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I really like Synology devices, generally, and I recommend and defend them typically. However, the prices for some of their devices has always been a problem for me and I am rarely happy unless I can buy it used/refurbished.
As an example, if you compare the DS118, DS218 and DS418 you will notice that they all are basically the same unit with the same system board inside. Realtek RTD1296 Quad-core 1.4 GHz CPU, 1 or 2GB of RAM, USB 3.0, 1 or 2 Gigabit ethernet, etc. From a manufacturing perspective, the 2 and 4 bay models are just the 1 bay model with a little bit of extra plastic and a longer backplane board. Yet the 4 bay model is more than double the price!! This is absolutely a case of Synology taking advantage of customers who would naively think that the 4 bay model should cost a bunch more. No, we are talking a few more dollars in plastic and PCB and a RAM chip and a couple more backplane connectors and trays. Beyond that, you have a few more dollars tied up in a larger box and a few more for shipping, etc. Sorry, $200 more for the 4 bay compare to the 1 bay is an outright scam.
The same issue has existed with their expansion units since their inception. The 5 bay expansion unit which has hardly any electronics inside costs almost $500! This is more realistically $100 worth of stuff at typical manufacturing prices, yet Synology knows people are going to be none the wiser and will probably be in a pinch anyway. If it is cheaper to simply buy another Synology than buy the expansion unit, you know there is something shady going on.
I had tried a few different storage solutions for my Home and family's small business, but no solution I tried seemed to work the way that it was advertised or meet my needs. In all honesty it was because of my choice to try to find a budget solution because $400 for a NAS and then another 4-500, at least, for drives to put in it is a lot of money. I can't begin to describe how happy I am I did it though. This is a solid product. I can't speak to the uses for a media server, because I haven't gotten around to testing those features yet, but for a storage solution I can. This NAS makes back ups, data storage, and file sharing extremely easy and not just because I'm a computer science major. Even for people who may not be the best with computers, set up is super easy and the web interface is simple and very intuitive. Set up on a local network is extremely easy. Set up for remote access for multiple users though, while still much simpler than something like an Ubuntu server, still will probably require a little more than average technical and networking knowledge. Especially if running an antivirus and/or firewall as you will have to make exceptions for the remote IP address. For creating a remote network drive, you will also need either a static IP address or a domain name and a DDNS service.
Overall though so far, I couldn't be happier with the product and am glad I decided to spend some extra money and get something that works great, is easy to manage, and meets all my needs. I will try to come back and update once I have the opportunity to text some of the media server features.
UPDATE: So I have now had the opportunity to test some of the features using this as a media server. I have put some movies on it and and was able to stream them. My conclusion is I have some good news and some bad news. Lets get the bad news out of the way first.
Bad News: If you are a fan of Plex you may be out of luck. Synology seems to have discontinued support for Plex for all model NAS servers aside from those using an intel processor. According to the Plex forums, some of the older DS418 models do have the intel chips but almost all of the new ones have the Realtek quad cores in them. Fear not though, I did find an alternate solution I will share in the good news. One other thing I did find is if there are some other services running while you are trying to stream HD video you may get some stuttering occasionally while there is other uploading or downloading going on in the background. I'm not sure if this is related to the processor or the limited amount of RAM but I plan to add more RAM in the near future I have also recently enabled the ethernet port aggregation and will test to see if that makes any difference as well. **Note: True Port aggregation will only work if you have a router that supports it. They do have a Load balance bonding but it is not the same as port aggregation. Will retest after these modifications and report back again with another update.
Good News: The good news I found is, though there is some stuttering it is pretty easy to work around it by pausing some of the back up services you may have running while tyring to streaming video, which, while its not ideal, I don't find to be that big of a deal given the price point compared to other solutions. The port aggregation I enabled recently along with my plan to increase the RAM may even resolve this issue. The other good news is, for those of you who don't have your heart set on Plex, there is an application for the Amazon FireStick called Archos that seems to work very well in my opinion. You can browse all your folders on the server look at pictures, play music, and stream video. So far I have only tested this while streaming on my local network and have not yet tested remote streaming using this application. Once I have had the opportunity I will again report back with another update.
