#Synology drive review install#
#Synology drive review series#
#Synology drive review windows#

Has Synology mastered the balance of price vs power in this new NAS? Does it deserve your data? Let’s find out. The £125 (ex.VAT) DS220j arrives as a more cost-effective and value solution that arrives at 40-50% lower in price than established/powerful devices like the DS218+ (or DS220+ eventually) and this needs to be taken into account. I use the term ‘low level’ because it would be remiss of me to suggest that the DS220jis a ‘Powerful’ device or something that going to give you the premium Synology experience, no, and I cannot review it as such. Whether it’s because they are moving away from the cloud due to subscription costs (DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc), are looking for something more centralized and secure, or are simply looking for a means to add another layer to their backup solution – the DS220j is presented as a solution to a number of low-level data problems. The Synology DS220j NAS is a device squarely aimed at the budget buyer and for those looking to make a tentative step into the world of a more value-based network storage solution.

#Synology drive review series#

Alongside this, we have seen news and releases into the 2020 series of devices gracing almost every other range (DS620slim, RS820+, DS1620xs to name ut a few), but still no two-bay NAS devices – till now. With the 2017/2018 series of devices now over two years old, despite the constant improvements in DSM, it has seemed like a long old wait. There's so much you could do with an enclosure such as the DS220+.Is the New Budget DS220+j NAS from Synology Worth Your Data?įor those of you that have been waiting for news on a new Synology 2-Bay network-attached storage (NAS) device, it has certainly been quite a wait.

#Synology drive review install#

This allows one to install a host of applications, including third-party offerings like Plex. The DSM OS has a package manager, which you can think of like an app store of sorts. This is where Synology can come in, allowing the NAS to communicate to its servers with updated IP details. The one you use for the outside world often changes and this causes issues if you have a service that points to an IP that no longer points to your home. Not everyone has a static external IP address. I recommend setting up a Synology Account as this provides you with the company's external NAS locator service. SHR is recommended for data redundancy, meaning you'll lose one drive worth of capacity, but this does shield you from any data loss should a drive fail. Once connected, you'll be asked a few questions, provided the means to set up a Synology account (I recommend you do so), and install DSM OS onto your hard drives. The Synology DiskStation DS220+ is a brilliant starter NAS for Plex. There's even a handy locator tool from Synology if you're unable to locate the server in your network. After installing two of your favorite NAS hard drives, boot up the NAS and you're greeted by an easy-to-follow setup wizard. Synology has the initial configuration process nailed down and you can get everything up and running in less than 10 minutes. The addition of the DDR4 RAM also helps matters, allowing the DS220+ to punch well above its weight. The CPU comes equipped with two physical cores and threads (no hyperthreading), with the aforementioned base and boost clock speeds of 2.0GHz and 2.9GHz, respectively. Yes, it'll even do some 4K transcoding too. It'll be more than capable of handling simultaneous connections for file storage, as well as running Plex Media Server. Sure, we're not talking Core series here, but for how much this enclosure costs, you're getting quite the deal. The Intel Celeron J4205 is a great little processor. Still, enclosures like the DiskStation 220+ from Synology have their place and the OS is nothing short of amazing. We put together a handy guide on everything you need to know to build your own NAS. If you truly want the best performance possible, it's always best to do it yourself. Pre-built NAS enclosures aren't the most powerful systems available.

#Synology drive review windows#

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central)