DS1821+

This is my fourth 8-disk Synology DiskStation since 2014. My last one was a DS1817 which included two 10-gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) ports, and you can bet I aggregated those links on my (very expensive) Ubiquiti US-XG-6PoE and had 20-gigabit between this and my primary FreeNAS server. Well, I wanted to setup a secondary Plex server to offload some from my primary FreeNAS, but the DS1817 didn't have an x86 based chipset, so Plex wouldn't run. I bought the DS1821+ and have been (until today) living off 4-gigabit aggregated connections. However, where the DS1821+ really shines is its fairly capable AMD Ryzen quad-core CPU, which feels light years ahead of the DS1817 in terms of NAS performance and Plex transcoding on the fly. I broke out some of my BluRays and tried pretty much uncompressed dumps to the NAS and playback on Plex and it handled them and seeking really surprisingly well. Very happy with the 1821+. I do wish it came with at least a couple of SFP+ ports for connectivity, but this thing has PCI-E and you can toss in NVMe cache drives, more RAM, and an expansion card for 10-gigabit or more NVMe or both. I opted for an Intel X520-DA2 to get my 10 gigabit connectivity back, and the Synology found it right away with basically no configuration (other than bumping up MTU) necessary. Hooray! So if you're looking for a very capable, small form factor NAS with expansion options, the DS1821+ is so far my very favorite 8-bay I've used so far. Looking forward to what future models hold in store!

Upgraded from a DS1517+. Super easy upgrade. Much faster. More disk space. Otherwise same build and quality. Stock ram is too little. Recommended unofficial upgrades for those on a budget (keep in mind Synology has official supported hardware if that's important to you): - 32gb RAM - might have compatibility warning depending on manufacturer, should be able to find for <$200 shipped total without compatibility warning. Google "DS1821+ and/or DS1621+ ECC Ram Upgrade Options" to see a list of RAM with/without warnings. - 10gbe NIC - Search around for Mellanox ConnectX-3 MCX311A-XCAT LOW PROFILE, it's plug and play, ~$45. A word of caution regarding nvme cache: it's not necessary for most users (including myself - I don't use it!). Average home users running virtual machines may benefit. If you really want it, only chose official Synology nvme cards or Optane for a cache. Consumer nvme cards WILL cause data loss when they inevitably and prematurely die (look it up). DSM7 will improve nvme cache, but I don't recommend using it until the stable release later this year.

Wish I would have bought this instead of the now defunct DBOBO. The device itself is much better with easer and more reliable trays for mounting your drives. The tools and apps are much better and actually includes backup software unlike the DROBO. Backup software works great and was very easy to restore files.

This is an amazing machine. Synology makes a great product. We currently own a 1618+ and a 216+. We wanted to upgrade to the 1821+ 8-bay for our small business, as we save a lot of files because we are in retail and take product photos and videos. Right now, we are really enjoying the faster processor and more storage. For the 1821+ we are going to setup the drives using SHR-2, our 1618 we used Raid 10, but Synology has come a long way with SHR, so we have high expectations.

Very satisfied. I like that the OS has an app store that makes it easy to install and configure services. Support for Docker makes it even more versatile. I installed a Mellanox connect-x 3 network card, but it didn't work until after setup completed. (I used one of the built-in gigabit ports to do initial setup, after which the Mellanox card worked fine. It told me all my drives were not on the compatibility list when I set it up even though they are in the compatibility list online. But they seem to work without issue. I created 2 volumes, one is 4 SSDs and the other is 4 HDDs. The hard disk volume reads and writes at around 750-800 MB/s over SMB. The SSD volume is able to saturate a 10 gigabit connection (over 1 GB/s throughout sustained). The cloud sync tool is very useful. I have 2 cloud storage accounts and they are synced on the NAS so I don't need to install a client on my desktop. So far I'm pretty satisfied.

My collection of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs got big enough that I decided to rip them all to a media server. After the usual internet research I went with this model, the DS1821+. I was especially impressed by Synology's expansion capabilities -- I'd like to be able to keep adding more drives if I need them rather than buy a new NAS. I've been completely satisfied with the Synology array since the day I got it. The user interface is terrific and the system provides a wide variety of installable applications for many use cases. The DS1821+ supports both DLNA media hosting (through the "Media Server" application) and SMB sharing so it will work with many players (I use Infuse Pro). The unit is quiet enough to use as a media server in a home theater room (though this will probably depend on the drives you equip). Only nit: the NAS comes with 4GB of RAM but I'd recommend upgrading -- I bought compatible Arch memory here on Amazon.

I owned a 5 Bay Drobo and though it was great however when it started to have issues after 9 years of constantly running. I could find another Drobo to purchase anywhere so did my research and settled on Synology. Wow, it was so easy to set up. This Synology had so many different apps and features that I was upset that I didn’t purchase one earlier!!! The best thing that could have happened to me was that Drobo wasn’t available or I would have missed out on the easy to operate and feature filled extraordinary NAS!!!

He usado este NAS desde el 2021, Lo adquirí para principalmente centralizar todo el sistema de archivos que usamos para realizar trabajos de renderizado. Llego en perfecto estado a Colombia. ( con varias cajas resistentes que realmente denotan un buen empaque por parte de synology ) Fue muy fácil la instalación del sistema operativo y todo lo que se necesita para correr este NAS, hay mucha información esparcida en internet sobre como hacerlo. La interfaz, paquetes y apps de todo el sistema operativo son muy fáciles de usar. Sin mencionar que las apps móviles ayuda mucho también. Los materiales del equipo (plástico y metal) que usan se ven de muy buena calidad. Cosas que no me gustan mucho: todos los accesorios y demás de este equipo son costosos.