The new Synology DS223j is a highly affordable dual-bay NAS, making it an ideal base for local storage, such as music.
Let’s start with the price for a change. The new Synology DS223j NAS will cost you only €169, of course without a hard drive. Or drives, as this NAS features two hard disk slots. This allows you to easily set up a mirrored RAID configuration that provides extra security. In such a setup, if one of the drives fails, you only need to replace the affected drive, and after a short wait, everything will be back to normal.
Home and Small Businesses
Furthermore, the Synology DS223j runs the same operating system – DSM – as its larger counterparts, so there is no shortage of features and capabilities. “The DS223j is an excellent NAS for small-scale environments, such as home offices and even slightly larger enterprises,” says Michael Wang, Product Manager at Synology Inc. “With the DS223j, customers get an energy-efficient device that provides all the data management and protection tools they need to effectively manage their files.”
Btrfs File System
Additionally, with the release of the new DSM 7.2 operating system, the DS223j becomes the first Synology NAS in the J-series to support the Btrfs file system. This allows for file self-healing to prevent data corruption and provides access to the manufacturer’s Snapshot Replication feature. At the heart of the system is a Realtek RTD1619B quad-core CPU, supported by 1GB of RAM. The maximum supported storage capacity is 36TB. Furthermore, there are two USB 3.2 ports and a Gigabit Ethernet connection provided.
We think, it seems to be an excellent storage solution for your music collection. If desired, you can even listen to and manage your collection directly through the Synology app Music Station.
Don’t understand why NAS manufacturers are still pushing those 3,5″ big chassis. Some ten years back I purchased a small Buffalo mini NAS with two 2,5″ HDD’s. Wonderful thing, unfortunately died by old age and since then can’t find nothing comparable.
The thing is, that for larger scale storage a ‘traditional’ 3,5 inch harddisk still is the best and most capable option, also economically. However: for most home users, a 2,5 inch solution would work perfectly fine as you noticed yourself. Things to keep in mind though, is that many of those 2,5 inch drives are relatively slow. Which means they are not that great for regularly moving around large amounts of files. Also with streaming in resolutions higher than 4K might give some hick ups here and there. Of course: if the demand for storage amount isn’t that high, but the need for speed is there, you can always use SSD’s. Only disadvantage there is, that they might have a shorter lifespan because of large amounts of write cycles. Choosing a SSD designed for use in a server is an option then (they’re not even that much more expensive in comparison to ‘regular’ ones!)