Help with picking home NAS (deciding on Synology 1815+/1515+/ReadyNas516…?) | Also FreeNAS alternative?

Level1Techs INBOX.deb
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I am new to TekSyndicate and the show – I’ve noticed interesting posts topics on YouTube and thought I would give it a shot. Please be excuse the newbie questions that are obvious to you.

>>> Here it goes:
My super old ReadyNas NV+ needs to be replaced, thus I am in the need for new NAS that is fairly “easy” to setup/maintain though, I don’t mind playing with system settings and configurations. To give you some idea regarding my understanding of NAS, I also have a Dell PowerEdge T110 II server (Celeron) where I’ve installed and setup FreeNAS 9.1. Currently it is being used for testing with plex media server, storage, and a download station.

Please advise what is your opinion of choice for a home NAS and why, I am trying to decide between Synology 1815+ / Synology 1515+ / ReadyNas516 – unless there are better options. For my use the most important features would be:
- Storage
- Plex / DLNA (Transcoding @ 1080p)
- Photo Library
- IP Camera / Surveillance solution
- Dropbox like solution
- Mobile apps


>>> Also, is there a FreeNas alternative when I don’t have to deal with SSH so much? The system seems to work fine but it’s just a hassle to deal with it, or time consuming I should say. I might keep it as a testing server to play with but don’t want it to be my main storage box.

Hoping for some advice on that -

Thanks,
-Mariusz

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The FreeNAS GUI isn't all that bad, you really dont need to SSH all that much. I dont ever SSH into my FreeNAS box. I've had mine up steadily with very little fuss since the spring, and other than some downtime when i upgraded it 2 months ago, I havent really had to do much at all with it.

I know Wendell has a Thecus unit, but he runs a modified version of  FreeBSD, which is far from what you are looking for.

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appreciate the feedback - I'll look into Thecus. 

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I have a DS1511+ and DX510 (expansion) personally, my best mate moved from a QNAP TS-410 to a DS1813. Some people in the office have DS412's.

I highly recommend them, while you can build better solutions for cheaper i'm sure. I've had some issues where I've completely stuffed up my RAID, a support ticket and port forwarding and they have remoted in and repaired it. To me that is EXCEPTIONAL customer service that they even try.

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Thanks, i am researching the DS 1815+ actually linked below, seems to be good choice though I am not sure it can handle full 1080p transcoding.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS1815+