An Update on the Synology DS218+, DS418, DS218PLAY, DS418PLAY, DS918+, DS718+, DS3018xs and DS418J – EVERYTHING we know UPDATED

An update on the Synology DS218PLAY, DS418PLAY, DS218+, DS918+, DS718+, DS3018xs and DS418J – What we know and what is still TBC

I think it is safe to say that Synology have really taken their sweet time this year releasing their latest NAS for 2017 and 2018. We got so used to new units being almost all revealed by late spring, that is started to look around May that Synology were just gonna put their feet up and take the rest of the year off! All we seemed to see were increasingly more and more enterprise units aimed at big business – as well as big leaps in business features and functionality with their DSM software (LiveChat, office tools, improved Virtual machine management, collaboration applications and more), but very little in the way of a Synology NAS for home and SMB. That all changed however at Cebit 2017 and Computex when inside the space of 2 weeks we were suddenly inundated with new Synology Diskstation NAS, and all arriving with the ’18 year model number (not ’18’ as in those movies you were NEVER allowed to watch as a kid, but always did… thank you RoboCop).

Why haven’t Synology released the DS918+, DS718+, DS3018xs NAS yet?

 It must be difficult trying to find the sweet spot to release a new NAS (whilst effectively retiring the older unit). You effectively have two NAS audiences to consider, with of course the end goal of getting them to buy something. Either you already own a NAS you bought last year and don’t want Synology to release a follow up too-soon and leave you feeling that you bought an obsolete NAS. Or alternatively you might be someone who is ready to buy a new NAS (perhaps it is your first step into Network Attached Storage, or you are upgrading an old 2011 or 2012 system) and are not prepared to buy anything that isn’t released effectively NOW.

 So I can genuinely appreciate that Synology NAS want to capitalise on their investment, get the most bang for buck out of production and release units at the best possible time. However so many of you are now clambering for information on the Synology DS718+, DS918+, DS018xs and more (me too!). So today I wanted to put together as much information as I knew (hardware based) on the up and coming Synology Diskstation NAS for 2017/18. i will try to update this article as more information becomes available to keep it all in one place – so don’t forget to bookmark this page and pop back from time to time. If you are already pretty up to date and these NAS and spot an error, a correction or just a flat out “WTF!”, then fire me over a message here via the guys at Amazon – The NAS Experts. Otherwise, let’s take a look at the new and up-coming NAS for this year.

Last point. As mentioned, today’s post is about Hardware – the most illusive fact when it comes to a NEW synology NAS. All ofthe below mentioned NAS (with the exception of the Synology NVR1218) will run the very latest version of Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM), so if you want to take that for a spin before buying your first NAS, take a look HERE to try it out first.

Disclaimer – If you are completely up to date on the specs, stop right here. The information and video may be fairly dull to you and I would hate to waste your time (you could be outside enjoying the weather or something, you crazy fool). This list serves to keep all information in one place and is primarily aimed at those wondering about the new units and aren’t clued up yet. Cheers.

The Synology DS718+ – £350-360 without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – RELEASED
• 2-Bay NAS – Expandable to 9 with DX517
• Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core 1.5 GHz (up to 2.3 GHz)
• 2GB DDR3 Memory, expandable to 8GB (some places state 6GB but I think that is error)
• In terms of connectivity, this NAS has 3 USB 3.0 ports (including 1 on the front), 2 Gigabit network ports and 1 eSATA port.
• 2 Channel 4K Transcoding of H.264 and decoding H.265
• BTRFS support and SHR / SHR-2 Support

The Synology DS918+ – £450+ without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – RELEASED
• New Chassis – from a distance, looks a little like a dice. I definitely prefer this compared with the removable front panel and non-lockable trays of the DS916+
• 4-Bay NAS – Expandable to 9 with DX517 (spread/expand RAID across them as needed)
• Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core 1.5 GHz (up to 2.3 GHz) – Apollo Lake architecture replacing the previously used Intel Pentium N3710. Although they are both Quad-Core Intel Based CPUs, the J3455 consumes more power (10W vs. 6W compared with the N3710), but is noticeably 1.3 times faster than the N3710 in practice.
• 4GB DDR3 Memory, Expandable to 8GB across two slots
• BTRFS support and SHR / SHR-2 Support
• Two M.2 2280 NVMe slots for SSD caching built into the base of the unit
• In terms of connectivity, this NAS has 3 USB 3.0 ports (including 1 on the front), 2 Gigabit network ports and 1 eSATA port.

