# Synology vs QNAP



## Octopuss (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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


----------



## TheLostSwede (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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


----------



## Octopuss (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 28, 2018)

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 (Sep 29, 2018)

Athlon2K15 said:


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


You mean in terms of configurability, connectivity etc.?


----------



## TheLostSwede (Sep 29, 2018)

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 (Sep 29, 2018)

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 (Oct 6, 2018)

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 (Oct 7, 2018)

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 (Oct 7, 2018)

John Naylor said:


> 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
> ...



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 (Oct 7, 2018)

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 (Oct 7, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> 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 (Oct 7, 2018)

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 (Oct 7, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> 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 (Oct 7, 2018)

That's ridiculous.


----------



## Easy Rhino (Oct 8, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> 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 (Oct 8, 2018)

Easy Rhino said:


> 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.


----------



## phill (Oct 8, 2018)

I have a Synology system but it's custom one.  Used some spare hardware and bought a few other bits and pieces and it's been utterly brilliant   Even with me messing up my network and such, it's always worked.  I've made regular backups of my 6 x 4Tb drives in Raid 1 and the only issue I'm going to have shortly is running out of storage space  

I have my phone connected to it, backs up everything on it, even my girl friends phone does the same..  It's utterly brilliant.  Depending on files/size it'll max out my 1Gb network around my home with ease but even with the 10 or so PCs I have here connected too it, I've not had any issues.  Not tried it so much with streaming films and such but it's more of a storage pot for all of my daughters photos, downloads, music, programs, videos and everything else I have had since day dot..  I wish I had done something sooner but upgrades with it are fairly simple.
My next aim is for when I move to make sure the network is 10Gb and I have the drive speed that can make the most of it, so hopefully by then, some nice big and fast SSDs or something maybe with a cache to help speed up transfers   Very much like @TheLostSwede has done 

Don't want anything in the cloud for the simple reason my internet sucks and I'd prefer to have everything local   It can save so much hassle plus with regular backups of it, it's so easy to maintain   Recommended for sure


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 8, 2018)

Easy Rhino said:


> 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?


The speed is a primary factor. The availability second.
Of course backups are very important, both my wife and father in law have their entire work data in their notebook (quite logically).
And no, no disasters happen here. We don't live in wooden houses like many Americans do.



phill said:


> I have a Synology system but it's custom one.


That's technically impossible, isn't it? I mean, what kind of customization are we talking about? You can't really mess around with the hardware as far as I know.


----------



## phill (Oct 8, 2018)

Well without being to daft or silly, I'll just post some links for you to have a look at 















As for the specs, it's a G3258, 16Gb ram, Z97 Asrock board, 6 x 4Tb Reds, RM750 PSU (a tad overkill considering it uses about 65w at most and about 35w at idle lol) and a Fractal 804 case   I'm not 100% sure what a Synology own system uses for hardware but I'm not sure if it's that 

Works flawlessly and is as simple or complex as you want it to be 

Here's a snippet of the log in screen 





Control panel 





Current build - 









I hope this is of some help


----------



## John Naylor (Oct 8, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> 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.



Why not ?   That's exactly what it does here. 

Disk 0 - C:\ SSD w/ OS and programs
Disk 1 - D:\ SSD w/ stuff i want to go fast
Disk 2 - Q:\ thru T:\ SSHD with 4 partitions for Office Data
Disk 3 - E:\Disk 2 Backup ... U:\ Network Backups and V:\ Media Server
Disk 4 - SSD in Docking Station w/ Mirror of Disk 3

Only difference is that here it's used in a SOHO network.   We have 5 family members using the network all day plus during business hours 3 -5 folks in the office depending on day.  The workstation also has a HD / SSD docking station.  Two SSHDs are rotated out each day and the HD w/ latest backup is moved off site daily.

The box serves:

a)  as a data server to all the office PCs / laptops
b)  as a data / media server to all the home PCs / laptops
c)  Backups for all

It's on 24/7 except for a biweekly reboot.  Backups are scheduled to run after hours, tho often at least 1 person on till wee hours (sunup) of the morning.


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 8, 2018)

phill said:


> Well without being to daft or silly, I'll just post some links for you to have a look at


I don't really understand. So you basically run DSM on custom built PC? How is that possible? :-O



John Naylor said:


> Why not ?   That's exactly what it does here.


I looked back at my first reply and I have no idea what the hell was I even replying to, because it makes no sense, lol. I can only assume I really meant to say custom built box was out of question because I don't have room for even more mess of cables and another PC (it would be much bigger than the Synology enclosure that can sit at the bottom of my small rack in the living room).

edit: OH, I get it now.
I meant that adding extra HDDs in my own PC wouldn't work, because I don't keep it running all the time.


----------



## phill (Oct 8, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> I don't really understand. So you basically run DSM on custom built PC? How is that possible? :-O



Have a look here and here - 

https://xpenology.com/forum/
https://xpenology.org/

A friend introduced it too me a few years ago and I've been using it ever since   Another friend bought one of the little HP Micro servers and uses it with that with no issues at all   For home use it's briliant, as you can see, it's on 24/7 and I never turn it off   I should actually consider getting a UPS for it to be honest..  Data protection and all


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 8, 2018)

Ha, that is actually neat as hell if you want the other functionality like media and stuff (otherwise I'd use FreeNAS or something, which is _probably_ a lot more configurable and has better performance).


----------



## phill (Oct 8, 2018)

I had a look at FreeNAS, wasn't really my thing so I changed back to Synology and been with it ever since.  I'm sure it'll do exactly what you want even with a few extra programs added, I really like using it and like I said before, the only problem I'm having with it now is disk space


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 8, 2018)

I wish it was easier to install stuff on Synology. I mean the non-"native" programs. The Docker thing makes no sense to me. I tried to install qbittorrent in it, and while I almost made it to work after two days (like being able to access the webUI), the pain in the arse with volumes, folders, mounts and whatnot was too much and I ditched the idea.


----------



## phill (Oct 8, 2018)

Everything works from a USB stick, so it's really easy to setup and get to work    I've had it so long I've probably forgot how to get any of it working from scratch lol    That said, I'd probably just build another one on top of the one I have..  I do have a 22U server rack at home, so I suppose I could always mount something in there


----------



## Easy Rhino (Oct 9, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> The speed is a primary factor. The availability second.
> Of course backups are very important, both my wife and father in law have their entire work data in their notebook (quite logically).
> And no, no disasters happen here. We don't live in wooden houses like many Americans do.



I just would hate to see you lose it all. What are you doing about data protection? Are you using raid 1?


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 9, 2018)

Of course I am. It's in the first post...


----------



## Easy Rhino (Oct 9, 2018)

Good stuff. Well I have owned a QNAP TS-110 for 7 years now and it has been solid. It is slow but it is for my fourth backup so it doesn't have to be fast. If you must choose just one solution then go with QNAP.


----------

