Good price for an entry level home NAS.
The deal is online only and expires by 5/1/20.
Delivery to all metro areas is $10.95 via the eParcel shipping method.
Specs Link:
https://www.synology.com/en-au/products/DS218j
Synology DiskStation DS218J 2 Bay NAS $199 (Usually $232) + Delivery - Mwave
120
Psteveshaund on 03/01/2020 - 08:43 mwave.com.au (591 clicks)
Last edited 03/01/2020 - 17:10 by 1 other user
Last edited 03/01/2020 - 17:10 by 1 other user
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Updated! Thanks
Good price. Be aware though, this model is fairly underpowered and also can't run apps like Active Backup for 365 (I found out the hard way).
Synology often uses very low powered chips which is a real shame. I'd happily give up a few watts of power for the chance at a better performer.
You can use almost any setup as a Synology NAS Server.
There are a ton videos out there where with a little knowledge and time, you can have a real computer, better hardware setup running the Synology software, rather than spending with dedicated hardware which has some limitation and might not be upgrade friendly.
This video a simple laptop was used as a Synology NAS Server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arM1zoko1NQ
You can use even a Dell server as a Synology NAS server. The sky is the limit :)
I think the idea of these are, they are plug & play. You can set these up with very little knowledge of computers.
But again, it depends on what you're after.
Also the low power usage is attractive to some.
Definitely me in this case. I use to run a plex server off my 650 watt gaming pc back in highschool lol.
The good ol days.
I think the idea of these are, they are plug & play.
You right. I shared tho coz crazy Tech guys like me might want to have something more robust which is not exactly plug & play hahaha
Well, I use Linux with my customs and sh1t so in order to use it as my main SO, there is no such a thing "plug & play" hahahahBut I got your point :)
But crazy Tech guys like you run your own home lab yeah? Haha
@BanannaMan: Something like that hahahaha
For example, I have a DNS server with Pi-Hole running from a Raspberry PI 2 + VPN
With that said, I am able to block ADs, tracking, some virus, personal data leaving my smart tv, block mobile phone from listenning and so on to be sent over. Almost no personal data leave my home network, It works like a charm.The VPN allows me to do the same with my mobile when I am not at home or if I am traveling overseas and I wanna avoid the restrictions such as Disney+ for example. Disney+ does not work in the office where I work but I am able to use it by connecting my mobile via VPN to my home using private key of course, password is not secure.
I like to be curious and explore tech things since I work with technology hahaha@BanannaMan: I have a sh1t ton of lists added haha
Some custom list since I have a Samsung QLED so if you block everything, you lose the smart features so this case I only blocked the tracking data, and I blocked the voice assistant for sending data over. It works locally only. The same for the Xbox and Windows computers.
You can use almost any setup as a Synology NAS Server.
Not for $200 dollars you can't.
People buying a NAS want a NAS; something compact, convenient and built-for-purpose. They don't want to spend an entire day on the weekend trying to re-purpose some clunky, old tower or laptop as a NAS and finding out they don't perform as well as expected and their technical limitations make the process a lot more frustrating.
A Synology NAS device is about as complicated to set up for most tech-illiterate users as a modem-router and takes less than 30 minutes from unboxing, installing the HDDs and making the storage pool accessible over a network.
A dedicated NAS device will trump a PC acting as a NAS in every conceivable metric: power consumption, total cost of ownership, MBTF, transfer speeds, physical footprint, hours of life wasted, etc.
What you're talking about is significantly more time-intensive and requires either buying a significantly more-expensive desktop PC/laptop or using a spare (which for most people will probably be old, fairly obsolete and may not even be compatible with the Synology DSM OS), on top of installing the OS from scratch and doing a lot of configuration that is not intuitive to the technologically-challenged.
you can have a real computer, better hardware setup running the Synology software, rather than spending with dedicated hardware which has some limitation and might not be upgrade friendly.
That's not the point of this product nor other NAS storage devices in this price range.
