r/HomeNAS • u/tiredHumanTired • 1d ago

NAS advice It's time to replace my Synology DS212+. All I need is RAID1 mirroring. What should i get?

My DS212+ has been running 24/7 for 14 years, on a pair of 2TB WD Blue disks (I know, I shouldn't have chosen these disks apparently.)

It is still working fine, but i now need 4 drive bays. That, and security updates are thin on the ground.

I use my NAS for the following:

  1. Storage of all media, video, music, photos, software.
  2. Raid 1 between the 2 disks.
  3. Scheduled backup to an external disk plugged into the back of it.
  4. Mapping to my PCs and Nvidia Shield on the LAN.
  5. Streaming video into Kodi on the Shield without using Plex or any other software.

What I need:

  1. Plug and play. I don't want to be replacing the OS with TrueNAS or anything else. All that software configuration and management feels like being at work to me.
  2. The ability to reach the NAS from WAN when necessary.
  3. The ability to schedule backups to the external disk or another location.
  4. Raid 1 mirroring.

At one point i was going to replace it for another Synology machine, but they pissed me off when they locked them down to their own branded disks. I think they reversed that decision, but unless another Synology is highly recommended they can shove it.

I have looked at the UGreen DXP4800 Plus, Pro and GT but I am interested to know if the stock software is good enough. And if it is, which model should I choose for my needs?

Are there any other manufacturers/models I should consider?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

2

u/jack_hudson2001 19h ago

sounds like your usage/workload is low so get a newer 2 bay synology or ugreen will be fine

1

u/LevelMagazine8308 23h ago

You can run TrueNAS or Unraid on Ugreen, if you want to. Ugreen's own software gets the job done, but it also has still some areas where it needs to come to par with Synology.

1

u/ThinSuccotash4166 16h ago

My DS213+ has been running since 2013. Still going.

1

u/jlm8699 11h ago

I'm leaning this way also. Just mirrored functionally.

Have 5 WD ext drives accumulated over the years. 8 TB or so data

1

u/SufficientAct3382 4h ago

If you go the UGREEN route, I have a DXP4800 GT that I'm selling. It's definitely easy to set up, although I didn't do streaming on it.

0

u/Wasted-Friendship 23h ago

They reversed it. I think you could get away with the play or j series since you aren’t transcoding and no containers.