DS918+

Synology DS918+ 4-bay NAS Features

• Powerful and scalable 4-bay NAS for growing businesses
• Encrypted sequential throughput at over 225 MB/s reading and 221 MB/s writing
• Quad-core processor with AES-NI hardware encryption engine
• 4GB DDR3L-1866 memory, expandable up to 8GB
• Dedicated M.2 NVMe SSD slots for system cache support
• Dual 1GbE LAN with failover and Link Aggregation support
• Scalable up to 9 drives with Synology DX5172
• Advanced Btrfs file system offering 65,000 system-wide snapshots and 1,024 snapshots per shared folder
• Dual-channel H.265/H.264 4K video transcoding on the fly

DS918+ Specs

Do I need NVMe slots filled?

If you need to increase IOPS than it would be recommended to have SSD cache slots filled. It will be used for read/write caching operations. That will improve the speed between data input and output. There is a benefit of having cache enabled if you are planning to use NAS as a database server or for virtual machines. Anything that requires a high number of small data constantly being sent forwards and backward.

Do I need to fill all 4 bays?

No, you can start with a 1 drive only if you wish. Adding 2 drives will give you redundancy benefit. If one drive gets broken, service will be uninterrupted. You can still read and write files on your NAS. The smart choice would be 3 drive option to start with if budget is limited. In this scenario- instead of losing the half capacity to redundancy function, you will lose only 1/3.

Why two LAN ports?

As you have probably noticed, performance reports of DS918+ show similar results with HDD and SSD solutions. Similar hardware NAS from Qnap (TS-453BT3) will perform twice as fast. This is simply based on bottleneck on network connectivity. DS918+ has only 2 network ports performing at max speed 120MB/s each. If you have a smart switch you can double the speed to 2Gb/s by enabling link aggregation. In Qnap setup difference is made by 10GbE card pre-installed. Not always you need data transfer at that speed and dual gigabit port option is more than enough for a NAS solution.

Link aggregated switch necessary for doubling Synology speeds: 

Find Out More-> 

 

Add two Gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB 3.0 pass-through port to your laptop through a single USB 3.0 port. This will balance transferred data over two network connection allowing you to receive/send data without overloading your single network connection.

Find Out More->

 

 

DS918 for plex?

This will be the perfect solution for a Plex media server. It will be quick enough to let you stream multiple videos at the same time. But it gets even better. It has enough power to transcode video streams on the fly. That will let users stream videos over slower networks like 3G on a mobile phone. It also keeps load lower on your network, letting more devices connect and use network functions.

DS918+ can transcode videos as high as at 1080p resolution. That is still the most popular resolution used still today.

DS video Media Server

For 4K transcoding use DS video app. As it is developed by Synology themselves, it has an access to a transcoding engine – built inside the CPU. This lets you transcode much higher resolution videos without overloading processor itself.

 

 

How fast is DS918+?

1GbE SMB – Sequential Throughput via Encrypted Shared Folder (64KB)

Model	RS818(RP)+	RS816	DS918+	DS418play
Read	365.93	151.18	226.05	226.09
Write	261.6	76.76	221.8	185.64

1GbE SMB – Windows File Transfer (1MB file x 3000)

Model	RS818(RP)+	RS816	DS918+	DS418play	DS418	DS418j	DS416slim
Windows Download	84.39	81.43	92.5	83.95	79.75	82.72	76.94
Windows Upload	62.93	57.48	66.62	64.77	56.97	56.65	47.01

1GbE SMB – Windows File Transfer via Encrypted Shared Folder (1MB file x 3000)

Model	RS818(RP)+	RS816	DS918+	DS418play	DS418	DS418j	DS416slim
Windows Download	80.73	46.66	81.38	81.38	71.77	71.83	35.13
Windows Upload	40.34	25.91	41.52	42.62	38.87	37.99	17.48

1GbE AFP – Mac File Transfer (3GB file x 1)

Model	RS818(RP)+	RS816	DS918+	DS418play	DS418	DS418j	DS416slim
AFP Download	93.13	93.79	94.42	93.61	93.25	94.16	94.12
AFP Upload	91.59	88.58	92.95	91.92	90.47	82.15	71.75

1GbE AFP – Mac File Transfer (1MB file x 3000)

Model	RS818(RP)+	RS816	DS918+	DS418play	DS418	DS418j	DS416slim
AFP Download	68.16	44.51	75.85	67.45	44.65	44.86	61.42
AFP Upload	63.85	57.92	65.22	64.2	58.32	54.96	47.3

