Need advice NAS acquisition advice for wsc3: small biz, $1500 USD

[wsc3]

Usage type: small biz

Preferred form factor DS (DiskStation)

Number of bays: 5-bays

Do you have any existing drives that you plan on using? Yes

Prefered RAID array setup for this NAS: not sure

This NAS will be used for: multimedia, business (virtual machines, mail, office, etc.), utilities (docker, VPN, reverse proxy, web hosting, etc.)

Max budget for this setup: $1500 USD

Number of users that will utilize this NAS: 2

Any preferred network connectivity? 1G

Where will this NAS be used: LAN only

Any special network requirements: failover

Special cloud provider connectivity: Google Drive, OneDrive

-- post merged: 1. Mar 2022 --

Time to update and upgrade my 1010+. I will need to recycle the 4tb disks and recover the data currently on the 1010+. How did you do it and how good were your results? Thanks in advance!

 

[fredbert]

The models you are looking at start from DS1520+ (Intel Celeron based CPU) and DS1621+ (AMD Ryzen CPU). Here's the comparison:

Product List | Synology Inc.

Whether for work or play, Synology offers a wide range of network-attached storage (NAS) choices for every occasion. Compare specifications below and find the right model for you.

www.synology.com

The DS1520+ Intel CPU has the built-in GPU so can be used in hardware transcoding of media , whereas the AMD Ryzen doesn't and can't. The stated max RAM is the same 8GB, though people have gone passed this: the DS1520+ comes with the max 8GB.

The main issue would be the re-use of existing drives and are they on the compatibility list for the particular NAS. These two NAS are more likely to be compatible than any higher up models (e.g. xs+). Synology has pruned their compatibility lists to remove older drive versions, which is one irritation, but then the high-end models have been further restricted to mostly Synology branded drives. There is information that with DSM 7.1 Synology is rowing back on some of this or at least being less draconian.