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[eBay Plus] 4 Bay Synology DS918+ 4GB DiskStation Scalable Gigabit NAS Unit $636.65 Delivered @ Computer Alliance eBay

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[eBay Plus] 4 Bay Synology DS918+ 4GB DiskStation Scalable Gigabit NAS Unit $636.65 Delivered @ Computer Alliance eBay
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userid007 on 19/03/2020 - 21:22 ebay.com.au (688 clicks)
Last edited 21/03/2020 - 09:52 by 2 other users
PZAP15

4 Bay Synology DS918+ 4GB DiskStation Scalable Gigabit NAS Unit Not the cheapest but very good price. Has been eyeing to buy this one since a month.

Description from the posting :

High-speed scalable storage server
Synology DS918+ is designed for small and medium-sized businesses and IT enthusiasts. With a powerful built-in AES-NI hardware encryption engine, DS918+ provides exceptional encrypted file transmission. Also capable of transcoding up to two channels of H.265/H.264 4K videos at the same time, DS918+ is ideal for sharing and storing ultra-high definition media content.

CPU
Quad-core 1.5GHz burst up to 2.3GHz

Network
Dual 1GbE LAN ports

Memory
4GB DDR3L, scalable up to 8GB

Performance
Over 225 MB/s and 221 MB/s encrypted sequential reading and writing

Original Coupon Deal

Computing NAS Synology

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closed Comments

  • norkle on 19/03/2020 - 21:37
    +1

    Get it before the falling A$ causes a price hike.

    • [Deactivated] on 19/03/2020 - 21:42

      Does anyone know why only aud drop even though us and Europe stock also drop?

      • nomadspartan on 19/03/2020 - 21:48

        Because EUR is more important than AUD

      • jjcf on 19/03/2020 - 22:33

        ELI5: USD is a safe haven currency. When people get scared, they sell foreign assets and buy US ones. Which means selling AUD and buying USD. Driving AUD down.

        Similar idea with CHF.

        • [Deactivated] on 20/03/2020 - 08:38

          Make sense thank you

        • [Deactivated] on 20/03/2020 - 14:35

          But isn't synology made in Taiwan?

      • entropysbane on 19/03/2020 - 23:15
        -2

        because our country makes money selling commodities, iron, coal, aluminium gold, beef, wool, sugar, dairy products etc. These products pay for Aussie lifestyles.

        Our dollar is basically a measure of how much major markets think the world needs our commodities. if the world is going into recession, then no one needs our commodities., so no one needs AUD.

      • langitbiru on 20/03/2020 - 11:19

        if i am not mistaken, i notice from news that government is printings lots of notes at the moment for the stimulus package. Due to over supply of notes, the power of aud become weaker.

        i might be wrong with the above statement. disclaimer ON

        at the current age, i think GOLD is the most powerful

        • [Deactivated] on 20/03/2020 - 11:40

          But aren't us and UK also printing cash?

        • SydStrand on 21/03/2020 - 00:13

          While printing money can indeed lead to hyperinflation, we're not Zimbabwe.

  • elcheapodeniro on 19/03/2020 - 21:38

    Great solid unit. Works a treat with Plex and 4k.

    I just got the matchin expansion unit and ordered some shuckable 12tb WD's.

  • [Deactivated] on 19/03/2020 - 21:44

    Wouldn't come June there will be massive sale because vendors have too much stock due to the lock down?

    • scuderiarmani on 19/03/2020 - 21:46

      They won't be manufacturing as much…. And the dollar…

      • Smigit on 19/03/2020 - 22:03

        And people stuck working at home still earning their wage will have their attention wander to things such as their home entertainment setups etc.

  • Godric on 19/03/2020 - 21:50

    When will there be a Synology refresh/update?

    • boonhowe on 19/03/2020 - 22:20

      DS220J (2020 series) just release, I guess the rest should be coming soon

      • Godric on 20/03/2020 - 06:42

        Sweet finally

        • [Deactivated] on 20/03/2020 - 12:07

          what is the difference?

  • Switchblade88 on 19/03/2020 - 22:03
    +1

    I look at what you actually get with a NAS box like this, and then immediately compare it to a basic TechFast PC…

    I don't see why you couldn't just add another GbE card for $20 and you'd have a better, more flexible NAS box - for less?

    • expatOz on 19/03/2020 - 22:18
      +9

      Because software, and ease of use, and size and energy efficiency and support and … probably a lot more.

      • xrailgun on 20/03/2020 - 14:51

        correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Synology software allows you to remotely access your files, and that's not possible for average users without a static IP with their ISP, which costs monthly $$?

        • expatOz on 20/03/2020 - 19:49
          +1

          True, they have this quickconnect feature.

        • norkle on 20/03/2020 - 20:43
          +1

          Actually even without a static ip, either your router, or the synology, can contact a dns service to allow connections that way. Of course any connections to the Synology need to get through your router's firewall, so you needed to know how to do that.

