That's a LOT of hard drives! | Synology DS1821+ NAS review

[@JeffGeerling]

"Performance reasons", meaning the quarterly performance of the Synology sales reps selling their branded M.2 drives ;)

[@MrDDawson]

Hahahahaha for sure.

[@theglowcloud2215]

Synology and their 'pivot' to enterprise will go poorly, I suspect.

[@tylerwatt12]

Wow absolutely ridiculous they removed SMART info from the GUI. I maintain over a dozen of these at work, and I've used that screen to provide proof to the hard drive manufacturer to replace the drive under warranty.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

It’s apparently still able to be retrieved through the CLI, but that’s definitely not a convenient option.

[@hawks48]

Would love to know that command!@@ThisDoesNotCompute

[@alexg8406]

​@@hawks48I would probably just remove the drive safely from the pool and put the drive in a dock to pull the SMART data using CrystalDiskInfo at that point. I'd hardly trust what Synology reports.

[@nickwallette6201]

The consumerification of technology. Start by being powerful and easy to use, then take away all the useful controls and data because "oh, don't worry your pretty little head about that, we'll handle everything for you." Cost is one thing. But THIS is why I always just build my own. Supported drives are the ones that fit and work, and the controls available are any and all of the ones the OS and installed applications have.

[@POVwithRC]

​​@@nickwallette6201Here's your cookie. I think it's important to remember that in most instances consumerification happens because consumers are not into messing around. They actually do not want to worry their pretty little heads most of the time. So if you want to throw ire at someone, make it the consumer who is forcing the market to meet them where they are. It's like getting mad at Apple for selling most people what most people want. Number one handset maker for a reason. It just works.

[@mbirth]

Synology Support is a lot hit or miss, it seems. When my DS415+ failed with the C2000 problem just slightly out of their 3 year warranty, all the German support had to say was that they'd happily help me choose a new Synology model to buy. No mention of the 100 Ohm resistor fix or anything - even after explicitly asking. I had to find that out from a forum where people posted photos of their "repaired" units after they got them back from Synology. OTOH, since soldering in that resistor, the unit is working fine to this date. *knock on wood* My next unit will be a TerraMaster F4-423, however. It has an internal USB port with a flash drive which you can swap out to install e.g. OpenMediaVault. So it's the next best thing after building a completely custom NAS and in a much smaller case (compared to available Mini-ITX cases with HDD slots), too.

[@ukmk3supra]

I learned more about DSM in this video than I have in 9 months of working with them every day. Very nicely put together...and now i'm rethinking making my Dell R520 into a NAS :D

[@PotatoFi]

Thanks for the review, Colin! A NAS is on the horizon for me, and I knew absolutely zero about Synology's product offerings before this. Thanks for pointing out both the positives and the negatives of this unit, as well as going over the general operation of it. I think this is the route I'll go when I make the jump.

[@Eatthis143]

I’ve been running this unit unit now for about two years and it’s been flawless. Enjoy!

[@austist]

I was just searching for a nas to use in my tiny apartment against my roommates wishes. They just dont understand the potential

[@erichankins2634]

Sounds like you need a new roommate! who doesn't want a NAS in the house?

[@locke103]

And your roommate opposes this... why?

[@austist]

@@nuclearchef-san8304 mate is it not that deep. ive already cluttered the place with my "trinkets"

[@nuclearchef-san8304]

@@austist Well that’s a better explanation! Your first comment says they don’t understand the potential.. You should have said they just don’t want more shit cluttering up the place! My wife says the same thing about my “trinkets”😂! Buy a larger NAS such as this one, and put it on top of the refrigerator!😜Just too piss off your roommate!

[@ihartmacz]

It’s always a good day when you upload.

[@JamieBainbridge]

I've had a few 4-bay Synology at home for many years. They've been rock solid. I like how they're just Linux so if the box dies then you can recover your data easily. Unlike proprietary boxes with bespoke partition schemes and filesystem formats. We occasionally have NAS mailing list threads at work, I've never seen anyone dissatisfied with a Synology purchase.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

That's very strange. There's a lot to be disappointed with. Weak hw, poor mobile SW, Synology drive client hiccuping every once in a while, vendor lock advances...

[@JamieBainbridge]

Buy a box powerful enough for your needs. The web interface is good, it's just regular Linux underneath. There is no vendor lock in. Linux is the opposite of vendor lock in.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

@@JamieBainbridge Synology is actively pursuing vendor lock. They're starting to show non-qvl drives as not-green in the diagnostics, showing popups for non-Synology ram, disallowing use of non-Synology m2 SSD for storage. Or are you speaking of building a diy nas?

[@JamieBainbridge]

Okay fair enough, I don't have hardware that new I guess.

[@joecincotta5805]

I got a 1621+ and found its performance is amazing - link aggregation and SSD caching makes it amazing. It's also pretty crazy how powerful the Nas is - you can run docker images on top of the Nas or full blown virtual machines.

