Discuss: TerraMaster NAS and RAID - How to Setup a Hot Spare

Hi,

i would like an advise, i am looking to buy Synology NAS ... i wanted to go for the 218+ because of its intel processor. but now i am considering a 4-bay option, the 418 is not a lot more expensive but its realtek, the 418Play or 918+ becomes too expensive

my questions is what features of the software and what capabilities will i be missing if i am using the Realtek processor vs the intel?

is there any difference in terms of features or capabilities, i read old blogs that plex was not supported on realtek but now it is ... anything else?

i will use the NAS mainly for backups of different phones/ipads/laptops ... photo storage ... plex media server to 2 TV mainly 1080 rarely 4K

Hi,
After reading your article from October 2019 about the lack of Synology 2020 models, I was wondering if you have gained any more insight in if there will be a ds220+ soon. I was looking to buy the DS218+ but if they would release a 2020 version soon I'd rather wait a while for that.

Hope you can help, thanks!

Cheers!

Hi Rob,
great resource you have here! Looks like I might be wanting to buy a first NAS at a tricky time with new models due from Synology for the DSM but here goes.
Thoughts on entry level stuff if you have time.
Considering DS220j v DS218play v TS230
Latter is tempting me because of the RAM and being the newest but had kind of gone for Synology in my head. Started at 220j but watching your reviews realise it to be a bit crippled which is a shame.
So any advice greatly appreciated as I've been going round in circles for some time.
Will be used for some video sharing to a smart tv, photo storage and pc/mac backups with two 4TB mirrored drives.
Best regards
Chris

Hi There. My wife and I are building a new house and I'm planning on included a NAS to be used almost exclusively for playing HD/4k media. I'm trying to find the NAS device that is best suited for this purpose; the QNAP TS-453Be is a possibility, or the HS-453DX, though I've read that the latter may have heat issues. I'm not averse to a Synology product, either, if it's superior. Any advice and guidance are much appreciated.

Hello Rob,

Firstly lel me thank and congrat you. I cannot tell how useful I am finding all your blogs and videos.

I have recently started on this NAS great world and decided to move forward with my first one.

Basically I would be using it for back-up, (PLEX) Media Server & download manager but I do not discard extend my views and leverage all the possibilities I might have within this price range NAS.

Upon doing some research I would like to go for a TS-453B (I found it at 605€). Originally I was thinking about a TS-453Be but I found the TS-453B at same price :-O.

My main concern comes with the PLEX media server topic. I got a quite new LG OLED C9 TV as the main (if not only) device to watch my media so from my understanding I should not be really worried about trasncoding since the TV supports a huge variety of formats.

I am quite picky with the image quality so I would like to keep on watching my media in 4k UHD (ideally 10bits H265 & H264). Not to mention the audio, which I would love to keep on enjoying in Dolby ATMOS.

Looks like not a big deal since, as mentioned above, the TV should support all of that via PLEX client app (over a 1Gbps network) and enabling Direct Play/Stream. However, something just stoppped me from buying the TS-453B... subtitles. I watch my movies in English with Spanish subtitles and I would like to keep it as such. I read that Plex needs to transcode so to insert the subtitles, so at this point I am just worried that the transcode feature of the TS-453B would be a pain when tryint to reach those image formats natively supported by my TV.

So, basically:
1. Shoudl I wait for a TS-453D (whenever it comes and expecting that the price range will be similar)?
2. Am I making an issue on something that can be easily solved? (I read Plex Pass supports subtitles download)
3. Which HDD would you recommend? I got an eye on quite basic ones (3TB ST3000VN007 Seagate IronWolf / 3TB WD30EFRX WD RED) but not sure if I should go for higher rank ones with more than 64MB cache

Thanks in advance!

1. When planning for a local, automatic NAS-to-NAS backup configuration for a Plex-capable system, does mixing NAS brands (Synology and QNAP) impose any limitations or problems, regardless of which brand is the backup?

2. If the NAS backup is later relocated to an off-site location, does this change the siutation? ...and is it easy to do this?

Discuss: QNAP TR and TL Expansion Range Explained

Hi, I am looking to buy a QNAP because some models can have their CPU expanded. Which I want to upgrade to an i7. There’s another catch I want to be able to use QTS Hero. What QNAP models do you recommend pal? Thank you in advance.

Hi Rob ,

I am a fan of you in your youtube review. I actually bought the QNAP TS-453A partly on your review.


Right now I have a TS-453A with 8 GB and certainly cannot cope with what I like to do.



1. Can this unit accept standard RAM (say Crucial) so that I can upgrade it 32 GB. Can the existing 2 x 4GB be used with 2 x 16 GB RAM?

2. I intend to use the server for container technology. Will this be able to work with this use-case with 40 GB ram. The container will act as say a git server, plex server, linux server.

3. Can the container have 64-bit machine, that is the cpu must be 64-bit registers?

4. Have tried using the integrated Radeon for calculations?

5. I you have not, do you think it will work for the above use-case ?

6. Is this unit fast enough to stream 4k video files. The TS-453A I have cannot do the job.

As I am about to pull the trigger on this a speedy answer will be much appreciated!!


Cheers, Ric