Synology has a strong reputation for its NAS systems and it’s so easy to see why; the DiskStation Manager (aka DSM) software is so easy to use, the hardware is robust and versatile, and the platform is hugely extensible from serving files, naturally, to running all kinds of applications and servers.

Hardware-wise, the DiskStation DS1522+ ships with a 3.1GHz dual-core Ryzen R1600 CPU, 8GB DDR4 ECC RAM, 5x lockable 3.5” drive bays, 2x NVMe M.2 drive bays for caching, 2x eSATA, 2x USB-A 3.3 gen 1 ports, 4x 1Gb ethernet ports, and a PCIe x8 slot. Yet, it’s a tidy, slim little box - while still solid-feeling - that barely takes much more space than the size of its disk bays combined.

Even if you've never ever used or seen or set up a NAS before, it’s dead simple; open the drive bay latches, slide in a disk and click it into place, then close the latch. Turn on the NAS, open its internal web page, and off you go.

Synology provides a vast amount of flexibility with disk configurations, both physically and logically. You can select your choice of RAID format - from no RAID, to disk mirroring, to strip sets, to parity options, and so on - or, simply go with Synology’s own SHR format where it manages the disks completely for you and delivers proven performance. What’s more, with SHR you can mix and match drives of different capacities and capabilities, while lesser RAID systems would insist on matching sets. You might have a massive, cavernous Seagate IronWolf pro disk and can still get up and running with any other available hard disks used in combination while you save up to afford another. This beats having to lay out twice for a high-end, high-capacity drive from the beginning and allows you to expand your NAS storage over time without compromising on your initial setup.

The 8GB of RAM is an upgrade from other Synology models and is expandable to 32GB. The gigabit ethernet and the number of drive bays are also expandable and upgradeable. Meanwhile, the 3.1GHz AMD Ryzen CPU is another upgrade from a speed perspective, albeit Seagate’s shift from Intel Celeron with integrated GPU can potentially impact those using the device for transcoding.

Which nicely leads to apps - all kinds of apps. You might think a NAS is simply, well, network-attached storage. After all, that’s literally what NAS means. It’s essentially a disk that’s on your network, vs. inside a computer, and which is available as shared storage for all your network devices and is not dependent on any specific desktop or server device being powered on.

However, Synology has always excelled in making its NAS offerings far more powerful and capable through its innovative, powerful, yet elegantly straightforward DSM operating system. The package manager app allows you to install a range of things that extend the device in rich ways. Obviously, it serves files out of the box - SMB, FTP, SFTP, CIFS, and so on are always there. Yet, you can make your NAS also act as a web server, a WordPress server, an e-commerce platform, a database server, a media entertainment centre, a virtual machine or docker container host, and more.

iTWire has been testing it out and like previous Synology NAS models we’re again taken by how simple DSM makes it; other NAS systems fall down by making their platforms either too stupid with a limited feature set, or too cumbersome, with lots of features but typically all but the most simple require command-line access and control. With DSM you have all the power at your fingertips through a highly-configurable series of applications, control panels, wizards, and widgets.

In our case, we've been using it as a Plex media server. It’s a great use case; there isn’t a need to keep an energy-sucking gaming PC turned on all day and night, and any device on our network - or even trusted devices out on the Internet - can view and play the content.

However, I mentioned transcoding above, and that comes into play here. Plex will strive to convert media formats if it feels there is an incompatibility between the client - i.e. your smart TV, Apple TV, phone, web browser, or what-have-you, and the media format. This is called transcoding and it takes some serious grunt to transcode high-definition video on the fly.

Plex themselves have a NAS compatibility list and here we see the 1522+ has no hardware transcoding support and its software transcoding is only guaranteed for standard definition video and 720p high definition video. There is limited support for 1080p high definition video and you can absolutely forget about 4K video being transcoded on-the-fly with this CPU.