[@kernzilla]

when you say amazing performance, what type of real-world r/w speeds does this equate to? I've been spoiled by my DAS units over the years, but approaching the need for NAS with a multi-editor job coming up in October and doing a lot of research lately. seems like it takes a LOT of work to get 900mb+ on these units and bit apprehensive about making the switch. TIA for the input

[@norgtube]

You can't really mention Plex without bringing up the fact that modern Synology NASes really can't transcode much at all.

[@engineeringVirtue]

Truth.

[@zincmann]

I have a Synology NAS with dual disk capability and it works great. This particular NAS is not for many as the cost is VERY high.

[@nickanat]

I mean, $999 is pretty reasonable for 8 bays, a PCIe slot, and honestly some of the nicest included software I’ve ever used in a NAS.

[@RobertoCarlos-tn1iq]

price is NOT high.

[@zincmann]

@@RobertoCarlos-tn1iq for the average consumer it is.

[@Photoshopuzr]

this definitely answered all my questions pertaining to how this NAS handles drives and this is great since ill just take out the old ones from my older Nas and move them to this new machine. Thanks for the information.

[@oubrioko]

Kudos for properly using the terms (vertical scale) scaling up and (horizontal scale) scaling correctly 👍🏿

[@matsu9790]

This content and others like this explain why some products has premium price - gifting so many for free as marketing must cost them and other users pay for it

[@iPodGuru]

It’s always great to watch your videos. They are done very well

[@seha2306]

Synology is the Apple of NAS. You're locked into their ecosystem for parts. There's a great great price increase for convenience features, and you own your own device even less. If you're at least a little tech-savvy, just build one yourself. It's a nice project, and you can host many different things on it too, which makes it more versatile.

[@glynnetolar4423]

Can you build your own for that price with removable hot swap bays? Also nice gui front end? Just trying to compare apples to apples. And they are still not as bad as Apple.

[@seha2306]

@@glynnetolar4423 The NAS costs around 1000€. For this kind of money, you can easily build a high-end server with a nice case. I would get a case whose front is full of ODD bays where you can put real hot-swap bays or the caddy style like in the video. You also get a system that is way faster, has much more back IO, and if you want front IO, you can put an ODD IO adapter in, giving you much more flexibility. Also, you can use many more PCIe cards and actually cheap 10 Gbit cards. The ones from Synology cost a fortune, hence the Apple price comparison. You can also install many more NVMe SSDs without worrying about compatibility. Software is also a big thing. It is true that it is more difficult to install it yourself and choose the right OS for your NAS. It also offers much more flexibility and knowledge over your system. There is great NAS software out there, just look at FreeNAS or UNRAID. You can also just install Windows Server for free as an EV if you want to stay in your comfort zone. The OSs are also great hypervisors, especially because your system is way more powerful, allowing you to install services like Nextcloud with excellent performance. I'm an Apple user in the smartphone space myself because I wanted something simple that just works and would receive frequent updates, so I can keep it as long as possible. So, I understand why TrueNAS might be the right product for a certain person, but if you're a tech guy, I think you're missing out on a great project when you don't build your own NAS.

[@4879daniel]

Excellent customer support, phone apps, ease of use. For a home user like me, synology is a good choice even though it’s expensive compared to rivals.

[@edsiefker1301]

@@glynnetolar4423 Yes. I have a ThinkServer TS430 with hotswappable bays I got off ebay for $200. TrueNAS is free and entirely managed through the GUI.

[@glynnetolar4423]

@@4879daniel forgot about the phone apps. That's another plus.

[@JoFreddieRevDr]

I have had the DS1817+ for four and a half years, very pleased with it, the DS1821+ has a few advantages, but not enough to justify the expense of an upgrade for me.

[@kernzilla]

with all the restrictions Synology has put in place lately, it is good to hear they're working hard to keep software support in place for models like the 1817, esp being 7+ years old.

[@Otakunopodcast]

Been pretty happy with my DS3018xs. My first unit arrived near-DOA (worked fine for a week or 2 then started doing the blue blinking LED of death and refusing to turn on.) Fortunately it was still within the Amazon return/exchange period so they just shipped out a new one, problem solved. Didn't even have to backup/restore any data, just took the drives out of the dead unit and slapped them in the replacement and was back up and running. I'm starting to hit the storage space crunch too, was thinking of swapping out my existing drives with larger ones, but maybe I'll get a unit with more drive bays instead, I hadn't thought of that. Being able to get more space as well as switching to dual-drive redundancy (I am currently running with single-drive redundancy only) without buying a whole set of new hard drives is definitely appealing.

