Question Practical Difference Between DS918+ and DS 620slim?

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Question Practical Difference Between DS918+ and DS 620slim?

Hello,

I'm interested in buying my first NAS, and in the 6 bay category, these two caught my eye.

I'm curious what the actual practical difference is between them. I can see the difference in the specs (the most critical seeming to be the difference in CPU cores), but without practical experience with NASes, I'm not really sure how to translate that into the real world. So my question is: given the following conditions, what is the actual real-world difference between them? What can I do with the 918+ that I cannot do with the 619slim?

  • Router: Synology rt2600ac (so, at best, I think I can connect to any NAS at 2Gbps?)
  • NAS RAM: Maxed in either case (6GB for 620slim; 8GB for 918+)
  • HDDs: SSD storage (I'm willing to invest in these as I am in an environment that might not be that friendly to spinning hard drives: my desk is not level and there is a significant dust issue, and there's not much I can do to mitigate either right now).
  • Intended Uses (In Order of Importance): Cloud service (e.g., Dropbox) replacement; networked backup; Storage for large video files; Plex server (maybe later?); etc.
I would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
 
Well as you said already there are differences on the cpu and ram front. Just for the record, 918 can use 16GB in total and it will be fine (I run with 12GB myself).

Regarding 2Gbit lan you will still max out at 1GB with a single client transfer even if that device has 2 lan cards like 918. Implementation of LAG via LCAP is like that, period.

If you have no need for a lot of storage then 620 might be the way to go. All ssd storage rocks and nothing can compare with it regarding speed, but it will be your call if it’s speed or storage you need.

Regarding software that you can run on them, they can both run all the same packages but it will come down to raw power in some case where 918 will be better.
 
Well as you said already there are differences on the cpu and ram front. Just for the record, 918 can use 16GB in total and it will be fine (I run with 12GB myself).

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I really appreciate your insight.

Is it that difficult to install RAM upgrades in these boxes? It doesn't look so bad in the YouTube videos--about like changing out the RAM in a decent laptop. I'm a bit concerned it might void the warranty, or that I might need to hang on to the old RAM and swap it back in to get warranty service. I haven't looked into that yet.

I'm guessing I'll save money swapping the RAM on my own.

Regarding 2Gbit lan you will still max out at 1GB with a single client transfer even if that device has 2 lan cards like 918. Implementation of LAG via LCAP is like that, period.

Even though I have vague aspirations of maybe posting videos on YouTube someday, I honestly cannot imagine what I would be doing to saturate a 1 Gbps network connection at this point. Is there any advantage to bonding them together at all given my router is not a 10gE router?

If you have no need for a lot of storage then 620 might be the way to go. All ssd storage rocks and nothing can compare with it regarding speed, but it will be your call if it’s speed or storage you need.

I think I'll be good with the 620 in terms of storage for the foreseeable future. My current desktop has a 1 TB SSD with my primary partition at about 768 GB, and I'm only using about 184 GB of that right now. I cannot even imagine what I could possibly do to _fill up_ a theoretical maximum 30 TB. I think I have storage upgrade headroom for a while.

Regarding software that you can run on them, they can both run all the same packages but it will come down to raw power in some case where 918 will be better.

This is what I'm most curious about. The 918 has more cores (each running slightly slower). What I'm trying to figure out is exactly what I would regret if I went with a 6 GB RAM DS620slim. Like, what piece of software would I try to use and run into a speed bottleneck with?

I'm most likely to do video transcoding on my main machine, since it's got pretty tricked out specs relative to the NAS:

Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 3.2 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 32 GB

Thanks again. :)
 
Is it that difficult to install RAM upgrades in these boxes? It doesn't look so bad in the YouTube videos--about like changing out the RAM in a decent laptop. I'm a bit concerned it might void the warranty, or that I might need to hang on to the old RAM and swap it back in to get warranty service. I haven't looked into that yet.

I'm guessing I'll save money swapping the RAM on my own.
No it's not difficult. On 918 you don't even have to open it up, with 620 you will have to open it up coz the slots are on the bottom of the NAS. You will not void any warranty by adding custom ram as long as you stay within the suggested amount.

Even though I have vague aspirations of maybe posting videos on YouTube someday, I honestly cannot imagine what I would be doing to saturate a 1 Gbps network connection at this point. Is there any advantage to bonding them together at all given my router is not a 10gE router?
Well looking at speed over 1G towards the internet it's not really common these days (worldwide I mean). So, getting over 1G you would primarily look towards your LAN setup and usage. Multiple users/devices using your nas at the same time. Getting to hit 1G in LAN nowadays is nothing, but if you are talking about Internet speeds then yes, there is nothing to worry about that (unless you are talking about enterprise usage).

I think I'll be good with the 620 in terms of storage for the foreseeable future. My current desktop has a 1 TB SSD with my primary partition at about 768 GB, and I'm only using about 184 GB of that right now. I cannot even imagine what I could possibly do to _fill up_ a theoretical maximum 30 TB. I think I have storage upgrade headroom for a while.
Fair enough. When you mentioned Plex it kinda throws a red flag with storage space, but I guess that all depends on your needs and usage again. Do keep in mind that 620 is a NAS for 2,5" drives not 3,5". That market for high capacity drives is not as wide as 3.5 and if you go all SSD and not HDD the price/capacity will change drastically.

This is what I'm most curious about. The 918 has more cores (each running slightly slower). What I'm trying to figure out is exactly what I would regret if I went with a 6 GB RAM DS620slim. Like, what piece of software would I try to use and run into a speed bottleneck with?

I'm most likely to do video transcoding on my main machine, since it's got pretty tricked out specs relative to the NAS:
Well for video transcoding scenarios, you would not use your machine if you would be running a media server platform on the NAS (Video station or Plex for exp). The idea behind those platforms is that server side (NAS) is dedicated to do any transcoding if needed. The only scenario that you would use your PC would be if you host that same platform on that PC and use the NAS as simple storage.

So the question here is how are you planning on using your NAS for media consumption? If you will not be using your nas as a media platform then you definitely don't need horsepower. If on the other hand, you are planning on using it as a media server for a platform that works that way, you will need all the power you can get (unless you go with Plex pass and enable hardware transcoding on the NAS).
 
@johntdavis:
agree with Rusty in all points.
Some recommendations:
1. disk capacity vs disk usage - especially for YT creators. Up to your channel you need space, space and space for all your new project (post). Up to your editing sw you need two kind of disks :
- fast for video sources swapping (SSD, RAID0 is an option)
- large for a library/archive (HDD, RAID1 is an option) + backup to another HW (small cheap 2bay NAS for Hyper backup target is good choice).
2. Re slim version of the NAS:
as Rusty wrote, take care about the disks, you can running into trouble by limited purchase options.
In home environment, it is still tricky, how to provide a cooling for the NAS. You need an airflow space for the disks (even for SSD) and for NAS mainboard components. Slim version is narrower, then less airflow is expected. The heat is life span killer.
But if you place the NAS to managed environment by A/C, forget for this point.

Few recommendations you can find in my resources for NAS newbies:
here

... and welcome in this forum
 

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