Synology Diskstation 1511+ review
#1
In my quest for a reliable solution for NAS storage for XBMC I settled on the Synology Diskstation 1511+. Setup is a breeze. The unit holds up to 5 drives and you simply slide out each bay and screw in your drive and then slide it back in. I inserted 5x 3TB Seagate Barracuda drives and powered up the system. After a brief bootup period and LED on each drive lit up green to let me know it was online.

The included software CD installs Drive Assistant which just basically finds your diskstation on the network and give you a URL icon for the unit. the Diskstation's OS is spectacular and easy to use. Unlike other solutions where you need to set up remote desktop access or a terminal, the OS is fully browser based with a complete graphical user interface. The OS had an easy setup wizard which recognized my drives and set up the best solution which in my case was Synology "Hybrid RAID" which I believe is similar to RAID5. The OS formatted the drives and prepped the RAID in a matter of minutes. It then did a consistency check which took several hours so I let it go overnight. Upon waking up in the morning, the consistency check was done and the RAID was ready.

Next, I created "shares" for my media: "Pat HD Movies", "Pat TV Shows", and "Pat Pictures" to start. Windows readily recognized the Diskstation on the network as well as my shares. I copied over my movies, tv shows, and pictures to their respective folders and then it was on to XBMC.

Once tested, I ran CAT6 cabling to my basement and hid away the Diskstation and connected it to a UPS in the event of a power outage.

In XBMC, I specified SMB for my source and it easily found my Diskstation shares and scraped my media. Access to all of my media is instant and the Diskstation has worked flawlessly with an up time of about 3 weeks so far.

The nice thing about the Synology unit is that they can be "chained". If my storage needs grow, all I need to do is add another unit and more drives and I can seamlessly have more space for my media.

The quality of the unit, software, and ease of use easily score a 10/10 for me. Synology keeps the OS updated regularly and in fact just recently released a major upgrade of 4.0.

After weeks and weeks of frustrating time wasting with Windows Home Server and other software based solutions which require Linux knowledge to use, I can say that the Synology Diskstation has been a Godsend for someone like me who has the money and wants a solution that just works without hours of manual setup.
Server: Synology Diskstation 1511+ with 8x WD Red NAS 3TB drives, DSM 5.2
Main HTPC: Home Built i3, 8GB RAM, Corsair 128GB SSD, nVidia 630GTX, Harmony Home Control, Pioneer VSX-53, Panasonic VT30 65" 3D TV, Windows 10, Isengard
Bedroom HTPC: Zotac-ID 41 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Rii micro keyboard remote, Samsung HW-E550, Sony 32" Google TV, OpenElec 6.0 beta 4
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#2
I agree wholeheartedly - I've got the DS212 and it's perfect. I've not tried any of the larger units, but DSM is DSM as far as I'm aware and it's great. Smile
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#3
Yep DSM is awesome.
Server: Synology Diskstation 1511+ with 8x WD Red NAS 3TB drives, DSM 5.2
Main HTPC: Home Built i3, 8GB RAM, Corsair 128GB SSD, nVidia 630GTX, Harmony Home Control, Pioneer VSX-53, Panasonic VT30 65" 3D TV, Windows 10, Isengard
Bedroom HTPC: Zotac-ID 41 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Rii micro keyboard remote, Samsung HW-E550, Sony 32" Google TV, OpenElec 6.0 beta 4
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#4
Same experience with my Ds211j. No hassle, which means time to watch my media Smile

as SeeK said, the DSM is the same for all Synology Models, so it's really cool to have a good OS, similar to the 800$ models, on a 200$ model. Instead of having a toned down version of the OS.

I'll have to look for the "chained" configuration. didn't knew it was possible. Maybe it's not with my DS211j though.
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#5
Try using NFS... Is it even better, faster, less buffering.
I'm not an expert but I play one at work.
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#6
Is anyone using these for full hard drive back up on your main computers? If so I was wondering how long the backup are taking and how you have them set (everyday, once a week, month, etc..) for the back ups? Also what sofware are you using for the backup? Does the built in software have that ability?
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#7
(2012-03-16, 13:16)Harro Wrote: Is anyone using these for full hard drive back up on your main computers? If so I was wondering how long the backup are taking and how you have them set (everyday, once a week, month, etc..) for the back ups? Also what sofware are you using for the backup? Does the built in software have that ability?

