I am seeing so much about the DS220+ and the DS218Play but nothing about the DS218. I have seen the specs for the DS218 are just about the same as the DS218Play but with 2GB memory and a couple other small things and a few features the DS220+ has. And the DS218 appears to have the same case as the DS220+ Minus the eSATA port on the rear. The DS218 is priced between the DS218play & the DS220+. I believe the DS218play will do what I need it to but for the small difference in price would it be worth going one step up to the DS218 for the extra memory and hot-swap drives, etc? I take no responsibilities for any damages or losses resulting from applying the procedures outlined in this post. In a home use probably you will be fine with DS218play instead of DS218. If there will be 5+ people using it – consider DS218 or DS220+, there is more RAM to share and faster drive replacement feature.

Download Center - DS218 | Synology Inc.

Cloud Station Suite provides real-time data synchronization across all your devices, such as computers, mobile devices, and other Synology NAS whenever a file is modified. "Intelliversioning" keeps the most important file versions to better utilize storage space. WD is the very popular choice because they are quieter than other drives, due variable disk spinning speed.It gets even better! If you want some more entertainment and all previously mentioned functions - nVidia TV is a great thing to get. You can use it for playing games and watching movies from your NAS. The greatest thing is - shield TV does video transcoding. So even if you have a cheap NAS with a weak CPU, in a combination of shield TV you can now automatically on the fly change video file size and format for a destination device. It is a great way to reduce network load and let older devices to play video content which normally was not supported on the device.

Download Center - DS218+ | Synology Inc. Download Center - DS218+ | Synology Inc.

DS220+ will be useful if you consider using it as a Plex server, or virtualization (windows media center or Linux). You can add extra 5 drives as a separate volume and increase the RAMsize. If not, there is no need for this extra performance. Unless you will have many people simultaneously and continuously accessing and using this device.RAID 1 ST6000VN0001 6TB HDD, 1GbE LAN port: MTU 1500; connected to 1 client PC via HP 2530-48G switch H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-2 and VC-1; maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); maximum frame rate per second (FPS): 30 While there are still two drive bays, the addition of a second 1Gb LAN port allows for the two networking connections to be aggregated to improve bandwidth. Power draw is lower on the DS220+ too. It’s well worth the extra money. Synology DiskStation DS218+ is still good enough Synology DiskStation DS218+. (Source: NAS Master) DS218 and DS218play transcodes 10-bit H.265 (HEVC) 60 frames per second, but DS220+ does at 30 frames per second?

Refurbished DiskStation DS218+ | Synology Inc.

If you’re purchasing a NAS right now and have the choice between the Synology DiskStation DS220+ and the older DS218+, I’d recommend going with the newer model every time. While it does cost a little more, it’s vastly superior in every way. You can actually configure what will copy button on the front panel do. You can set it to automatically copy all data from an external hard drive to your NAS or copy a certain folder from your NAS to attached hard drive. This can speed up the time when you are in a rush. There is no need to use laptop an manually drag and drop folder you wanna copy to/from external drive. Which ones are expandable? Access and stream your 4K media content anytime and anywhere. DS218+ supports 4K H.264/H.265 online transcoding via Video Station and DS video, allowing 4K videos to be converted and played on the fly on other computers, smartphones, and media players that originally do not support Ultra HD formats. Read: Compare all 2 bay range to find more differences. The price difference between DS218play , DS218 and DS220+ Yes, DS218 and DS218play have Realtek processor which is made for new generation H265 transcoding. But 60 frames per second videos are not very popular at all. So you think about transcoding- there is no much point having something that transcoded only new generation videos. DS220+ will transcode new generation video files as well as old ones. And it will do it at the most popular frame rate which is 30FPS.

Which ones are expandable?

AES 256-bit encryption: Encrypt shared folders and network data transmission to keep data from unauthorized access.

What kind of CPU does my Synology NAS have? What kind of CPU does my Synology NAS have?

The DiskStation DS220+ is clearly the more powerful NAS here and that shouldn’t come as a surprise since it’s one of the best NAS out there. It’s the later model and comes with better internal components, but the highlight improvement is the Intel Celeron J4025 processor. Synology DiskStation DS220+ is a great upgrade Synology DiskStation DS220+. (Source: NAS Master)DS218 will be weaker option if you want to save money, but still be able to transcode some 4K (no Plex) Review | What can I connect to DS218+? Wireless Speaker Sonos