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Which Synology? DS412+ or DS1513+

A

adjohan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2012
20
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I'm thinking about getting a NAS for storing all my media files, videos, music, photos, etc. Been doing a lot of research on Synology NAS, but still not sure which ones to choose… I've finalized it between DS412+ or DS1513+, do any of you guys have personal experience with either of these units?

Plus in terms of Harddrive, I've been hearing a lot of bad reviews on the WD Red and that it might be better to get the Seagate NAS hard drive?
 
adjohan said:
small bump... no one else has any suggestions?
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Go to smallnetbuilder site as there are reviews of both.

I think they both will work very well for your purposes. Just make sure to get the proper drives that Synology endorses (or its forum users).

While I have QNAP, I have set up Synology NAS for friends and candidly, find most models of Synology work ideal for media file storage and network playback. (I'd go for the 15xx myself.)
 
Can you elaborate on what else you want to do and why you are choosing between the DS413+ or DS1513+?

For a 4-bay file server for basic media file storage, even a DS413J can be sufficient.

Higher end models help if you need higher read and/or write throughput or want to do more than file service, like running additional packages/services like plex, etc.
 
I have an old DS409 and i love it. However I feel compelled to say a couple things about it..

First off, it's the most stable piece of hardware I've used in a while... i've seen it go for 90 days without rebooting or crashing, never had a problem with drive integrity or data loss, the only reason I haven't seen more than 90 days is because I have to update stuff, power goes out or I voluntarily reboot it.

However, i do find the built in apps (DS audio, DS cloud, itunes server, etc) a bit buggy... i mean they work, but third party stuff generally works better (subsonic or owncloud etc etc)... and you have to reinstall some third party stuff anytime you upgrade. Also, time machine is kinda buggy in my system. I don't know if it's an apple thing, a synology thing or a network thing but my macs keep building new backups every couple days... very annoying.

lastly, synology does drop support for NAS systems that are old... mine just recently got obsoleted and I can't get new updates. I had support for 5 years which is a fairly long time, so i'm not too pissed off.

All in all i would recommend a 400 series just because of price (i'm guessing $500ish) because you can't build a NAS system that cheap and that high quality/stable. the 1500 series I'm torn because with $800 you can build a very nice linux (or even OSX server hackintosh) computer (mATX on a bitfenix phenom-m case) that's small and powerful, and holds a bunch of drives.
 
jeduars said:
Also, time machine is kinda buggy in my system. I don't know if it's an apple thing, a synology thing or a network thing but my macs keep building new backups every couple days... very annoying.
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Do you have enough space allocated to TM? It works great on my DS413 for 3+ Macs. How do you have it setup? I have each Mac's TM set to use its own user account. I have each of the accounts setup in the Synology CP to max out at 2-3 times the full backup size of its Mac. This way gives me a lot of control and it has been working perfectly since I got my Synology 5-6 months ago.
 
I went through the same dilemma recently. The 1513+ offers far more upgrade options than the 412+, however, the 1513+ is also significantly more expensive. Ultimately, I opted for the 412+ due to the cost difference and I wish I could say good things about my decision. My first 412+ was DOA and I am currently awaiting its replacement from Amazon. I left a review on Amazon detailing my experience and, ironically, another Amazon customer who also ordered the 412+ at around the same time (within 1-2 days of my order) experienced the exact same problem. Bad batch maybe?

I can't explain why but I feel like the 1513+ may have been the better option after all. It is considered a business class device with a much higher functional capacity, so I presume Synology would have put more effort and better parts into 1513+. I intend to test the replacement thoroughly. If I run into any issues at all, I will return the 412+ and upgrade to the 1513+.
 
d.steve said:
Can you elaborate on what else you want to do and why you are choosing between the DS413+ or DS1513+?

For a 4-bay file server for basic media file storage, even a DS413J can be sufficient.

Higher end models help if you need higher read and/or write throughput or want to do more than file service, like running additional packages/services like plex, etc.
Click to expand...

I will be using it to store a lot of my 720p media files so I figured getting the more higher end models will really help in watching these HD media using plex.

The 413+ is definitely a bit cheaper but has no expansion capability while the 1513+ has that options.
 