These are fire-and-forget. You set them up and they keep working until a drive fails.
This video a simple laptop was used as a Synology NAS Server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arM1zoko1NQ
How exactly is a laptop going to house two, 3.5" inch HDDs?
Unless you connect them via USB enclosures, which is going to negatively affect transfer speeds and just be God-awful to work with.Contrary to your advice, you can only use one common piece of hardware in place of a dedicated NAS device and that's a desktop tower, which is a whole different beast altogether and is needless overkill serving exclusively as a file server.
"How exactly is a laptop going to house two, 3.5" inch HDDs?"
Connect it to a NAS.
Yeah, no sh*t. Then throw the old laptop away and use the NAS.
You are light years away from the point of view of my comment so I will be short and straight.
By your comment I can affirm you are one of those Apple users who pay $1k for a monitor screen stand and think you are smart.
I guess you are on your 30, spent the last 9y+ working with technology managing to do so much with so little when the technology back there was nothing like today, and currently work as DevOps Engineer like me. If not, silence might suits you :)
For those who understood my point of view, a user here managed to use that video I shared to install the Synology software into a HP MicroServer N40L which as far as I can tell has RAID 0,1,10, 4x 3.5" bays and by using 4x WD RED you got an amazing setup. It suited for what he was after/for fun.
Open your mind and grow.
Dude, no one cares about your life story or your smart ass assumptions.
No, the average tech-illiterate cannot install Synology DSM on "any old hardware" and certainly not a goddamned laptop as you originally specified. What are you going to do, buy a 20TB 2.5" HDD for it?
Your initial advice was very vague and plain wrong.
Jesus, you're the one stuck in the past thinking custom sh*tboxes owned by the average user running FreeNAS or DSM still compete with purpose-built devices made by company who has been in the NAS space for over a decade and makes the best-selling NAS devices on the market.
And no, I haven't owned a fcking Apple product in my life and never will. You're off the mark.
For those who understood my point of view, a user here managed to use that video I shared to install the Synology software into a HP MicroServer N40L which as far as I can tell has RAID 0,1,10, 4x 3.5" bays and by using 4x WD RED you got an amazing setup. It suited for what he was after/for fun.
ffs, how many people do you think have spare microservers lying around the house?
Do you honestly believe anyone looking to buy a $200 NAS to simply share files/stream media easily across a basic home network would rather opt for a several hundred dollar, fiddly micro-server?
I know your super-depressed about being back at work and evidently it's affecting your judgement, but get your head screwed on straight and then come back and comment some more.
@ratoloko: Thanks for conceding defeat. Don't let the door hit you on the way out and please stop offering advice on tech deals, mister so-called "DevOps Engineer with years of experience" (a discipline which has the square root of jack to do with NASs and storage, but sure, throw in some random jargon to bolster your credibility).
Another self-proclaimed subject matter expert who can't string together a coherent argument to save his life and thinks his niche bubble actually has relevance to the majority of consumers out there. You guys are really coming out of the woodwork lately (I think the user Jasswolf and yourself would get along like a house on fire, you both have that same cocksure ineptitude). Did some very large MSP lay off a whole heap of Level 1 support techs or something?
Go get a life
That's exactly what buying a NAS enables you to do, genius.
Otherwise, you become a miserable person who spends their free time installing Synology DSM on 3rd-party, non-native hardware like old laptops and microservers for fun and brags about this idiotic solution like it's a badge of honour, when no one in their right mind would bother doing that when you can buy a Synology NAS for less than the cost of any laptop or microserver and have it up and running in half an hour, and which will serve 95% of users' needs perfectly well without the additional pain in the ass of maintaining an old laptop or a microserver and with all the additional benefits of a modern NAS (power consumption, total cost of ownership, MBTF, transfer speeds, physical footprint, hours of life wasted, etc.).
your specs link is to the wrong device.
https://www.synology.com/en-au/products/DS218j