I am interested in getting my first NAS, and I like what I see with Synology NAS. I am also interested in having Plex as a feature, and a virtual machine that I can have Microsoft Windows 10 or 11 on it, and and if it the NAS is powerful enough to do some upper lever PC gaming, that would be nice as well. However, now I am wondering if I could install Synology DSM 7.1 on a Windows PC with 5 Nas Hard drives. Thoughts?

I have synology DS1520+ with 3 bay installed. I plan to buy a UPS. The power required is about 190W (1.75 x power needed for my devices i.e. NAS, modem and router). It seems that Back-UPS Pro BR550GI is enough for me as it provide 330W output. Yet, it has only 3 minutes to work for full load. I wonder if it is enough for the NAS to run into safe mode in case of power surge. I just need UPS to protect my data in the NAS. Hence longer running times seem not necessary for me. Is Back-UPS Pro BR550GI enough for my need? Thank you very much!

Hi Robbie,

As you truly are an expert and a man of knowledge and information, and I do watch your videos!, I would like to ask,
are you by any chance familiar with the information whether on the market an "SFP+ 10G 1 port Network card" exist, that is compatible and installable into the Qnap TS-464 NAS.

It goes w/o saying that preferable price is supposed to be around 100-120€.

If U can help me, I would be very, very DANKBAR, i.e., grateful.

Just keep ON with what U are doing!

And one more thing: TS-464 fully loaded - RAM up to the sky, QM2 4P-384 or 2P2G2T with SSDs for caching, and TRUENAS on top of it..., and a bit more about configuring TRUENAS. I know that U made a similar video recently!!! It would be just another useful case scenario.

Cheers, Ivica

To help people setting up these two new Reolink models, the easy way is to first go into the camera settings Network-Advanced-Ports and enable both HTTP and RSTP which are disabled by default. Once this is done, they will show up in the add camera wizard as ONVIF where you can add them. Just a note, the DUO2 will show up with both cameras in one stream using only one synology license. The TrackMix will require 2 licenses.

I have a Synology DS216Play, 2 questions.

1. Generally I need help to speed the NAS up. What can I do to improve its performance, especially around 4K videos or is this NAS too old for 4K? I use Plex and often get a message that its not powerful enough to play the video.

2. Can I add more RAM as it's the standard amount it came with (1024MB? Also, can I use a smaller SSD for the system and maybe for Plex meta data to improve it? Can I add ram and use RAM transcoding?

I have no idea how to do any of this stuff and could really do with some help or advise. If I simply need to upgrade I would consider that but if I can adjust settings or add RAM etc. that's the best for now.

Thanks for your help,
David

Currently using Kodi 19.3 on a Nvidia Shield streaming media from a Buffalo LS-QVL/R5 with two 6TB and two 4TB drives in a RAID 10. My media files do not share all the same encoding. I have a few 4K 2160p files. The Buffalo has done everything I've asked it to do. I use the upscaling feature on the Shield, too. I've been looking into media servers.

My buddy has used Plex for many years and so I've seen and used it pretty extensively. I only recently heard of Emby and I'm currently on a trial with them using their Android app on my Shield. I'm still learning what Emby can and cannot do but I think I may pay for their Premium service at some point even though in the back of my mind, Plex seems like a more known quantity to me. Emby is slightly cheaper, as well. Truthfully, the Embruary skin for Kodi that I've been using seems pretty nice even though it doesn't have all of the extras the other two have like, trailers, skip intros, etc.

Regardless of what I do, it's time to upgrade my storage. Remote access and the ability to backup discrete devices remotely seems like a benefit as is the ability to stream or view media remotely. I've also recently learned of Docker and Btfrs support. I don't know what that is yet but it seems like most want the capability even if they're not seeing the benefits of it in their current use. The ability to transcode on the fly is important, too. Or maybe not. My current TV is a several year old 1080p non-smart TV but I want to get a newer OLED for the living room, keeping my current one.

I have two 8TB drives, a 2TB, and a 3TB that I plan to use initially. Once I've established the new RAID and migrated any data, I'll move the two 6TB drives from the Buffalo to the new NAS. Synology seems to make efficient use of HD space with SHR but I'm open to whatever will do the job.

Hello there, I have a P340 Tiny Lenovo Thinkstation that runs a i9-10900T with 16GB RAM, used for professional use. I have a 250GB SSD (WD Blue) but it is getting too small.
Wondering whether there is a fast SSD 2TB Drive without heatsink (there is no space for one in such small pc cases) that does not run ridicully hot.
What is your best advice there?
Best and congrats, you are so fun and informative!!!
Javier

How do you think the latest financial crisis will affect NAS systems. I was particularly thinking of existing older NAS systems sitting in distribution centres, not the latest models.

Hi again Robbie,

My head is fried! Spent a chunk of time watching a tonne of your videos and reading articles here on your site. I'm wiser, but no closer to a conclusion!

We previously chatted when I was weighing up 4-6 bay nas, but then Synology delayed (or pulled) release of the anticipated 922+ and I thought .... "maybe just go for 8 bays now as that is what I already have with a nas & a hdd tower.

What is there no "one nas to solve them all", it would make life much easier. Loved your video comparison on both these machines and how the qnap giveth but taketh away! It's so true.

I need 8 bays, (I've about 20 3TB drives which I'll be replacing with some ironwolf pro 16-18tb drives. Most of this is media based content. Not looking for virtualisation, surveillance, etc., just ability to view content from multiple sources and remotely too.

My assumptions at present are...
Qnap seem to be getting hacked quite a bit more than synology.
Not sure if I need zfs over btrfs. Especially if 16gb of ddr is needed at a minimum.
Hate that synology is still only giving 1gbe over qnaps 2.5gbe - although you mentioned before about usb & pcie slots being options to improve this.
Hate that neither offer gpu onboard.
Leaning towards synology as you mentioned it's more 'polished' and intuitive over the qnap system..... even though I'm more pc & android than console or apple rubbish.

If synology just had 8 bays, with gpu onboard, minimum of 2.5gbe, amd usable nvme as storage, it'd be a no-brainer.

Any ideas to help me decide? (Apart from what your bideo already mentioned). Or is there a batter 6 bay option available that has most of what I'm looking for?

Thanks as ever...

Running a soon-2-be 6 year old Syno 8bays with WD NAS 8TB, but these are starting to die. 2 replaced so far. One on garantee.

Runs 24/7/365 as private only Plex NAS.

DS922+ with 4 WD NAS Pro 22TB in RAID 5 and 2 x Samsung Pro NVME 256gb cachers.

Do you think it's in the market this year?

Very best and great info vids - ta very much
Michael S

61yo BSc IT strat and tinkerer