Synology vs QNAP

[Octopuss]

Does anyone have first hand experience with both, ideally with models from the last five years or so?

I previously owned one of the basic Synology boxes, DS213 I think. Last year I upgraded to DS716+II.
In the past weeks, I started to really hate the damn DSM OS. It's annoyingly plain, not very responsive, not very configurable either, and the worst thing is I get crappy speeds out of it (not a setup problem, I've been digging in it for long enough to be sure). Like I can't squeeze more than 60ish MB/s read speeds out of it. The damn thing has a pair 4TB WD Reds in RAID1 in it, so disks more than capable of close to what gigabit network can do. Playing films off the NAS randomly and regularly freezes (there's something fishy about the entire box, because the web interface doesn't respond much at those times while there's no excessive CPU usage going on).
All in all, I hate the thing and would like to switch to something else.

So, the question is, can anyone compare the two companies? Is QNAP any better if we take models with somewhat equivalent hardware? How is the OS?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Me. I have a synology 213J but I now have a Qnap 251+. The problem I have with synology is their OS has become quite bloated and the hardware extremely underpowered for the price you have to pay for them. The same money for a 213j gets you a quad core and 4gb expandable memory (ram) with Qnap - this sure as hell was the case last time i checked prices a few months ago.

I love my Qnap. Its fast smooth and really easy to work with.

 

[Octopuss]

Do you think you can typically get more powerful box (hardware-wise) with QNAP compared to Synology then?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Have you had a look at the QNAP live demo? https://www.qnap.com/en/support/con_show.php?op=showone&cid=8
It would give you an idea about how their software works.

Not a huge fan of pre-built NAS devices any more, having worked for QNAP and having one of their devices for a few years, as well as having used Synology in the past. In both cases, they use some very old, patched and somewhat poorly maintained software. It doesn't help that the OS installs on a partition on your NAS drives either, as they're too cheap to put it on eMMC on the NAS itself.

Built a custom NAS using OMV https://www.openmediavault.org/
It's way overkill in terms of hardware, but it's screamingly fast. Don't really mess around too much with the OS, but I can access files on it as fast as I could from a local drive, thanks to 10Gbps Ethernet. It was a bit of a headache to build due to the 10Gbps card, but beyond that, OMV is simple to use. I installed the OS on a small, old 60GB SSD, but I don't really re-boot it so...

 

[Octopuss]

I played with the idea of building my own (and using FreeNAS), but that would cost me a LOT more than a prebuilt box. Plus I need something small, not another PC (and there aren't really any microscopic cases with two HDD slots).

 

[Jetster]

Synology is a little more advanced but cost more. SO for the $ you get better hardware with QNAP But it depends on the features you want

What your saying about your DS716+II. There's something wrong 60MB/s is about right but you shouldn't get freezes. I have a FreeNAS server and a DS 216 that it backs up to. When I was using just the DS216 I had no freezes, even over WiFi. Maybe shut off sleep. Somethings not right

 

[Octopuss]

60MB/s is definitely not right. The damn box is pretty much idling, and I start a single large file copy operation. There's no technical reason why it shouldn't work at around 100MB/s. Heck, it used to not long ago.
The freezes is something I noticed recently, but I can't tell when it started, because I don't watch stuff too often anymore. While investigating, I noticed the low speeds as a bonus.
The disks are in pristine condition with extended SMART test being run some weeks ago.
It just makes no sense, and I really started to hate the DSM, so I just want to switch to something else.

I've found QNAP TS-253B. Looks to have slightly more powerful CPU, and TONS better expansibility options and stuff. Pretty expensive, but I just love the specs.

 

[Joss]

Would it be possible to install FreeNAS on a Synology/QNAP machine?

 

[Octopuss]

I'm pretty sure that's not possible.


Oh btw, interesting find: I get full speed of ~110MB/s copying TO the NAS, and only 66ish copying FROM it.
There must be something slowing stuff down on the Windows 10 end, but that's pretty much impossible to troubleshoot. Meh.

edit: WTF, the speed has jumped up to full. I understand nothing anymore.
edit2: restarted the PC and it's messed up again.

