I began utilizing NAS servers just below a decade in the past, and on the time, I used to be searching for a centralized location to handle my media assortment. Up till that time, I had mechanical laborious drives in my gaming machine, however after 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 known 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 acquired the DiskStation DS414+ to see how a pre-built NAS enclosure would maintain up. It wasn’t as highly effective as my customized construct, nevertheless it took up a lot much less room, and it had all of the options I used to be searching for.
I used the DS414+ for almost 4 years, switching over to the DS1019+ as quickly because it was launched again in 2019. The DS1019+ had significantly better {hardware}, polished software program with loads of utilities, and 5 drive bays in complete. I nonetheless use the NAS to again up images and movies from the handfuls of telephones I check yearly.
The DS1019+ dealt with Plex duties as nicely, however I converted to the DS1522+ for media streaming again in 2022. I used to again up knowledge 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 knowledge in a cloud supplier. So after I acquired 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+ continues to be going sturdy, the drives within the enclosure have crossed 35,000 hours, so firstly of 2024, I began migrating to the DiskStation DS1823xs+. As a substitute of utilizing two servers, I am organising the DS1823xs+ as the last word house NAS that may deal with each media streaming and backing up knowledge, and my major 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 normally present 10GbE ports in its NAS servers, however the DS1823xs+ comes with one as customary alongside twin Gigabit Ethernet ports. The NAS is ideal for what I want in a house server, and whereas it would not have the flexibility to transcode Plex content material, that is not a function 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 whole 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 overall 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 may 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 standard Plus fashions in Synology’s portfolio. The DS1823xs+ is geared toward companies, and there is loads of headroom for the longer term. It’s overkill only for storing media and backing up knowledge from telephones and Home windows machines, and it does an important job operating digital machines as nicely.
The principle problem with the server has to do to Synology’s stubbornness with NAS HDDs. Primarily, solely laborious drives made by Synology are suitable with the NAS, so after I slotted the Exos and IronWolf drives, I acquired an error message that there was a difficulty with the drives (there wasn’t). Fortunately, it’s straightforward sufficient to make the error message go away, nevertheless it’s an irksome limitation.
On the finish of the day, the facility on supply mixed with the flexibility of the DS1823xs+ means I need not swap to a different NAS for some time. In fact, going this route is not inexpensive 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 lately, and the 22TB IronWolf Professional is now going for $439. Throw in a 16GB RAM that’s at the moment $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 in case you’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 one of the best software program options. DiskStation Supervisor has probably the most refined interface of any NAS, and also you get helpful cell utilities that allow you to entry your knowledge wherever. In the end, that is the most important differentiator for the model.
Synology DiskStation DS1823xs+
The DS1823xs+ is overkill in case you simply want a house NAS, however if you need a robust server that does a lot extra, that is the one to get.Â