[@waterup380]

I am so glad the link does not take me to amazon like most youtubers do but take me to the actual website for better info thanks again

[@AngelDaire]

Great video! I’m also upgrading from a 916+ so this made me feel so much better about the transition

[@kernzilla]

wish all reviews were this succinct & information - esp on such a critical & centric part of media pro's workflow. thanks much

[@TransCanadaPhil]

I'm always a bit on the fence about getting one of these types of dedicated NAS boxes. I've been using an old Linux server I built with standard PC hardware all the way back in 2012 to run my Plex server, nzb server, and samba file server. That's cool that this Synology stuff seems to have good server applications but I'm feeling it's probably limited compared to the full on flexibility of running anything you want on Linux. The thing that kind of gives me pause though from moving towards a NAS is the whole idea of these very specific and sometimes proprietary file systems these things seem to use. In my mind it seems to create a "single point of failure". If that NAS box fails, none of my other hardware (PCs, servers) can read those drives natively. I always feel piece of mind in Linux, with it's standard ext4 formatted hard drives that I know if the box itself fails, I can always slap any of the drives into another PC that I already own to get the data off. Like I said, I'm running a very simple AMD Sempron based server from 2012 that still streams 4K plex streams to my Apple TVs around the house, runs all my nzb download server processes, etc like a champ! I'm just not sure where I'd see the value in buying a dedicated NAS that seems more expensive and may or may not have the same capabilities as an extra Linux box lying around from old hardware.

[@albertu.9753]

You might want to look into Unraid, it's a Linux NAS running off an USB-stick with great support for Docker. What makes it special is the way it uses disks, allowing for unparalleled flexibility when it comes to using a mix of existing disks.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

I've had two drives (out of six) fail a couple of days apart after 8 years of continuous operation. Glad I'm running with two disk parity.

[@peteratkin3788]

Wow, as soon as you mentioned that they started locking down the nvme, this came off my Christmas's shopping list.

[@Raveheart]

I have a DS414 which turns 10 years old next year. It is still working with the original drives! Of course, I don't trust the drives anymore and have backups but at this point I am tempted to test how far I can push this. Although I really should upgrade soon...

[@oogrooq]

Hail Corporate! No thanks, easier and better to build your own.

[@kernzilla]

i hear ya, but there's a breed of us media folks who just don't have the time/know-how to take on a complete DIY project like this - esp when dealing with data that is so centric & critical to our livelyhood. $1000 for a box that works is an easy-yes for proven speed and reliability 🤷‍♂

[@Markimark151]

I’m glad that Synology still supports hard drives for network storage, because SSD is still more expensive per data than HDD. Especially for 4K video storage, I prefer hard disks, even though I use SSD for daily use and for video gaming!

[@dustojnikhummer]

Of course they do. Is there any NAS brand that doesn't? Excluding flash specific models like ASUS FlashStor.

[@Markimark151]

@@dustojnikhummer because a lot of these companies tried to phase out mechanical hard drives for solid state drives, but they reversed their decision due to costs and reliability concerns.

[@davewhite7182]

The move away from Intel to AMD means no hardware transcoding in Plex which is a killer for me.

[@MrSunDevil23]

Exactly why when I needed to upgrade my DS418 I went with a DS920+ and not the 923. I wanted more than 4 bays but they seem to all have AMD chips now…. 😢

[@HyenaEmpyema]

can you tell me what you actually need transcoding for? Like, what device do you have that won't play an mp4 but will play a real-time "digested" video file? I ran jellyfin on freebsd and ubuntu (never got transcoding to work) but found I never needed it using web and amazon fire players. So if you have some crappy 1st gen roku, wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy a $30 firestick or whatever than insist on transcoding, or is there some other workflow you need?

[@TransCanadaPhil]

@@HyenaEmpyema yeah for instance I'm running my Plex server on an old 2012 AMD machine and it works fine even for modern 4k stuff mostly because the client machines around my house are all modern Apple TV's that natively decode x265 HEVC 4k. Plex just spits it out without transcoding all the client Apple TV's can handle it natively so even my ancient Plex server from 2012 running an old 4 core AMD chip have no problem streaming 4K videos out to multiple TVs. You're right, the best solution often is just to get some decent new client devices so transcoding isn't needed; that'll breathe new life into even old Plex servers since they just have to do a simple data dump that's it!

[@The-Cat]

Yea don't even think of using tdarr it has destroyed many of my movies

[@resneptacle]

​@@HyenaEmpyemaDepending on how high the video frame size and quality is, it may be too high bandwidth or too high resolution to play on lower end devices natively

[@tarstarkusz]

0:35 Money HAS changed hands. It's called an "in kind" compensation. This unit is over 1000 Dollars without any hard disks. I have never once saw a sponsored youtube video where the review is anything but glowing. I will be very surprised if this review is anything but glowing with anything more than token criticisms to make it seem balanced.

