Synology DS410j: First 12 hours (mini review)

[MSIC]

My Synology DS410j arrived this morning, and I think it's fair to say that I wasn't properly prepared for what this baby is & does...
I installed 2 x 2TB drives (with intention of 2 more to follow over the next month or so), which was easy enough - took about half an hour and a screwdriver, including the (nicely padded) unboxing.

Followed the onscreen instructions once I inserted the CD, although I really should have headed first to the website to get the updated installation guide, firmwares etc (currently version 2.3). Once I installed the CD-provided software, I then did it again with the updated stuff ! Doh.

A pretty long process followed, with the NAS beginning to check the drives for health etc and setting up the RAID, this took about 8 hours or so.

My headache then really began as for some reason I had it in my head that this device would basically work like one of my USB drives ie plug it in, see the 'attached drive' and transfer files across. For those who are familiar with the NAS approach I guess it might sound funny or naive, but never mind, and as I began to trawl through the many (many many) options through either my browser or the provided software interface, and flicking back to the user guide, finally realising that I really actually do have to create a user account, as well as shared folders (so i've done one for music, one for video, etc etc).

As for now, i'm still testing this baby, and have copied my photos (took around an hour or so for 31 Gig = 13,000 files) and am currently doing the same for music (will certainly take all night).

Other thoughts and observations - the level of detail and potential control is mind blowing, but then i'm only an IT hobbyist, not a professional, so i'm going to take issues like access in to this from the outside world very slowly and with some guidance. Even now though, quite granular detail such as the temps of the on-board cpu, the hard drives, CPU load etc are all interesting.
It's also fairly quiet itself, although the Samsung drives inside do echo a little as they seek & write (and they are seeking and writing alot at the moment). Still, i plan on this device living somewhere such as in a cupboard or similar.

What next?
Well its just worth mentioning that at the very least I will be adding extra drives - why later? Well, if Synology are to be believed, I can simply add another 2TB drive into this, and let the NAS do all the hard work of turning this RAID 1 machine into a RAID 5 machine. Will it be that simple? No idea, although i'm confident it wouldnt be a fast job, but then I have time.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I assume the drives have been placed in a RAID 1 array??

How are the read/write speeds with the discs in a RAID 1 array??

Is CPU utilisation high??

[spoon_]

You might want to brace yourself before going RAID5 on 800Mhz CPU and 128MB RAM - with very strong alcohol, hopefully you gonna sleep few days lol

Are you Samsung drives on the compatibility list?

Try running Intel® NAS Performance Toolkit to see how it performs..

[MSIC]

I assume the drives have been placed in a RAID 1 array??

How are the read/write speeds with the discs in a RAID 1 array??

Is CPU utilisation high??

RAID 1, yes. Dont know about speeds for large files yet, but my mp3 collection seems to be getting arond 4 MB/sec, which seems pretty poor. I thought that the display might be wrong, however the rough maths is about right given that I started the transfer 7 hrs ago and its not finished yet.
As for CPU, i think that if i leave the upload page to have a look then the data transfer stops, but im not 100% sure.

You might want to brace yourself before going RAID5 on 800Mhz CPU and 128MB RAM - with very strong alcohol, hopefully you gonna sleep few days lol

Are you Samsung drives on the compatibility list?

Try running Intel® NAS Performance Toolkit to see how it performs..

Indeed im sure it'll take over a day.
The Samsung HD203WI drives are on the list, i checked before i bought. At £90 each on 'Today only' they are a serious bargain! (I however paid £93 each only the day before LOL - thats how it goes sometimes).
Will give that toolkit a looksee soon, thanks.

[jim]

I paid £103, I wouldn't beat yourself up

[mycarsavw]

I rave about the Synology way of doing things to anyone who'll listen. The odd few who actually buy one are always surprised and can't work out why I didn't tell them more

[PeteSmith]

I rave about the Synology way of doing things to anyone who'll listen. The odd few who actually buy one are always surprised and can't work out why I didn't tell them more

I'm the same. I love mine. Recommend to anyone looking for an 'off the shelf' NAS.

Those transfer speeds don't seem right, must be a bottleneck somewhere.