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Synology 2GB DS418 4 Bay Desktop NAS Enclosure

£9.9£99Clearance
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The DS418play performed well, and had no issues streaming media to multiple devices at once. Transcoding worked flawlessly too, although it took a bit of fiddling to get Plex up and running. The DS418play happily maxed out our network with large file transfers, at 108.5 MB/s reading and 109.2 MB/s writing. Though it's compact and unassuming, the DS418play hides a powerful Intel CPU inside. Synology DS418play price & availability

Synology DiskStation DS418play review | TechRadar Synology DiskStation DS418play review | TechRadar

When it comes to being a multimedia server, DiskStation DS418 has a significant limitation: it uses an ARM processor that does not hardware transcode media files. This means that it does not run the Plex Media Server. If you want this feature, you should buy Synology DiskStation DS418play, which looks and works the same but uses an Intel Celeron J3355 dual-core processor, instead of Realtek RTD1296. The Intel processor does hardware transcoding and allows your NAS to turn into a Plex Media Server, or run virtualization solutions that are not available for the model that we tested. One of the defining features of the new ASUS ExpertWiFi family of networking devices is the Guest Portal. This portal allows your organization to give free Wi-Fi access to its customers (or guests) while promoting its brand(s) or location(s). The... How to add or remove icons or apps from the Windows 11 taskbarThe 418play also offers hardware-based AES-NI encryption, and doesn't lose any appreciable performance with it's switched on.

DiskStation DS418 - Synology DiskStation DS418 - Synology

The DS418play is built around a now slightly dated Intel Celeron J3355 dual-core CPU, which can burst up to 2.5GHz. While the CPU does technically include Intel Graphics, there are no HDMI outputs. The NAS comes equipped with 2GB of RAM, plus an empty slot that can handle an additional 4GB, for a total of 6GB. While the NAS handles itself well with 2GB, it’s well worth the effort to add at least an extra 2GB. It’s also very easy – just pop out the drive bays and the RAM slot is easily accessible. We tested the Synology DS418play equipped with 2GB of RAM, using 4x Seagate IronWolf Pro HDDs, and running Synology’s hybrid RAID. To emulate a typical network, we tested using a Gigabit Ethernet LAN, with connections running to the NAS, a desktop computer and Hisense smart TV. The DS418play is typically sold diskless, allowing you to install the specific drives you desire. That said, if you want the latter pre-installed, some retailers do sell this NAS box with drives, but at a rate that's often more expensive than if you did it yourself. Four hot swap drive bays make it easy to populate the DS418play with either 3.5” or 2.5” drives. Setup & software Video surveillance - if you have a small business or a private property that needs to monitor several areas with surveillance cameras, you can use the DS418 to store their video footage, and access it whenever it is needed.The key features of the DS418play all revolve around handling media. Most importantly, the device has the ability to transcode two 4K video streams at the same time. If you're wondering why exactly you might want to do that, or aren't already very into serving up your own media, then you probably don’t need this kind of feature. But as 4K video content becomes more popular, it could certainly be a great option to have for future-proofing.

Download Center - DS418 | Synology Inc. Download Center - DS418 | Synology Inc.

We enjoyed testing Synology DiskStation DS418. It is a well built NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution, with top-notch software, and good hardware. It manages to provide solutions for almost all the needs people have when buying a NAS. There is almost nothing that it cannot do. We recommend it to home users, IT professionals, and small businesses that benefit from creating their network attached storage solutions. Unboxing the Synology DiskStation DS418 For those craving higher throughput, the dual Gigabit LAN ports can be aggregated together. Multimedia capabilitiesSynology DiskStation DS418 is 6.5 x 7.8 x 8.7 inches or 166 x 199 x 223 mm in height, width, and depth. It also weighs a little over 5 pounds, or 2.28 kg, without any hard disks inside. There is nothing to complain about in the performance offered by the Synology DiskStation DS418. The most meaningful impact on speed is going to be generated by the hard disks or SSDs that you install inside the NAS. If you desire maximum performance, you should also invest in fast storage. What is your opinion of the Synology DiskStation DS418? With a full load of four drives, the throughput is mostly limited by the network connection itself. That won't be a problem for most typical users, as even two 4K streams won’t saturate the available bandwidth. That said, for more advanced users, having the option to aggregate the two network ports together is great. Private cloud storage service - you get access to apps for all platforms, and you can create your version of Dropbox or OneDrive. These are all satisfying speeds, for most users. However, the link aggregation did not deliver significant improvements when it comes to the maximum speed you get. Link aggregation is useful when multiple clients want to access data from the NAS at the same time, for load balancing and failover.

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