[@AshrakAhmed]

oh it's a glowing review alright! How easily glossed over the fact that if you use any 3rd party m.2 drive it wont work fully (just work as a cache drive) and then claiming this company is DIY friendly (only just this one feature missing) says it all about how critical the review is!

[@max_uaminecraft1827]

​@@AshrakAhmedhave to consider the review from the POV that he got everything for $0, which makes any problems with the hardware nearly irrelevant! Ofc the way its framed is that it is not a biased review, when it cannot possibly be unbiased due to the free hardware. I would also be using a Synology over my DIY shitbox nas if they sent the stuff for free and made me do an inherently biased review of it haha.

[@josemedeiros007]

Great video, it's an impressive NAS, however why doesn't it use a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection built in?

[@Freak80MC]

I just recently bought a laptop off my aunt (she was gonna give it away either way and I've been eyeing switching from my tower PC to a laptop for space reasons and this all sorta fell into my lap) and the one massive complaint I have is the lack of hard drive space, so this might be a useful video for me to watch right about now! Only issue is that it looks like these large hard drive enclosures cost a pretty penny upfront but I'm definitely a data hoarder so maybe it would be worth it in my case :) EDIT: I know "space reasons" conflicts with "huge hard drive enclosure" but for me, having both laptop and hard drives in separate spots in my room instead of one massive tower sitting right on my desk would still work out better. Plus there's other reasons I wanted to go with a laptop from battery capability when off power, to being able to move my PC around easily, to modularity in my setup. Plus I now have two screens without having had to buy two separate monitors! I just like the convenience factor of a laptop form factor.

[@Deses]

Hide that massive tower full of hard drives in the basement and run TrueNAS or Unraid in it. I had my old 4670K + motherboard + RAM and my old BitFenix Ghost collecting dust, and I recently repurposed it as my NAS server. I just needed a new PSU. I removed all my HDD from my current computer and tossed them to the old one + some new EXOS drives. I basically have all the functionality of a Synology NAS for 50€, as I only needed to purchase the new PSU. And adding more drives is as easy as getting a SATA or SAS controller. You can even repurpose an old GPU (nvidia) as transcoder or AI accelerator. Possibilities are endless.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

That review was more useful than I expected. Reassured me I'm making the best choice not buying one. I already regret my QNAP too. Those consumer grade products are just bad. TrueNAS remains my best success so far.

[@thewise3551]

No money has changed hands but some expensive hardware has.

[@grumpywurzel1973]

Was thinking that myself, love the channel but something like this NAS @£1K+, then factor in all of the storage is probably well out of the reach of us normal peasants unfortunately.

[@glynnetolar4423]

All too many KZbinrs pull this line and it bothers me. And I'll bet they don't declare it in their taxes either.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

1. I’m legally required to disclose where the unit came from. I also take the extra step to be clear about the relationship between me and any company for the sake of transparency. Too many KZbinrs do *not* do this. 2. I disclose all income on my taxes.

[@Deses]

Yeah, they might not have given him money, but all those drives, nvme and the 10G card total more than 1k for sure.

[@justovision]

@@ThisDoesNotCompute It's still a source of bias. If you completely shit on things you get for free (and don't send back) you risk people not sending you free stuff.

[@andresbravo2003]

Great job! The upgrade Storage might come in handy!

[@shakeelmuzaffar2789]

Very useful and informative video excellent job ❤

[@cyberjack]

it will use around 90-100w of power tho .. if you lucky enough to be able to afford it or have cheep electricality then its not a issue, but I'm UK and prices are through roof at moment .. Ill stick with my old Dell T430

[@basdfgwe]

Lol I bought a DS923+ 4 months ago predominantly for the SHR so that I can start and add more drives and for photos/moments, and I had already run out space. So instead of buying expansion, or a new synology I have repurposed my old computer with Unraid and in the process of moving everything to the unraid server. All in all - I have a better CPU, better ram and more of it, better graphics. I think the way that synology is going it is moving away from home market, so it may be better for small business. I don't believe that Synology is value for money, especially if you have consumer hardware available. The other thing that pissed me off from synology was the mail - I misread the email server - they have two versions one that gives 5 seats, and one that's free. I was thinking with my synology nas I would get unlimited (as much as my hardware can handle of mailboxes - and this was not the case. Oh and also, once you reach capacity of whatever arrangement that you go with your upgrade options are so expensive. So its not really a lot of value exchange happening with synology.

[@ran2wild370]

Wow! So much negative reviews and references about Synology we've seen recently. But the thing is hell expensive. 🤪 On the other hand looks really tempting.

[@NickCharles]

I need one of these in my life. My 2 bay NAS is bursting at the seams and I really want room for redundancy again.

[@Knokkelman]

For days I've been surfing sites and watching videos about medium size NAS, and came to the conclusion that I probably don't need this many bays (and 90% of the apps), but.. I still WANT it!! Damn, I guess NAS are my cars/shoes/purses...

