For video, it is of basically the same principle, but with 500+ DVDs and Blurays I really needed to look at a scalable system (35GB per 1080p movie This Means 35-50TB to be futureproof).
Anyway, I chose the DS1812 + for All These Reasons:
- Performance (100Mbps in real life)
- Stability
- Multi-device "front-end" approach: Synology offers a complete set of iPad / iPod / iPhone applets to listen to music, watch videos / photos & Access files (So They become the remote control)
- Scalability: with addition of two DX510 or DX513 (max 5x4TB each that's 2x20TB On Top Of The 1812's 32TB => 72TB raw / 56TB "usable" data with Hybrid RAID redundancy)
- Modular approach: You can add the capacity disk-by-disk if Necessary
- Easy upgrade of the SW environment "DSM": this Allows the support of all "back-end" applications running on the Synology itself (iTunes server, anti-virus, server Audio, Photo Server, network back-up servers etc. CORRESPONDING to "front-end" iPad applets)
- Relatively easy set-up (on my old laptop -running WinXP SP3 the Synology Assistant did not find the NAS, but on a different computer running WinXP SP3 so it worked ok)
I was so happy to confirm thesis other strongpoints:
- Relatively low noise level in "quiet mode" (about 20-25dB behind the doors of a closed cabinet in the living room, you only hear it in absolute quiet environments)
- Relatively low working temperature (about 40 ° C)
- After Sales & Techsupport from Synology are quite good. There's lots of information on the Synology website, so you get solve 95% of issues Easily)
Improvements needed:
- The need to buy separately Extra RAM (2GB DDR3 1333MHz Kingston ValueRAM SODIMM Laptop Memory) is a bit annoying (but you can get it for as little as $ 11) after paying 500EUR already
- Increase speed of USB3 vs USB2 (it is not obviously faster ... by perception as I did not measure it)
- USB3 sockets are too close to the power cord ... You Could accidentally cut the power by mistake
- Given the prices of each NAS & extensions, it would be nice to have some kind of discount if we chose to migrate from older to newer models (eg from DX510 to DX513 DS211 or DS212 to; DS211 does not have Wake-on. -LAN for instance)
Thanks to All These reasons, I would not change for another NAS Easily brand.
Before you chose your actual NAS, read all the technical details Carefully, but I recommend to consider the reasons for all Synology above (and I dont consider myself a very technical person).
I bought it from Germany Because it is much cheaper than other stores Amazon in EU (UK, France, Italy, Spain).
After you tasted NAS based media, it is hard to go back to CD / DVD / Bluray using the actual discs: You Need To Find the disc, skip the commercials, etc.
Life is so much easier for couch potatoes using iPad like me
:)
