Synology DS223J 8TB 2 Bay NAS Solution installed with 2 x 4TB Seagate Ironwolf Drives

The Synology is a great NAS box.I really like the software interface and the fact you can add lots of apps.I have one with 2x14TB drive setup as a raid mirror for backing up our corporate Google Drive (using an extra app to sync) and one with 2x16TB setup as JBOD for backing up other backups using FTP.Really great boxes and was pleased with the extended warranty options.

It took me many hours to learn how to use this (I'm a techie numpty) but well worth it. I got a lot of help from YouTube. But now the hard work is done I just let it get on with it and add a further backup on Synology's external C2 network storage . Much better than Dropbox without all the BS..! It's only noisy when it backing up or uploading otherwise you don't know it's there. And it looks good too.

I get everything I need from this server.I primarily use it as an Emby server, but also for Surveillance Station, so my review will be based on those 2 things.For of all, it’s super simple to setup and get to the UI, which is also pretty user friendly. Installing apps is simple and setting up network shares is equally as simple. There’s advanced controls, like user rights, recycle bin functionality and that just scratches the surface, but again I didn’t need to take advantage too much of some of those.The Emby functionality is great and streaming anime from it is flawless. I last used a Mini PC which really struggled with decoding and made the experience terribly slow. I no longer have that issue (thankfully) as the server is pretty speedy - even for larger content.Surveillance Station was just as easy to setup with enough options for what I need. Allows me to backup my recordings instead of having to use Micro SD cards or Eufy’s cloud services, so I’m really pleased with that too.Overall, for the price I paid and the experience I’ve had - I’m thrilled. (Worth noting I bought some sound dampening feet to put it in a cabinet).

Works well and I found it OK to set up, however I relied upon my own IT knowledge to get it working. There are a plethora of documents available online, but no guidance on where to start. It really needs a simple guide for common use cases identifying where to look for the details.I am using it for data storage and file sharing within my network. It is good for this and much faster than an old WD MyWorldBook which it is replacing. It took about 90mins to load 600GB from my PC.It is slightly noisy (similar to a PC with traditional hard drive), but can be set to hibernate when not being accessed. It does sometimes wake itself up - I'm not sure why yet. Not really suitable for a bedroom, but OK elsewhere.For a simple NAS it was good value and much better than leaving data on a shared PC drive. If you don't want RAID, one could save money by only having one drive, but that would then lose data when the drive fails.

Been running ages without any issues

I needed a replacement for a ReadyNAS that had 2 bays and supported disk mirroring. This is not as flexible as that device - I lament how technology frequently gets worse!This was not hard to set up. I bought my own drives that I fitted without too much effort. There were a number of services that needed logins to be set up and registration with Synology. This is unavoidable if you want to access the drive remotely. There were some new paradigms to master when setting up the system for different users. So far it has done what I needed and it seems fast enough for my needs with standard hard drives.

After research online I was excited to get started on my NAS journey however was left doubting whether I will try another NAS after such a poor experience.The product was plagued with problems from the first go. The actual physical setup was straightforward. However once on, it was much louder than I thought it would be with an annoying constant clicking sound being present. The setup wizard actually struggled to find the NAS initially. Took a while after changing some settings before it found it. Then the installation was an issue, with some things not intuitive. After getting past the setup wizard I tried to install the DSM but took 20 mins after being stuck at 55%. Had to redo the installation after manually finding the relevant DSM.Once the software was up and running and the NAS setup, I installed some packages via the DSM UI. This was so painful. It was so slow. I can only describe the experience like a low end old laptop when things keep hanging. I clicked on something had to wait 5-10 seconds then do my next action.I persisted thinking that people must be recommending this for a good reason. So I tried to move a file from my PC to the NAS. After being very patient to load up the file manager and dragged the file to upload off it went to the NAS, a 2GB file. Then I waited.And waited some more. Then after 10 minutes I had enough with it being around 20% done, with 500mbs network speed and connected to the ethernet cable, the network shouldn't be an issue.In the end, I packed it all up 6 hours after getting it to be sent back. I'm really surprised at all the great reviews this gets but after this experience I will probably not be venturing into the world of NAS again. I can only give this one star.

I'm new into this type of software and devices but I can say that it was very easy to setup. I didn't took me too long to have my user created and have my NAS up and running, It was just a bit confusing to create additional users and give them the access I wanted them to have but nothing that reading a bit a watching videos wouldn't solve. overall, after a month and half of having my NAS I pretty much happy with it. it works perfectly and I can keep all my information back it up in one place.