This is the best price I've seen for this NAS so far. The most recent price shown on OzBargain was $627.30 Delivered.
EDIT: Thanks to tango1 for noting that it has been this price before: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/472783
Excellent device, never skips a beat. Perfect PLEX server as well
Plex isn’t that needed anymore, Infuse or Mr Movies will all that for a lot less $$$
Haven't used Infuse since the Apple TV jailbreaks. Has it really improved to Plex level features now? Mr Movies is a new one, how does that compare? Are both compatible with this NAS drive?
what is MR Movies? never heard of it. Is it similar to plex?
When I Google 'plex "Mr movies"' this post is the third result :|
Tempted but already have the DS218+. I will wait for the DS920+ next year.
I've been saying I will wait for next one too for the last 5 years only to find every upgrade underwhelming for the price.
Yeah, that could be the case again. If not for the DS218+, I would buy this unit.
Hope the new model has 10GbE built in, rather than an optional add-on card.
removed, my mistake
You got Ebay Plus? If not, that's your problem.
FYI - there is a synology event in two weeks time that's what I am holding out for!
Thanks, I’ve been so keen to pull the trigger on one of these for a while now… but if there is a better model on the horizon (which seems likely given when this model was released), I think I can keep waiting.
…I have the drives ready and everything! This is hard!
Edit: Looks like they had the event earlier this week in Berlin and no new model announced.
I think it may be the "main" event though coming up…
are you sure they won't be replacing it with the DS1019+ ?
video seems to suggest not, but seems pretty similar and just upgraded.
https://www.span.com/w/synology-nas-devices-2018-and-2019/
I've been watching and wanting a DS918+ since I saw people recommend them during the last ebay plus deals, and now there is talk of a new one? maybe i'll hold off a bit, ugh
@cam83: If it helps, I took the plunge and just purchased anyway. At the end of the day, the new model might have a slight bump to the processor to handle… maybe an additional stream (using Plex/Emby)?
The only thing I’d want is 10G to be honest. And even that isn’t much of a deal breaker to hold out for a new (and probably more expensive) model.
This is also coming from someone who has to have all the latest tech and always waits for the “new model” to release - so hope that helps.
@Thundaja: yeah
i don't have the hdd's waiting thou like you haha
plus i'm lazy to make a new ebay account for the free plus. looks like i'll be on the next comp alliance deal!
@Thundaja: 20% off 799 brings it down to 599.20… tempting but feels odd to buy a nearly two year old model when I am upgrading from a DS216j.
@jace88: Yeah but Synology didn't announce any next-generation, 4-bay replacement for the DS918+ at their latest conference, so it's looking like it will be sometime before it's superseded.
It's still more than enough for 90% of users; especially with a RAM upgrade and an SSD cache.
@Miami Mall Alien: True that, and I'm still toying with the idea in my mind of whether it's worth spending big on DS918+ or just settling for the DS418j for an easy upgrade path.
Most of the stuff has been announced already, go look at the German press event.
It was under $600 some time back on Amazon https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/synology-ds918-
A number of ppl didn't get their order fulfilled mind you
Is this worth the extra over the qnap posted earlier today? I’m wanting to get into the NAS scene but am pretty green with this stuff. All I use it for is holding media and as a plex server
Synologys software is great and so easy to use. I've been running my DS918 as a Plex server and backup for over a year now. Havnt skipped a beat. Very happy with my purchase even though I paid more then this.
Yes, Synology's DiskStation Manager OS is light-years ahead of QNAP in terms of usability and convenience as is the support and frequency of app/OS updates.
List price was $10 cheaper half year ago.
Is this good for 1440p PLEX?
If you pay for a Plex pass, then these can do hardware transcoding. If you don't need that (ie, the client device decodes the file) then the only limitation really will be your network.
I've streamed content via plex to my mobile phone while driving 3 hours home for the kids before and it worked amazingly well…
are you looking for playback or transcoding? the unit can definitely do both but the transcoding option will require a plex subscription
What's the difference?
Do you guys use a UPS/surge protectors with the NAS Units?
Your stupid if you don't.
ALWAYS run a ups with a NAS. Spending this much money and not have a ups is just waiting for trouble.
any you'd recommend? Eaton Vs Cyberpower? Would only need a few minutes of runtime for safe shutdown of the NAS. Nothing else I'd really need to plug into it either.
Edit: Just ordered an Eaton 850VA 5E for $103. Went for the 850VA over the 1100VA due to no fan on the smaller models and don't need the extra capacity
I run the small Eaton 5E 850VA on mine and it's perfect. Plug the USB cable in too and setup auto shutdown on the Syno directly.
@XeKToReX: Good to know! Couldn't find much info on the compatibility but I assumed it would work. Does the UPS get hot without a fan? Mine will likely be in a cabinet with not the best airflow.
Hey mate, where did you pick up the Eaton from? Looking for a similar specd UPS :)
@smurfstah: Grabbed it from FutuOnline eBay. The one I bought was $129 (down to $103.2 with PILOT20) but they've relisted it and increased it to $133. Unfortunately Computer Alliance don't have stock of the 850VA (only available for preorder on their site). Scorptec also have them for $105 if you have one close for local pickup, otherwise shipping kills it.
