Synology DS1621+ Diskless System 6-bay NAS DiskStation (Diskless)

Pros: Good configuration for RAID-6/SHR-2 10GbE (optional card) is high bandwidth (650-700 MB/s with RAID-6) NVMe (optional) available in addition to network adapter Migration Assistant worked well (Hyper Backup would have been 2nd choice) DiskStation Manager (DSM) software--big feature set

Cons: None yet

Overall Review: It was time to upgrade from a DS1515+ (5 x 4TB, RAID-6). Ended up with this DS1621+ that just came on the market. I had considered the 8 bay DS1819+ and then saw that the DS1821+ would probably be what I want but a bit pricier and not shipping yet. Then I saw the DS1621+ and 14TB drives on sale and determined this product will hit all my needs for the next five years. I've been running it for about a week after a week of drive testing and configuring. Setup was straightforward--the DSM 6.2 is what is current, and runs on the DS1515+. I used the Synology "Migration Assistant" package to move all the files over in about 30 hours, with only a couple of small windows of a few minutes where the services were disabled. I didn't even know about this program, but it worked really well. I had been using Hyper Backup and was going to use that to restore. Speaking of backups, I moved an external USB drive that stores Hyper Backups to the new NAS; it picked up incrementals right where the old one left off. And one volume holds macOS Time Machine images for three computers and the Macs all started backing up to the new NAS where they left off. The 10GbE ethernet is a massive upgrade for a modest cost (E10G18-T1). I'm getting 650-700 MB/s read and write sustained from six 7200 RPM Seagate Exos 14TB X14 drives (AFS/SMB, Btrfs, disabled Data Integrity Protection, 4K sectors) and slightly less with Integrity turned on. The NAS 10GbE interface connects through Cat7 w/o switch directly to an iMac Pro and another cable connects the 1GbE interface to the main LAN switch. My experience with the older Synology DS1515+ was pretty good so now I'm a repeat buyer. I had a power supply issue but was able to get a replacement under warranty immediately. Software upgrades always worked. I had to replace several 7200 RPM drives with 5400s and the RAID-6 rebuilds never left me without service. SMB was slower than AFP on the 1515+ but almost at parity on the 1621+. I considered getting an expansion unit but wanted higher bandwidth so I decided it would be better to go for 10GbE instead of attempting to do 4x 1GbE link aggregation and buy a new NAS. Mostly I am using the NAS for large video files and some backups and the high speed is going to change my workflow, holding the big files and editing directly off the NAS. But the DSM software also provides a ton of other goodies: small server capabilities like DNS, email, Synology apps, surveillance recording. Small things like UPS auto-shutdown support was nice too. I haven't measured/compared things like IOPS performance, but will probably spend a bit more time considering encryption, adding RAM, and adding NVMe for a speed boost.

Pros: - Easy setup - Dynamically-expandable RAID array (with SHR/Synology Hybrid RAID), just add new drives (some minor web-config required, but it's pretty easy)! - Expandable RAM - Plex Media Server available as a pre-built package - Apple TimeMachine backup target and Mac/Windows/LINUX file server - Built-in UPS support - Replacement apps for other cloud-based storage, photos, and email services - Can run virtual machine guests for those things that the NAS doesn't natively support

Cons: - The office suite apps only work through a web browser, with no mobile device equivalent - SHR cannot convert between 1-drive and 2-drive redundancy without a factory reset and setup as a new device - Permissions can be a bit confusing, although the help docs eventually sorted out the problems

Overall Review: - I would highly recommend this device, or even one of its lower-cost siblings (you need the plus "+" series if you want the cloud apps) for anyone looking to get better control of their personal files and photos - A quality media app (Plex Media Server) takes this device from excellent to awesome

Pros: - feature rich management software - “App Store” to add additional functionality - robust disk management and RAID support - small form factor and reasonable power consumption

Cons: - price - higher-end platforms are starting to show proprietary tendencies in hardware usage.

Overall Review: Despite synology platforms appearing pricey on the surface the value they provide is difficult to dispute. Price out a PC to do the same thing and you’re typically at or last what you’d be paying for a synology. The user interface is easy, the features are rich and there is a large community to support with questions. I personally was impacted by a chip defect in a synology platform and the company stood by the product and replaced it under a special warranty program. This replacement unit I bought was a smooth upgrade from my previous system. Literally move the drives over in the same order and boot the system up. It did a short upgrade to software but kept all my settings and config! Amazing! Synology is showing some ambitions to start requiring proprietary hardware components for upgrades (memory and M.2 drives for caching). That’s said, I still believe their products are a solid buy. My past support history with them has been solid and their products have been too. I would recommend this product.

Overall Review: buy it

Pros: It was much faster than I expected, being my first NAS. Playing games off this thing in a SHR2 array, streaming from PC installed games, and also a Launchbox Retro collection works fine, and I have no issues.

Cons: The time involved in building the array, but that's a limitation of the technology itself, not this product specifically.

Overall Review: Love it. Would buy it again.