Online Accounts 2025: The First NAS is on the Way (Premium)

After going back and forth on this more times than I can count, I finally ordered a NAS. And, yes, I went with the safest choice: A two-bay Synology DiskStation DS224+, with a RAM upgrade and two 12 TB hard disks. If it works out, I’ll buy a second NAS–which may or may not be identical to this one–and leave one here in Pennsylvania and bring the other one to Mexico City.

? Specs

The DiskStation DS224+ specs seem somewhat laughable, but this is a NAS–a device–not a PC or server, and in some ways, I feel like the storage is more important, assuming a certain level of real-world performance. It’s based on an Intel Celeron J4125 processor and 2 GB of DDR4 non-error correcting (ECC) RAM. This is humble, of course, but the processor supports hardware transcoding, which is useful for streaming video, and Synology supports upgrading the RAM to 6 GB, so I also got a Crucial 4 GB memory module.

Synology has somewhat infamously tightened its restrictions on third-party storage, but I didn’t spend much time thinking about that. What I was more concerned with was how much storage I should get. And in the end, the small price difference between its 8 TB and 12 TB HDDs solved that problems: I got two 3.5-inch Synology HAT3310 12 TB Plus Series SATA HDDs.

Those disks will be configured in a RAID 1 or Synology Hybrid Raid (SHR) configuration, which seem functionally equivalent on a two-disk system. But the end result will be a total of 12 TB of usable storage space either way.

What’s missing here is backup. More on that below.

Other key specs include two 1 Gbps LAN ports, which should be sufficient, and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (which I assume are 10 Gbps, also sufficient, though faster is always better). It supports 2.5-inch SSDs in addition to 3.5-inch HDDs, but what it doesn’t have is the ability to add SSDs as cache, as some more expensive Synology NASes do. Compared to my out-of-date and out-of-service WD NAS, however, this should be at least decent overall.

❓How and why

I know some of you have strong opinions about these things, and while we could debate the relative merits of different NAS configurations, devices, and so on, my key goal with this first NAS was to get something small and quiet enough that it can make sense in our tiny, 700 square foot apartment in Mexico City. Because of the building’s thick concrete-based construction and where the Internet connection comes in, I can’t hide this thing away in a utility room or whatever, it has to go under or next to the TV in the living room. That limits things nicely.

My original plan was to simply get two identical NASes. I may still do that, depending on my initial experience with the first unit. But I might also get a beefier Synology NAS to leave here in Pennsylvania. That could take the form of a 4-bay unit, for example, in which I might use additional disks for backups or other purposes. I could also simply use an external disk for that. We’ll see.

? What

Sometimes I have to remind myself what I’m doing here. I’ve wanted to get a new NAS for years, but only vaguely. It became a more pressing concern this past January, when Google unceremoniously and without warning or apology took away our access to the Thurrott.com YouTube channel. This triggered an overdue rethink about how and where we store our most important data, which spans the personal (photos, home movies) and professional (30+ years of work archives) and it’s wrapped up in broader conversations about Big Tech, the control it has over our lives, and what it is we can and should do about that.

But I need to be pragmatic. I will continue to use Big Tech services, especially cloud storage services, because it makes sense to do so. I’m not taking a religious or ethical stance here. I just want control over my data and want to know that I can access it from anywhere at any time, ideally in the most seamless way possible. If I can move Big Tech into a supporting role in that, instead of being central to everything I do, that’s fantastic. But the “it just works” thing is important. If working off the NAS isn’t as good as working off the cloud, I will rethink things.

My primary focus is here is storage. There are two aspects to that, what I think of as current work and what I think of as archives. This is true on the personal side–with photos, most obviously–and it’s true on the work side. Backing up current, phone-based photos to OneDrive, Google Photos, and/or whatever else is mostly straightforward and automatic. And so is using OneDrive, Google Drive, and/or whatever else to store my current work–books, programming projects, writing I do for Thurrott.com, etc.–because these things integrate seamlessly with the Windows file system.

If the NAS works out, I can replace or augment those interfaces with NAS-based apps/services and use OneDrive and Google Drive as offsite backups, basically. If it doesn’t, then I’ll go in the reverse direction (meaning, I will keep doing what I’m doing, but with what is hopefully at least a semi-automated way of getting data duplicated/replicated onto the NASes).

Beyond data and storage, I will need to access the NASes remotely from wherever I am on whatever devices, but typically PC. Some kind of media streaming functionality is useful but not central–Plex, which I know will require paying for Plex Pass, perhaps, or Jellyfin or similar–and I will need to make sure this is all secured correctly. I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

?Cost

When I first wrote about this back in February, I figured the total cost would be roughly $900 if I went with the DiskStation DS224+ that I ended up ordering. And that’s pretty much how it breaks down:

• Synology 2-Bay DiskStation DS224+ (Diskless) – $299
• 2 x Synology HAT3310 12TB Plus Series SATA HDD 3.5″ (HAT3310-12T) – 2 x $269
• Crucial 4 GB DDR4 SDRAM Memory Module – $22

So the total cost with shipping and taxes was $913.85, right on target. As with all things, I wish this was less expensive–Synology NASes seem pricey to me–but this is also about our data. So it’s important.

I should have this all by the middle of next week, so I’ll check back in when I get it up and running. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, and while I am trying to be realistic here, I’m also irrationally excited by the possibility that this will solve multiple problems effectively. But we’ll see.

More soon.