Synology 1 bay NAS DiskStation DS118 (Diskless)

Pros: * it's quiet. The only noise I can hear is from the HDD. * it doesn't run hot. The highest temperature I felt was "slightly warm" when I copied terabytes of data into the new NAS. * the LED indicator can be dimmed or turned off. * it took me five minutes to set up, though many more hours to copy data and fine-tune the system. * the two gigabit ports really help reduce congestion when everyone is using the NAS. * I don't use the transcoding function, but playing 4K video in my PC using Kodi is very smooth. * personal cloud service is great.

Cons: * there's no support from PLEX yet (as of Nov. 2017) as PLEX is still developing its ARM v8 support.

Pros: Functionality. Low power consumption.

Cons: Noise. This is only partially DS118's fault. Most noise comes from the spinning HDD. I use the quietest 6TB NAS HDD available. Yet I can still hear it in a quiet room. The NAS itself has a 60mm fan. It can be replaced with a quieter aftermarket model. But, as I said, it will not make the NAS silent because HDDs are noisy.

Overall Review: This is my my first home NAS and I have been completely blown away by its functionality and features. It is not just a file server. You can use it as pretty much any kind of server. Synology has you covered with a bunch of packages (or apps) - vpn, photos, git, video, etc.

Pros: - works as advertised - easy to place disks in the slots - easy to set up (once you can connect to the DSM console) - Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR) allows you to use disks of different sizes and to utilize the space in the larger disks. - Can bond the 2-1000Gb Ethernet ports into 1-2000Gb aggregate.

Cons: - CANNOT expand the memory . . . REALLY?? That should have been an easy concept to incorporate. - Photo Station for iPhone - Download to Phone does not work if you use the QuickConnect name. You MUST use the IP address. This is not mentioned anywhere I could find. Support was able to point me to the right direction, though. - 10Gb LAN not offered.

Overall Review: I think this is reasonably priced considering the DS418play is $100 more. I am using it at home as a failsafe to preserve data that cannot be replaced (e.g. photos).

Pros: - The set-up recognized that my HDDs came from a DS212+; saved a lot of set-up time - DSM is still an amazing interface - Documentation is vastly superior to most of the stuff out there

Cons: - DS Video still can't transcode some video formats; need to use VLC Player to make it work

Overall Review: - Anyone considering a NAS should definitely consider a Synology product - I will keep buying Synologys as long as they are available

Overall Review: I've owned this product for nearly a year and bought another for son's business. Bottom line is Synology is a great company and their products are very good in my opinion. I love that they provide regular security and feature update for years on their products. I've owned several Synology products for 8 years now. Many companies never look at a product after they are released.

Pros: Device is light and seems pretty powerful so far. Very quiet on my table. Delivery was faster than predicted even though it came from Ontario to BC by way of California. DSVideo app on my roku works surprisingly well

Cons: More involved to setup than my previous nas (drobo 5n2). Like going from an iPhone to an android...everything just a bit different. Plex server works, but difficult to configure...DSVideo better choice so far. Lots of features to explore...it’s been 2 weeks and I’m just now delving into picture processing services. I wasn’t prepared for how involved it would be to deploy from the get-go, but so far, worth the effort

Overall Review: Happy so far, but there’s a lot to get into

Pros: Now that the NAS is up and running, I am very happy with the product.

Cons: The installation instructions were almost non-existant. I ended up going to Youtube and buying an ebook that explained how to install the operating system and then it's various apps.

Overall Review: Trust this is helpful.

Pros: The Synology 4-Bay NAS was easy to set up and install the Disk Station software. Had it up and running in one day with two mirrored volumes ready for use. The included Synology Disk Station software features are truly excellent. And, the list of apps included makes this unit a great experience.

Overall Review: I recommend the Synology NAS to everyone looking for disk drive storage and protection.