Upgrade advice for working RS3412xs

[apguy]

Hi all,

I have a RS3412xs. It was the 2012 model of the Rackstation XS line. It's been rock solid. It is populated with 10 Western Digital Raid Edition 2TB (WD2003FYYS-02W0B1) drives in RAID 6 . They have been operating since 2013 at least. I have also expanded the unit with RX1217 populated with 12 WD ultrastar 8 TB drives (HUH721008ALE604) again in RAID 6. They've been operating since 2019.

I am now running out of space again and thinking that the original RS3412xs is getting a bit old so wondering if I should get a new base unit again.

I could get the RS3621XS+ but Given Synology locking (almost) the hard drives to their own brand I am thinking maybe it's better to get to RS3618XS which is more than adequate performance wise and has a larger list of compatible drives!!!

Keen on opinions if ppl would suggest replacing the base unit and if so which model

 

[jeyare]

I miss more essential info there:
- current purpose or operation model of the NAS/expansion
- same for the future

Otherwise you can play Rock paper scissors for the model of your new NAS.

 

[apguy]

The use of the NAS is reallly only mass storage. Media files. Serving about 4 Kodi boxes around the house. Nothing CPU intensive. No transcoding. No severs running. It’s basically a large fileserver.

The reason I asked the question is that I am running out of space and given that the base RS3412xs is now 9 years old ( same as with the hard drives in it) I am wondering if I should actually upgrade the base unit at the same time as getting new drives.

So two questions. Would people change the base unit even though the only of one is still working.

And secondly if upgrading to a new base unit I’m wondering if it may be better to buy the slightly older rs3418xs because it doesn’t have the same restrictions on non synology branded hard drives.

 

[Rusty]

The use of the NAS is reallly only mass storage. Media files. Serving about 4 Kodi boxes around the house. Nothing CPU intensive. No transcoding. No severs running. It’s basically a large fileserver.

The reason I asked the question is that I am running out of space and given that the base RS3412xs is now 9 years old ( same as with the hard drives in it) I am wondering if I should actually upgrade the base unit at the same time as getting new drives.

So two questions. Would people change the base unit even though the only of one is still working.

And secondly if upgrading to a new base unit I’m wondering if it may be better to buy the slightly older rs3418xs because it doesn’t have the same restrictions on non synology branded hard drives.

Go for x18 then if you don't want HDD compatibility problems.

 

[jeyare]

for the described purpose (simple storage for KODI players) your existing NAS is really over performing. Even the existing support of SATA II bus only is enough for such operation.
From an economy efficiency is better to invest to new HDDs.
Your existing 10x2TB in RAID6 is about 16TB base capacity
With simple Upgrade to 10x4TB in RAID6 you will get doubled capacity, just for few bucks. For such operation and SATA II controller you ned purchase just simple IronWolf or similar range in total for 800Euro.
In comparison with the New NAS you will spend approx. 4000Euro just for 10% HW utilization. Plus additional hundreds for new HDDs.
Your money, your decision.

-- post merged: 2. Oct 2021 --

Or just purchase small 8bay NAS, what is still in the over performing level for your operation. Include 8x 8TB in RAID6 you will get 56TB.