New Synology DS720+ NAS

[Cohibaman]

Back in December, I was poking around on my NAS and startlingly realized I was running Raid 0!!! The volume was named “Raid 1”, which I erroneously saw as a “Raid 1” array. Doh!

Anyway, I never had a failed drive and backed up regularly so it was never a problem - thank God! I only listen to my system via the 30,000 something song library I have (and growing) on the NAS with the occasional Spotify session. Not to mention the years of photos I have stored.

Once I realized the mistake that I made eight years ago when I initially set up the Buffalo NAS, I quickly decided it’s time to fix the mistake and hell, why not upgrade the whole shootin’ match!

I opted to go with a Synology DS720+ 2-bay NAS, two 6TB WD Red Pro HDDs, two WD M.2 SSD for read/write cache, and 8GB ram upgrade (upgraded to 10GB from 2GB soldered on the motherboard. Yes, spec for the unit and the CPU calls for max of 8, but it tests out ok and works flawlessly, and that’s the max Intel decided to test; not necessarily a CPU limitation.).

First off, what a difference in the manufacturers... The Buffalo NAS drive had near zero as far as software, diagnostics, flexibility, visibility, or built-in web server functionality. Conversely, Synology is not only a hardware company but they are a significant player in software, and their suite of apps that can be run from within the NAS is substantial and quite impressive. Secondly, the hardware is substantially better with a significant improvement in response, loading, lack of buffering, etc. I won’t speak to the sound quality improvement (mainly because I don’t think there is one), but what a world of difference in functionality and usability!