I began utilizing NAS servers just below a decade in the past, and on the time, I used to be on the lookout for a centralized location to handle my media assortment. Up till that time, I had mechanical exhausting drives in my gaming machine, however once I switched to SSDs, I made a decision to get a storage server as an alternative — it simply made extra sense to have a devoted machine deal with media storage and streaming.
Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all issues {hardware}, together with telephones, storage servers, and routers.
I dabbled with FreeNAS (now referred to as TrueNAS) at first, changing an previous machine with six HDD bays into a house server. Whereas it did the job admirably, I needed one thing smaller, so I received the DiskStation DS414+ to see how a pre-built NAS enclosure would maintain up. It wasn’t as highly effective as my customized construct, but it surely took up a lot much less room, and it had all of the options I used to be on the lookout for.
I used the DS414+ for practically 4 years, switching over to the DS1019+ as quickly because it was launched again in 2019. The DS1019+ had a lot better {hardware}, polished software program with loads of utilities, and 5 drive bays in complete. I nonetheless use the NAS to again up pictures and movies from the handfuls of telephones I check yearly.
The DS1019+ dealt with Plex duties as properly, however I converted to the DS1522+ for media streaming again in 2022. I used to again up information from these two enclosures to a Google Drive, however my storage wants went up significantly within the final two years, and it wasn’t possible to place over 100TB of information in a cloud supplier. So once I received the beastly DiskStation DS3622xs+, I set it as much as again up the info from the DS1019+ and DS1522+.
The DiskStation DS1823xs+ is a real powerhouse
Whereas the DS1019+ remains to be going robust, the drives within the enclosure have crossed 35,000 hours, so firstly of 2024, I began migrating to the DiskStation DS1823xs+. As an alternative of utilizing two servers, I am organising the DS1823xs+ as the last word residence NAS that may deal with each media streaming and backing up information, and my most important consideration for going with this mannequin is that it has extra highly effective AMD {hardware} — a Ryzen V1780B — together with 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and eight drive bays.
Synology would not often present 10GbE ports in its NAS servers, however the DS1823xs+ comes with one as commonplace alongside twin Gigabit Ethernet ports. The NAS is ideal for what I want in a house server, and whereas it would not have the power to transcode Plex content material, that is not a characteristic I want.
I am all the time operating out of storage, so with the DS1823xs+, I needed to go overboard. So I am utilizing 4 18TB HAT5310-18T drives, a Seagate Exos X20, and an IronWolf Professional 22TB. The full addressable storage comes out to 114TB, and that ought to final a number of years. I nonetheless have two drive bays that are not in use, and I plan to fit in twin 24TB IronWolf Professional drives over the approaching months.
The DS1823xs+ comes with 8GB of RAM out of the field, and because it has two SO-DIMM slots, I added a 16GB reminiscence module, bringing the full to 24GB. It additionally has NVMe bays, so I slotted in two 400GB Synology SSDs (SNV3510-400G) the model despatched over some time in the past. The SSDs might be configured for storage, and the one motive I even went this route is for Roon; the audio service mandates set up on an SSD.
Placing all of it collectively
It took every week emigrate the info from the opposite servers to the DS1823xs+, and what’s instantly evident is simply how highly effective the NAS is in opposition to the normal Plus fashions in Synology’s portfolio. The DS1823xs+ is geared toward companies, and there is loads of headroom for the long run. It’s overkill only for storing media and backing up information from telephones and Home windows machines, and it does an awesome job operating digital machines as properly.
The primary situation with the server has to do to Synology’s stubbornness with NAS HDDs. Basically, solely exhausting drives made by Synology are appropriate with the NAS, so once I slotted the Exos and IronWolf drives, I received an error message that there was a difficulty with the drives (there wasn’t). Fortunately, it’s simple sufficient to make the error message go away, but it surely’s an irksome limitation.
On the finish of the day, the facility on provide mixed with the flexibility of the DS1823xs+ means I need not swap to a different NAS for some time. After all, going this route is not reasonably priced within the least — the NAS itself prices $1,799 with out the drives, the 18TB drives are $649 every, the Exos 20TB is going for as little as $309 nowadays, and the 22TB IronWolf Professional is now going for $439. Throw in a 16GB RAM that’s presently $349, and the 400GB SSD is $149. That comes out to a complete of $5,690 for the construct, and that is frankly ridiculous.
I went with the DS1823xs+ as I already had the NAS, however if you happen to’re aiming to construct a house NAS server, it’s overkill. The DiskStation DS1522+ is a terrific selection, and you’ll fill it up with Exos drives as wanted. When you’ll get higher {hardware} with different manufacturers, I all the time flip to Synology’s servers as they’ve the perfect software program options. DiskStation Supervisor has essentially the most refined interface of any NAS, and also you get helpful cell utilities that allow you to entry your information anyplace. In the end, that is the largest differentiator for the model.
Synology DiskStation DS1823xs+
The DS1823xs+ is overkill if you happen to simply want a house NAS, however if you would like a strong server that does a lot extra, that is the one to get.