Synology DiskStation DS418play Review | Daxdi

Designed as a multimedia hub, the Synology DiskStation DS418play ($429.99) is a versatile four-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device that offers up to 48TB of storage and a huge selection of apps for streaming 4K video and music, backing up data, synchronizing files across multiple platforms, and more.

It's managed using Synology's excellent DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system and is equipped with two LAN ports, but you'll have to supply your own drives.

It delivered fast file-transfer performance in our testing, but it's not quite as speedy as its two-bay sibling, the DiskStation DS718+.

Design and Features

The DS418play ($938.55 at Amazon) uses a black cabinet that measures 6.5 by 7.8 by 8.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.9 pounds without hard drives (you have to supply your own).

The front contains four removable drive sleds that you can lock in place with the included key.

They are completely tool-less and will accept 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives.

Also up front are LED indicators for system status and status of each of the four drives, as well as a power switch and a USB 3.0 port.

Around back are a secondary USB 3.0 port, two Gigabit LAN ports with link-aggregation and fail-over support, and a reset button.

Under the hood are a 2GHz dual-core CPU and two memory slots.

The NAS device comes with 2GB of memory in one slot, but you can populate the empty slot with a 4GB module for a total of 6GB of memory.

The DS418play uses a hardware transcoding engine that can transcode two channels of 4K video at the same time, making it ideal for serving video to multi-platform clients.

It supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, JBOD, Basic, and two flavors of Synology's Hybrid RAID (SHR), which lets you mix drives of different capacities.

Internal drives support Btrfs and EXT4 file systems, and any external drive you connect to the NAS via USB can use the Btrfs, EXT3, EXT 4, FAT, NTFS, HFS+, and exFAT file systems.

Synology's DSM operating system makes it easy to install the DS418play, download apps, create folders, and assign rights.

It uses a Windows-like desktop interface that comes populated with Control Panel, File Station, Package Center, and DSM Help folders.

The Control Panel has File Sharing, Connectivity, and System settings that allow you to create folders and shares, define users and user groups, assign rights, configure network and security settings, and set up a QuickConnect account that allows you to login to the device from anywhere without having to configure port-forwarding settings.

The Package Center is where you go to access Synology's generous library of apps.

Here you can download Synology-branded apps, such as Audio Station, Photo Station, and Video Station, which turn the DS418play into a full-blown media server, as well as other Synology and third-party apps that let it function as a cloud server, mail server, IP camera surveillance station, and more.

In all, there are more than 110 data backup, business, security, and entertainment apps available for download.

In the upper-left corner of the main desktop screen is an icon that takes you to a Main menu where you can access the Storage Manager to configure RAID settings, format drives, create disk groups, check drive health, and maintain drive integrity with a data-scrubbing utility.

The Resource Monitor lets you track system stats, such as CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, track services and processes, and see who is connected.

The DSM Help Center offers illustrated tips for using the DS418play, the DSM operating system, and your apps.

The DS418play comes with a two-year warranty.

Included in the box are two LAN cables and a Quick Start Guide.

Installation and Performance

As with other Synology NAS drives, the DS418play is easy to set up and configure.

After installing four Seagate 6TB HGST SATA drives, I plugged the NAS into my router and typed http://find.synology.com into a browser address bar using my host PC, which was connected to the same router.

The drive was immediately recognized, and I hit Connect, and then Set Up.

I was prompted to download the latest version of DSM and waited approximately ten minutes for the software to install and for the DS418play to initialize.

I created a server name, user name, and password, hit Next, and the device installation was complete.

I then created a volume using the Storage Manager utility, and configured the drives for SHR-1 (Synology Hybrid RAID with 1-disk fault tolerance) using the Btrfs file system, which yielded a total storage capacity of 15.7TB.

This part of the installation takes time, as the operating system performs a mandatory disk-parity check, which can take a while, depending on the size of your drives and the RAID configuration.

The good news is you can use the device while the check is being performed in the background; the bad news is that performance takes a big hit as CPU usage spikes (around 80 percent), and the disks are taxed during the process.

In my case, it took a little more than ten hours to complete the check.

Once completed, I was ready to test file-transfer performance.

The DS418play turned in solid read and write scores in our file-transfer tests, in which we transfer a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of video, photo, music, and office document files between the NAS and a host PC, both of which are connected to the same router using LAN cables.

Its read time of 65MBps was much faster than the Asustor AS1004T ($270.77 at Amazon) (another four-bay NAS) and identical to the QNAP TS-253B, which has two bays.

The dual-bay Synology DS718+ led the pack with a speed of 67MBps.

The DS418play garnered a score of 69MBps in the write test, once again surpassing the Asustor AS1004T, but not the Synology DS718+ ($650.00 at Amazon) or the QNAP TS-253B ($699.99 at Amazon) .

The DS418play was relatively quiet, unlike the QNAP TS-253B, which emitted a constant and noticeable hum.

Conclusion

If you're looking for an easy way to share your photos, music, and video files with friends and family, the Synology DiskStation DS418play will get the job done.

It has four drive bays and can accommodate up to 48TB of storage, and it offers numerous RAID configurations to help protect your data.

With Synology's robust catalog of apps, you can press it into service in any number of ways, such as a full-blown media server, a BitTorrent server, a mail server, or an IP camera surveillance station.

The DS418play's file-transfer performance was very good in our testing, but its two-bay sibling, the Synology DS718+, was a bit faster and remains our Editors' Choice.

That said, if you require the extra storage capabilities that you get with a four-bay NAS, you can't go wrong with the DS418play.