The Synology Diskstation DS918+ has a strong set of guts. The entire NAS box is powered by an external power brick, which helps in easy power supply replacement (in case of power hybrid injection molding machine issues) apart from helping the internals remain cooler.2 NVMe SSD slots, which can be opted for increasing the cache size if you are going to use this as your centralised file server on a large network. Built around an Intel Celeron J3455 quad-core processor clocked at 1.Usability:The Control Panel has access to most of the settings for your NAS.Each drive bay is made of hard plastic, is lockable and the entire assembly is completely tool-less — meaning you won’t need a screwdriver to get this baby up and running. Plug in the drives (make sure you are using compatible drives. Adding RAM and NVMe SSD will require you to remove all four hard drives from the bay in order to gain easy access.Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one eSATA, one USB 3. Enter the credentials and you are in. Everything needs to be setup using the web browser on a network-connected PC or tablet.Some apps that are installed by default are as Audio Station, Photo Station, Video Station, Download Station, File Station, Media Server, Surveillance Station, Web Station, USB Copy and Universal Search.The DS918+ with the Disk Station Manager OS is basically a standard PC with a Linux operating system, sans the monitor and input devices. Two large exhaust fans help cool the internals, which draws the air from intake vents between the four hard drives in the front.78 inches (WHD) and weighs just 2. While most of the packages are self explanatory, there are thousands more than could open up the opportunity for you to be more productive or use it for entertainment. The 120mm cooling fans operate automatically for efficient cooling and can be set between quiet operation, automatic and high cooling on manual modes.265 / H.0 port for quick access to transfer data from pen drives or external storage drives. These four hard drives snugly fit on a metal frame, attaching themselves to the internal motherboard’s SATA ports. The drives are hot-swappable, which means they can be replaced even when the NAS is in full operation but provided they are in particular RAID modes.0 and a power socket are what you will see back there.54x7. Services include SMB, AFP, NFS, FTP, WebDAV, CalDAV, iSCSI, Telnet, SSH, SNMP and VPN (PPTP, OpenVPN, L2TP). Each bay has a lever that needs to be pulled outwards from below to detach (and lock when inserting) itself, apart from having a secure lock so that they are not accidentally pulled out when in operation.

The USB ports can be used for external storage, backups and connecting printers, while the eSATA port is best for highest speed storage expansion, backups and transfers. Here you can enable users, groups, start and stop services, configure networks, and a lot more. The firmware is frequently updated for features and bug fixes and can be automatically applied without user intervention. Sadly, there are no dust protection filters here, so one has to make sure that the DS918+ is positioned in a clean and cool environment. The drive bays can host up to four hard drives or SSDs. The DS918+ measures 6.83x8. Each bay is compatible with 12TB hard drives, which puts this one at a max storage possibility of up to 48TB (108TB with all 9 drives after adding the DX157 bay), depending on the RAID configurations you opt for.Also here available is a USB 3. Sadly, the DS918+ does not feature any ports for Mac users. Fire up your web browser on the same network and hit the IP address assigned to the NAS to gain access.  Apps included are a few, while the rest need to be downloaded as per user requirements.3GHz when in full load) and 4GB of DDR3L RAM (expandable up to 8GB RAM if needed for max operations), the NAS can host up to a total of nine hard drives (using an external Synology DX517 drive bay).  

Take a look at compatible and recommended drives here), boot up and connect the same to your network. You can browse through the Package installer on the NAS’s setup screen and download the desired apps for your use. You can configure your drives (depending on how many you install) in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10.The motherboard also features two M. Setting up the device is simple, but needs a person to have some tech know-how of handling network storages and alike. You can install numerous apps (from their own store or from third-party sources), from the configuration screen.5GHz (which can overshoot to 2. You can choose from a wide range of apps that cater to backups, multimedia, business, security, utilities, productivity and developer tools.  

The two Ethernet ports on the rear can be used for connecting an internal network and WAN simultaneously or can be connected to the same or dual network(s) for speed or isolation accordingly.3kg without the drives. The DS918+ NAS’ DSM hosts hundreds of apps (services) that can be installed from the internet, with just a click of the button. Once the initial setup is done, all you need to do is download the required apps, and you are ready to rock.Firmware:The Synology Diskstation features its own proprietary firmware called Disk Station Manager (DSM), which is based on Linux, one of the most stable server-level operating systems out there. The rear panel has the main business end. The motherboard also features H. Included in the DS918+ box is the DiskStation DS918+ unit, a power adapter with cord, two Ethernet cables and a set of drive locking keys.