrade DSM version back to DSM6, for private and company usage looked into the solutions available at DSM7---> Resilio Sync also Good Sync and my conclusion besides for paying for your synology hardware + network and changing your hdd 2-4 years you also have to pay a monthly/yearly cost per user for using Resilio, Good sync for syncing to or from Mobile devices. Ive contacted Synology support. Synology Support says: i recommend other brands for your Mobile syncing part of nas usage we have dropped DSCloud app support for DSM7, cant help with a downgrade. So now its Qnap Quts Hero we use for home and at company for everything... The synology hardware at home and at company is used as a playground/testing, will be given away at a company contest next year.

[@ronm6585]

Thanks.

[@davybloggs1564]

Can you, or someone, please explain why we are being totally ripped off by these NAS companies? These are small plastic, mostly empty, boxes with tiny boards inside, mostly using free OS's, so WHY are they so SO expensive?? These things shoud be, at least, 25% of what they actually are. A 2-bay NAS enclosure should be under £100. I can so absolutely no reason whatsoever for the expense of these tiny boxes with very little inside them! This is the biggest rip off in the whole PC indusrtry IMO. One can buy a whole, complete running PC for LESS than these tiny empty boxes! C'mon Synology/QNAP et al - give us the reasons for ripping us off so convincingly - just because you can, is not good enough. Why aren't more people on board with this? Has no-one else noticed this legalised stealing?

[@nascompares]

Hey dude. This video might help (a little!) - kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6HLi2dqbtOBh6M Cheers for watching

[@brianchandler8727]

I looking the new you show case

[@Live1509]

Meh high overpriced 1st party hardware is ridiculous, especially if it has nothing more than the standard ones.

[@Live1509]

@Super Mario Yes but you have to be a bit skilled, unraid is not so user friendly like DSM.

[@mikehirsh1896]

I got 123 TB of stuff over 15 WD my book like the other one ... How much does it cost to hold like 100 TB or 200 TB so I dont have a book shelf and wires all over the freaking place galore from each hard drive or is this the wrong this or do I stick with 20 My Book Hard external drives the mess it causes visually and yeah it;s been working with a couple of drives that died and had to bring in to luckily bring them back to life because I surely don't have the patience to back up that many drives and etc etc etc ... Some of the drives like one of them have 6 drives in them from the early days when they were from 1 to 3 TB so there stuffed by hard drive although I could of had like a 12 TB drive filled with 6 small drives and combine them all together but to go through that what drive me bonkers... Anyone following me ...

[@mikehirsh1896]

Show me how it works babbling for 10 minutes doesnt get me anywhere