phoneJunky
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The DS218+ is aimed at home and small business users for additional storage and as I am using a NAS solution for my home, I was looking forward to see how it compares to my WD My Cloud 4TB.
Unboxing
The Synology DS218+ is packaged in a sturdy packaging that should give it ample protection during handling, delivery etc.
Inside the box, you get the DS218+, a power cable, a network cable and a quick installation guide.
Device Specification
The DS218+ packs a 64-bit Inter Celeron J3355 Dual Core processor (2/2.5GHz) with 2GB DDR3L RAM pre-installed. It has 2 drive bays that is able to handle up to 2x12TB hot swappable drives depending on the RAID type. The external ports that is available is an RJ-45 1GbE LAN port, 3 USB 3.0 ports and one eSATA port.
Hardware Installation
The installation of the drives were a breeze – just follow the quick install guide’s 6 steps, the front clips of effortlessly and it is quite sturdy when you position in back in place. I started off with installing WD Blue 1TB drives (not on the compatible drive type list) in the appliance (for heavier users you should really use the Red version). The DS218+ can be installed without using any tools as the cover is held in place by four rubber connectors and the bays are ejected with release lever mechanism. The hard drives are also held in place to the bay with plastic pins making the whole hardware installation tool-less.
Software Installation
After the hardware is up and running, you just enter the link that you will find in your quick install guide.
You set up your account and a few other settings after which the device restarts. After this you are ready to go.
After the device restarts, it takes you to the DiskStation Manager (DSM) which is an operating system that you access through your web browser. It has a very UNIX like interface, so people using iOS/Android/Linux and even Windows should feel very comfortable with it.
It comes out with lots of features out of the box, but there is also a Package Center where you can download other applications that you might want. I started off with getting Plex Server, SVN and Redmine - which are the things that I would normally use the most. All of these were easy to install and configure.
There are many other applications available for photos, music, mail, notes, databases, python etc. so you will probably be covered for your needs.
Performance
I really could not push the DS218+ hard enough to fall over in my case. Fibre is not yet live in my area so I could only connect it to a 4Mbps Internet connection on a 100Mbps router. The easiest way for me to test its performance was to stream a full HD (I have nothing that can support 4K at the moment) clip from the Plex Server while uploading a file with DSM and doing a rather large commit with SVN. Even while jumping around to different times in the video clip in the Plex client, I didn’t notice any buffering as I do with my My Cloud Home that is shown in the left of the following picture. I know that the Plex Server on this device can do 4K H.265 Transcoding which means this is quite a powerful device.
Conclusion
For home use, I am coming from a My Cloud Home device and the DS218+ does almost everything the prior does better and more. DSM is a very user friendly OS and coupled with the plethora of applications available on Package Center positions this device as an excellent option as a NAS for home or small businesses. Also as DSM is installed on the hard drive, the hard drives become hot swappable. Having a Plex Server running that can transcode H.265 is also a big plus.
There are however, small things that bothered me. The Plex Server gave a notification that a new version is available for download, but the Package Center did not see this update. Also after I just finished the install of DSM there were a build in application for search that needed an update. It did not show any time estimate and I got tired waiting for it to finish and just left it overnight. A bit inconsistent as all the other applications that I downloaded has expected time to finish there. Also you have to manually do mount the network hard drive if you want to access the folders whereas with the My Cloud Home this is done during the installation.
What I like about the DS218+ far outweighs the small things that bothered me and as the DS218+ also support RAM expansion, this device is a good option for long term use.
Unboxing
The Synology DS218+ is packaged in a sturdy packaging that should give it ample protection during handling, delivery etc.
Inside the box, you get the DS218+, a power cable, a network cable and a quick installation guide.
Device Specification
The DS218+ packs a 64-bit Inter Celeron J3355 Dual Core processor (2/2.5GHz) with 2GB DDR3L RAM pre-installed. It has 2 drive bays that is able to handle up to 2x12TB hot swappable drives depending on the RAID type. The external ports that is available is an RJ-45 1GbE LAN port, 3 USB 3.0 ports and one eSATA port.
Hardware Installation
The installation of the drives were a breeze – just follow the quick install guide’s 6 steps, the front clips of effortlessly and it is quite sturdy when you position in back in place. I started off with installing WD Blue 1TB drives (not on the compatible drive type list) in the appliance (for heavier users you should really use the Red version). The DS218+ can be installed without using any tools as the cover is held in place by four rubber connectors and the bays are ejected with release lever mechanism. The hard drives are also held in place to the bay with plastic pins making the whole hardware installation tool-less.
Software Installation
After the hardware is up and running, you just enter the link that you will find in your quick install guide.
You set up your account and a few other settings after which the device restarts. After this you are ready to go.
After the device restarts, it takes you to the DiskStation Manager (DSM) which is an operating system that you access through your web browser. It has a very UNIX like interface, so people using iOS/Android/Linux and even Windows should feel very comfortable with it.
It comes out with lots of features out of the box, but there is also a Package Center where you can download other applications that you might want. I started off with getting Plex Server, SVN and Redmine - which are the things that I would normally use the most. All of these were easy to install and configure.
There are many other applications available for photos, music, mail, notes, databases, python etc. so you will probably be covered for your needs.
Performance
I really could not push the DS218+ hard enough to fall over in my case. Fibre is not yet live in my area so I could only connect it to a 4Mbps Internet connection on a 100Mbps router. The easiest way for me to test its performance was to stream a full HD (I have nothing that can support 4K at the moment) clip from the Plex Server while uploading a file with DSM and doing a rather large commit with SVN. Even while jumping around to different times in the video clip in the Plex client, I didn’t notice any buffering as I do with my My Cloud Home that is shown in the left of the following picture. I know that the Plex Server on this device can do 4K H.265 Transcoding which means this is quite a powerful device.
Conclusion
For home use, I am coming from a My Cloud Home device and the DS218+ does almost everything the prior does better and more. DSM is a very user friendly OS and coupled with the plethora of applications available on Package Center positions this device as an excellent option as a NAS for home or small businesses. Also as DSM is installed on the hard drive, the hard drives become hot swappable. Having a Plex Server running that can transcode H.265 is also a big plus.
There are however, small things that bothered me. The Plex Server gave a notification that a new version is available for download, but the Package Center did not see this update. Also after I just finished the install of DSM there were a build in application for search that needed an update. It did not show any time estimate and I got tired waiting for it to finish and just left it overnight. A bit inconsistent as all the other applications that I downloaded has expected time to finish there. Also you have to manually do mount the network hard drive if you want to access the folders whereas with the My Cloud Home this is done during the installation.
What I like about the DS218+ far outweighs the small things that bothered me and as the DS218+ also support RAM expansion, this device is a good option for long term use.