That reminds me… Was gonna get one.
Running DS918, Telstra Modem Google WiFi and a Epson inkjet. I remember being told laser could be an issue actually.
Something like this suitable on a quick google?
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/UPS/UPS/45092-VALUE1200E…
Thanks! Will get one :)
For what purpose? If the power in my house is down, i'm not on the internet or watching files on my tv or pretty much anything else.
You don't know when it's going to crap-out. And it can kill sensitive/running electronics.
Your stupid
Wow
Decent price, but i need 5 drives. Still waiting for some DS1019+ deals …
Is that for a particular raid configuration?
Cheers OP, good price and finally pulled the trigger! Already got 4 x 8TB WD Reds to throw into here :)
You bought the disks first before buying the NAS? :D
I have 4 x WD Reds ready as well :D
Haha sure did, managed to get my last 2 from an Amazon deal where i paid only ~$250 per disk!
Of course. Housings can come & go. Storage is often migrated.
Looks tempting, can someone answer a couple of questions for me?
1) I assume these will work with only 2 HDD's and I can slot more in as required?
2) Would the 918+ be a better decoding solution than the Rpi 3+ I currently use? If so, is it possible to use the RPi (Kodi) simply as a 'passthrough' device to the TV (if that makes sense?)
Thanks
Yep, I'm running a secondary 918+ as an offsite/offline backup to my main unit and currently run a single 8TB HDD in it which works perfectly. I have a second identical HDD ready to install into it next time I'm visit that family member and once installed the NAS OS will simply mirror the data on the first drive over to the second for redundancy. I can't comment on your RPi question though sorry.
the decoding (transcoding) solution would be much better on the DS918+. especially on higher resolutions as the 918+ can handle a single 4k stream transcode if you have a plex subscription to enable hardware transcoding
Thanks just looking into it now, there is an official Plex addon for Kodi (player). :)
@EightImmortals: One more dumb question, if I pull the drives out of my current NAS (Asustor) can I just plug them into the Synology and they will just work without losing any data?
@EightImmortals: Not sure but I reckon it's very unlikely. The Synology NAS was able to see and use the data on the HDDs from my DIY Xpenology NAS but thats because it was already in a Synology friendly format… but it didn't matter for me anyway because I blew the volume away and recreated it from scratch then transferred all the data back over from my other NAS to keep it squeaky clean & fresh.
@SteveAndBelle: Make sure you choose SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid) when setting it up. You'll be thankful in the future if you want to add more disks or move them to another Synology unit.
A good price but don't need this until next year. Still considering buying, but would run out my warranty and could be a new model by then.
Paid $672 for this baby back in Sep 2017. Rock solid, frugal and received constant updates. Very reliable. You can't go wrong.
It's great for storage and streaming, otherwise don't expect it to do any heavy lifting.
I keep eyeing these off but hold off when I compare it to a $450 AMD 2200G PC build running FreeNAS. The PC doesn't have the really nice form factor, but makes up for it in performance and can have up to 6 sata drives and 1 nvme.
I have the same thinking and had tried many open source nas. I am so glad to have taken the jump to Synology nas. I have wasted so much time prior from instability. No such problem from synology. It's just so easy and painless. I have the ds218+ 2 months ago. I've bought this model yesterday after being convinced the upcoming model upgrade is not worth waiting for as it's already very good and over spec for my need.
I also use wordpress plugins to design my webpage. It is just amazingly flexible.
I am buying synology purely for its stable software.
I ran DIY NAS boxes for quite a while and although they worked well enough I was blown away once I took the leap and went for a 918+. As Bargain Zombies says above, the Synology NAS is just so easy from setup to day-to-day use. I'm now slowly convincing all my friends and family who I built DIY NAS boxes for over the years to also make the leap to a proper Synology box. The DIY route is fun, very satisfying, very educational and you can save a fortune however now that I'm running a proper Synology NAS I'll never ever go back to a DIY NAS… ever.
I keep eyeing these off but hold off when I compare it to a $450 AMD 2200G PC build running FreeNAS. The PC doesn't have the really nice form factor, but makes up for it in performance and can have up to 6 sata drives and 1 nvme.
This comparison has been brought up in previous Synology NAS deals. See my comment here; like the other commentators above, I strongly recommend a dedicated NAS device over a DIY budget, small-form factor PC re-purposed as a NAS. They just do not compare when it comes to ease-of-use and convenience.
I do understand the stubborn, PC-enthusiast attitude of doing it all yourself and sacrificing style over substance but seriously, Synology have come a long, long way now and they know what they're doing in the NAS space. The open-source alternatives like FreeNAS/various Linux distros cannot hold a candle to DiskStation Manager.
I've had a DS918+ for quite a while now and there's no way in hell I'm going back to using my spare tower PCs as makeshift NAS boxes; it takes up way too much to configure and maintain them and even with all of that time investment, they're still less reliable and more failure-prone.
