Final Score: 91%
Since their inception 8-bay NAS appliances have held a unique position in both the marketplace and manufactures’ lineups. That is to say they typically considered a bit on the niche side for both home users and SOHO business owners. On the one hand they do indeed offer a lot more room to grow, offer potentially greater performance, potentially even lower noise, typically do not take up valuable rack space, and yet do not cost that much more than their 6-bay siblings. On the other, they still are a bit on the small side for ‘serious’ storage needs and their potential performance improvements rarely translate all that well to visibly better real-world performance in “out of the box” configurations… as we are only talking about two more bays worth of performance. That pretty much defines the DS1821+ to a ‘T’.
Do not get the wrong impression. We love the DS1821+. It is the better model when compared against the DS1621+. Its internal configuration and component selection make a heck of a lot more sense. Its beefy processor is not going to be nearly as wasted as it is in a piddly 6-bay model. It is noticeably quieter than the DS1621+. Its upgradability is even makes more sense. All that for only ~$150 (USD) more. Even if you do not care about the extra two bays and the freedom/luxury they offer that is a lot to like.
Sadly, if there was ever a new NAS appliance that cried out for 10GbE ‘out of the box’ connectivity and dual 4GB sticks installed (at the very least) it is the DS1821Plus. Throughout testing it was blatantly obvious that in order actually translate the increase in potential performance to real-world gains one will have to upgrade to 10GbE connectivity and bump up the RAM. 1GbE and a mere 4 Gigabytes of RAM is simply too big a bottleneck. A bottleneck that even modern 6 bay NAS appliances get stuck in and 8bay versions get broken on. So, unless you routinely transfer Gigabyte’s worth of small files to and from your NAS, or are interested in dual pool configurations, there really is no noticeable real-world performance differences between the DS1821+ vs the DS1621+. Put bluntly, Synology needs to get off the stick. They need to step with dual 4GB RAM options with upgraded NIC hardware configurations. Right. Now. Even if they only do it for the 8-bay models it is well past time they move on to newer and better features. They have not. Considering both use the same RAM (and thus have the same upgrade cost) and a decent 10GbE PCIe adapter costs about the same as the difference in price between these two models… a good argument could be made that a DS1621+ w/ 10GbE is a better use of 10GbE network using buyer’s total budget vs. a stock DS1821+. That is not a Good Thing™. That is self-inflicted wound of epic proportions, and that is indeed a shame. One that may turn off many buyers and push them towards the smaller, and arguably ‘inferior’, DS1621+… or even in to the arms of QNAP.
With that said, total cost of ownership really is the only crucible upon which the DS1821+ gets broken, and only if you do not care about noise, ease of upgradeability… hell… the luxury of having dual pools, ‘entry level’ RAID 51, or 6 drives in Raid 6 backstopped by dual 2.5-inch NAND SSDs. So, if an extra $150 is not something you will worry about the DS1821+ would be the one we would recommend. First time. Every time. Everyone else needs to think about their priorities and their long-term plans for the new NAS appliance. Some will find the DS1621+ more optimal. Others will find the DS1821+ the only viable solution this side of rack-based NAS options. Either way it is hard to make a bad decision as both are excellent NAS appliances, and only you can decide which side of this line in the sand you are on.
In the summary the DS1821+ is not perfect. It is close to but is not a ‘no-brainer’ it could/should be. It just will be a good choice for those who need more. More room to grow. More data protection. More performance. Just understand that to get all that you will need to, or at lease should, do a few upgrades even before you plug it in for the first time. So, before you go down the rabbit hole of bigger and bigger NAS devices, please understand that asking price is not the same as total cost of ownership… as everything is bigger with bigger NAS devices. Including the budget needed to do things optimally. If that does not scare you, the Synology DS1821+ will provide you with years and years of excellent NAS appliance goodness. Good enough that taking that step into NAS servers may not even cross your mind.
The Review
Synology DiskStation DS1821Plus
In the summary the DS1821+ is not perfect. It is close to but is not a ‘no-brainer’ it could/should be. It just will be a good choice for those who need more. More room to grow. More data protection. More performance. Just understand that to get all that you will need to, or at lease should, do a few upgrades even before you plug it in for the first time.