        • Posts on 21/03/2020 - 15:45
          +1

          They have a free ddns service

    • norkle on 19/03/2020 - 22:51

      Cost of power - a few kWhr/day adds up.

      • Switchblade88 on 19/03/2020 - 23:19
        +1

        You're right - 30W vs 100W for average idle usages. That's about 1.7kWh per day or 613kWh a year, which at 30c per kWh adds up to over $180 in additional power if left on continuously.

        HOWEVER -

        This is on the assumption that you're buying it as an additional device on your network. If you're already in the market for a PC, and you are already using it about 8hrs per day ANYWAY, then you're going to be ahead. This would be a rather specific purchase case though, not everyone would do this - and the NAS would be a better choice. In my case though, I've got my SATA drives squeezed in, plus USB drives inside as well, and it was a great investment instead of a NAS.

        • Posts on 20/03/2020 - 00:08
          +1

          100w is a bit rich. I've got a ryzen 5 1600af idling at around 60w and one of those mini Lenovo thinkcentres idling at 11w. If power consumption is a concern then build a power efficient PC NAS.

          I've used the particular nas in this bargain and even set them up to snapshot replicate between sites. I feel like they're a bit overpriced for what you get.

          Freenas and zerotier would be a much better solution imo.

        • t3chshopper on 20/03/2020 - 07:59
          +1

          I have an older HP Microserver with 4 decent sized drives, and it doesn't go above 55w when streaming videos to Plex.

          • [Deactivated] on 20/03/2020 - 08:43

            @t3chshopper: How do you guys measure the wattage, is there a software or something?

    • Gnostikos on 21/03/2020 - 16:41

      @Switchblade88

      I look at what you actually get with a NAS box like this, and then immediately compare it to a basic TechFast PC…

      I don't see why you couldn't just add another GbE card for $20 and you'd have a better, more flexible NAS box - for less?

      This debate has been done to death on previous Synology NAS deals.

      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 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.

      There's a ton of add-on packages for the DiskStation Manager OS to turn a Synology NAS into everything from a fully-automated media server, personal cloud server, automated torrent box, a CCTV surveillance DVR, a basic web server; you name it, all with a couple of clicks.

      DSM is also extremely well-supported, regularly-updated and has a huge community behind it for power users to leverage in customising and tweaking the hell out of it.

      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 more expensive desktop/SFF PC or using an old spare (which for most people will probably be old, fairly obsolete and may not even be compatible with various open-source NAS OSs), on top of installing the OS from scratch and doing a lot of configuration that is not intuitive to the technologically-challenged.

      The cheapest you could build a real sh*tbox PC to use as an inexpensive file server would be around $500 and even then, it would be rather unwieldy as a dedicated NAS, consume a lot more power annually, be nowhere as compact or silent and you'd have to run something like FreeNAS, Ubuntu Server or another home server OS, which for most laymen, is going to be a giant obstacle to user-friendliness and nowhere near as much of a simplified, fire-and-forget process as configuring Synology's DiskStation Manager OS.

      These are fire-and-forget. You set them up and they keep working until a drive fails.

  • protagonist on 19/03/2020 - 22:03
    +2

    Tempting…
    But seeing the price of the 5 disk unit, I'm opting for using my PC as a NAS unit.

  • WesthamAreMassive on 19/03/2020 - 22:41
    +1

    Was thinking of buying one of these but have been considering the new Qnap TS-453D-2G due out soon.

  • spriggy on 19/03/2020 - 23:35
    +7

    For those thinking of a PC vs a nas… the power bills are usually favorable towards the NAS.

    Device Techfast PC Synology DS918+
    Power usage (W) 183 43.5
    Idle (W) 161 27.3
    Cost per Year $418.32 $76.21
    Cost per Day $1.14 $0.21
    Cost of device $470.00 $637.00
    Total cost of ownership Techfast PC Synology DS918+
    Year 1 $888.32 $713.21
    Year 2 $418.32 $76.21
    Year 3 $430.87 $78.50
    Year 4 $443.80 $80.85
    Year 5 $457.11 $83.28
    TCO $2,638 $1,032

    Now of course there are assumptions built into this, such as:
    4 HDD in operation, didn't include cost of 4 HDD
    Usage 4 hours a day, idle 20 hours a day
    Average power cost 0.3441/kWh, applying a 15% discount to 0.29c
    Power consumption of PC and DS918+ through some searching online
    I found the cheapest Techfast PC on Ozb
    If you're going to be using the PC while using your nas, that's a different story

    • Posts on 20/03/2020 - 00:17
      +2

      Dude, you don't need like a rx580 or whatever (as PC specs weren't provided) in a PC nas box. You can build power efficient PCs. Your figures are way off and misleading to what a good power efficient PC nas can be.

      • impoze on 20/03/2020 - 00:18
        +1

        my Unraid box runs headless without any GPU

      • spriggy on 20/03/2020 - 08:54
        +2

        Sure, a power efficient pc per below. Assuming you still pay $470 for a power efficient pc, which I doubt it.
        The numbers still show that the nas is a better ROI over time.

