I bought a Synology NAS more than 10 (!) years ago and it looks exactly like this. The specs and features are pretty much the same too. Zero progress...
Last year I replaced it with QNAP TBS-453A, works great so far.
Why improve perfection? I use some fancy 10-bay rack-mount synology NASes at work and they are the most rock solid pieces of computer equipment I work with. They must be more than 10 years old and they only go down when the power’s out.
It is far from perfect the J line has been using the same Power unit for the past 10 years and they have been known to go out of services between 3-5 years. I am on my third one already.
My Synology 213j has been powered on for the last 6-7 years or so pretty much 24/7. Never had a single problem. I like the firmware policy, updates are still coming for this model.
The single core 1.2GHz CPU is perfectly fine for modest file serving and some basic network services such as Radius, DHCP and Onedrive sync. I can't fully saturate the gigabit port but it was the cheapest 2-bay model when I bought it and I wasn't expecting more.
This is a slightly cut down version of the DS218play (half the RAM and some of the media center features cut out). So you can expect the same kind of performance and reliability.
If you know there is an issue with the power supply in the J then why do you keep buying them and not the Play or full-fat models? Avoid the issue and get a more powerful NAS at the same time?
In all honesty almost nobody looking at a bottom of the barrel (in Synology's lineup) 2 bay NAS cares about 2.5Gbps and up, or has the required infrastructure in place. 30TB of data is 60TB with redundancy (if redundancy is not important then 3 days copy time can't be that much either). You're looking at 4-8 bay NASes at the very least. Not really what we're talking about here.
While I'd love a 2.5G/10G, cheap, 2-4 bay NAS, in reality many people just have high expectations that they don't want to back up with their wallet.
Well I agree on the looks and was hoping on an update. But the spec is different enough. DS210J had a very slow 800Mhz CPU and 128MB of Memory. If you only use it as a file server and absolutely nothing more it is fine, with speed barely touching 80MB/s.
This 220J is a Quad Core ARMv8 CPU with 512MB Memory, pretty for caching some of your transfers.
Unfortunately Btrfs is still not available in all the entry level model.
Well, my QNAP has 8GB of memory, and I pretty much always saturate 1GbE link with 4x 970 Evo 1TB drives in RAID 5, even with small file transfers, which is about 10x faster than what I was getting with Synology and a pair of WD Green in RAID 1. The box is much smaller, and completely silent, and the web interface is much faster too. My next upgrade will be to 10GbE ports, when the WiFi speeds catch up.
My 8 bay 2.5" SSD, dual 10G QNAP is much faster than that. QNAP rules. Instead QNAP is (re)releasing this old crap that only fits 4 SSDs and does it over a 1G link. QNAP sucks. Makes sense?
You're comparing products in different lines, segments, price points, etc. and it makes no sense. If your point is that they could make more substantial improvements, you're right. Under the good this 2020 NAS is a cut down version of 2018's DS218Play (with less RAM and cut down media features). But substantial improvements come at a cost that NAS buyers in this segment don't want. And they come with additional costs for the subsequent network upgrade needed to take advantage of those improvements.
It's a home use NAS, it will be sold to people who don't have anything better than 1G networks and don't fit 4 SSDs into this. And those buyers getting 2.5G only to realize at home that they need new switches and network cards is a recipe for losing the entry level segment.
i think you both missed when i meant :-) of course the qnap will be faster, its using SSDs vs the synology using mechanical hdds. i bet if i were to replace my hdds with 5 ssds, set up a link aggregation between the 2 ports, i would be able to saturate it as well :-) i have a 5 bay synology, and its been awesome :-) looking to update it with a 8 bay.
I think you both missed my point. I'm comparing products from different lines because Synology does not have anything comparable to my QNAP model - a slim SSD only entry level (2-4 bay) NAS. I don't want large noisy boxes designed for spinning rust in my home in 2020.
In fact, what I want is WiFi-6 AP, SSD-only NAS, plus DOCSIS 4.0 and 5G modems combined in one small device. So that I only have to deal with two cables (power and coax). Why the hell can't Synology make it?
