Synology DiskStation DS1522+ 5-Bay NAS Server, AMD Ryzen R1600 3.1GHz, 8GB (32 GB MAX), 2xNVMe, 1xPCIe, 4xRJ 45, 2xUSB, 2x eSATA, 3 Years Warranty

Looked at a number of options and settled on this one because of the actual and potential capacity and options to expand it in the future. Running 5x 12TB IronWolf HDDs and using this NAS 'out of the box' but may look at adding in the faster network option in the future. No need for the SSD or additional RAM as it features 8GB as standard. Very easy to set up and the drives were simple plug-in installation. The cooling system is extremely quiet.
...view more Looked at a number of options and settled on this one because of the actual and potential capacity and options to expand it in the future. Running 5x 12TB IronWolf HDDs and using this NAS 'out of the box' but may look at adding in the faster network option in the future. No need for the SSD or additional RAM as it features 8GB as standard. Very easy to set up and the drives were simple plug-in installation. The cooling system is extremely quiet.
This unit is being used for media, primarily as a Plex Media Server (PMS) at this stage. On paper there are some limitations I wasn't aware of at time of purchasing for using a 1522+ as a PMS - it has a Ryzen chipset, so doesn't support hardware-based transcoding apparently, various experts say that you need an Intel-based NAS for that. That said, I haven't had any issues with files type not playing or other incompatibility at all, and the delivery speed to TV, etc, has really increased significantly from the previously used PC -based server (no more lagging or buffering).

This is my first entry into Synology, realised was paying a premium for their software and hardware. Glad I didn't go smaller than a 5 bay, allows a large volume without needing expansion unit that needs its own power and can fail separately. Im a bit of hoarder and my use is probably higher than most, the 5 bays gets you up to a little over 20TB of single drive redundancy with SHR-1 if you fully populate with 8TB drives (currently best bang for buck bulk storage), which you can do over time with the excellent and easy to use Synology Hybrid Raid.

The DS1522+ was also a step up on the CPU compared to older models still available and is ver...view more This is my first entry into Synology, realised was paying a premium for their software and hardware. Glad I didn't go smaller than a 5 bay, allows a large volume without needing expansion unit that needs its own power and can fail separately. Im a bit of hoarder and my use is probably higher than most, the 5 bays gets you up to a little over 20TB of single drive redundancy with SHR-1 if you fully populate with 8TB drives (currently best bang for buck bulk storage), which you can do over time with the excellent and easy to use Synology Hybrid Raid.

The DS1522+ was also a step up on the CPU compared to older models still available and is very useful if wanting to run Plex off this machine. Can service a few users, but isn't very powerful for transcoding despite the better CPU. Keep running Plex on Windows and use Synology for storage if you have more than a few users (I run my main Plex server on my desktop and use the Synology as backup in case my PC is powered off etc).

Picking up 2x 1TB m.2 SSD on sale from PB Tech for about $100 each was a cheap and amazing upgrade to the performance of the NAS, enabling not just the btrfs volume metadata caching on the SSD which is hugely impactful, but heaps of space to cache other frequently accessed files. Given to enable read and write cache you need 2 cache drives (redundancy to help protect against data loss), I feel fine throwing in cheap cache SSDs, can just replace when one fails, as they are going to get hammered till they die with writes anyhow.

On RAM, just caus I ended up blathering on about everything else, I was surprised to find that without running proper VMs I barely touched the 8GB default max (hovers around 15%-20% with loads of things enabled beyond default). If/when I do want to upgrade the RAM however, I would take care to get good ECC and Synology compatible RAM. I would not purchase Synology branded as its redic expensive, but there are good forum posts out there listing tested and proven upgrade options.

-FireExit

Purchased my DS1522+ a few weeks back as an upgrade to my two ageing NAS and am totally satisfied with its perfomance. The latest Synology apps and features make it a hard-to-surpass unit for the price. Loaded it up with an SSD and 4x 6TB HDDs and it's perfect for all my needs -- and then some. Haven't yet used the NVMe or 10GB network options but may well in the future. Highly recommended! Purchased my DS1522+ a few weeks back as an upgrade to my two ageing NAS and am totally satisfied with its perfomance. The latest Synology apps and features make it a hard-to-surpass unit for the price. Loaded it up with an SSD and 4x 6TB HDDs and it's perfect for all my needs -- and then some. Haven't yet used the NVMe or 10GB network options but may well in the future. Highly recommended!

By: Yankiwi 02/07/23

Verified Owner