Synology DiskStation DS1621+ NAS Server with Ryzen 2.2GHz CPU, 4GB Memory, 6-Bay, 72TB Bundle with 6X 12TB Seagate IronWolf

I always built my own storage servers over the years but decided to try the pre-built NAS route this time. Processor - This has a Ryzen SOC that houses the first generation Ryzen 4 cores and 8 threads. It seems fairly powerful. RAM - Comes with ECC memory - since I dont like bit rot in my files I always used ECC RAM and I dont recall any models under $1,000 ever being sold that would take ECC. I upgraded to two 16GB ECC Arch Memory modules I also purchased from Amazon and I do not receive any warnings about having unsupported memory. I wanted the system to have dual channel memory and I figured I would buy two 16GB RAM to feed the caches. 4GB is probably fine in a most cases. M.2 - I have two 1TB NVMe modules from different manufactures using them as a cache in RAID1 - In DSM 7 you can also pin BTRFS metadata to the cache and speed it up even more, cannot wait for this feature! HDD - Easy to install lots of reporting on health etc. I shuck WD drives to use in the system and I convert them to 4Kn drives before using. I use BTRFS with RAID-5 for both RAID and data protection. SSD - I have a couple SATA SSDs in it and they work fine except for trim. Check compatibly because it will not use the trim command on some SSDs that support it. I back up to an external USB drive but Ill probably buy a second NAS and insert my left over 4GB ECC RAM module in it and do a NAS to NAS backup. Works great with my Unifi UDMPRO router setting up UPNP based port rules through the DSM web interface.

Been eyeing an upgrade for a while, finally got this DS1621+ last week. Migration from my older DS416 Play was easy, took about 24 hours, but essentially automated. If no issues arise, I plan to use my DS1621+ for the next 10 years. The reasons I upgraded: 1. I just wanted to. 2. Expandable storage. 3. Better CPU (Ryzen quad core CPU). 4. 4 GB DDR4 (upgradeable). 5. NVMe SSD Cache. 6. Upgradable to 10 GbE

This is my 2nd Synology product (the first one is a ds1517+) and Im loving it! Im able to migrate some services I set up on the first nas over to the 2nd so eventually, I can reset my first one so I will be able to optimize it better than I initially did. The DS 1621+ has the speed I need and is upgradeable if I decide I need to install a 10gb network card or nvme cache to speed things up even more! Ive been using it for about 2 weeks now and so far its handling everything Ive thrown at it! I would happily suggest someone consider this if they need a nas with 6 bays and fast storage. If you plan on hosting your own media server because this model doesnt have onboard video in the processor I would avoid trying to run something like plex directly on it but instead set the plex server upon an old desktop or laptop or on another nas that has a processor with onboard/external graphics built-in so it can handle the transcoding portion while the nas handles the data storage portion of your home videos

Flexibility, 6 bays, setup fairly easy. I’m using 6 4tb drives giving close to 18tb avg. I’m using it on a win 10 network with 4 total NAS units. Speed and function were exactly as I expected. I store photos and data files all critical. I expect long service from the unit, drives will be changed around the 2-4 yr service life on a 24/7 cycle.

I have a 15 year old 1511+ Synology NAS that is still going strong. From time to time I have to perform a hard reboot on it so I decided to purchase a new one. My 1511+ is encased in all metal but it looks like similar models are now plastic and not quite what they were more than a decade ago. After doing some research I ended up going with the 1621+ and I couldnt be happier. I was able to dump my noisy window server for a VM running on the nas. I only have one app that doesnt run well in Linux and needed this running somewhere. I simply RDP into it from my linux gaming rig and there is little to no lag or hesitation. It comes in an all metal case, and the AMD Ryzen CPU easily handles running my Valheim server in a docker! This model has very quiet fans which I believe are an upgrade from lower-end models. I was able to migrate my cameras and surveillance settings easily along with their respective licenses.

Im the proud owner of a Synology DS410 which is finally feeling the pain of having no updates for a few years and it has survived 10 years now and still going strong (though slow in todays standards). This newer 1621+ is just incredible in speed and versatility where I used to have to build ESXi systems and connect them to the Synology for extra storage, now I can just host a few simple virtual machines on the Synology itself. The mounting brackets for the hard drives are included. Supports 2.5 and 3.5 drives. For 3.5 drives, it is a screw-less mounting design, which made it super easy. Also, comparing this with other NAS units out there, the ability to support mixed sized drives is also helpful when you can start smaller and then buy bigger and swap drives out as they becomes cheaper in price. Hoping for another 10 years out of this Synology.