The Synology DS3018xs – £650-700+ at least without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – RELEASED
• DS3018xs arrives in a newly designed chassis (their first 6-Bay NAS chassis)
• PCIe slot, giving you the ability to install a 10GbE high-speed network card or an SSD Cache upgrade card (MD217) two m.2 SSD drives. Other cards are available
• Arrives with the Intel Pentium D1508 processor (Dual core CPU with a clock speed of 2.2GHz, burst to 2.6GHz),
• Arrives with 8GB DDR4 RAM (That can be expanded across 4 slots to up to 32GB)
• 4 LAN ports
• Expandable with 2x DX1215 to an impressive 30 Bays of storage
• Mention of dual m.2 SSD Slots like the DS918+, but although I have seen a metal compartment on the floor of the device, I am not completely convinced yet. Leaving this TBC till I have more evidence

The Synology DS418J Budget NAS – £240+ at least without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – NOW
• Using the same bread-box design of the DS416J, rear loaded HDD and rather retro front panel design
• Rather impressive CPU compared with older J series 4-Bays with the processor ARM A53 (64 bit architecture) with a clock speed at 1.4GHz. However there are mixed reports of whether it is a Dual Core or Quad Core – TBC
• 1GB of RAM in DDR4 Memory – another rather surprising development as the previous unit only had 512MB
• For connectivity, there are 2 USB 3.0 ports on the back and 1 Gigabit network port

The Synology FS1018 NAS– NO Confirmation of Price. Chances are we are looking at £1200 + easily

• Expected Release Date – TBC
• 12-bay NAS with 2.5″ SSD as the ideal media of choice
• Intel Pentium D1508 Dual-Core processor (Frequency of 2.2GHz, which can burst to 2.6GHz)
• Either 8GB or 6GB DDR4 RAM (up to 32GB Maximum). I presume it will be 8GB as it would seem remarkably foolish to have such a daft amount, but both are being reported and TBC
• PCIe slot, giving you the ability to install a 10GbE high-speed network card or an SSD Cache upgrade card (MD217) two m.2 SSD drives. Other cards are available
• Dual eSATA ports to install 2x DX1215
• USB 3.0 throughout

The Synology NVR1218 – £300+ at least without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – August/September 2017
• NVR SoC (Software on Chip) CPU at 1.0Ghz Frequency
• Running on Synology Surveillance Station and visible via HDMI
• 4 Camera Licences included expandable to 12 overall
• 1GB of DDR3 Memory
• 1x 1GBe LAN RJ45
• HDMI, VGA, Audio in/out, USB 3.0 + 2x USB 2.0 Keyboard and Mouse Support (Purchased separately)
• Compatible with DX517 – but will be seen as an independent storage volume (cannot spread the RAID)

The Synology DS218 and DS418 NAS Server

• Expected Release Date – DS418 RELEASED and Early/Mid Oct for DS218
• New Chassis 2-Bay and 4-Bay Chassis
• 2 and 4-Bay Cost Effective NAS
• Realtek RTD1296  Quad Core 1.4GHz
• 2GB Memory DDR4
• 4k Transcoding – Supported codec: MPEG-4 Part 2 (XVID, DIVX5), MPEG-2, VC-1, 10-bit H.265 (HEVC)
• Maximum IP cameras: 30 ands 2 Licences Included
• 2 Years Warranty
• SHR, RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD

	Synology DS218 NAS
	Synology DS418 NAS

The Synology DS218PLAY and DS418PLAY NAS Server for Multimedia

• Expected Release Date – Oct/Nov 2017
• New Chassis 4 Bay and Older Chassis 2-Bay
• 2 and 4-Bay Multimedia NAS
• Intel Celeron CPU, J3355 Dual Core 2.0GHz that can be Burst to 2.5GHz
• 2GB Memory
• Native Transcoding, 4K multimedia playback
• 4K Transcoding
• 2 Years Warranty
• SHR and BTRFS Support

	Synology DS418PLAY NAS
	Synology DS418PLAY NAS

The Synology DS218+ – £280-300 without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – RELEASED
• New Chassis
• 2-Bay NAS – Expandable to 2+5 with DX517
• Intel Celeron J3355 Dual Core 2.0 GHz (up to 2.5 GHz)
• 2GB DDR3 Memory, expandable to 6GB
• In terms of connectivity, this NAS has 3 USB 3.0 ports (including 1 on the front), 1 Gigabit network ports and 1 eSATA port.
• 2 Channel 4K Transcoding of H.264 and decoding H.265
• BTRFS support and SHR Support

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