People constantly are misinformed on NAS. THey think they need super hardware i guess for little they do on them. Synology can stream content just fine, media/files, run lots of stuff.
This is a weird model though, cloud backup stuff is already part of the other versions.
So much of this! Its a little, power efficient NAS box and if its insufficient to meet expectations there are higher end models out there or you can DIY a system if you have the necessary knowledge.
How do you DIY a NAS that deals with bit rot? I had a DIY (basically old AMD computer with an added SATA 3 card), and I had an array of SSD’s and multiple spinning rust drives. The flash array I always worked with was fine, but the spinning backup drives got weird. I know I should not have been using Windows, but it was easy.
What should I have done with old backup drives? How can one keep old files from degrading? This seems to never happen on Synology NAS devices I have used at work.
I think there is nothing wrong with the look of this NAS, so there's little reason to change it. At least they have made baby steps progress with the hardware. This doesn't need cutting edge hardware anyway, so its good they stick to something that works and low on power consumption.
I have "basic" Synology, Qnap and WD EX2 Ultra. Synology weakness is the case. Screws strip, tough to open (sliding two surfaces against each other never a good idea) and on/off button breaks (get out the bent paperclip); and screws to hold the HDD in places (gotta keep lots of those from the desktop days). Qnap and WD - not problems. Why nt just fix the case for the next revision? Synology DMS the best which is why I still use my duck-taped box with the paperclip on/off switch.
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p1esk - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
I bought a Synology NAS more than 10 (!) years ago and it looks exactly like this. The specs and features are pretty much the same too. Zero progress...Last year I replaced it with QNAP TBS-453A, works great so far.
willis936 - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
Why improve perfection? I use some fancy 10-bay rack-mount synology NASes at work and they are the most rock solid pieces of computer equipment I work with. They must be more than 10 years old and they only go down when the power’s out.ksec - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
It is far from perfect the J line has been using the same Power unit for the past 10 years and they have been known to go out of services between 3-5 years. I am on my third one already.sandtitz - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
My Synology 213j has been powered on for the last 6-7 years or so pretty much 24/7. Never had a single problem. I like the firmware policy, updates are still coming for this model.The single core 1.2GHz CPU is perfectly fine for modest file serving and some basic network services such as Radius, DHCP and Onedrive sync. I can't fully saturate the gigabit port but it was the cheapest 2-bay model when I bought it and I wasn't expecting more.
close - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
This is a slightly cut down version of the DS218play (half the RAM and some of the media center features cut out). So you can expect the same kind of performance and reliability.close - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
Addendum, also a lower equivalent (half the RAM, also cut down multimedia features) of the 2+ year old TS-228A.Thorburn - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
If you know there is an issue with the power supply in the J then why do you keep buying them and not the Play or full-fat models? Avoid the issue and get a more powerful NAS at the same time?ksec - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
I didn't, I bought a new PSU. Not a new NAS.edgineer - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
Because transferring 29.1 TiB of data over gigabit Ethernet will take ~68 hoursclose - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
In all honesty almost nobody looking at a bottom of the barrel (in Synology's lineup) 2 bay NAS cares about 2.5Gbps and up, or has the required infrastructure in place. 30TB of data is 60TB with redundancy (if redundancy is not important then 3 days copy time can't be that much either). You're looking at 4-8 bay NASes at the very least. Not really what we're talking about here.While I'd love a 2.5G/10G, cheap, 2-4 bay NAS, in reality many people just have high expectations that they don't want to back up with their wallet.
ksec - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
Well I agree on the looks and was hoping on an update. But the spec is different enough. DS210J had a very slow 800Mhz CPU and 128MB of Memory. If you only use it as a file server and absolutely nothing more it is fine, with speed barely touching 80MB/s.This 220J is a Quad Core ARMv8 CPU with 512MB Memory, pretty for caching some of your transfers.
