07-18-2025, 04:18 PM
Thanks for laying out what you’re doing with your NAS and what you’re looking for — it makes it much easier to steer you in the right direction.
Coming from the DS115j you will definitely see a noticeable improvement in responsiveness and general snappiness with either the DS124 or the TS133. The DS115j is based on an old Marvell chip and is very underpowered by today’s standards. Both the DS124 and TS133 use much newer ARM processors and have much better performance even for basic file serving and photo streaming.
Between the two, you’re correct that the QNAP TS133 does technically have slightly better hardware specs on paper, particularly the CPU cores and memory bandwidth. However, Synology’s DSM software is much more refined and user friendly for your sort of light home use. Features like Synology Photos, Time Machine backup, DLNA support, and overall ease of configuration are still better on the DS124. For a “set and forget” experience with good app support, Synology still feels like the safer choice here.
On the QNAP side, you’d get a bit more performance headroom and some extra tinkering options if you decide to push it beyond simple backups and streaming later. But you’ll have to contend with a less polished app ecosystem and more hands-on maintenance.
The BeeStation, as you noticed, is essentially a DS124 in terms of hardware but locked into a much more basic software experience with limited features. Since it costs the same as a DS124 plus a drive, it really doesn’t make much sense for anyone who wants even a little bit of flexibility.
So in short, for your usage — photos, backups, light streaming — the DS124 is the better fit. It will feel much faster than your current DS115j, and you’ll keep the simplicity and reliability you’re already familiar with.
Coming from the DS115j you will definitely see a noticeable improvement in responsiveness and general snappiness with either the DS124 or the TS133. The DS115j is based on an old Marvell chip and is very underpowered by today’s standards. Both the DS124 and TS133 use much newer ARM processors and have much better performance even for basic file serving and photo streaming.
Between the two, you’re correct that the QNAP TS133 does technically have slightly better hardware specs on paper, particularly the CPU cores and memory bandwidth. However, Synology’s DSM software is much more refined and user friendly for your sort of light home use. Features like Synology Photos, Time Machine backup, DLNA support, and overall ease of configuration are still better on the DS124. For a “set and forget” experience with good app support, Synology still feels like the safer choice here.
On the QNAP side, you’d get a bit more performance headroom and some extra tinkering options if you decide to push it beyond simple backups and streaming later. But you’ll have to contend with a less polished app ecosystem and more hands-on maintenance.
The BeeStation, as you noticed, is essentially a DS124 in terms of hardware but locked into a much more basic software experience with limited features. Since it costs the same as a DS124 plus a drive, it really doesn’t make much sense for anyone who wants even a little bit of flexibility.
So in short, for your usage — photos, backups, light streaming — the DS124 is the better fit. It will feel much faster than your current DS115j, and you’ll keep the simplicity and reliability you’re already familiar with.