Yet, that becomes entirely immaterial if you can leverage DirectPlay, where Plex simply sends the file as-is to your Plex client. The key to this is to keep your media in a format that is supported by the widest ranges of clients. That’s typically MP4 video at 30 frames per second with a video bit depth of eight, AAC audio, and encoded using H.264 4.0 or lower at 1920x1080 or H.265 at 3840x2160.

Next, you need to set your Plex server to allow DirectPlay, and your Plex client to accept DirectPlay and to request videos at the highest quality.

iTWire wasted a lot of time on this; we struggled initially, finding videos jerking and the video and audio getting out of sync. At first, I tried using Plex to convert files into different formats, with ever-decreasing quality settings and also turning down the requested quality on the Plex client.

The problem continued; in fact, I made it worse because now it was jerky and low-resolution. With more investigation I realised my error; the solution was not to fiddle with the video or server settings; it was to have the client always request the highest quality - for all your Plex clients. That includes your web browser, your Apple TV, your tablet and smartphone. It seemed counter-intuitive at first to request the highest quality but that was the trick; by selecting lower quality video I was forcing Plex to transcode. When using highest quality, or original quality, Plex simply sends the video to the Plex client and tells it to do the work of playing.

That’s all very long-winded to say the DS1522+ makes an incredible Plex server. It can store huge volumes of media, has a reduced power consumption than alternate devices, and its processor is irrelevant when it comes to DirectPlay. Instead, DirectPlay means Plex is treating your Synology as it is - a unit that shifts data over the network - without making it crunch video. Now I am enjoying full HD and 4K content while the DS1522+ hums along, barely breaking the CPU into a sweat, and with the dual fans hardly raising their voice.

You might have other media serving applications in mind, or you might want to develop your own web apps, write your own blog, craft your own storefront, or more. Previously in iTWire we’ve talked about how you can use Synology NAS devices to back up Microsoft Office 365, and to keep your photos safe but accessible from any place, at any time, on any device. There are a lot of compelling reasons to buy the DS1522+ and actually storing large amounts of data doesn’t even have to be one of them.

The Synology DiskStation DS1522+ NAS is available now at a retail price of $1,199. Disks are not included. No matter if it's your first NAS or your umpteenth, it's difficult to see how you could go wrong with such a quiet workhorse like this.

PROMOTE YOUR WEBINAR ON ITWIRE It's all about Webinars. Marketing budgets are now focused on Webinars combined with Lead Generation. If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event. The iTWire campaign will include extensive adverts on our News Site itwire.com and prominent Newsletter promotion https://itwire.com/itwire-update.html and Promotional News & Editorial. Plus a video interview of the key speaker on iTWire TV https://www.youtube.com/c/iTWireTV/videos which will be used in Promotional Posts on the iTWire Home Page. Now we are coming out of Lockdown iTWire will be focussed to assisting with your webinars and campaigns and assistance via part payments and extended terms, a Webinar Business Booster Pack and other supportive programs. We can also create your adverts and written content plus coordinate your video interview. We look forward to discussing your campaign goals with you. Please click the button below. MORE INFO HERE!

David has been computing since 1984 where he instantly gravitated to the family Commodore 64. He completed a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from 1990 to 1992, commencing full-time employment as a systems analyst at the end of that year. David subsequently worked as a UNIX Systems Manager, Asia-Pacific technical specialist for an international software company, Business Analyst, IT Manager, and other roles. David has been the Chief Information Officer for national public companies since 2007, delivering IT knowledge and business acumen, seeking to transform the industries within which he works. David is also involved in the user group community, the Australian Computer Society technical advisory boards, and education.

The claim is that "if they are less of a data user, they can get 10GB of data for $10[…]

Loyalty to a TELCO, don't make me laugh! In November we should have the ACCC decision on the 4G/5G sharing[…]

This is such a sad matter. Too may well-meaning people seeking to bestow sainthood on a computer hacker who allegedly[…]

Will the broad adoption of eSIMs provide more, or fewer, opportunities for scammers and thieves?

Actually, thank you very much for making me explain it. I was not trying to pull you up, just make[…]