Hi,
First thanks for you site, great stuff!

I own a DS216J with 2x8T in raid1. I ram rather happy with it.
it does everything I need it to if not that quickly...
It is completely full, I have added about 4T of media in about 2y
I need an upgrade.

Usage:
We are an Apple family
We are not power users! 95% is local usage rarely remote access.
80% media storage essentially 1080p content but 4k is coming.
the media is served to the iPads Macs and an Apple TV4k (MrMMC, port of Kodi ) as well as a Sony Smart TV (Kodi)
15% back up of portables devices (2 iPhones, 3 MacBooks, 3 iPads).
5% download
5G is coming fast so we might want to remotely stream and with 4k also coming it might be worth the effort to build for this usage case.
Although I believe that anything passed the j model from Synology will do just fine for this purpose.

The DSx20x seem to be no show for this year and I cannot wait for next year.
so should I
a. Keep the DS216j, buy a pair of HDD 12T or 14T and see in 2y what’s available?
It seems easy to upgrade I believe just pop a new HDD in one bay and keep a 8T in the other, 
rebuild the array and pop the second one in to complete the upgrade?
b. Buy a 4 bay NAS for the next 5 years?
- better use the two 8T and add 2 12/14T HDD and build a hybrid array?
- scrap everything and go for 4 12/14T? how do I migrate?

What should I buy?
If we invest in a new NAS I'll definitely go for a 4 bay.
DS420j? Cheap essentially a larger DS216J but still no transcoding…
If I invest in a transcoding capable NAS I need it to be 4k@60fps, HDR etc capable or it just not worth the trouble and it won’t be future proof enough.
DS418 vs DS418play despite the media oriented play version the specs look like the DS418 support 4k@60fps and the DS418play doesn’t?
Qnap? price here are the same but the HDMI looks interesting for 4k but its seem that Kodi is not officially supported, any feedback?

Thanks for your site and your advices

Hey there, I really enjoyed your review of the Archer MR600 4G+Cat6 AC1200 WiFi 4G SIM Router.

I was wondering if you could give me some advice on whether I should buy the above router or the ASUS 4G-AC68U Wireless AC1900 4G Modem Router?

My main objective is that it would bring fast reliable WiFi into my home/office for about 8 - 10 devices.

Would really appreciate your help,
All the best,
Stelios

Hello,

I am looking for a Synology NAS that will support both NVME M.2 cache and 10GbE that has quad core Xenon over Atom quad core with 8-12 bays.

I now have a Nikon D850 45Megapixel camera that is swamping my DS215J.

I would like to stay with Synology in part due to familiarisation and the Synology Drive Windows client that syncs the NAS and computer disk to allow seamless offloading from the computer to the NAS and vice versa.

I've almost settled on a DS1819+, but I not sure if the Atom quad-core CPU is enough. Will the DS1819+ if I buy now support the E10M20?

The DS3617xs would be my choice but it doesn't support M.2 NVME!

Would the Synology DiskStation DS3617xs 12 Bay NAS give me 2,500/2,000Mb/sec sequential R/W without the NVME for my photoshop files? How many and what size EXOS disks would I need to get that level of performance with what memory config?

I want a NAS that can give a minimum of 1,000Mb/sec sequential write for large 2-3Gb photoshop PSD/PSB files. 2,000-2,500 sequential R/W perferably.

What RAID 6 config of disks say 4Tb(128Mb cache), 6Tb(256Mb cache), 10Tb(256Mb cache) of Seagate EXOS drives give the 1,000Mb/sec sequential R/W or better say 2,500Mb/sec sequential R/W?

Will say 5 drives in RAID 6 give 5x256Mb(onboard disk cache), i.e. >1,000Mb/sec to a one off single sequential photoshop file save?

I would like to use the NVME M.2 as write cache with "skip sequential I/O" off to boost sequential write performance, ideally with a 2 port 10GbE link aggregated to give say 2,000Mb/sec sequential write performance.

I want to run up to 4 VMs as well.

Noise has to be around the 20-30 DBA as a maximum.

Budget is maximum $2,300 USD for the NAS.

Thank you..., Regards Michael

Looking to get a NAS that would:
1. Backup my data (MacOS TimeMachine, iOS, etc.)
2. Allow me to setup my own VMs/ Servers/ etc. so I can install and test systems
3. Backup my cloud (OneDrive, GoogleDrive) independently without me needing to connect and sync with my computer
4. Not cost a million quids!

I'm fairly technical and also willing to learn where I don't know things.

Appreciate your advice.

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Hi there, I am looking for a little bit of advice. I think I've pretty much decided on the Qnap 453be. My questions are around what to "add on".

We are a recently retired couple. I have a Chillblast tower, which I've upgraded with a Win 10 (x64) 1 TB SSD and 32Gb memory. We have a lot of photos, and a music collection of 450gb which is now housed on a spare 1TB HDD platter in the tower. We stream the music around the house. We have a Lenovo T420 laptop (also upgraded to win 10 x64) a couple of tablets and a prehistoric laptop (also upgraded) which is an emergency spare not in day to day use. We DON'T watch films, or stream TV content, and are never likely to (life is too short to waste on a 90+ minute movie) I do a little gaming on Steam. That's it. What we do need is a reliable backup, and somewhere to act as a central hub so we don't have to keep manually copying files and photos from one machine to another.

My stepson has persuaded me that a two bay NAS would be a false economy as sooner or later I'd have to upgrade, and I think he's probably right. However, I am not sure whether to go for two HDD initially, or three / four. Neither do I know what size they should be to achieve "future proofing " but not be so big as to be silly for a pair of late-middle aged private individuals. I'm not sure our needs run to RAID 5 as things stand, but I am happy to be corrected. I believe I could add more HDD at a later date. I am inclined to go for more than the basic memory, but again, I don't think we need to get too whizzy given our needs. We do use the Chillblast Tower pretty well 24/7.

I've watched your videos till I feel as if Rob is a member of the family......so I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

Hello, ran across your page from a YT video. I cannot decide on a Synology NAs & had some questions.

Looking at the DS1019+, DS1618+ and DS1819+.

I plan to use the NAS for a variety of things. Plex, backups, media (music) server, and also dabble with VMWare & run a few VDIs.

The DS1019 only has 5 bays, but has the built in M.2 slots & comes with 8GB of DDR3.

DS1618, 6 bays, can be expanded with the M.2 card but only comes with 4GB DDR4

DS1819, 8 bays, also expandable with a M.2 card & also only 4GB DDR4.

I'm leaning towards the DS1618 or DS1819+ & swapping the DDR4 to 2 16GB sticks or maybe just 2 8GB sticks. I plan to start with 4 4TB Ironwolf drives. (unless there's another option priced right)

Questions:

1. Which DDR4 would be best fit for the DS1618 or DS1819+? I tried narrowing it down looking at Synology's selector but it & matching Amazon parts is a little confusing.

2. If I ran the SHR-2 array, can I start with only 4 drives & add more as I go without having to lose data or starting the array over?

3. Are all 3 options hot swappable? I wasn't able to find that info on Synology's website.