        Device Techfast PC Synology DS918+
        Power usage (W) 80 43.5
        Idle (W) 60 27.3
        Cost per Year $160.89 $76.21
        Cost per Day $0.44 $0.21
        Cost of device $470.00 $637.00
        TCO Techfast PC Synology DS918+
        Year 1 $630.89 $713.21
        Year 2 $160.89 $76.21
        Year 3 $165.72 $78.50
        Year 4 $170.69 $80.85
        Year 5 $175.81 $83.28
        TCO $1,567.37 $1,032.04
        • robo11 on 20/03/2020 - 11:31

          technically this might be the most power efficient NAS Box:

          https://shop.allnetchina.cn/collections/sata-hat/products/qu…

        • [Deactivated] on 20/03/2020 - 12:44

          According to my Bauhn meter, my pc running i5 4th gen, no gpu, 3 hdd and 1 sdd is using 40w only. It's only running torrent and streaming plex to one device.

          I don't think it is a power efficient pc, it is using antec 500w and micro atx case with 2 large fans.

          Can someone explain why?

        • randalll on 20/03/2020 - 17:27

          Even without counting the SATA hat from Radxa as an option, what you're asking for is easily doable.

          The specs for the DS918+ is a J3455 CPU, 4GB of DDR3L and a dual gigabit NIC.

          The a comparable motherboard with the CPU included is 150 dollars, RAM is 50. You can get a PCI-E dual gigabit card for about 60 dollars. Getting a case and power supply for less than the remaining 210 dollars. Install OMV or FreeNAS and you're set.

          The main thing to worry about would be a power efficient supply, as you'd often be idling around the 10-30w mark, depending on how many drives you're running.

          An 80%+(non-titanium) efficiency power supply is only required to meet efficiency targets at 20%, 50% and 100% load, so if you don't know a power supply that is efficient at that low of a power draw, you could probably get a Pico PSU 120w for about 100 dollars from minibox.

          Granted, in terms of power draw and convenience, the Synology would probably still come ahead by a few watts, but we would be talking a max advantage of about 15w in an extreme scenario, probably closer to 5w, but you can partially close the gap in power draw by disabling graphics card and other things.

          You still have 110 for a case.

          OR you could just buy something like a Thinkcentre M92P refurbished, which still is not bad for power consumption, and only sets you back about 150 dollars, but you'd have to look for something with the slots for the number of hard drives you use.

          Mind you, this DIY option can also serve as a general purpose computer, so you could plug it in to the TV and have it serve content directly if that's what you want.

          • norkle on 20/03/2020 - 18:15

            @randalll: You can also hunt for food, or buy a Dr Oetker pizza on special.

  • impoze on 19/03/2020 - 23:52
    +1

    I'm running an old i5-3470s with Unraid for my file server & jellyfin server.
    Idles at around 80w

  • t3chshopper on 20/03/2020 - 08:00

    I have an older HP Microserver with 4 decent sized drives, and it doesn't go above 55w when streaming videos to Plex.

    • spasto on 20/03/2020 - 08:41

      How do you measure the usage? I can’t see this option in Xiaomi smart plug?

      • t3chshopper on 27/03/2020 - 15:43

        I used a plug that does capture power usage. The cheap Xiaomi ones don't do that.

      • impoze on 27/03/2020 - 17:36

        The TP Link ones can give you power usage,

        my UPS also tells me the usage

  • jace88 on 20/03/2020 - 12:48
    +1

    I just wish they'd update this NAS to give me a reason to jump. I felt stupid thinking of buying one a year ago, and it still hasn't been updated since late 2017 (unless you count the DS1019+ 5 bay version with an extra stick of RAM).

    • robo11 on 20/03/2020 - 14:04

      Might be due to shipping/production blocks atm; there are some companies delaying releasing products until supply lines are more 'fluid.'

    • norkle on 20/03/2020 - 15:08

      I upgraded from the DS415+ to DS918+ thinking I would get some kind of benefit from the 3 years. Nope, could've just stayed where I was. Synology make a good effort to support updates on the their products for a long time, and make them very efficient at what they do. Unless there is something specific you want from one of the devices, just go with the bays you need and move on.

      EDIT: sorry, that sounds a little pushy, I meant to just recount my own experience, and that we aren't talking about GPU generations or amazing advances in 12-24 months.

      • jace88 on 20/03/2020 - 18:42

        You don't miss what you don't know IMO - given the role that a NAS/server could play when it comes to managing huge media libraries, transcoding, running background/server apps, VMs, etc… it made me appreciate that maybe there is benefit to having a newer processor. shrug I could just be dreaming but I have yet to feel compelled to upgrade from my DS215j (and I've been monitoring prices of NAS & drives for a while!).

  • HunterBargainHunter on 20/03/2020 - 23:14
    +2

    I've been waiting for this for a few months now.

    Now with everything that's going on, going to skip this at this time, like everyone who's holding on to their dollar…

    • impoze on 20/03/2020 - 23:30

      yep, as you also need to factor in the cost of drives if you don't already have them

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