Synology DX517 expansion

zantarous

About a year ago the good folks on this forum helped me select a DS918  NAS, and it has honestly been a piece of tech that I have ever bought,  its been used everyday and has just got better and better as I have started to use it for more and more.

I have the current unit fitted with 2x 8TB and 2x 10TB drives but I now 18% away from fully using all available storage.

So I have started looking at the DX517 expansion as I have a few Blu-ray boxsets on the way and will need that sweet extra storage.

Does anyone have any experience with adding one of these to an existing NAS? I know already that I should not span a volume across the two units but instead create a new volume.

The only thing that is making me hesitate is the cost is the darn thing, it's just a HDD caddy without a CPU and RAM, the mark up on this must be insane.

Sloppy Bob

You could buy an 8-bay and just move your drives across. Then sell your current model.

I'm mainly in here to see what advice you get as I have an 8-bay and will be in a similar position to you in the near future.

zantarous

I did look at that, but the 8 bay doesn't support transcoding which is useful for when I am away and watching on a mobile device that can't direct play a HD sound codec.

Mister_Tad

I'd say bite the bullet and get a DS1819  given the additional outlay for the expansion - you won't be far off that cost once you've sold your 918

I'd say it's worth bolting onto the larger models (and I'll be shortly adding a RX418 to my RS1219 , but even then it's partly because my rack isn't deep enough for a 2418 ), but given the faintly ridiculous cost of the expansions versus just buying a new unit, not sure it makes sense with a 4 disk model.

Does it not at all, or just not make a specific note of it? The 1819  has a more powerful CPU than the 918 , but if the 918  has some hardware transcoding special sauce... my Plex server does the transcoding so it's not something I've looked much into.

zantarous

I run my Plex server on my NAS. The tech specs specifically mention Plex transcoding for the 918  and I have seen on other forums the 1891  can't. I am kind of hoping if I delay long enough a 1820 will appear with a better CPU and v hardware transcoding.

Sloppy Bob

The 1819 only came out at the very end of last year so you're going to be waiting a while.

There seems to be typically around 30 months between 1815,1817 and 1819 launch dates.

zantarous

Thanks, looks like that option is out of the window, I can't help but think synology are missing a category here, a 8/12 bay NAS with the Intel Atom and Quick Sync. Unless they just want people to buy the expansion unit at a massive mark up.

HeadBanger

I was in a similar position to you.

I ran an 8 bay Synology with 4 x 6Tb drives in SHR with backups of important stuff going to an HP Microserver running FreeNas. I was running out of space on the Synology and was about to expand the volume when FreeNas (or rather the USB stick it was running from) died.

So I decided I would move everything onto the Synology and have a dedicated volume on it just for back ups. However, this would then have meant that I had no bays left and the only way to expand would be to replace the 6Tb drives one by one with bigger ones.

Rather than buy an expansion unit I bit the bullet and bought a new 12 bay. The migration from my 1815  was really easy. I just popped out the drives from my 1815  and put them in the 2419  in the same order and booted up. It then walks you through the migration. You can check here if migration from yours is possible: DiskStation Manager - Knowledge Base | Synology Inc.

To run Plex and transcode 4K stuff and still have power left for other tasks is going to require a pretty powerful chip. If you want a Synology you will probably need something like their DS3617XS but these cost a whopping £2.5K! Perhaps something like the NVIDIA Shield running the Plex server would be a cheaper option?

HB

zantarous

Thanks, the DS918  has the raw horse power to transcode 4k or multiple 1080p due to using Intel quick sync. I have two Shields and initially did look at running the Plex server there but the support forums are full of so may bugs and caveats that after running Plex on Synology for over 12 months I am loathed to try anything else.

zantarous

So this has got me thinking, I am really liking the idea of a 12 bay NAS and am considering looking at a Mini form factor Dell or Lenovo (i5/16GB RAM) for a Plex server. Not liking the idea of having to run a PC 24x7 but hopefully one of those minis should be pretty low power.