QNAP 228A vs SYNOLOGY 220j?

[Enquiries]

Hello!

i recently started to swim in the NAS sea, and luckily i found your website that helped me really a LOT.
I just read many of your reviews and comparisons, but i've still an open question.

I'm looking for a cheap nas for my home to keep my data centralized and safe with RAID1 and monthly backup on external HDD.
I'm also really interested in other functionalities like remote files access, surveilance, possibility to organize and stream my music wherever i am from my smartphone (little less interested in film streaming, i've 2 LG smart TVs and Netflix...i'm ok with that), torrent client etc... i don't plan to make a heavy use of them but... just use them.

I reduced my search to 3 models (followed by the best prices i found in my region) :

QNAP TS-230 - 206€
QNAP TS-228a - 165€
SYNOLOGY DS220j - 165€

The TS-230 costs about 25% more than the others two, and I wish to save that money unless it is really worth it.

So... my question is, which NAS would be a better choice considering they cost exactly the same? QNAP TS-228a or the newer SYNOLOGY DS220j ?

A factor that can help me to choose is the quality of the software for backup on external HDD: ease of use, possibility to read the backup data from a PC instead of being forced to connect it to NAS, space occupied from the backup in relation to the original dimensions.. in other terms i simply need a your opion about that ^^

Thank you for your time for the exceptional work made with this site.

Kind regards,
Mattia.

[ed]

TS-230 is a replacement model for the older 228A. These two NAS are much better then 218j. Synology made j series only for backup purposes. You would be disappointed with the performance.But the other two NAS would be a good choice.I hope this helps.