This review is for the Synology DS1621+ Ive just finished getting my new 1621+ fully installed and up to speed. It took about three weeks to install all the software packages and figure all the settings out and though Im still thinking through some of the decisions Ive made, Im ready to write a review. I bought the DS1621+ to augment a QNAP TS-453-Be I purchased just under a year ago as a replacement for a QNAP TS-453 Pro which had its motherboard die. This is my second Synology--my first was a two-bay model which was my first NAS. I use my server for the following: 1) Plex server. Music only. And for this purpose the Synology is great. 2) Photo organization. I use Synologys photo organization software and Lightroom. I like running duplicate software because if one goes on the fritz, I can turn to the other. Synologys Moments AI photo organization software is good. Perhaps a bit less capable than QNAPs QuMagie, but close and Synology wont ever be far behind on software. 3) Backups of Windows and Mac computers through Acronis and Time Machine. 4) Virtual machine Windows 10 for when I need to get to something and Im not at my own computer. And for running the disk indexer X1 to have all my documents immediately accessible wherever I am. I never thought I would return to Synology after gettting a QNAP, but here I am with the 1621+, and I find myself preferring my Synology 1621+ to my QNAP TS-453-Be for a number of reasons. But first, let me say that on the hardware front, QNAP probably wins. Its close, but QNAP seems to give you more hardware for the price. For instance you can get 2.5GB ethernet, Intel chip, VMM-capable four-bay NAS from QNAP for less than the price of this 1621+ which is stuck at 1GB (unless you buy a PCIE card). Of course, the QNAP would be a four-bay model to the Synologys six bays, but the QNAP would have an HDMI port, more USB ports, an audio jack, and on and on. Hardware is QNAPs strength. The reasons for buying Synology: First, Synology has a better three-year warranty to QNAPs newly-revised-downward two years. And my first QNAP died a bad death last spring right after the five year mark (prompting my purchase of the TS-453-BE) while my original two-bay Synology still runs today, eleven years after I purchased it. In the end, I will take reliability over features, and I consider Synology more reliable. The second reason I went with this Synology is the constant problems with security QNAP servers have had over the last several years. Its hard to fault QNAP for being attacked, and theyve probably hardened their security--perhaps even beyond Synologys--as a result, but Ive left my QNAP unplugged for much of the last year because of the constant attacks their servers have faced. But the ultimate reason to get Synology is the software. Synology software is just a cut above everyone else, including QNAP. It feels bulletproof. Most important for me was the Synology disk system which treats all your hard drives--and they can be of varied sizes--as one large storage pool across the entirety of which RAID striping can occur. With QNAP, if you want to increase the amount of storage you have in your NAS, you must back up the NAS, replace all your hard drives, do a restore and go on with your newly increased capacity. You cant replace just one drive with a larger drive. You are limited to addressing in all drives just the amount of storage available in the smallest drive. Thus, if you have one 4TB drive and three 12TB drives in your QNAP NAS, maximum RAID storage would be 12TB, not 40 TB, because only 4TB of each drive could be used for RAID. Synology allows the use of drives of whatever size you wish, placing them all together into one large pool, all of which can be used for RAID striping. So in the above scenario, Synology would have 40TB available in RAID format for your use. This is a huge Synology advantage. I could say much more about Synologys excellent software, but Ill finish by recommending that you buy more RAM if you want to run virtual machines off the 1621+. I added a 16GB ECC RAM module for a total installed RAM of 20TB. I allocated 10GB of RAM to a virtual machine running Windows 10 and its fairly snappy. I bought ECC RAM here on Amazon which cost half the price of Synology RAM, and it works fine without any reporting of non-standard RAM. The RAM I bought is available here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YXCBVWX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I introduced myself to Synology back in 2015 when I purchased my first NAS, the DS1515+. Prior to this I used compaq servers over the years to provide reliable NW file storage. I like the Synology product as DSM is quite feature rich. I have an extensive background in NW and FS technologies so for me DSM was a nice fit with a minimal learning curve. Synology does a nice job at marrying HW, NOS and feature rich applications that dont require a-lot of tweaking to get running and fine-tune. Since then added the DX717 expansion and I am currently running 30TB of HD storage using both BTRFS and EXT4 FS. I was having some issues on the DS1515+ with BTRFS FS. I was unable to resolve issues with CHECKSUM errors corrupting files. After 6 years the DS1515+ chassis also would fail to power on at times after scheduled maintenance shutdowns. So, I decided it was time to replace the main unit and I did so with the DS1621+. All issues resolved at this time and BTRFS is rock solid. I like the snapshot abilities of this FS and its advantages over EXT4. I installed 2ea seagate NVMEs in a read/write cache utilizing RAID1 and the speed of my websites are breathtaking! Overall I am quite pleased with the DS1621+. I was expecting more out of the RYZEN CPU in respect to transcoding with PLEX and the reason I took 1-star off my overall review of this product. I did see quite the improvement in Surveillance station when scrubbing security videos on this platform. I run 10 HD cams running 1080P at 30FPS and this unit does so with minimum effort. This box defiantly outperforms the DS1515+ by far and the disk transfer rates are in par with the documented specifications. Hopefully Ill get another 6+ plus years of good use out of this product. I am running DSM 7 and I really like the changes and features in this version of DSM. The built in NVME slots provided me with 2 additional slots I can now populate with mechanical HDs for additional FS storage.BTW I recently upgraded my Apple TV HD devices with the Apple TV 4K units and transcoding demands on PLEX have dropped significantly. So at this time PLEX is able to stream all of my multimedia through out my NW seamlessly and reliably. Love it!

I needed to upgrade from another NAS that was almost a decade old. I finally had run out of space. I also wanted to be able to install Plex on the new NAS. Setting up a remote connection to my old NAS (which was not a Synology) and then having the files copy for about 36 hours (lotsa TBs) while I left it alone worked great. Setup was a snap, migration was easy, Plex installation worked first time. Im a happy camper. Hopefully this NAS will last me another 10 years.

I was worried that the NAS work be underpowered. Worried for nothing. Works great. The built in software makes all the difference!