I backup my 3 computers on my Ds211j. I don't backup the whole hard drive though as I think this is wasted space. It's faster and less confusing (i.e. searching for your files on your NAS if you need them). The software used depends on your computer. There's one given with the Synology, but it works only on Windows and probably Mac OSX (didn't checked). On my side, I use Linux mainly, so I've installed "LuckyBackup". A little bit confusing to setup, but once it's done it works really well. It does incremental backup, so only the 1st backup is long and thereafter it's a matter of minutes to do the incrementals (once a day for work related directories and once a week for other stuff that changes less frequently).

Once your computers are set up to backup to your NAS, you setup your NAS backup. The utility is on the NAS. I have an external HDD connected to my NAS through USB and once a week, my NAS is backed up to the external HDD.

This way, I get 3 copies of relevant files : 1) Local computers, 2) NAS and 3) external HDD.
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#8
I have a DS111 and love it. I love how I can access it anywhere and add torrents to be downloaded.

The only weird thing that bothers me is it always turns on, on its own. Even if its not being used. Otherwise I love it.

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#9
(2012-03-16, 16:48)BORIStheBLADE Wrote: I have a DS111 and love it. I love how I can access it anywhere and add torrents to be downloaded.

The only weird thing that bothers me is it always turns on, on its own. Even if its not being used. Otherwise I love it.

Strange! Did you updated to the latest DSM?
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#10
I bought a DS411 recently about a month ago and really like it. The 3rd party packages are easy to install but do have a few gotchas. Once I set everything up, I haven't touched it. It also solved a problem I was having with my old "server" failing to extract rar files. It was more than likely a memory issue but since the move, haven't had the same issue.

Pros:
Easy management
Low power usage
Reliable (haven't heard many stories about them going out)

Cons:
More expensive than self built
Less customizable

HTPC: Zotac ND22
OS: Windows 7 Home Edition
NAS: Synology DS411
XBMC: 10.1 Dharma
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#11
(2012-03-16, 17:53)Balinus Wrote:
(2012-03-16, 16:48)BORIStheBLADE Wrote: I have a DS111 and love it. I love how I can access it anywhere and add torrents to be downloaded.

The only weird thing that bothers me is it always turns on, on its own. Even if its not being used. Otherwise I love it.

Strange! Did you updated to the latest DSM?

Yeah I did it the other day. It still turns on, just not as often. People on their forums have been complaining about it for a while. I can live with it though..


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#12
I've been considering this for a while. Can you tell me if it's easy to install Sickbeard, Couchpotato and Sabnzbd?

Also what's your client?
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#13
Not sure what those are. Synology uses DSM and it's Awesome. My clients are mainly pcs and a couple macs
(2012-03-16, 07:24)Livin Wrote: Try using NFS... Is it even better, faster, less buffering.

Oh really? NFS is that much better?
Server: Synology Diskstation 1511+ with 8x WD Red NAS 3TB drives, DSM 5.2
Main HTPC: Home Built i3, 8GB RAM, Corsair 128GB SSD, nVidia 630GTX, Harmony Home Control, Pioneer VSX-53, Panasonic VT30 65" 3D TV, Windows 10, Isengard
Bedroom HTPC: Zotac-ID 41 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Rii micro keyboard remote, Samsung HW-E550, Sony 32" Google TV, OpenElec 6.0 beta 4
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#14
(2012-03-17, 23:21)silvine Wrote: I've been considering this for a while. Can you tell me if it's easy to install Sickbeard, Couchpotato and Sabnzbd?

Also what's your client?

Yes they can be installed. You would need to find a alternate install package on the synology forums. I installed it a while ago, but never used the programs. Here is a picture of the installer on my web browser.

Image

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#15
I enabled the NFS service, is that all I had to do? Now just re-setup my sources using NFS instead of SMB?

Having trouble with this. I enabled the NFS service and set up NFS priveledges but when I try to add an NFS source in XBMC, it just gives me a directory of all my shares on my diskstation.
Server: Synology Diskstation 1511+ with 8x WD Red NAS 3TB drives, DSM 5.2
Main HTPC: Home Built i3, 8GB RAM, Corsair 128GB SSD, nVidia 630GTX, Harmony Home Control, Pioneer VSX-53, Panasonic VT30 65" 3D TV, Windows 10, Isengard
Bedroom HTPC: Zotac-ID 41 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Rii micro keyboard remote, Samsung HW-E550, Sony 32" Google TV, OpenElec 6.0 beta 4
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