[@ShaneMcGrath.]

@@KnokkelmanTrust me, You do need that many bays! I thought the same thing 4 years ago, Now my NAS is full and I knew I should have went for not only more bays but larger capacity hdd's! Always go overboard when it comes to storage, Better to have too much than not enough, Costs you more later on to replace smaller drives to larger ones or have to buy an expansion bay to add to current NAS when you could have just got the bigger NAS to begin with.

[@lyonadimral]

I'm still rockin' a DROBO, and it's unfortunate they went under.

[@shmehfleh3115]

"A couple days later, I had more free space." Ah, good old 5400 RPM SATA spinning rust. Reminds me of the days I used to short-stroke the hard drives on AIX servers, so that rebuilds didn't take all damn week.

[@rockaholictom]

Just when I was looking into making a PI NAS! Excellent!

[@Deses]

Raspberry Pis are awful at being a NAS.

[@rockaholictom]

@@Deses now I know 😂

[@FlyboyHelosim]

How do you get 500Mbps transfer speeds when writing to 5400rpm mechanical hard drives?

[@kernzilla]

it's the combined speed of 4x drives working at the same time that delivers this type of speed. my 8bay DAS consistently does 1200-1300 without breaking a sweat.

[@tombouie]

!DS1824+ or Bust!

[@ShaneMcGrath.]

I wish they would hurry up with it, Can't hold out much longer on my 98% filled DS1019+, It's done well since 2019. Would rather buy a new 8 bay instead of slowly replacing 8TB drives for much larger ones, 1821+ is a little too old for me to buy now.

[@etgripper]

I’ve had wonky issues with port bonding over the 10gb links, but overall it has been reliable.

[@mbe102]

Unraid is great (I've moved too it for 90% of my storage needs), but Synology makes things STUPID easy. And theres a LOT you can do with it. You pay a premium, but it really is the Apple of the NAS scene. The recent crap with WD Red's and the NASware 3.0 crap, and the dumb idea for Synology to take on removing SMART status, but, overall, if you're not as technically inclined, Synology is the way to go. If you are able to do your own thing, Unraid, or TrueNAS are other great options!

[@HoldandModify]

I love my DS+ 6 bay. 10gbe, fast, easy to add another when it gets full. Really enjoy their simple interface too. Now watching this, maybe a second one I’ll go FULL 12. Heh.

[@titothomas78]

Did you switched on the. Nas for the first time after putting the hdd ? For dsm need hdd right ?

[@piwex69]

Read cache on SSDs is fine, but to set up the write cache, you need two identical Synology branded drives. As it is quite normal, to be picky on write-back cache, it was surprise for me because I bought only one ssd drive. The seller did not bother to point that out.

[@bzuidgeest]

Money has exchanged hands, it's just in the form of a Nas plus disks plus network card in place of bills. A few thousand dollar worth of equipement, unless I misunderstood something. The only way to claim independence is to send it back or pay for it yourself. But paid promotion is on, so good enough. But really the no money claim, bullshit.

[@TCRTechLife]

Man, this thing is a storage monster!

[@skynetintex5878]

Great video review.

[@AvengeTheTECH]

Only 8 bays if you after a beast array of disk drive bays then review the qnap tvs-h1688x or 1288x. 16 and 12 bays respectively I have the 1688 with quad 2.5G and dual 10G nics as default and 128GB of RAM. This seems OK for beginners. Nice little NAS review we present. God speed sir

[@lexluthermiester]

@ThisDoesNotCompute Thank You for doing this review. I now know what to avoid. @Synology The SSD limitation is a deal-breaker all by itself, but the removal of drive SMART data access is another big one and is just plain silly. I am far from alone about those points..

[@automatedrussianbot]

i bought one of their latest 12bay models(DS2422+), all the drives i put inside becomes " not verified" and can't see the health status lol. this is not the case with my DS1821+ if i put the same drive inside there, if you check their site it only supports Synology branded drives just shows how they want everyone to use their own HDD's eventually

[@engineeringVirtue]

1821 is somewhat old now, the 1823 is newer and much better... but has compatibility limitations. Also, use 8x higher performing 18TB enterprise synology drives in RAID6 with a raid 1 dual ssd rw cache with 32gb ram for a long term deployment. Hosts corporate gitlab and email within docker well. Multiple units form a great VM cluster for small offices.