I did learn a heck of a lot when I was building NAS boxes back-in-the-day (good/bad donor hardware, best way to buy cheap HDDs, shucking etc.) but the most important thing I learnt towards the end was to not bother and just get a proper NAS instead :)
We've all been there.
It's kind of the same mentality people have when doing DIY home renovations (who've never done them before). You can either do it yourself, inevitably screw it up majorly and pay a professional to fix your screw ups and be out of pocket significantly more than if you had just hired a professional to do the job right in the first place.
Synology are professionals, and they've done all of the due diligence over 10 generations of their most popular 2-bay and 4-bay NAS devices. These things are truly mature products with extremely stable OSs that are now legendarily reliable as a result.
@Miami Mall Alien: Hmm, I'll have to respectfully disagree with you there. We lost $150-200k on a property after so-called professionals completely screwed it up. We were about to begin fighting it but had a tap on the shoulder from the solitary on-site tradie we could trust who also agreed that the work was well below standard (legal or expected). He basically advised to DIY fix up the obvious stuff then flip it to save time, stress, anxiety and approx. $100k in legal fees just to end up with a crappy house anyway. We did exactly that… swallowed our pride, fixed up the obvious issues ourselves, flipped it, cut our losses, moved into a fixer-upper and I'm now happily doing all the renos myself (some very major) to a much much higher grade than the so-called professionals. We were lucky too, going by recent news articles there seems to be many others in the same boat who weren't lucky enough to get off-the-record advice and they've been in court for years while living in half a house with no roof etc. My 2c anyway :)
@SteveAndBelle: Tough crowd, lol.
I'll rephrase that.
A lot of old-school PC enthusiasts/elitists/IT greybeards would turn their noses up at the idea of buying purpose-built, off-the-shelf hardware to fulfil the role of a PC configured to perform a basic SOHO file server role, because "Back in my day, blah, blah blah, obscure references to obsolete technology, blah, blah, blah…" and I think that mentality is just borne out of pure stubbornness and unwillingness to try something new.
And let's face it, anyone worth their salt in IT knows being an early adopter is still a fool's game yes, but we're talking about Synology who I've never heard anyone who works in the industry and especially who knows hardware well, say anything really bad about, and who have been in the storage space for 20 years now.
NASs are no longer the bleeding edge and they no longer have teething problems and they will eat your mini-ITX/small form factor/spare PC acting as a NAS for breakfast in every conceivable metric: power consumption, total cost of ownership, MBTF, transfer speeds, physical footprint, hours of life wasted, etc.
So as I was saying, assuming you run into an honest, decent tradie who knows what they're doing (which is what Synology was standing in for in my analogy and which I'll concede SteveAndBelle, is sometimes a Herculean task in this country), and you ask them to do a job that would have taken the average layman (not seasoned house-flipper), twice the time and twice the cost, it can pretty mind-blowing how much better the result can be for everyone involved and how much sanity can be spared. Now that might be an idealistic scenario, yes, but only because this is Australia and tradies, the building industry and the housing market are a proverbial Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.
We lost $150-200k on a property after so-called professionals completely screwed it up.
Yeah but to be fair, that's an Australian-specific problem because the building industry and housing market in this country is absolutely dreadful and a regulatory Wild West. Other first-world, developed nations don't have this problem.
If this were Sweden or Germany for instance, and you bought a house, that would be the end of that story because a house built in one of those countries has to be built to exacting standards otherwise come winter, slam-dunk lawsuits would be filed for the kinds of shoddy workmanship you see in modern Australia homes.
Still, your story notwithstanding, on the other end of the spectrum there are plenty of well-meaning but rather naive people that get suckered into the whole dream of doing every home improvement project on the cheap yourself because they watch too many home improvement programs on TV but then they realise how bloody inept they are at basic handyman skills like levelling and measuring properly, because the last time they did manual labour was in a high school woodworking class.
I've got one of these. Love it.
Lovely, bought one on my 28Degrees card… here's hoping if they DO announce new ones shortly that this'll dip a bit in the next 12 months :P
Whats the time frame on returns when paying with 28Degrees Card?
Oh, not for the returns part… for the price protection (they'll refund the difference when the price drops if you claim it… for up to 12 months)
does it actually work? the other price protection I've tried was asking for more than $60 gap and requires a 'printed AD'
for up to 12 months
Check again, that doesn't sound right, 30 days maybe, not 12 months.
What raid level would be recommended to use with this? Do people go for raid 10 or something else to save space?
Ok actually had a look and see that it offers its own variant of raid 1, 5 or 6, and maybe others?
Look into SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid) as well.
Edit- yes it can torrent nicely
I purchased one of these a couple of months ago. It died after just over 1 month of use, when I updated it for the first time.
I sent it back to the store (another ebay store, not CA) but I'm still waiting for a replacement. How long do you think is a reasonable time to wait for a replacement?
![[eBay Plus] Synology DS918+ 4-Bay NAS $619.65 Delivered @ Computer Alliance via eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/61/481961.jpg?h=b962e2c6)
It has been this price before, albeit not for long: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/472783 (see original post update)