Unfortunately Btrfs is still not available in all the entry level model.
p1esk - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
Well, my QNAP has 8GB of memory, and I pretty much always saturate 1GbE link with 4x 970 Evo 1TB drives in RAID 5, even with small file transfers, which is about 10x faster than what I was getting with Synology and a pair of WD Green in RAID 1. The box is much smaller, and completely silent, and the web interface is much faster too. My next upgrade will be to 10GbE ports, when the WiFi speeds catch up.Qasar - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
yea there is a fair comparison. 4 ssds vs 2 mechanical hdds.p1esk - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
I'd gladly purchase a 4x SSD slim model from Synology if they made one. But instead they are (re)releasing this old crap.close - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
My 8 bay 2.5" SSD, dual 10G QNAP is much faster than that. QNAP rules. Instead QNAP is (re)releasing this old crap that only fits 4 SSDs and does it over a 1G link. QNAP sucks. Makes sense?You're comparing products in different lines, segments, price points, etc. and it makes no sense. If your point is that they could make more substantial improvements, you're right. Under the good this 2020 NAS is a cut down version of 2018's DS218Play (with less RAM and cut down media features). But substantial improvements come at a cost that NAS buyers in this segment don't want. And they come with additional costs for the subsequent network upgrade needed to take advantage of those improvements.
It's a home use NAS, it will be sold to people who don't have anything better than 1G networks and don't fit 4 SSDs into this. And those buyers getting 2.5G only to realize at home that they need new switches and network cards is a recipe for losing the entry level segment.
Qasar - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
i think you both missed when i meant :-) of course the qnap will be faster, its using SSDs vs the synology using mechanical hdds. i bet if i were to replace my hdds with 5 ssds, set up a link aggregation between the 2 ports, i would be able to saturate it as well :-) i have a 5 bay synology, and its been awesome :-) looking to update it with a 8 bay.p1esk - Thursday, March 19, 2020 - link
I think you both missed my point. I'm comparing products from different lines because Synology does not have anything comparable to my QNAP model - a slim SSD only entry level (2-4 bay) NAS. I don't want large noisy boxes designed for spinning rust in my home in 2020.In fact, what I want is WiFi-6 AP, SSD-only NAS, plus DOCSIS 4.0 and 5G modems combined in one small device. So that I only have to deal with two cables (power and coax). Why the hell can't Synology make it?
sftech - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
Yep this is my DS213j from ancient times, almost perfectly preserved.imaheadcase - Wednesday, March 18, 2020 - link
People constantly are misinformed on NAS. THey think they need super hardware i guess for little they do on them. Synology can stream content just fine, media/files, run lots of stuff.This is a weird model though, cloud backup stuff is already part of the other versions.
PeachNCream - Thursday, March 19, 2020 - link
So much of this! Its a little, power efficient NAS box and if its insufficient to meet expectations there are higher end models out there or you can DIY a system if you have the necessary knowledge.SkipPerk - Wednesday, August 31, 2022 - link
How do you DIY a NAS that deals with bit rot? I had a DIY (basically old AMD computer with an added SATA 3 card), and I had an array of SSD’s and multiple spinning rust drives. The flash array I always worked with was fine, but the spinning backup drives got weird. I know I should not have been using Windows, but it was easy.What should I have done with old backup drives? How can one keep old files from degrading? This seems to never happen on Synology NAS devices I have used at work.
axfelix - Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - link
I wish this had link aggregation -- been looking for a barebones 2-drive setup that can still do 200M/s+. Would've been a buy from me in that case.watzupken - Sunday, March 22, 2020 - link
I think there is nothing wrong with the look of this NAS, so there's little reason to change it. At least they have made baby steps progress with the hardware. This doesn't need cutting edge hardware anyway, so its good they stick to something that works and low on power consumption.zulu53 - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
I have "basic" Synology, Qnap and WD EX2 Ultra. Synology weakness is the case. Screws strip, tough to open (sliding two surfaces against each other never a good idea) and on/off button breaks (get out the bent paperclip); and screws to hold the HDD in places (gotta keep lots of those from the desktop days). Qnap and WD - not problems. Why nt just fix the case for the next revision? Synology DMS the best which is why I still use my duck-taped box with the paperclip on/off switch.