[@nickthenasguy]

very different use cases since the DS1823xs+ is designed more for intense usage from Creator Professionals. The Ds1821+ is for the tier below that. Also pretty big price difference ($800)

[@engineeringVirtue]

@nickthenasguy it's a lot more than $800 in price difference, more like $3k when paying the synology brand premium on enterprise 18tb drives, ram, pci card, 2x800gb ssd, etc...but...it's definitely worth it. I have both an moderately configured 1821 and a max configured 1823. Because of the cpu, better network ports, better drives, components, extended long term support, etc ..box feels like 3x-4x better performing than 1821 and synology unlocks more dsm features on the 1823 and provides better support. Volume briefly peaks at 1.2-1.7GB/s and easily sustains 800+MB/s sustained combined read/write. If I remember correctly, 50k-70k raw disk IOPS. Might be just my cheap disk and network selection, but I get 1/3 that on the 1821. Furthermore, the cpu on the 1821 is too limited to deploy more than 1-2 intensive docker containers. Depends what you are looking for, the 1823 will be the main server at its location for next 10yrs. 1821 adds a small amount of redundancy and failover, while handling utility tasks like surveillance that we don't want to bog 1823 down with.

[@GoogleDoesEvil]

I like that these NAS boxes are smaller than another desktop PC, but I also like controlling my hardware. Any recommendations for a small form factor PC case with many hard drive bays? I have an old full size case but it's too big for my space.

[@Deses]

Jonsbo N1 or N3?

[@daspec]

anything from Startech is overpriced AF

[@blackwaterdream]

Have you tested the performance of this model with SSDs in raid 10? I’d be curious to see if you could saturate that 10gig connection.

[@kernzilla]

on a prev video, think it showed ~1000 on the reads and ~600 on the writes fwiw.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Wow that is really nice !

[@nzos14]

Got myself one of these maybe a year ago when my drobo 5n started acting flakey. Not cheap but reliable storage is worth it!

[@RoyHess666]

I still use my old Synology DS415play with 4x 2TB HDDs for backup purposes only. It's outdated and I repaired it myself already once (the resistor hack) but it still works absolutely fine and I dont have so much data, so I dont bother with replacing. Unless Synology sends me a new 4 bay NAS with 4x 16TB archive HDDs D-:

[@just_passing_through]

I’m still very happy with my @ AU$230.00 each.Drobo 5N 20TB Bundle with 5 x WD40EFRX 4TB Western Digital Red Drives and a Crucial 250GB MX200 mSATA SSD Card.

[@javaman2883]

I have enough drives to fill that. I have 4 1TB drives, 2 3TB drives, 2 4TB drives, and 2 5TB drives, that were retired from other devices. All just sitting around now, but don't have enough bays in my NAS to use any of them.

[@ZenithMusicNet]

I'm using two LaCie Quadra nas'es for my storage. It works great but I also make non-live backups on other drives, copying every few months. And it drives me crazy bc it's so much work. I think this Synology is something for large files users or small businesses and like the expandability very much. I do hope the PSU holds up with 8 drives.

[@Supercon57]

My 1819+ has been running strong for four years, 8 drives

[@ZenithMusicNet]

@@Supercon57 Thanks for the follow-up! Under MacOS you can show previews of every file in a folder, and that causes pulsating on the power supply, which it often doesn't like.

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

While I dont do anything that requires a NAS, I imagine that while 1000 bucks is expensive, how much is your work worth? 1000 bucks might seem like a drop int he pond when your scrambling to recover from accidental deletions, file corruption, or hardware failure (especially if what your doing is irreplaceable like video, art or images/photos)

[@309electronics5]

You can buy a different nas or follow a tutorial to make your own or buy an opensource nas that probably works the same if not better for less/the same price with more options and maybe features the commercial nasses dont have

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

@@309electronics5 Though in my case the only things I'm backing up are games I dont want cluttering my NVME SSD or that dont need its speed, as well as modpacks I dont want to setup again. I dont do anything that I would want a NAS or serious backup solutions for.

[@Afsafs123]

Not a huge fan of any company locking things down, seems like such a strange limitation. I like the _idea_ of Synology stuff, but I'd prefer it having the capability of being a blank slate that you could install whatever you wanted on it. That all said, I'm definitely not the target audience with requirements like that.

[@danimoosakhan]

I really ❤ this video. Can you also do a video of setting it up with 10Gb NIC and iSCSI LUN.

[@PiotrStaszewski]

Please dislike people who don't watch it all before commenting. My story: - You got it for free, will you tell me how much is it? - A thousand bucks... - I guess it was obvious to me it means a bare unit no M2 SSD, no 10G network card, - "A power user can DIY one for cheaper"

[@Janzzze]

this video might not have been bought with cash but the NAS and HDD he got for free sure aren't cheap and it definitely feels like a paid promotion disguised as a normal video

[@mindaugasstankus5943]

Not feels... it is. Barter (goods or services) exchanges exist too, not only cash/curacy/monetary ones. Barter did not disappeared, gone out of fashion or something.

[@zimbu_]

Yeah, it's certainly not a non-marketing video. Assuming the cost of sending the NAS, RAM stick, HDDs, SSD and a network card came out of Synology's marketing budget, and the people negotiating the contract for what was to be featured on the video and then shipping the items over were Synology's marketing employees. I actually think it's better to negotiate some payment in addition to the items in situations like this, as you might be giving too good of a deal to marketing otherwise.