As a photographer I have run through my laptop storage (250GB) and my additional external 500GB storage, so after a number of YouTube videos I settled on the Synology DS418 as a solution for this problem.
Looking for in purchase: -Sturdy -Value -Hot Swap -Link Aggregation -Easy Setup -Four Bays Minimum
Design: The design of this product is sleek and well designed, while it is a plastic it seems to be a sturdy and hard plastic that will last for a significant amount of time. There is a USB port in the back along with 2x 1GB LAN ports (link Aggregation compatible) and a USB port up front. There are four bays that all have access from the front and the bays are lockable. Size is not a significant issue and it fits easily on a cart shelf.
Issues: The setup on the computer is not as easy as I thought it was going to be, but as long as you take time to read instructions online there is no significant problems. I believe that the time to get everything online is somewhere between 1-3 hours depending on how computer savvy you are (it took me 3-4 hours, to set up four different storage areas on the NAS (2x Time Machine Backups, a folder for my photography and a folder for general family storage, then to provide access to mine and my wife’s computers to where everything worked seamlessly). All of that said none of it is a real issue, because Synology directions are fantastic.
Final Thoughts: I LOVE THIS. It is so nice to free up hard drive space on the computer and to get rid of all the dongles needed for all the external stuff. The system works flawlessly and after it is setup and about a day of playing with it everything seems really intuitive. I set this up with 2x WD 2TB RED drives and the system was up after plugging it in, following the basic instructions and some auto updating (total of about 20 mins). I have one volume with four folders (2 Time Machine Backups, a folder for photos, and a general storage folder) that are have dedicated space and users assigned to them. The backups work with no issues and our MacBooks link right to the system, even if we go away for travel and come back. I can’t believe I have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to NAS and I will never use cloud storage again. Especially when I can access my NAS anywhere in the world via the internet with just a couple of clicks.
Would I recommend: Yes, 5 Stars and easily would recommend the system to anyone who needs a system.
I've been using the Western Digital MyCloud products for TimeMachine backups on our Macs - The WD products were never particularly stable as a network backup target. When one of the WD's died, I decided to invest in the (admittedly more expensive) Synology DS418, and I'm very happy that I did. Set up was easy, and TimeMachine backups from multiple Macs are working very smoothly (Tips: SHR volume. One shared TM folder. One "user" per Mac with a quota. Do the first backups one at a time!). The only thing to be aware of is that adding/replacing a disk is not fast - adding a third 4TB disk to my config, took the DS418 a couple of days to merge it in, but it did so without difficulty. Overall I'm *very* pleased at how little I have to fiddle around with this server. It just works.
UPDATE May 2020: I've had the DS-418 under continuous use for about 2 years now, and I thought I'd add a few additional comments.
(1) I initially chose the DS-418 as a device to back-up our family laptops. As mentioned in the original review, it was easy to set-up and works seemlessly with Mac OSX's TimeMachine for all the laptops. Two years of back-ups to the DS-418 have been flawless - the laptops' TimeMachines quietly and automatically back-up each laptop any time they are on our wireless network without the user even noticing. Perfect.
(2) I had a drive failure (an older repurposed drive - not unexpected) in a 4 drive configuration and I was thoroughly impressed by how easily the DS-418 recovered. An audible alarm and light alerted me to the failed drive but the DS-418 continued to operate in "degraded mode" allowing me time to order a new drive. Once the new drive arrived, I pulled the old drive, inserted the new one, and started the rebuild. The rebuild ran entirely in the background over the couple days. Net result: ZERO downtime. Easy/complete rebuild. ZERO data loss. I'm EXTREMELY happy with the recovery and data integrity capability of the device!
