The point of the thread was if the DS918+ is worth buying now (see @WST16 original post: because immediate needs are saying to buy now) or will there be something immediately around the corner (which would be annoying). As such, from a Syno support view, it should be supported for as long as the newer DS1019+ and so the lifespan should be quite a few years.

Click to expand...

This is closer, but still not what I think the point of the thread is. @WST16 already has a Synology setup, but is looking for the right time to upgrade, and seems to define the right time as “Not immediately before the DS920+ or DS921+ comes out, if indeed it ever does.”

As an outsider looking to get my first Synology, it looks to me like an upgrade to the DS918+ really is imminent. It came out in September 2017, and as @Rusty says, the release cycles seem to be two to three years long.

Some people here are answering the question "Is the DS918+ a good value right now?" and the answer truly does seem to be "Yes!". But that is not the same question as "Is right now a good time to buy a DS9xx+?" I could buy a DS918+ today, and it would be a good value and meet my needs. But if a DS920+ comes out tomorrow, then today was not a good time to buy the DS918+.

So, all that being said, let me phrase some more specific questions that I believe will help @WST16 and me a little better:

• The DS918+ is 2 years and 4 months old. @Rusty said release cycles are up to 3 years, but that he doesn't expect a new DS9xx+ this year. Why would this release cycle be longer than 3 years?
• The DS918+ came out in September 2017. Is Synology on a strict enough cycle that we can expect its replacement to also come out in September? Or does it vary, so that its replacement might well come out earlier in the year?
• Does Synology tend to synchronize some hardware releases with major software releases? Are new models more likely to be introduced around when DSM 7.0 is finalized? Or are they not correlated at all?
• What would we expect to be different about the replacement for the DS918+? Personally, I'm hoping for a 2.0 GHz base clock on the quad-core processor, instead of the current 1.5 GHz with Turbo Boost to 2.3 GHz. Is this a realistic expectation? Can we extrapolate anything else from past versions or recent upgrades to other parts of the product line?

These questions I think are more in the spirit of what the original topic was; they're certainly closer to what I'm looking for.

75th said:

Why would this release cycle be longer than 3 years?

Click to expand...

Depends on SOC most of the time to upgrade to a new generation

75th said:

Or does it vary, so that its replacement might well come out earlier in the year?

Click to expand...

It varies so nothing is set in stone

75th said:

Or are they not correlated at all?

Click to expand...

No connection with dsm release

75th said:

What would we expect to be different about the replacement for the DS918+?

Click to expand...

SOC mainly, maybe a ram bump for the initial model. 10G probably is a no go.

Sorry I’ve been very busy. Thank you all for the nice discussion and your input.
As I initially mentioned, I think the recent introduction of the 1019 is an indication (to me) that a 918 replacement is not coming anytime soon.

I think I’ll grab 2x10GB HDDs and upgrade the capacity of my 216+II for the time being. I’ll wait for a while and see if a replacement is coming. The HDDs can always be moved to a new DS, so not a waste.