[@MichaelRichards983]

I agree, I really hate to see this channel go down the sellout shill drain.

[@max_uaminecraft1827]

​​@@MichaelRichards983hey, one mistake doesn't mean that it will right? I hope not.

[@WillParker322]

He could have been given the items on loan and if decided yes, then he purchase.

[@blackbutterfly7515]

Nice video as always, but I wonder why you are using a scalpel to unbox this thing?!

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Because people yell at me when I use a pair of scissors lol

[@treahblade]

At work we use a very similar model except its the rack version. Its a pretty good system and pretty solid but I do have a single gripe about it and that is that using the BTRFS file system and raid6 changing file permission is slow as dirt. I am unsure if its the raid or the underlying file system that makes it very slow but its very slow. Even when pulling up ownership it takes a few seconds for it to load in.

[@rmcdudmk212]

Cool machine. I need to get something like this but could probably use something smaller.

[@kernzilla]

perhaps a dumb question, but does anyone know if you'd be able to install a Thunderbolt card in the expansion slot and be able to utilize this as a DAS for initial data xfer? TIA for input, still learning a lot about these setups.

[@WoodyW2k]

With 8 storage bays, there is plenty of room for activities.

[@juansanchezdominguez7885]

Even though I am no power user by any means, I looked this up outta curiosity. less than €2000? is that as cheap as it looks, or is it the normal price range?

[@alexbright7735]

Who's making those Synology drives

[@MacLimitRange]

I would get a DIY for 1/3 of the price with 10 times the performance. Just some troubleshooting. It would end up a better video. Old very good unRaid and some shucked drives from WD. But considering is free, i would say yes too.

[@joetoney184]

Hell for $600 before drives you could have a 12900k 32GB DDR5 NVMe boot disks and probably find a used 25gbps NIC, sure you can splurge a bit more for a case with hot-swap bays but still way under $1,000 and way more performant.

[@JoseMariArceta]

You are obviously not the target customer of this relatively ready to use NAS boxes. Ofcourse you can do it easier or you can do it better and cheaper.

[@airingcupboard]

I guess this NAS has Docker support? What kind of things can you do with Docker? I have an older model with an ARM CPU so no docker for me.

[@daspec]

If you don't know what to do with Docker containers, then you shouldn't ask a question about it

[@hawks48]

at 13:13 at the bottom it states 1 of your drives is not meet the requirements of moving to SHR2. Is that the cache pool or SSD or something else?

[@MichaelSimmonds]

That is the Intel NVME in the system it gives you the warning as you use the same screen for adding / creating pools

[@Nukle0n]

Haven't seen eSATA ports in a while. And I'll echo that removing SMART is stupid. I bet they got angry support calls over drives failing even tho SMART wasn't showing any errors and decided to remove it to ease their headaches.

[@David-gr8rh]

Question, to Colin. The four network ports can they be used to link other NAS units, thank you.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

You could directly connect to another NAS if you want, sure.

[@David-gr8rh]

@@ThisDoesNotCompute Thanks Colin your videos are ace, you explain things amazingly.

[@MrTVintro]

May have missed it in the video but what are your thoughts about the age of this specific model vs the price?

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

In my experience, these units age well - Synology tends to support models for a long time, for example my DS916+ from 2016 is able to run the latest version of DSM. Retailers occasionally put them on sale too.

[@chaddouglas2136]

45 Drives: Hold my beer

[@graealex]

Not going to tell you what to buy, but putting 12TB or just 8TB drives in a NAS, with the current energy prices, is a bit hopeless. SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) makes it at least easy to upgrade the drives. I will also never understand Synology's fixation on multiple gigabit ethernet ports. It's a dead end technology, easily fixed by providing an SFP+ slot, where you can run 1, 2.5, 5 or 10G over copper or fibre. I switched from a DiskStation to an HP MicroServer for that exact reason. 10G, 4 bays, 2 NVMe plus a SATA SSD. Usually the drives don't even need to spin up most of the time, and 1 GB/s is easily attainable.

[@automatedrussianbot]

when seagate 32TB comes out not even the 4bay synology can store it all with its 108TB cap

[@-musiclee-]

is it worth buying an 1821 in 2024? i need an upgrade to a 2024, 8-bay version, for the SAME price! will it happen?

[@edsiefker1301]

8 drives for $1000? Just get an old Thinkserver. I have 11 disks in mine, and it cost $200. TrueNAS is free and outstanding.

[@The-Cat]

Power consumption tho...

[@max_uaminecraft1827]

​@@The-Cata quad core haswell system with a sas card for more drives would idle at around 30w with the drives spun down. So for about $200 you have pretty good idle power consumption (file servers are idle most of the time)

[@max_uaminecraft1827]

But again, this isn't for you if building a diy nas is an option. These Synology boxes are intended to be plug and play, not plug and configure / throubleshoot for 5 hours.