(3) Synology has been excellent about software patches and communication of potential security issues. A couple mouse clicks in the web interface after an email notification is all it takes to manually update it. Alternatively, you can schedule a time one or more days per week to check and automatically apply updates. Again, EXTREMELY happy with this feature!
(4) As of this writing, there are 104 (Synology and 3rd party) packages that can be added to the DS-418 to customize the services and capabilities, like audio/video servers, home security camera integration, photo organizers, webserver software, and more. The packages install with a single click. Very easy. I'm running several add-on packages and the DS-418 is still running very smoothly.
(5) The resource monitoring tools and storage analysis tools are very good. Easy enough to be helpful for first time users with sufficient data and detail to satisfy more advanced users.
I got this primarily to function as a media server for my extensive movie and TV series collection. I'm technically-oriented and considered building my own HTPC or NAS, but I don't have any old parts lying around and when I considered shopping around for parts and then having to maintain the system myself, I decided to go with a pre-made solution. I opted for the 4 bay design for future expandability, to maintain a central repository rather than just buying more and more external drives as I have in the past. Setup was dead simple. Pull a tray out of a bay, snap the drive in, and slide the tray back in, hardware installed. To set it up on your network, you simply surf to a URL on your computer device of choice and follow the wizard to get everything setup. I already used Emby on my PC, so I set that up on the drive and everything was good to go. (Side note: I like Emby because it's free and I've found it to work better than Kodi. My library was already organized closely to it's preferred configuration so it was easy for me. I find the app for my smart TV is painfully slow but the web UI is responsive so I think that performance hit is more a factor of the TV/app).
Overall, it's a bit pricey for a personal/home install, but the setup/maintenance convenience is definitely a selling point. Using Synology's hybrid RAID, I've already maxed out the capacity of the first two bays, but still have 2 bays available. I'm trying to minimize my needs until the high capacity drives (10TB+) come down in price more, but once they do I could easily double my current capacity which should last me a good time into the future.
I would absolutely recommend this for: small businesses or individuals with a bit of extra cash who just want a solution that works.
For drives, I recommend "Seagate IronWolf NAS 7200RPM Internal SATA Hard Drive" in the size of your choice.
Overall, I cannot recommend this at all. I'd bought this to back up some media files and my user directory, as well as act as a network drive. I immediately ran into issues - people were recommending Active Backup as the best tool, but apparently Synology does not include that with this device. Instead, you're left with Synology Drive, which is advertised as a full backup solution.
Unfortunately, there is a soft limit on the number of files Synology Drive can work with which is not mentioned on in this marketing information - 100,000 files. You may not think that's a small limit, but just trying to back up my user directory in Windows had well over 100,000 files. And Synology is not kidding with this limit - even though the resource monitor shows next to no CPU, memory, disk, or network usage, Synology Drive cannot (or - will not?) operate at a useful speed if you go over that limit. It's as though the software itself intentionally limits the number of files you can host.
My main use for this was to be a central point to backup my user directory and store my Lightroom photo collection, and unfortunately it handily fails at this task. It has been running for over a week trying to back up my collection, and has not made any noticeable progress. It definitely is not useful for files which might change occasionally and you'd want to keep backed up.
If you want this to only to host a NAS drive, it may work well, but if you're expecting any of the support software to work, good luck. Beyond the backup software not working, I also found the web interface nearly impossible to use. The first day or two it seemed great - fairly intuitive, easy to find what I wanted, etc. However after a couple of days, the site started logging me out immediately (within seconds, or occasionally minutes) of logging in. After being kicked back to the login screen, I would be unable to log in again. It got to the point where I was kicked out of filing a support claim multiple times.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Cannot be used as an effective backup platform
Reviewed in the United States on 3 July 2020
Overall, I cannot recommend this at all. I'd bought this to back up some media files and my user directory, as well as act as a network drive. I immediately ran into issues - people were recommending Active Backup as the best tool, but apparently Synology does not include that with this device. Instead, you're left with Synology Drive, which is advertised as a full backup solution.
