Synology Diskstation Review (all of them)

[threadysparrow]

This review will cover all of the models even though I have the DS 112. This review is more about how they work and how you can use them.

 

I bought a Synology Diskstation last year. It was the DS 112 model with 1 HDD bay. I use a 1 TB WD Red HDD in it and it have about 400 GB left. I decided to do a review about it because it deserves a review. Here's my review.

 

I got my Diskstation (DS) last August to add NAS to my home. I live with my dad and we have 5 computers in the home because he's disabled and he needs one on every floor of the house. We have 2 laptops and 3 desktops. He does a lot of home finance stuff in Excel and I do a lot of backups and photo editing. He needs something to serve as a cloud drive and I need something that serves as a backup drive. I remember researching the different options. I didn't like the reviews that the WD and Seagate NAS packages had because word on the street was that the HDDs inside went bad after a while. Plus, I would rather have something that I can open up and replace. If I have a small machine that stores files, I want to be able to replace the mechanism that stores files in case something inside breaks. That's why I'm a big proponent of DIY PCs. I found this on Amazon:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Attached-DS112/dp/B007E8DIT6

 

And I decided that this is basically a DIY PC except the only part you need to put in is a HDD. I searched for HDDs and found that WD made an HDD specifically designed for NAS. So I bought both of them and put them together. 

 

The setup process was very easy. The instructions not only told me what to do, but when things like port forwarding failed (because unless you are a network engineer, you will run into an error here or there due to messing something up) the wizard not only told me what happened, but it told me what to do. It said "open port XXXX and restart router." And when I did that, it continued on. Most software and hardware installation wizards are hastily thrown together and they expect you to Google it if you mess things up. Synology put a lot of thought into the installation of the DS because they know that most people who use them are DIYers who probably didn't have a network engineering degree.

 

When I finally got it up and running after a few hours of installing (because my router was not set up properly) I loaded the DS assistant utility on my desktop. The assistant simply installed the firmware and OS of the DS and then I uninstalled the assistant because once you have it up and running you can just get rid of all of the installers and assistants. The GUI of the DS is great. The DS opens in your default browser like an Internet page. The first picture below shows the interface. It has everything you need. Notice how I bookmarked it so I don't have to input the IP address every time.

 

That brings me to the features. This thing has a lot of features that both techies and soccer moms will love. It has a cloud service. You install the cloud station to each of the computers you want to connect it to and upload the files from the program onto the DS. It has a few servers like a DNS server, a directory server, gitserver, dvblink server, and a few others. I'm not too familiar with all of them. As for the backups, the DS can connect to backup services like Glacier (by Amazon) and Symform. You back up to the DS and then your DS backs up to those services.

 

For multimedia playback, you can stream media from your DS to any computer or device that has DLNA. I stream photos from there to my PS3. I also download some youtube videos that I like and can watch them on my PS3. I don't do much in the way of music because I like to listen to music with my headphones and not with my TV's soundbar because... audio people know why...

 

There is one large problem with my DS. It converts photos to thumbnails every time I upload them. This is a very CPU intensive task and it needs to be fixed. You can convert them from your desktop to the type compatible with the DS, but my 8 core AMD 8350 takes about 10 minutes to convert 100 photos. If you want to use the DS to convert them, remember that the DS 112 has a 1 core 1 GHz CPU. The new ones have dual cores but this feature still needs to be taken out of there. There is an option to disable photo conversion per album but it doesn't work. It still converts photos in the album even if the option is ticked. This has actually made me stop using the DS for photos and we simply use it for my dad's cloud needs.

 

I give it 3 stars. 2 stars off for the photo conversion that was never fixed. You can find other people online if you Google "photo conversion diskstation."

 

[Zeke]

My DS213j is on its way, can't wait for it!

[threadysparrow]

My DS213j is on its way, can't wait for it!

If you use it for photos and can figure out a way to turn off photo conversion universally then tell me.

[Zeke]

If you use it for photos and can figure out a way to turn off photo conversion universally then tell me.

Nah, I'm planning to use it for remote printing, Time Machine backups, torrenting and DLNA streaming. but maybe this would help you.

 

EDIT: Or this

[Guest]

My DS213j is on its way, can't wait for it!

 

I have this model since November 2013 and it is an excellent unit. You can't go wrong with Synology.