If the price difference doesn't matter to you, I would get the DS1513+. If price is an issue and you just plan on streaming/hosting HD files, do a few other NAS oriented things, and don't need more than 12TB then I would get the DS412+.

I got a DS412+ a few months ago and have 3x4TB WD Red drives in it right now. I use the cloudstation capabilities for 2 users, multiple time machine backups, as my main itunes repository, and to store blu ray ISO files that I play back through XBMC. I couldn't be happier with it. Outstanding product. I'm only using about 5TB out of ~7.3TB available with the 3 drives. I can add another drive whenever to get another ~4TB of space. Getting the DS1513+ would future proof this even more, but I don't see myself needing that for several years... and I'm sure there will be something better at that time.
 
I have a 413j and if money wasn't an issue I would have bought a 1512+ ( and now a 1513+). I wrote about my decision here. I have no regrets about not spending the extra money.
 
adjohan said:
I will be using it to store a lot of my 720p media files so I figured getting the more higher end models will really help in watching these HD media using plex.

The 413+ is definitely a bit cheaper but has no expansion capability while the 1513+ has that options.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that all the + series including 413+ has expansion capability by adding on the DX drives.
 
I hope this doesn't sounds ignorant but is it possible to buy the enclosure and add one or two drives and then buy more at a later date and still have it working?
 
plotters said:
I hope this doesn't sounds ignorant but is it possible to buy the enclosure and add one or two drives and then buy more at a later date and still have it working?
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Yup. You can start with 1, 2 or X number of disks, and then add more or even swap out existing ones for larger disks while maintaining all existing data.
 
The question about the extra storage is whether you will fill up your current NAS anytime soon. I have an older Buffalo NAS and when Apple updated to Mountain Lion, they put in new security software that made the NAS inaccessible. Buffalo no longer supports the NAS, so I can no longer use it with OSX.

My main issue with spending the extra $$$ for future expansion is not only based on the lack of updates to older units, but the fact that better tech is coming out all the time and prices usually drop over time for current tech. I would rather just add another NAS in the future, if needed, and take advantage of the better tec at that time.

That being said, if I thought I would fill it up in the near future, I would have gone with bigger drives or went with the 1512+.
 
I have the DS413+ , just got it all nicely setup to stream wirelessly to a WD TV Live box. Currently 'only' have 3x 3Tb WD Red drives in it, as with the hybrid raid system I can later add a fourth drive of higher capacity (4Tb are available now, and by the time I need a fourth... Who knows... And then you can replace the 3Tb drive one at a time with the future 6Tb drives no doubt...).

I'd say the + is well worth it, if you need more processing power for transcoding video on the fly.... Especially useful for Apple TV use unless you're obsessive about your media formats and don't need to transcode mkv, dts audio etc etc etc. Also means it'll run the extra applications more easily... And there are many good ones - search around and add the Synology Community apps to the default choice.
http://www.synocommunity.com/

I did find the built in Syno Videostation to be pretty good - both for collecting all the metadata for movies and TV series, and ease of use with the AppleTV. Much nicer to browse your collection on an ipad, then airplay it to your TV - but for me the lack of subtitle support is no good at all... And NOTE this is an AppleTV issue, as it incredibly doesn't support subtitles over airplay!

tried using Plex, and a Plexconnect non jailbreak hack to get it working on the AppleTV, worked but the Plex wouldn't see many,many of my series and refused to catalogue them, even though the same shows would be picked up ok if run through Plex on a Mac laptop.... Sigh.
anyway, that Plex hack could be obsoleted by an Apple update... So ended up with

The Western Digital TV Live, supports vast range of video formats, subtitles are fine, and I prefer to just use an NFS Linux network share to the Synology and use an app on the Synology to catalogue everything etc.
The Synology Download station Torrent client works great, there are others available including Transmission.

I'm mostly using SabNZB and Sickbeard to run things on the NAS - searches for latest tv shows I'm following, downloads them and even gets the subtitle I want, renames the and puts them in their proper folders etc... All auto-magically.

I was looking for Drobo NAS, but in Thailand they are hard to find - glad I need up with the synology, the available apps and the community support is great.
 
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