Hello. I have Synology DS215j right now. I use it to backup my Photos and some critical documents. I wanted to use it to store my music, notes from phone (replace Google Keep), calendar, contacts, some financial spreadsheets - BUT - it's extremely slow. I mean UI. For backing up my photos and docs it's good enough though I'm sad that backup takes a lot of time, and browsing photos even in local network is slow. I moved email and calendar/contacts to fastmail, passwords to bitwarden but I wanted to give Synology another try. But I want fast working, responsive solution. I wanted to run some docker containers (for some notes and finance/music stuff) and I really don't know if DS220+ is enough (how much ram?) or should I use DS723+ or DS923+ - and with or without NVMe cache drives and how much RAM would be necessairy? I'd like to browse UI services smoothly. Can you help with that? Thanks
Hello there! It's great to hear that you're considering giving Synology another try for storing your music, notes, calendar, contacts, and financial spreadsheets. For a fast and responsive solution, the DS220+ or DS224+ would be a good fit. Both these models come with a Celeron CPU, and the RAM is upgradable. To ensure smooth user experience in DSM, it's recommended to have a minimum of 1GB RAM, but for running multiple apps simultaneously, 2-4GB of RAM should suffice.
Now, if you need 10Gbe connectivity, you might want to explore the DS723+ or DS923+. These models offer a 10Gbe upgrade slot, making them suitable for high-speed networking if it's essential for your setup. In summary, the DS220+ or DS224+ with sufficient RAM will likely meet your requirements for smooth UI services and running docker containers for notes and financial/music tasks. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out. Happy NAS shopping!