Which Model to buy?

[Skormy]

I am currently looking at a 2-bay Synology NAS. At around the $200 price point my options are the DS214se and the DS212j. Still a NAS newbie I did a product comparison on the site and didn't see dramatic differences, though the 214 is a newer model. The other 2-bay models jump in price dramatically.

There was a 4-bay model, a DS411slim for around $300. Is this money well spent or should the money be spent on the disk drives. I'm looking on Amazon, is there somewhere else I should be looking?

Also, I am looking at a hybrid configuration with one drive used as shared storage and the other as a time machine backup. I'll be creating a backup of the drives with a portable drive off of the USB port.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions.

 

[stevech]

Sometimes Newegg has sales.
My DS212 has been great. Sleeps (power off) daily and comes on at 7AM.
USB3 essential.
SD card is great for auto-backup of VVIP folders.
In this 2 bay, I used two volumes and backups across the drive, rather than RAID. Simply to independent file systems/volumes. Hybrid didn't give me the protection I wanted, via 2 volumes and USB3 backup.

RAID1, RAID5... RAID is not a backup!

 

[Skormy]

Thanks. In terms of future planning, would the 413j be a way to plan ahead? For about $80 more I can have 4 bays, though I may only use the first two initially. Is there any real difference between the 13 series over the 12 -- looks like the big differences are CPU speed and memory.

 

[stevech]

Thanks. In terms of future planning, would the 413j be a way to plan ahead? For about $80 more I can have 4 bays, though I may only use the first two initially. Is there any real difference between the 13 series over the 12 -- looks like the big differences are CPU speed and memory.

I decided I didn't need more than 2 bays. My one 2TB drive is just over 1/2 full. I don't archive DVD rips and that's the difference. Now we can get 3TB and if you're brace, 4TB per drive.
so, sorry, I'm inexperienced with 4 bay and I would not use RAID5.

 

[slidermike]

Personally I would get the max bays I could.
I started out with the ds210+.
Great 2 bay but after replacing a pair of 1tb w/2 2tb's then from those to two 3tb's I decided to pull the trigger on a 5 bay 1512+.

I still don't even have a drive in the 5th bay but its there for easy expansion & it can handle up to two external 5 bay modules for a total of 15hdd.

2 things I would shoot for with the syno.
horse power. more IS better.
bays for expansion.
The only components you can upgrade or replace later are the memory modules so once you buy X cpu, that's it till you part with the device.
Same goes for drive bays. Other than the models that support the external enclosure add ons.

If you want max bang for the buck I have heard the Thecus is a good box too (should cost a little less).
Syno is top dollar but there is a reason for it. Hands down the best, most user friendly & versatile UI out there now.