Synology DS920+ 24TB 4 Bay Desktop NAS Solution, installed with 4 x 6TB Western Digital Red Drives

Let me start by saying I've always liked Synology's NAS boxes - always easy to set up and use, thanks to the fantastic DSM software. Seriously, anyone could set this up. It also supports twin nvme m.2 drives for ultra fast read and write caching, which is a great feature.Downsides - the 4 tool free drive bays have no vibration damping and the all-plastic chassis amplifies every sound the drives make. This is fine if your NAS is hidden away in a cupboard, but mine is tucked away behind two heavy cabinets in a large room and I can hear it clearly. Also, and I don't know if this is a static thing with the plastic case, but it attracts dust something fearsome. Oh and speaking of noise, mine would occasionally develop a kinda of frequency vibration whine and I had to sit something heavy on top of it to remedy the problem.Finally, if you plan on using the nvme caching feature, I'd avoid the WD Blue nvme drives - they have a known issue with the Synology NAS (according to my conversations with WD tech support), and you'll find yourself resetting the cache every two or three weeks. I've used Toshiba and Samsung m.2 drives without any problems though.Great NAS, if you can overlook those flaws.

Better value than the DS1019+ if you never expect to need more than 4 disks (e.g. 4 x 10TB in SHR BTRFS is about 27TB usable with one drive for protection from data loss from a drive failure) -- the expansion unit to add 5 extra drive slots is expensive.Hopefully a future DSM software will have more built-in assistance or suggestions with setting up non-obvious things like firewall rules (Reddit appears useful for Synology and Plex Q&A)Downloaded and manually installed the 64-bit Intel Plex for Synology from the Plex website (don't use the 32-bit Plex in the package centre).Plex Pass allows the transcoding hardware acceleration in the DS918+ processor to be enabled.Bought 2 x ST10000NM0086 after looking at Backblaze reliability stats 2018 (1 in 300 per year failure when left running without hibernation or power cycling). Can be heard clicking across the room, but reliable and fast.An optional extra 4GB SODIMM e.g. CT51264BF186DJ or Synologys own takes a lot of force to insert (there's a Crucial document "RAM Memory Installation Troubleshooting Tips" which I found - before turning on - after thinking that it wasn't properly installed. It might help to wiggle the card up and down very slightly while pressing in?)Have added two CSSD-F240GBMP510 cache SSDs (2.5x better TBW rating than a different make), but worried what happens if/when they wear out -- crashes the volume, losing all NAS data? (hopefully not if deactivated in the drive manager first, but multiple backups to be sure -- previous DS215J with 2 x 4TB is now a Raid 0 8TB with hyper backup vault)

I took my 4 x 3Gb drives out of my DS413+ when they announced it was "end-of-life" and slotted them in this DS918+. The DS413+ was working fine but didn't run the latest software and I really wanted to run Drive and try out Moments.The process was so easy - it just sorts itself out and upgrades software as necessary.The new box just runs everything faster. It has been worth it for Drive alone - it may be relatively new but it seems well sorted and just runs silently backing everything up as it changes. It replaces Cloud Station which was fine but Drive is so much cleaner and simpler to use. Versioning is easy to set up and great for recovering from one's mistakes. It's an excellent complement to my off-site back-up with Mozy (I just love the idea that my data is safe in a vault in Utah! I've driven through Utah and it's beautiful and safe. No-one's going to bomb Utah - there's nothing there :-) Belt and braces (or back-up obsessive, from personal experience and professional training.)So I just need to work out what to do with an empty DS413+.This was a brilliant upgrade.

I bought this to replace my aging ds213j.First impressions its much the same for my needs (ip camera and media storage)However after firing it up and letting it index my media instantly i realised how much faster this thing really was!Installing the drives screwless is a really nice touch, as is the easy to access memory slot.Software is what i was used to... just quicker! And been able to double my storage with 2 extra drives.I have a lot of ripped 4k content and have to say playing them through ds video on my phone with the hardware transcoding works flawlessly. My old 213j would struggle with 720p content!!Whats missing..... another usb slot at the back wouldnt go amiss... and adding hdmi port!