Synology DS920+

[HEXUS]

Does Synology's latest four-bay NAS tick the relevant boxes?

Read more.

[Spreadie]

£500 and still on GbE LAN?!

You could maybe understand it if there was a PCIE expansion slot.

[Saracen999]

Does it tick the boxes?

I have to say, not for me. In many ways, it's overkill for my needs and so too expensive. But if !I need have the need, then the limitations would leave me looking for something that did address the shortcomings the article mentions.

It falls between the two, IMHO.

[LSG501]

Got to agree about the lack of 2.5GBe, while I don't currently use anything above 1GBe, 2.5GBe or even 5GBe should be 'standard' on things by now, even if it's just to saturate wifi connections.

[Saracen999]

Got to agree about the lack of 2.5GBe, while I don't currently use anything above 1GBe, 2.5GBe or even 5GBe should be 'standard' on things by now, even if it's just to saturate wifi connections.

Me too, but because this isn't the kind of device I'd plan on upgrading every year or two. It's the kind of irregular device I'd purchase for long-term use and would want as future-proofed as I could reasonably get. Then again, even if for no better reason that market segmentation, that would probably drive the price up even further.

[edmundhonda]

Synology's official specification lists a maximum memory capacity of 8GB (4GB + 4GB), presumably to prevent cannibalising sales of higher-end units, but owners have already demonstrated that higher-capacity sticks appear to function just fine.

The Intel ark spec for the processor says it only supports 8GB total, so it might refuse to address anything above that in use.

edit: QNAP TS-453D is the same processor, dual 2.5GbE and a pci-e slot instead of the m.2 cache slots. ~£600 on amazon, has been available near £500 though.

[jnutt]

I'll stick with QNAP

[Spreadie]

I'll stick with QNAP

QNAP definitely has better hardware. Synology's only saving grace is the excellent DSM OS.

[Ciber]

Can the NAS actually saturate a 1gb ethernet connection? If not, why would you need better networking than 1gb?

[Xlucine]

Can the NAS actually saturate a 1gb ethernet connection? If not, why would you need better networking than 1gb?

Yes:



>900 Mb/s - hard drives are generally faster than 1 Gb/s over SATA, so the RAID striping is giving no performance advantage due to the Gbe connection

[DanceswithUnix]

Can the NAS actually saturate a 1gb ethernet connection? If not, why would you need better networking than 1gb?

A single spinning HDD can peak at 200MB/sec for a big linear read. So for things like backups or storing video files, yes easily. If you throw in multiple drives, and the fact that for example at work we have a consumer NAS with a pair of SSDs in it then the answer is it is easy to exceed a single gigabit. If you have four bays of 6Gb/s SATA and a single gigabit network interface then the system is well out of balance, though to be fair a much faster network port would probably swamp a little Atom chip like this.

Edit; I must learn to type faster

[Ciber]

Yes:



>900 Mb/s - hard drives are generally faster than 1 Gb/s over SATA, so the RAID striping is giving no performance advantage due to the Gbe connection

Ah, the difference between B and b! I read that chart and thought that's well below 1000 so why would you need gigabit connections!

A single spinning HDD can peak at 200MB/sec for a big linear read. So for things like backups or storing video files, yes easily. If you throw in multiple drives, and the fact that for example at work we have a consumer NAS with a pair of SSDs in it then the answer is it is easy to exceed a single gigabit. If you have four bays of 6Gb/s SATA and a single gigabit network interface then the system is well out of balance, though to be fair a much faster network port would probably swamp a little Atom chip like this.

Edit; I must learn to type faster

Interesting, what is the bandwidth of the drive controller in that CPU I wonder. I have a DS218 (IIRC) and it seems like the network is not the limit to it's transfer speed but the drives are (some kind of NAS drives I bought not for speed but reliability).

[edmundhonda]

Interesting, what is the bandwidth of the drive controller in that CPU I wonder..

CPU itself supports 2 SATA 6.0Gb ports and 6 pci-e gen 2 lanes (that's 500MB/s per). NVMe cache drives seems like a bit of an extravagance when the hardware's nowhere near capable of stressing it.

[Spreadie]

CPU itself supports 2 SATA 6.0Gb ports and 6 pci-e gen 2 lanes (that's 500MB/s per). NVMe cache drives seems like a bit of an extravagance when the hardware's nowhere near capable of stressing it.

Yep, I made the mistake of buying a DS918+ before that dawned on me. Luckily, I sold it on for a small profit.

I've had a few QNAP boxes over the years and they are leagues ahead on hardware in most cases.

I need more than four bays now, and both camps are freaking expensive for 6+ bays, so I've gone DIY.

[Output]

Yep, I made the mistake of buying a DS918+ before that dawned on me. Luckily, I sold it on for a small profit.

I've had a few QNAP boxes over the years and they are leagues ahead on hardware in most cases.

What is the software it runs like? There always seems to be good things said about Synology's software, but you never really hear about whether any competitors measure up on that front.

I need more than four bays now, and both camps are freaking expensive for 6+ bays, so I've gone DIY.

If I ever do go for a NAS, I suspect it most likely would be DIY to get the best value and versatility via your own spec choices (as I said in another thread in the past after reading jimborae's experience with Synology, which crossed them off my list for the future).

[Spreadie]

QNAP's software works - it's arguably more in-depth than DSM, but it isn't anywhere near as user friendly. A relative noob can set up a Synology box without reading a manual. All the detail is there if you need it, but you have to dig for it - the interface is kept simple regardless of what goes on underneath.

With QTS, everything is right there, which might be a little daunting to some; to be honest, it's still more straightforward than OMV or FreeNAS.

I thought the DS918+ was a noisy dust magnet with unreliable SSD caching and inadequate connectivity, but I still love DSM software.