1GbE Web Server – PHP Response Efficiency

Model	RS818(RP)+	RS816	DS918+	DS418play	DS418	DS418j	DS416slim
Responses per second	13134.27	5996.57	13690.33	8457.31	8874.15	5585.42	3317

 

 

RAM upgrade options

Synology
DDR3L RAM
4GB
D3NS1866L-4G

Max 4GB +2GB = TOTAL 8GB

Crucial Compatible RAM Upgrade 

4GB +2GB = TOTAL 8GB

8GB +2GB = TOTAL 10GB

8GB +8GB = TOTAL 16GB

CPU can only address 8GB per channel (slot). So max 16GB (2x8GB).

 

 

Synology tested SMART UPS list:

APC	Smart-UPS SMT1000RM2UTW	Synology
APC	Smart-UPS SMT750TW	Synology
APC	Smart-UPS SUA1000TW	Synology
APC	Smart-UPS SUA1500TW	Synology

 

Max size HDD?

HGST	HUH721212ALE600 – 0F30144	Ultrastar He12	3D0	12TB
HGST	HUH721212ALE604	Ultrastar He12		12TB
Seagate	ST12000NE0007 – 2GT116	IronWolf Pro	EN01	12TB
Seagate	ST12000NM0007 – 2A1101	Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD V.7	SN01	12TB
Seagate	ST12000VN0007 – 2GS116	IronWolf	SC60	12TB
Western Digital	WD121KRYZ	Gold		12TB

Compatible SSD

Crucial	CT2050MX300SSD1	MX300		2TB
Micron	MTFDDAK2T0TBN-1AR12	1100		2TB
Micron	MTFDDAK2T0TBN-1AR1Z	1100		2TB
Micron	MTFDDAK1T0MBF	M600	MU03	1TB
Micron	MTFDDAK1T0TBN-1AR12	1100		1TB
Micron	MTFDDAK1T0TBN-1AR1Z	1100		1TB
Samsung	MZ-75E1T0	850 EVO	EMT01B6Q	1TB

Compatible NVMe M.2 sticks

Brand	Model Number	Series	Firmware	Capacity
Intel	SSDPEKKW256G7X1	600p	PSF100C	256GB
Intel	SSDPEKKW010T7X1	600p	PSF104C	1TB
Intel	SSDPEKKW512G7X1	600p		512GB
Plextor	PX-128M8PeGN	M8PeGN	1.01	128GB
Plextor	PX-256M8PeGN	M8PeGN	1.02	256GB
Samsung	MZ-V5P256BW	950 PRO	1B0QBXX7	256GB
Samsung	MZ-V5P512BW	950 PRO		512GB
Samsung	MZ-V6E1T0	960 EVO	2B7QCE7	1TB
Samsung	MZ-V6E250BW	960 EVO	1B7QCXE7	250GB
Samsung	MZ-V6E500	960 EVO		500GB
Samsung	MZVPV128HDGM	SM951	BXW7300Q	128GB
Samsung	MZVPV256HDGL	SM951		256GB
Samsung	MZVPV512HDGL	SM951		512GB
Toshiba	THNSN5128GPU7	XG3	57XA4104	128GB
Toshiba	THNSN5256GPU7	XG3	57XA4104	256GB
Toshiba	THNSN5512GPU7	XG3		512GB

 

Compatible cameras

Camera Model	Camera Firmware	Video Type	Motion	PTZ	Audio
C1	v2.0.0.889_17083000	H.264	Yes	PT	In
C1 Pro	v2.0.0..889_17083009	H.264	Yes	PT	In
C2	v2.0.0..889_17083009	H.264	Yes	PTZ	In
RLC-410(W)(S)	v2.0.0.1168_16070800	H.264	Yes	No	In
RLC-411(W)(S)	1168_16070808_v1.0.0.30(Mapping)	H.264	Yes	Zoom	In
RLC-420	1168_16070808_v1.0.0.30(Mapping)	H.264	Yes	No	In
RLC-422	1168_16070808_v1.0.0.30(Mapping)	H.264	Yes	Zoom	No
RLC-423	1168_16070808_v1.0.0.30	H.264	Yes	PTZ	In

 

PROS/CONS?

+cache slots built-in

+multi function

+fast

+expandable

-no 10GbE

-no PCIe slot

 

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