Synology drive review update#
Synology drive review software#
Synology drive review series#

Once again, I am about to talk about cardboard boxes, but the complete package of the DS1821+ serves as part of why Synology is seemingly the ‘Apple’ of NAS. In short, I do really like the Synology DS1821+ NAS, I just don’t know how long I could be in love with it long-term, as the rest of my network hardware environment embraces faster connectivity.

Synology drive review software#

With a price tag without storage media at around £1,000 (give or take), this is a big ask to pay for something that has lucrative software potential but arguably lesser hardware potential. But many buyers will be put off by the continued adoption of 1Gbe as standard and the limitation of those NVMe bays to caching ONLY and not raw storage pools. Likewise, the inclusion of ECC memory, massive potential-filled PCIe expandability at PCIe 3 x8 and support of popular services like Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) are certainly a plus. The switch from Atom to Ryzen embedded processor needs to be recognised for both the big jump it is from a brand that typically errs on the side of caution in hardware. However, the Synology DS1821+, much like the DS1621+, is a giant leap in many ways and the smallest of stumbles in others. I have always been a long-term fan of the Synology brand as a whole, applauding their recent moves towards Ryzen processors and range-wide adoption of dedicated M2 NVMe cache bays. Synology DS1821+ NAS Review – Quick Conclusion But with other network hardware improving drastically in those 2 years and the demands from even mid-range businesses growing considerably, is this new Synology NAS a big enough jump to warrant your money? Does the Synology DS1821+ deserve your data? Let’s find out. Arriving 2 years after its predecessor, the DS1819+, this system arrives with a newer CPU, better memory options, dedicated caching and scalability of its expandability in a number of key ways. Finding a place in the storage portfolio between the DS1621+ and DS1621xs+, this system arrives with all of the hardware benefits of the former but allows the user to save money and add flexibility over the latter. This desktop NAS is geared towards prosumers looking to take advantage of the Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM) software, as well as working from a more flexible and adaptive hardware platform.

Into this wonderfully eclectic range of releases, we find the brand new 8-bay NAS solution for small and medium business hit the market, the DS1821+ Diskstation solution. Regardless of what it is, we have seen the usually predictable pattern of hardware releases from brands like Synology be utterly thrown out the window. Perhaps it is because the supply chain has been so fragmented worldwide, with people adjusting to new working practices, or perhaps it is simply the brand readjusting their release strategies in line with how companies have adapted to this new way of working. We only hope Synology reverses this course and adds more drives to the 'compatibility list.Even to the most casual follower of network-attached storage, 2020 has been a fantastically truncated year of new hardware releases. What's worse is they were one of the first to support Seagate, implementing its advanced drive diagnostic platform, IronWolf Health Manager. If a drive is failing, you will not know until the drive is dead this in itself is a huge problem for consumers that typically migrate drives from older systems to the new models as they are most often NOT using Synology branded drives and will fall into this 'trap' unexpectedly.įor me, with years of experience with these NAS systems, it seems like a bullshit move from what is considered one of the best NAS vendors on the market.

Synology drive review series#

The issue with this, the only drives on that list are Synology's HAT and SAT series of drives, and further, when using drives not on this list, you don't get drive alerts, S.M.A.R.T., bad sector, or drive temperature statistics. With this launch, it seems a pseudo-DRM has been added that heavily restricts drives that are not on the compatible drive list.

Synology drive review update#

It appears, since then, Synology has gone through its standard update process, releasing DSM7 to the public. I last tested the DS1821+ in March of last year.