The digital era.. We do keep a lot of files, maybe lots of junk of files but does not have the time to browse and filter them out. The files that we have kept since as long as I can remember (just maybe until 2008) vary from old source codes, old emails and mostly old pictures (and more pictures).
These digital memorabilia do need a lot of storage space. The best way to keep is by NAS or Network Attached Storage. Our first NAS was purchased around December 28 2010. The purchase was about the same time my daughter was born, my wife was on maternity leave and I thought this would be the best time to ask her to organize our files . We got the Dlink DNS 323, which is a 2 bay NAS and supports 2TB hard drive on each bay. I got 2x 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives.
Poseidon was a welcome addition to the network. He worked well with Ares.
After all the years our NAS was just having a lot of problems and could not simply be resolved.
- Dlink stopped supporting the Firmware … a long long time ago
- Installed Hard Drive keeps on failing because of old age.
- Newer Hard drives could not be detected.
- Fan is worn out, makes a lot of noise.
The firmware problem was fixed by replacing it with Alt-F Link. Now it can detect newer hard drives. but the performance still sluggish. BTRFS was supported and it did manage to minimize the failure of the hard drives.
I did get some 2pcs of 2TB WD Gold drives to replace the old Barracudas, but I still feel these drives will get to perform at their best on a new NAS.
You have been good to us. You kept our memories for a long time. Good times do end and it is time to move on.
So I was in the market for a replacement NAS. The street price of a decent NAS is too high. The lower priced so called NAS are just not it. I considered low priced models from QNAP, Asustor and finally Synology.
I was considering models from the DS218 Family of 2-bay NAS, which have various models at a different price point. Sounds like the DS218+ is a winner for me.
Synology Diskstation DS218+ All around storage solution optimized to safeguard your data.
Synology Link
The Synology DS218+ have great specs compared with my Dlink. I listed down below what made me go for this model. You can check more of the specifications on Synology website Link.
- Celeron J3355 with 2Gigs of DDR3L
- DSM – Synology’s software to manage the device is quite impressive.
- Linux based
- Expandable via packages
- Support for BTRFS and other more recent file systems.
- UPS management is possible for supported UPS by USB.
- Can also act as a network UPS server that can be accessed from NUTS
I got our NAS from Shopee which was the cheapest I found locally. Seller was responsive and shipped the order quickly. What was disappointing was Black Arrow the logistics service I choose for delivery, the delivery person canceled on the first attempt saying he did not find the address. Really? I used my office address which is located at Cebu IT Park. So.. Really!! This was my most expensive purchase online so I am really anxious.
DS218+ was packaged in a brown box, just barely enough to prevent it from shipping damage. Power brick, network cable and some things to throw away .. I mean manuals. Drive installation was easy, setup was easy, configuration was really easy. I spend a lot of hours exploring DSM to my delight.
