Synology DiskStation review - The NAS I wish I had bought sooner

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Synology DiskStation review - The NAS I wish I had bought sooner

When Synology sent through a DiskStation DS220+ to the office for a review, I begged the editor to let me take it home.

I consider myself an amateur techie, yet I had never set up a NAS unit before.

The more pressing reason for me wanting to take on the review, however, was that I had two real-world problems to solve.
 
Wish it was cheap/er for the bigger ones ie 4-5bays

So basically I’m starting to offload my old n54l in favour of a raid box or nas.. but yah.. not 100% sure it’s cost effective going with one of these nas devices vs a diy again.
 
krycor said:
Wish it was cheap/er for the bigger ones ie 4-5bays

So basically I’m starting to offload my old n54l in favour of a raid box or nas.. but yah.. not 100% sure it’s cost effective going with one of these nas devices vs a diy again.
Click to expand...
Went through that process a year ago, transitioning from an even older N40L. Going from four to two bays was fine, considering how big HDDs have been getting.

At the time the Synology was cheaper than DIY, but going for a Gen8 microserver at the moment would be more cost effective.

The main advantage has probably been that I no longer need to play techie on the NAS, the Synology is hassle free.
 
When Google stops backing up Photos for free, later this year, this will be one of the options, many will have on their list.

Local NAS or online subscription.....
 
garyc said:
Went through that process a year ago, transitioning from an even older N40L. Going from four to two bays was fine, considering how big HDDs have been getting.

At the time the Synology was cheaper than DIY, but going for a Gen8 microserver at the moment would be more cost effective.

The main advantage has probably been that I no longer need to play techie on the NAS, the Synology is hassle free.
Click to expand...

So the new ones.. I like the DS1821+ (5bay..) look decent especially given that they can run a few vm on the side too and expandable with additional ones.

So given that.. I’m wondering if maybe instead of buying a processing box & a raid box.. buy this and then go from there?

Problem is locally i don’t see many vendors selling them.. they sell the 2 & 4 bay ones mostly.

Ps. Risk is huge with 2 disks.. I prefer 3 minimum and using existing disks mean 5+ bay and swop for larger along the way.
 
$351.99 from Amazon with no disks (doesn't include shipping). It'll almost certainly be more expensive in SA. So roughly R6k for a 2 disk NAS. Seems steep...
 
BraBean said:
When Google stops backing up Photos for free, later this year, this will be one of the options, many will have on their list.

Local NAS or online subscription.....
Click to expand...
Google drive costs R39 per month for 200GiB, R140 for 1TiB. And they won't lose your data and you don't need to do maintenance. I have a NAS at home but trust me when I tell you. That money is well worth saving the effort of owning a NAS
 
Gnome said:
Google drive costs R39 per month for 200GiB, R140 for 1TiB. And they won't lose your data and you don't need to do maintenance. I have a NAS at home but trust me when I tell you. That money is well worth saving the effort of owning a NAS
Click to expand...
Agreed, i do the GSUITE for my business and yeah unlimited which works out super
 
Gnome said:
Google drive costs R39 per month for 200GiB, R140 for 1TiB. And they won't lose your data and you don't need to do maintenance. I have a NAS at home but trust me when I tell you. That money is well worth saving the effort of owning a NAS
Click to expand...
Oh, I wasn't actually asking, but thanks. I already decided on the O365 family sub for R139. Works me out cheaper for the whole family, 1TB per person.
But I am still looking into my own private cloud, just for interest sake. I have a Pi here, thinking of creating a Cozy cloud server.
 
BraBean said:
Local NAS or online subscription.....
Click to expand...
Decided local was my only viable option - just too much data and not enough hours in a day, or my life, to upload it all currently.
 
Gnome said:
Google drive costs R39 per month for 200GiB, R140 for 1TiB. And they won't lose your data and you don't need to do maintenance. I have a NAS at home but trust me when I tell you. That money is well worth saving the effort of owning a NAS
Click to expand...

So I agree with you for personal data and lesser media(photos etc).

Problem comes in when include video.. whether private, professional and other as well as device full backups(notebooks).

There was a stage where I actually had the microserver turned off for something like 3yrs.. but the need for backup remained with slower internet connection.

Interestingly enough I have Apple iCloud(family, all device related backup, 2TB) and Google Drive(200GB, backup of iCloud minus video though might need more with photos costing now) which does its job. But video especially if you work in media or marketing.. yah now that eats space fast and while my spouse does remove the media from our personal clouds once complete.. while working on it it’s costly. It’s funny.. you don’t realize the need for a duplicate backup until you realize that the device auto back up syncs your screw ups too.. saved her many hours like that.

Keep in mind Apple on device storage is premium :(

Ps. Prior to current company I’d sync dev work in real-time too which helps a lot especially if you screwup with git haha that saved me a few times too
 
krycor said:
So I agree with you for personal data and lesser media(photos etc).

Problem comes in when include video.. whether private, professional and other as well as device full backups(notebooks).
Click to expand...
How is the 20+ TB of "lesser media", aka photos, I need to backup any different than videos? Why should it be treated differently?
 
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