[@glynnetolar4423]

I own a synology NAS Yeah, there are some company moves by then i don't like. But the DYI solutions are crap especially if you're selling them to businesses. Unless you're doing lathe scale deployments. I've only seen one small DYI NAS box and it was crap.i welcome reasonable suggestions that don't look horrible.

[@mbirth]

TerraMaster F4-423 - it's basically an Intel NUC fused to a RAID controller. They have an internal USB slot with a flash drive which you can swap to install e.g. OMV. But yes, it doesn't look quite as shiny as the Synology.

[@glynnetolar4423]

​@@mbirthabout the same price as Synology in that drive size. Yeah may be a little faster. Can you load what you want in it? Don't know.

[@mbirth]

@@glynnetolar4423 Yes, you can. It has HDMI video output and USB for keyboard/mouse in the back, normal BIOS, etc.

[@rabidwallaby84]

6:30 - Welp, time to install a different OS, then. Locking features behind a "you need to buy our hardware" garbage, especially for drives that they're obviously white-labelling, is just a terrible business model.

[@mrhaftbar]

Adding two nvme disks enables write caching, which increases the IOPS greatly l.

[@sepposyXIV]

SHR = btrfs, in case you want have similar disk flexibility with DIY systems

[@VladoT]

Raspberry Pi 4 8Gb, OpenMediaVault and 4 drives. 4.5W idle power. Not spectacular but it does its job for me.

[@c128stuff]

More disks is often a good alternative for bigger disks, it is better for performance, both in everyday use, and when recovering from a lost drive (array rebuild). I have always built my own NAS units, my current NAS has 16 'spinning' drives, and 4 SSDs (OS, caching), and can facilitate 8 more disks and 2 more SSDs. I prefer to keep drives relatively small, preferring to stay at 4TB or less.

[@zacharyschwanke7160]

huh, i just found out that they make 22tb hard drives.

[@Codeaholic1]

Saying no money exchanged hands, while true, is still a bit misleading. You received thousands of dollars worth of hardware. Unless you're required to send it back soon, that counts as payment in most people's opinion.

[@BIGwillTHEGAME]

Thanks

[@BigDrewski1000]

Damn, $999 ain't bad for all that potential drive space !

[@RobertoCarlos-tn1iq]

only 2 days to rebuild when you add a drive!

[@BigDrewski1000]

@@RobertoCarlos-tn1iq Yea. Lol. Plus NAS drives of any meaningful capacity aren't exactly cheap either.

[@dotapark]

Honestly, I wish they can be a DAS too, cause my internet is very unstable and it feels weird to put my whole HDD online like that.

[@Martin_Edmondson]

Perhaps I misunderstand, but there is no need to connect the NAS to the internet if you don't need/want to. It is connected to the network usually via a router and can be accessed by devices on the network.

[@dotapark]

@@Martin_Edmondson I don't sure if I understand what you saying? You mean I don't need to connect it online? Even though it's connected to ethernet?

[@Martin_Edmondson]

@@dotapark Yes, that is what I am saying. DAS means that it is directly attached to a computer (usually by a USB cable.) NAS means it is connected to a local network (usually via a router, by a ethernet cable.) To make it so that you can access your files when you are outside your local network many people use Synology quickconnect. There are other ways, and you usually have to open ports on your router. It is possible (and probably advisable) to turn off quickconnect and close all ports that the router needs. This means you can only access the data while at home. Only while connected to your local WiFi network. I basically have mine like this.

[@Deses]

For anyone interested in this, for the price of that Synology you can build an even better and more versatile Unraid server.

[@309electronics5]

And one that is not locked down as much as apple devices. I hate and avoid manufacturers who lock down their devices

[@glynnetolar4423]

Would an unraid server just be a file server and that's it? How is that more versatile?

[@Deses]

@@glynnetolar4423 You get access to thousands of ready-made docker containers and you can run any VMs on it. There are a lot of things you can do with unraid if you look a bit.

[@RogerioPereiradaSilva77]

@@glynnetolar4423 Unraid is a specialized operating system tailored specific for storage that can do everything a typical NAS can do but that goes way beyond a Synology or a QNAP turnkey solution can go. Moreover, any Linux system can easily run Docker containers, file sharing, etc. and thus match Synology's offering feature by feature. Heck, you can run OpenMediaVault on a humble Raspberry Pi 4B and that would still be overkill for 90% of the users out there.

[@max_uaminecraft1827]

​@@glynnetolar4423nope! You can use docker containers and virtual machines, which means you can do basically anything. Because it is just a regular computer, you can also run whatever you want, be it windows with a shared folder and storage spaces to setup raid, Truenas, Unraid, or even bare linux.