Unfortunately, there is a soft limit on the number of files Synology Drive can work with which is not mentioned on in this marketing information - 100,000 files. You may not think that's a small limit, but just trying to back up my user directory in Windows had well over 100,000 files. And Synology is not kidding with this limit - even though the resource monitor shows next to no CPU, memory, disk, or network usage, Synology Drive cannot (or - will not?) operate at a useful speed if you go over that limit. It's as though the software itself intentionally limits the number of files you can host.
My main use for this was to be a central point to backup my user directory and store my Lightroom photo collection, and unfortunately it handily fails at this task. It has been running for over a week trying to back up my collection, and has not made any noticeable progress. It definitely is not useful for files which might change occasionally and you'd want to keep backed up.
If you want this to only to host a NAS drive, it may work well, but if you're expecting any of the support software to work, good luck. Beyond the backup software not working, I also found the web interface nearly impossible to use. The first day or two it seemed great - fairly intuitive, easy to find what I wanted, etc. However after a couple of days, the site started logging me out immediately (within seconds, or occasionally minutes) of logging in. After being kicked back to the login screen, I would be unable to log in again. It got to the point where I was kicked out of filing a support claim multiple times.
Bottom line up front, this is an amazing powerful NAS and if you purchased it you would not be disappointed!
I spent a few months looking for a replacement for my Drobo FS NAS. I thought about just buying a newer version of Drobo but I was never really happy with the read and write speed. One of the feature I really liked was the BeyondRaid technology they implemented that among other features allowed me to mix and match drive size, speed, and manufactures in the same disk array without losing capacity. However, the apps I could use was abysmal and again the speed was really slow. I could copy to the Drobo at 15MB/s and download from it at 20-30MB/s. Since I was using it as a media server and to back up large data files this was a problem. The only way I had to manage it was to limit access to the Drobo but it did what it was supposed to do.
However after 10 years of service, it was finally time to upgrade. I work in IT so I wasn't afraid to analyze all the different file server / NAS options available to me including building my now FreeNAS server. After about a month of research and speaking with my colleagues I found that Synology NAS boxes were highly recommended. Also they had their own version of BeyondRaid called Synology Hybrid Raid which had a lot of the features I needed for single disk redundancy and the ability to use drives of different sizes. So I decided to give them a try, I chose the DS418 because of it's dual gigabit NICs and 4 bays is enough for my use.
The set up process was amazingly simple. I literally backed up my files from my Drobo, pulled the drives from my Drobo and put them into the Synology and turned the power on. I accessed the Synology NAS via my web browser and completed the setup in about 5 minutes and I immediately had access to the storage pool. It took about about 48hrs to finish doing some parity checks but the storage was available the whole time. One of the big feature I was interested in was setting up a dynamic LAG (Link Aggregation Group).
To keep it simple, setting up a LAG allows you to bond the two gigabit ports to effectively double the bandwidth of your NAS. You will need a managed switch in order to set up a LAG and if you have a managed switch you most likely have the skills you need to set up the LAG. Once I got the LAG set up, I started transferring files and I was blown away by the speeds. It was 5 to 7 times faster than my previous NAS. I was regularly recording transfer and download rates of 150+MB/s and average sustained transfer rates of 90MB/s.
Also there is 50+ apps you can download and install with the click of a button really opening up what you can do with this NAS. This NAS can be used by professions of my mother which is deceiving because it hides all the advanced features available to an advanced user if you just dig a little deeper.
Again, I highly recommend the Synology DS412 and really there whole product sweep. It is worth every penny.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blazing fast feature rich NAS
Reviewed in the United States on 27 December 2019
Bottom line up front, this is an amazing powerful NAS and if you purchased it you would not be disappointed!
I spent a few months looking for a replacement for my Drobo FS NAS. I thought about just buying a newer version of Drobo but I was never really happy with the read and write speed. One of the feature I really liked was the BeyondRaid technology they implemented that among other features allowed me to mix and match drive size, speed, and manufactures in the same disk array without losing capacity. However, the apps I could use was abysmal and again the speed was really slow. I could copy to the Drobo at 15MB/s and download from it at 20-30MB/s. Since I was using it as a media server and to back up large data files this was a problem. The only way I had to manage it was to limit access to the Drobo but it did what it was supposed to do.