 

[Frogger]

I use a TS 253A on a HDMI to a 65 inch 4k TV as well as the rest on the home network .. runs great.. If I had to upgrade would buy another qnap.

 

[Jetster]

Update yoour synology and reset it and start over. Check your network speed

My DS 216 only does 60 to 80 MB/s and works fine. My freeNAS box pegs my network 100MB/s continuously and its an i3

 

[Athlon2K15]

Qnap seems to be making SFF PCs instead of NAS these days, Synology has kinda stuck with what they know, lots of storage features and a midlevel app catalog.

 

[Octopuss]

Qnap seems to be making SFF PCs instead of NAS these days

You mean in terms of configurability, connectivity etc.?

 

[TheLostSwede]

And this is why I built a custom NAS...
That's over 10Gbps Ethernet, just to be clear.

It's in a 4-bay NAS case by the way, using a mini-ITX board.

 

[Octopuss]

I am trying one last thing before I simply go buy the QNAP box. I removed one disk from the array, copied all frigging 3TB of data off the NAS, reset the thing to default, and now I'm copying the stuff back to see if it helps at all.

update
Well, what do you know...
I tried on Windows 7 notebook and the playback is butter smooth. It must be something in Windows 10, but how the F am I supposed to figure that out I have no idea.

...still want a QNAP though

 

[Octopuss]

So I dug out and old Intel 1000 Pro something card and tried networking with it as a test, and... wtf, it appears that the playback stuttering is gone. I can't tell for sure, but it looks promising thus far.
I can only speculate that the Windows 10 driver for Atheros AR8161 chip is shite. That's not a good thing, because my Z77 board doesn't have a free PCIe slot that would work. I'll have to wait until I upgrade the whole PC.

 

[John Naylor]

Just to throw out another option .... after using an NAS for most of this millenium, I tossed it and just added two SSHDs to my workstation build.

Greatly reduced cost
Greatly reduced management time

Have 5 desktops and 5 laptop on the SOHO network...tho never more than 3-5 users at any one time.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Just to throw out another option .... after using an NAS for most of this millenium, I tossed it and just added two SSHDs to my workstation build.

Greatly reduced cost
Greatly reduced management time

Have 5 desktops and 5 laptop on the SOHO network...tho never more than 3-5 users at any one time.

This. I run a 9 year old rig with 2x 4TB drives for my NAS/media streamer. Runs fine but it is another PC i have to manage and it gets really hot these days. Once I replace it I am simply gonna buy 2 mor 4 TB drives and stick them in my current rig, software raid them, and attach them to a virtual machine running freenas. My current rig has plenty of power to stream content and files while gaming.

 

[Octopuss]

Wouldn't work here. The NAS is primarily used as automated backups storage for all computers in the family, so it needs to be available all the time.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Wouldn't work here. The NAS is primarily used as automated backups storage for all computers in the family, so it needs to be available all the time.

You should be backing up to the cloud if you are worried about it that much.

 

[Octopuss]

I have better things to waste my money on than paying for 1TB or so in cloud.
Besides, do you even know how long would it take to restore anything? Not to mention you're screwed when internet goes down.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I have better things to waste my money on than paying for 1TB or so in cloud.
Besides, do you even know how long would it take to restore anything? Not to mention you're screwed when internet goes down.

Well I hope you don't lose anything in a house fire...

 

[Octopuss]

That's ridiculous.

 

[Easy Rhino]

That's ridiculous.

Is it though? Your requirement is that your backup system be available at all times. It seems like your backups are very important to you. How can you guarantee a disaster won't happen?

 

[Sasqui]

Well I hope you don't lose anything in a house fire...

He's got some valid points, but a the end of the day (and possibly a fire), having offsite storage can be a life saver. In other words, have local AND offsite or cloud backups.