Question 1

Does this unit support RAID1 (mirroring)? I'd like redundancy in case of disk failure.

Accepted Answer

Yes, it does. It supports JBOD, Raid 0, Raid 1, Raid 5, Raid 6, and Raid 10. It also supports Synology's Hybrid Raid which can handle 1 or 2 disk failure depending on your drive configuration. Recommend you download the DS418 Hardware Installation Guide and the Synology NAS User's Guide from their website and take a look at them. These PDF documents will answer most of your questions.

Question 2

Can you start off with two drives in this device, leaving 2 empty for future expansion?

Accepted Answer

Yes, that's what I did. And estimate your capacity needs carefully. Incremental backups do not take nearly as much room and the ds software.works very well. Ie no need to buy the biggest drives. I went with 4tb drives, at 2 or 3 yeAR mark will add 2 more and rotate old ones out ounce notified of bad sectors found by software disk check utility.

Question 3

Can this unit take 14TB and/or 16TB drives?

Accepted Answer

Yes it can support both.  You should go to Synology's site to get a complete list of tested and approved drives.

Question 4

My Question was asked but there was no clear answer, Can the memory in this system be increased? If so what is the max memory it can handle?

Accepted Answer

The short answer is No from what I can find. Unlike many other Synology NAS there are no Synology approved memory modules available and no instructions I can find anywhere on not only how to open the NAS box without busting it up but on even if there is an expansion slot available inside the box.

Question 5

What is the largest disk size I can place in each bay?  Is it 10TB or 12 TB?

Accepted Answer

Per Synology max is 4 x 14TB
“Maximum Internal Raw Capacity56 TB (14 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types)”

Question 6

Does this support SSD?

Accepted Answer

Using RAID provides faster disk access, depending on the RAID level and the number of drives you use in the RAID array. So it maybe more economical to go with more HDDs instead of fewer SSDs, to get the Disk IO bandwidth you're looking for. Of course your network IO bandwidth will determine the maximum transfer rate you can achieve so at some point you might be wasting your money to invest in faster disk io.

Question 7

Can you connect a USB printer and share the printer on the network?

Accepted Answer

yes you can, you will need to run Synology Assistant on your computer to add the printer! very simple. of course the unit must be connected to your network and the PC/Unit must be able to communicate.

Question 8

Does this product only transcode H.265 or will it do H.264 as well?

Accepted Answer

According to the spec sheet, the DS418 can transcode H.264 at 30fps using Video Station. The hardware transcoding engine itself is capable of up to 10 bit H.265 at up to 60fps so I believe the H.264 is implied as the lesser standard.

Question 9

Encryption?  Does it have it built-in, or can I use Microsoft BitLocker encryption?

Accepted Answer

Don't know the answer.  Suggest you query Synology.

Question 10

I have a DS218 that is loaded with 2 x 10TB WD Red drives. I store my movies and TV shows for Plex. My plan is to sell my DS218 and pickup the 418 and 2 more WD RED 10TB drives. I want to RAID them into twin 20TB drives and then Raid 1 those volumes. From what I have read this should be possible, please confirm. Also, does the 418 come already maxed with RAM or does it have an open slot to add more?

Accepted Answer

the unit comes max at ram! and about the hard drives its NOT posible. Raid 0 Will add up the total about of all disk into single UNIT. but no fault tolerance. Raid 1 Will Mirror the information on one drive to another drive, Fault Tolerance of 1 Drive but at the cost of 50% of the total capacity. Raid will distribute and compress data within 3+ drives giving you a fault tolerance of 1 drive at the cost o 1/3+ units. raid 10 will make 2 mirror (raid 1) sets and the add then together (raid 0), giving you a fault tolerance of 2 drive but at the cost of 50%, you will need 4 drives. best case scenario go with Raid 5 or Synology Hybrid Raid. there much to considere about speed gain and other thing but if this is only for movies... you will be fine.

Questions & Answers