However after 10 years of service, it was finally time to upgrade. I work in IT so I wasn't afraid to analyze all the different file server / NAS options available to me including building my now FreeNAS server. After about a month of research and speaking with my colleagues I found that Synology NAS boxes were highly recommended. Also they had their own version of BeyondRaid called Synology Hybrid Raid which had a lot of the features I needed for single disk redundancy and the ability to use drives of different sizes. So I decided to give them a try, I chose the DS418 because of it's dual gigabit NICs and 4 bays is enough for my use.
The set up process was amazingly simple. I literally backed up my files from my Drobo, pulled the drives from my Drobo and put them into the Synology and turned the power on. I accessed the Synology NAS via my web browser and completed the setup in about 5 minutes and I immediately had access to the storage pool. It took about about 48hrs to finish doing some parity checks but the storage was available the whole time. One of the big feature I was interested in was setting up a dynamic LAG (Link Aggregation Group).
To keep it simple, setting up a LAG allows you to bond the two gigabit ports to effectively double the bandwidth of your NAS. You will need a managed switch in order to set up a LAG and if you have a managed switch you most likely have the skills you need to set up the LAG. Once I got the LAG set up, I started transferring files and I was blown away by the speeds. It was 5 to 7 times faster than my previous NAS. I was regularly recording transfer and download rates of 150+MB/s and average sustained transfer rates of 90MB/s.
Also there is 50+ apps you can download and install with the click of a button really opening up what you can do with this NAS. This NAS can be used by professions of my mother which is deceiving because it hides all the advanced features available to an advanced user if you just dig a little deeper.
Again, I highly recommend the Synology DS412 and really there whole product sweep. It is worth every penny.
Even though it is not a high end version, looks to have the same product value. Using this model for data backup and archiving. It is very fast even though no upgrades to memory (is not available on model). Using it in with 4x4TB Seagate Iron Wolf NAS drives and Raid5 configuration thus covering my needs very will. The dual 1G Ethernet ports that can be bound creates a really good high bandwidth connection to my router.
If you plan to do streaming movies from your NAS, make sure you look at the models carefully, this one (DS418) is not designed for that. There is no issue, just sharing to make sure you don't purchase an incorrect one. Of course, they have a price that goes along with feature.
I went with Synology due to industry reviews and personal recommendation from a fellow and trusted IT professional. So far, no disappointment what-so-ever.
Ok so I went back and forth on how to review this. Using it exclusively as network storage is fine, no complaints.
My issue, however, comes with how much it's 'oversold' on the synology website. Their advertising seems disingenuous and ultimately led to my return of the unit, which they made me pay shipping for (I'll admit I feel duped by that one).
In no particular order:
- >200mb/s read cannot be realized on a 1 gigabit connection, which this unit has - Heavy advertising of a streaming box, with advertised hardware transcoding at 4k/60. Let me tell you, you will not get anything higher than 720p out of this unit. And even then, sometimes. It also doesn't seem to offer HW transcoding on Plex.
Being that a stream box was one of my main uses, I'm a bit miffed to see that this does such an astoundingly poor job of it. But, onto the good
- DSM has a pretty easy to use interface - quickconnect, while slow, does work (set up DDNS though) - SHR works flawless and lets me mix and match drives - Webdav support lets me access files off-site - Inside the home, this unit will saturate a gigabit connection. Though, of note, bonded connections won't give you 2 gigabits worth. Kind of. It'll let you have 1 gigabit to 2 separate devices at the same time, though each singular device cannot exceed one gigabit.
With this in mind, as much as I hate to leave a low review, I will. If Synology would clean up their advertising on this, I'd be happy to revise. But as it stands, it just does not perform the advertised functions.
