Synology DS218j review

[R4ziel]

Unboxing and Hardware

The device I had for review is the Synology DS218j, which sits on the lower end of the spectrum of Synology NAS devices. This however does not mean that it is a bad device by any measure; in fact, it stands up quite well in terms of features and general usability.

The box that the device came in was very sturdy and did not feel like they neglected the packaging, all the components were securely and purposefully packaged. Which does give it a confident feel.

Taking the device out of the box was easy and it was good to see it was covered , this avoids any damage to the glossy white that covers the outside.

The device itself is quite a pretty looking NAS, I like the minimalist design and the small form factor. Perfect to store somewhere out of the way.

The back of the device sports a power inlet, a gigabit Ethernet port and 2x USB3 connectors, which can be used to plug in an external drive and backup your data to offsite storage if you wish

The top cover slides off to reveal the insides and it is very self-explanatory. This device houses 2 drives, which can be either 3.5” or 2.5”

The extras you get with the device is pretty slim, but covers the essentials to get you up and running. This includes the power cable and adaptor, an Ethernet cable, all the screws you will need to install the HDD’s, a bracket for using smaller drives and the quick installation guide, which really just covers the install of the HDD’s.


Software and Interface

Booting up the device for the first time was actually not as easy and quick as what I would have expected. Although easy to find on my network and access, I was prompted the Synology Disk Manager needs to be installed first, which I did. I was met by a prompt that it would take 10 minutes, which it did, and then took another 10 minutes to restart and finish up.

I have had a few experiences with different NAS devices and this struck me as odd, but none the less, it was set up and ready to go once it was rebooted.


The interface is pretty interesting for this type of device, I did not get the normal tabbed browser like interface I was expected but rather a “desktop” feel interface with a few icons to manage the device.


This was a very fresh approach and quite a welcome surprise. The interface was easy to navigate and instructions on creating volumes were very clear.

Once I had a basic volume set up, it was reported that all was good to go and I had no issues creating users and permissions for different folders.




Where the rubber meets the road

After the initial setup was done and all the “Basics” have been covered I was very impressed with this little device and how it did so far, so I decided to do a bit more extensive testing.

I swapped a working HDD in the array with one I knew had troubles and bad sectors, to see how the device would respond.

Once it started up and I could log in again, I was immediately met with a warning that one of my drives were bad and had to be replaced. This being a Striped RAID, I would have lost all my data, which was expected.

The detection of the drive health is a very good feature and works like a charm, through a bit more extensive testing I am glad to say that you will know your drive is about to crash and get ample warnings before it does.


General performance

When copying large video files over the network from the NAS I got 111MB/sec very consistently, however smaller files in large numbers were only reading at 35MB/sec which in general was quite good.


With encrypted folders this speed does drop off quite a bit, as I got roughly a 50-60% degradation in performance when copying to/from an encrypted location. This is expected though as the data has to be encrypted and decrypted every time it is accessed or manipulated.


Extra features and functions

Along with the basic features of the NAS part of the drive, Synology does something quite different. It includes a kind of APP store where you can browse and install extra features on the device. The device can serve as a Plex server, or handle your printing with print server functionality, it can even serve as a local VPN server should you need any remote and secure way of accessing your network.


It has to be mentioned though that all these extra features do take CPU and Memory resources, and with too many features the device does slow down considerably.

Conclusion

After about two days of testing with different configurations and settings, I was quite surprised by the way this little device could handle itself. I had no problems with read/write speeds across the network, all my video files and documents were opened without any pause, even extended movie streaming from the device did not have any adverse effects on its performance.

For where this device sits on the Synology spectrum, I would be very confident in saying these devices are superb.

This is an excellent addition to your home or even a small office space where files are needed centrally and quickly


Pros

• Easy installation of hardware
• Excellent interface
• Read/Write speeds that keep up with rigorous streaming
• Solid hardware with a premium feel and no flimsiness

Cons

• Initial setup is longer than expected
• The interface does have some unexpected behaviour where windows need to be re-opened but this only happened when switching through windows rapidly

 

[R4ziel]

What is power consumption like? Does it have a power saving / standby mode where the disks power down?
I have to say, MyBB need to do these more often. I'm leaning towards buying one now in place of my regular external drive.

I haven't tested power consumption specifically, but it does have quite an excellent low power mode where it goed to sleep, which spins down the drive but leaves the web interfaces active, and once you access anything that needs data on the drives, they spin up and it's active again in a few seconds. Im very happy with it overall and use it daily for series and movies, running plex from it as well

 

[Sensorei]

For file storage this is definitely a great bang for buck NAS. But this should not be purchased for use as a Plex server if you watch 4K content, or if you need files transcoded. It fails there. All your media files and subtitles have to be compatible with your plex client devices otherwise the DS218J will be a disappointment.

 

[R4ziel]

Thanks, if you happen to have the equipment to test and the time, that would be good to know. Would be interesting to know where it sits on the scale... does system fan power down as well when asleep?

The system fan powers down when its not needed yes, but the unit overall is pretty quiet

Useful info, thanks. So perhaps not the best as a Plex server unless you're prepared to do the work up front in encoding stuff.

No unfortunately 4k content it has a heart atack, so if you are looking at a Plex server to run 4k, then this will have to serve purely as storage. But 1080p content it handles withouth any problem

 

[Sensorei]

Useful info, thanks. So perhaps not the best as a Plex server unless you're prepared to do the work up front in encoding stuff.

Check out the DS218+.

First spec to check for when shopping for a Plex server NAS is that it has an Intel processor, and not ARM processor.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Useful info, thanks. So perhaps not the best as a Plex server unless you're prepared to do the work up front in encoding stuff.

It can still be as long as you don't need any transcoding and your subtitles aren't image format but SRT instead.

Could probably do the media optimizer setup just fine if you have the space to burn.