Which one should I keep, Qnap TVS h674 I5 or Synology DS 1821+

[kmaulsby18]

Hello, I have been lucky to play around with both of these units at my house for the past few months, but I can only keep one and would like some opinions from others. I have been testing both units, which have their advantages and disadvantages. The NAS will be used for photo and some video editing, backing up four PCs and one MAC, a Plex server, a couple of Containers, and one or two VMs. This is what I have learned so far. Qnap is powerful and very flexible using ZFS. Plex runs excellent on it. Issues. I ran into a problem where their bare Metal backup program crashed, and the only way I found out was I kept getting the messages that the backup failed. I had to create a ticket, which took them a week to correct. Issue number two, the QNAP 2.5 internal NIC, stopped working \ communicating. I tried everything to get it back working and had to call QNAP again. I ended up shutting the unit down again. I had to pull out the drives, start it back up again, then shut it back down, put the drives back in to correct the issue.
Synology: Everything works. There have been no issues so far. However, Plex and VM's performance is slow, and I worry about 4K video, which I have not tested. Active backup for business is excellent. I forgot to add that two other family members will access the NAS.

I love to hear from others before I make a final dission.

 

[PunchCardBoss]

However, Plex and VM's performance is slow, and I worry about 4K video, which I have not tested.

Your DS 1821+ has a AMD Ryzen processor which is upgradable to a 10Gb NIC.

Your lack of on-board H.265 CODEX decoding may be an issue. But if your clients have decoding capabilities, it is not a problem even at 4k.

Your video editing may be another consideration. This depends how you intend to use your NAS. If there are more than 1 user working on video editing at the same time, a 10Gb LAN is absolutely a requirement unless you are working with small file sizes.

https://www.blackvoid.club/ has some excellent videos on the above subject as well as NAS comparisons (syno vs qnap).

 

[kmaulsby18]

Video editing may not be an issue for either NAS because I am editing from a MAC Studio with a 2TB NVMe attached to it. I just transferred the project files to it. I am more worried about Plex and running VM's>

 

[sfx2000]

Your lack of on-board H.265 CODEX decoding may be an issue. But if your clients have decoding capabilities, it is not a problem even at 4k.

IF one is doing editing, e.g. using the NAS as a storage medium only, then transcoding is not an issue...

QNAP's ZFS implementation is in response to Synology using BTRFS via SHR...

Both QNAP and Synology are great platforms - Syno does seem to be a bit easier to work with if one is over in the Apple/MacOS camp for configuration and management - QNAP is a bit less integrated across the different functions, IMHO, but it still gets the job done just as well as Syno does...

Between the two - I would go with Synology on the 1812+ - mostly because more drive bays...

Performance over the LAN at 10Gbe is going to be about the same....

 

[RMerlin]

Unless mistaken, the DS1812+ is already EOL, and therefore is no longer receiving software updates. If this is for a production environment, it might be best to go with the QNAP one.

 

[sfx2000]

Unless mistaken, the DS1812+ is already EOL, and therefore is no longer receiving software updates. If this is for a production environment, it might be best to go with the QNAP one.

Syno just dropped an update on the 3rd (Dec 2024)

Release Notes for DSM | Synology Inc.

Release Notes for DSM | Synology Inc.

www.synology.com

I don't think it'll get DSM7, but DSM6 is still relevant...

 

[RMerlin]

I don't think it'll get DSM7, but DSM6 is still relevant...

They did an exception with the recent DSM 6 update due to recent CVEs that affected it (I don't have the URL to the security bulletin at hand currently - I have a DSM 7.1 device to upgrade tomorrow night for a customer). DSM 6 is otherwise EOL.

Kinda like how Asus recently provided firmware updates for the venerable RT-AC68U despite it being EOL since April. Synology did the responsible thing there, unlike another router manufacturer who loves to tell people "Not gonna provide security fixes for our junk, just e-waste it and buy a new router". <cough>

 

[sfx2000]

They did an exception with the recent DSM 6 update due to recent CVEs that affected it (I don't have the URL to the security bulletin at hand currently - I have a DSM 7.1 device to upgrade tomorrow night for a customer). DSM 6 is otherwise EOL.

Ultimately - not really your problem...

Focus on your builds over in Asus Land.

 

[RMerlin]

Ultimately - not really your problem...

Focus on your builds over in Asus Land.

It is, since as I said I have one customer with a Synology NAS that will require updating.

The security bulletin I was referring to earlier: https://www.synology.com/en-us/security/advisory/Synology_SA_24_20

Unless you're saying that I'm not allowed to discuss anything outside of Asus routers on the forums?

 

[sfx2000]

Unless you're saying that I'm not allowed to discuss anything outside of Asus routers on the forums?

I spoke out of turn there - please accept my apologies...

 

[sfx2000]

Unless mistaken, the DS1812+ is already EOL, and therefore is no longer receiving software updates. If this is for a production environment, it might be best to go with the QNAP one.

BTW - OP mentions the DS1821+, not the DS1812+

Big difference on the level of support...

It's Ryzen-embedded (V1500B), so I think this is Gen1 Zen, no GPU on that chip however - the QNAP would have some advantage for those who want to do any kind of transcoding as the Core i5 can do QuickSync rather than run everything on the CPU.

Both the TVS-H674 and the DS1821+ are good choices - might actually come down to which UI experience one prefers...

 

[RMerlin]

BTW - OP mentions the DS1821+, not the DS1812+

Gotcha. That one did get upgraded to DSM 7.2, so it will be fine.