The Synology DS216J versus The Synology DS215J –  The budget 2 bay Faceoff

Which one is the best Budget Synology NAS for you?

Time for another Synology NAS faceoff. Today we want to look at Old vs New with the Synology newly released Synology DS216J NAS and how it compares against the DS215J released just around a year earlier. Both NAS units are aimed at the budget friendly Network Attached Storage market and for those that just need a NAS that is entry level. However like many of our comparisons, we have found that for two units that appear on paper to be the same, have a few key factors that separate the men from the boys. A large degree of the change in tastes of NAS users is apparent in just comparing the specs of these devices below.

215J or 216J from Synology – What is in a number?

Synology and its J Series of NAS units has been going on for a while now and for those looking for a no-frills NAS experience, it is very much the go-to range. NOT aimed at those looking for a Plex Media Server or high end surveillance situations, it still has to be said that the Synology DS215J and DS216J have cornered a special place in the NAS market. This coupled with the fact that they arrive with a modest price tag of around £100-120 means that you can grab yourself one of these first-time entry level NAS devices and still have room for some LARGE capacity drives like the WD80EFZX 8TB Red Drives, or for those looking so save a penny or two, the ST8000AS0002 Seagate 8TB Archive Drives. Both of these devices support 8TB drives so if you care less about Hardware power and more about Maximum Capacity, then DS 216J and DS 215J may well be for you. However which is better?

The Synology DS216J	The Synology DS215J
Buy HERE a nascompares.com	Buy HERE a nascompares.com
£119 ex.VAT	£115 ex.VAT
2- Bay – Cannot be Expanded	2- Bay – Cannot be Expanded
Marvell Armada 385 88F6820 Dual-Core 1.0GHz	Marvell Armada 375 88F6720 Dual Core 800 MHz
512 MB DDR3	512 MB DDR3
USB 3.0 x 2 LAN x1	USB 2.0 x 1 USB 3.0 x 1 LAN x1
Maximum Drive – 8TB x2 We recommend WD 8TB Red HERE	Maximum Drive – 8TB x2 We recommend WD 8TB Red HERE
Supports Synology DSM 5.2	Supports Synology DSM 5.2
Internal File System EXT4	Internal File System EXT4
Maximum Number of Downloads x30	Maximum Number of Downloads x30
Maximum number of Surveillance IP Cameras x10	Maximum number of Surveillance IP Cameras x10
DLNA Certified	DLNA Certified
2 Year Warranty	2 Year Warranty
112.75MB/s Read 97.6MB/s Write	111.41MB/s Read 87.49MB/s Write

 

A brief look at the stats there shows that the two Synology NAS boxes are similar in a great many ways. Although the prices are just a few pounds apart, the CPU of the newer Synology NAS arrives with a higher frequency. Also, the Newer DS216J arrives with two USB 3.0 ports, abandoning USB 2.0 altogether. Not an enormous change I am forced to admit, but it is a promising improvement over its predecessor and given that in almost all other respects, the two Synology NAS are identical, it is factors like this that make the deciding easier. Finally, we can look at the read and write speeds of the two Synology NAS. There is very little in terms of Read, but in Writing we see a 10MB/s speed increase in the DS216J and in a cost effective box, you have to admire even the tiniest edge of one over the other. This increase can be attributed to that slightly increased CPU frequency mentioned earlier

The more things change, they more they stay the same

And there you have it.

It would be foolish of me to suggest that the Synology DS216J is a giant leap ahead of the DS215J. Both NAS servers:

• Can be used by Windows, Mac, Android and Linux Systems
• Both can worth with 3^rd Party Cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive
• Both use the latest Synology DSM software
• Both feature a built in floating point to ensure quick thumbnail and background processes
• Both can communicate with your Smart TV, Roku, Apple TV and Chromecast
• Both can work with Synology’s Mobile apps as well as arrive DLNA certified
• Both feature a low power consumption
• Both can be used for Apple Time Machine backups
• Both can be set in JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1 and SHR environments as required

However if I was in your shoes and had to make the decision between the older Synology DS215J NAS or the newly released Synology DS216J NAS, I would opt for the newer network Attached Storage Device. As mentioned, at the same price as the 215j, it arrives with a superior CPU, faster USB 3.0 ports (not USB 3.1 Gen2) for those Eternal Drives and finally, that increased Write speed in tests. You can buy your Synology DS216J and maybe a couple of WD Red HDDs now from nascompares.com. If you have any questions about all things NAS, why not drop me a message below. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe.

 

 

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