Best Starter Synology NAS in 2024 (dont waste your money)

In this video I will be covering the different Synology NAS units that I recommend to beginners depending on your setup and needs. I will be reviewing some of the key features to consider including number of bays, BTRFS, ram, ability to upgrade networking, docker containers, and cost, and then I will be reviewing some of the units I recommend most often.

Product links*:

#nas #synology

TOC:
00:00 Key factors to consider
06:20 Walkthrough of units
15:22 Conclusion

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[MaxDibe]

Thank you for this video, it helped me in understanding more about NAS. I appreciate the fact that you explain things in a clear way and with a calm voice.

[bobfig]

Hey, thanks man. This was super helpful. I'm waiting for the black friday sales here in Australia and had put the DS923+ in my cart! Now focused on the 1522+. 🙌🙌

[EsotericArctos]

I started out with a DS416 model - Filled it with 4 4TB drives, and then ended up getting a DS918+. I have 4 10TB drives in that now, but not close to running out of space yet.
I also use Surveillance Station now, and with the 2 NAS devices, I have 4 camera licenses. Using CMS in Surveillance Station I could combine the licenses to use 4 cameras recording to 918+. I would definitely recommend looking to the future with these things though. IF you need 12TB now, get the NAS and hard drives based around double or triple that space. Also, make use of the multiple NIC's on the disk stations. Even if the you only get the one with 2NICs it makes a big difference over a single gigabit nic.

[jchris_fpv]

I have upgraded from 220j to 224+. This is like hell and heaven. Speed difference is so huuuuge between them. And I am talking only about light usage such us i.e. Photos. I was thinking about going for 4 bay but 1) I am not (yet) a heavy user 2) I keep some data but mostly these are photos from my Canon camera 3) Till now 4tb was fine for me (2x4tb in Raid 1). I got also all together 6 gigs of ram. 220j is like 0, 5 GB so it is so tiny for doing even light stuff. I am happy with the choice. Thank you for the video. Cheers.

[k.b.tidwell]

I like you, man. You helped me. I've wanted to get into a home cloud and out of "the" cloud for years, but just have never dedicated to it. You've inspired me and informed me. You threw a lot of terms at me that I frankly am not familiar with, but that's not my bailiwick, and I sincerely appreciate you doing the heavy lifting there.

All of that got you my sub, and glad to do it, but there's ONE thing I want to suggest for the video (and others like this)...I'd like to have seen a timestamp breakdown on each unit because now I'm going back through the video to home in on the ideal NAS for me, but it's a bit of a back-and-forth CF (military term there for "cluster-F" lol). Hey, I can look at the transcript, but you get me, it would just be way more convenient to zoom right to the product.

Thanks again, have a great day!

[XMegaJuni]

Starting a family soon, looking to invest in one of these for the home to keep all our videos and photos and then later on in life hopefully through upgrades our daughter can carry it forward.

[johnwilson]

Dude! I wish this video was available last week. I just purchased my Synology NAS. My heart sank when you said that you would skip over the DS923+. That said, I'm not disappointed in the DS923+. I almost purchased the DS1522+ but didn't want to fork the extra $$ out. Thanks for the hard work you put in on your channel.

[KrispyKrink]

I retired my old 2 bay WD MyCloud PR2100 for the DS923+. Currently just 3 12TB drives and a 500GB NVME I already had sitting around as read only cache. I moved several of the docker containers I was running on a raspberry pi onto the NAS and it runs nice.

[markl]

This is great information. I'm not new to NASes, but I've mostly bought QNAP until recently. Thank you for demystifying Synology's model numbering convention. That will save me a lot of time when shopping online. (Mostly from QNAP's security breach incidents, I've learned to avoid buying "new old stock" NASes unless the NAS will have absolutely no Internet connectivity, because manufacturers stop pushing out firmware updates for a NAS long before the hardware starts to fail, and not long after the firmware updates stop, the NAS's online security becomes a problem.) I'll no doubt re-watch this video the next few times I help a client find a NAS, because you do such a great job of explaining the more advanced features and when they're important.

[WASHD]

Dude, thank you for this video. I literally was about to go 4x 4tb and didn't even realize I could underpopulate with 2x 16tb. THANK YOU.

[jonaspufahl]

I do not understand why you skip the 224+ and recommend the 423+, they have both the same CPU and one RAM Slot, only difference is 4 Disks and m2 slot. Here in Germany it is 300€ vs 500€ (nearly doubled!). I am planning only with two HDDs and Containers are a big thing for me. I ordered the 224+ because it has all needed and I still believe it is the right choice for a lot of users planning to connect their smart home etc.

[darkrangersinc]

This is perfect for what I’m looking for “just realizing I need a NAS” this was perfect.

[nauriak]

Appreciate the video, as this is the 2nd or 3rd video I've seen after searching "filmmaking storage" I would have appreciated an initial defining of the acronyms btrfs, nas etc.

[avonperera]

I bought a DS120j to act purely as a remote phone photo/document upload. From there I use drive sync to sync to my old pixel 5 for unlimited Google photos upload, and from the pixel it automatically transfers to my QNAP which is local only. Best of both worlds for me.

[XouZ]

I started out with a DS920+ with 2x4TB drives, bought a third drive 2 years after and now I'm planning to get a fourth and change to SHR2 to get two drive redundancy, after that I'm either going to get an expansion unit or start to replace each drive with an larger one. If your looking for redundancy I wouldn't recommend going lower than 4 bay. But I would recommend to only buy two drives for it to start with and add extra drives later, mostly to avoid all drives failing at the same time due to similar age.

[edlippjr]

good review my guy! I am finding it so hard to pull the trigger on my first Synology. I want rack mount because I love racks of gear and I hate devices sitting around. At some point I'll take the plunge and I think this info helped inch me closer! :)

[US_Joe]

As always - good one Rex. Could you discuss using Syno's 5 bay expansion unit. I'm trying to decide whether to buy this vs another Nas entirely. Take care👍👍👍

[robertleem]

I bought the DS920+ back in March and it was the best decision at the time, I have 3 Toshiba 14tb disks in there said up as SHR, I also own a 5 bay DAS as a back up only device just in case I lose my Synology. I have a docker container set up with Jellyfin on it, primarily use it as a media player and photo backup, it's thanks to videos from Spacerex and mydoodads and a couple of other channels whose videos really help you set it up. Many thanks

[samgao]

I went from a synology, to a netgear readynas, back to synology, now I’m on QNAP. With their adoption of ZFS, and their impeccable hardware, QNAP wins for me. Though I do like synology’s interface better…

Now I’ve learned not even synology is good enough… time to DIY it! Funny, I’m seeing an influx of DIY NAS’s, even though you could’ve BYO for years… and they had NAS chassis for years… maybe trueNAS is finally easy to use?

[dennisseemann]

Great Video, excellent explanations on the available options, thanks. I am looking for a NAS specifically to run the Synology Security Station with 6 cameras, the Synology website recommends the DVA1622, and since you didn't address the DVA group in your discussion I was wondering if you'r aware of a better option. all the AI stuff (facial recognition etc) I probably wouldn't get into right away, but perhaps in the future. Thanks again for the excellent information.