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uGreen or Synology NAS?
Posted on 1/4/26 at 4:01 pm
Posted on 1/4/26 at 4:01 pm
After all my reading I don't see a good reason to pay double or more. I'm looking at the 4 bay model to be configured as RAID5.
What do y'all have now? This is for a large number of video files, not so worried about photos.
What do y'all have now? This is for a large number of video files, not so worried about photos.
4
Posted on 1/4/26 at 4:18 pm to CAD703X
i have 2 synology devices and am pleased with them. have a buddy that has synology and ugreen (he was part of kickstarter) and he raves about the ugreen. granted, i got my synologies discounted at NFR partner pricing. most recent one is the DS1821 and initially populated it with 4 drives from serverpartdeals.com, it's sole use is media storage. other device is RS820 that's for files, apps, backups
Posted on 1/4/26 at 5:40 pm to CAD703X
I own a Synology 1520 and a 1522+. I use Synology Hybrid Raid. It does what I need it to, which is be transparent and a non factor in daily ops. I wish I could update packages from the ActiveInsight app, but that's minor. I don't have any SSDs in it, and have 3 WDC Red Pro drives, and 2 equivalent Seagates, one of which is the hot spare. Although nearly every drive has lived longer than the warranty period in the last ten years, I feel more comfortable not waiting on a replacement for 6 weeks sweating another drive failing.
Anecdotally, I've found that if you get drives that came off the line the same day/week, they will tend to fail close to each other. As my volumes have gotten more diversified (sizes, manufacture dates, etc.) it's less of a problem, but it sure was anxious time when I was only running RAID 1 on two drives.
Not sure if you're considering it, but I put a perfectly functional WD Black (non NAS rated) drive into my 1520, and the vibration from the other drives (I'm assuming) caused it to fail within about 10 days. Just pay for the NAS rated stuff. And buy the drives soon. HDD prices were already up 4% at the end of 2025, and it's expected to get worse.
Anecdotally, I've found that if you get drives that came off the line the same day/week, they will tend to fail close to each other. As my volumes have gotten more diversified (sizes, manufacture dates, etc.) it's less of a problem, but it sure was anxious time when I was only running RAID 1 on two drives.
Not sure if you're considering it, but I put a perfectly functional WD Black (non NAS rated) drive into my 1520, and the vibration from the other drives (I'm assuming) caused it to fail within about 10 days. Just pay for the NAS rated stuff. And buy the drives soon. HDD prices were already up 4% at the end of 2025, and it's expected to get worse.
Posted on 1/4/26 at 5:45 pm to LemmyLives
Thanks. Looking at the recertified x22 exos drives from seagate and apparently ugreen raid5 doesn't care who makes them as long as they're the same capacity.
Your vibration comment is interesting. May have just saved my cheap arse some pain in the future.
ETA not interested in SSD right now either. Too pricey
Your vibration comment is interesting. May have just saved my cheap arse some pain in the future.
ETA not interested in SSD right now either. Too pricey
This post was edited on 1/4/26 at 6:04 pm
Posted on 1/4/26 at 6:35 pm to CAD703X
Synology backed off of the "Synology only" drive thing about 90 days after they publicized it.
For the WD Black issue, until I had a NAS, I always had at least 2 drives in RAID 1 in my PC, and usually had a tower with RAID 5 in it, and never experienced an issue (drives in the 2000s-2010s failed pretty regularly anyway.) I blew off NAS rated drives as an extravagance until then. The 1520 was well ventilated and on a shelf in an unused closet where my homerun was. I had the proper rubber grommets on every mounting screw, etc., and it barely lasted long enough to replicate data to it.
I presume you're going after Exos for the HAMR capacity. Check the stats from Backblaze on drive failures Q3 2025. I don't know what their population of HAMR drives is, but do a risk analysis on it based on whatever data is there. I don't know how much video you're storing, but with most of the Synology 4=5 bay NAS, you can add the DX 517 expansion unit to the same volume, which may be cheaper than trying for leading edge capacity drives. I usually by 2 storage jumps behind (if 12TB is popular, I'm buying 6TB or 8TB) to save money.
As far as the SSD goes, I agree, but I'm not video editing. But, 128GB of unneeded RAM I got cheap, FTW!
For the WD Black issue, until I had a NAS, I always had at least 2 drives in RAID 1 in my PC, and usually had a tower with RAID 5 in it, and never experienced an issue (drives in the 2000s-2010s failed pretty regularly anyway.) I blew off NAS rated drives as an extravagance until then. The 1520 was well ventilated and on a shelf in an unused closet where my homerun was. I had the proper rubber grommets on every mounting screw, etc., and it barely lasted long enough to replicate data to it.
I presume you're going after Exos for the HAMR capacity. Check the stats from Backblaze on drive failures Q3 2025. I don't know what their population of HAMR drives is, but do a risk analysis on it based on whatever data is there. I don't know how much video you're storing, but with most of the Synology 4=5 bay NAS, you can add the DX 517 expansion unit to the same volume, which may be cheaper than trying for leading edge capacity drives. I usually by 2 storage jumps behind (if 12TB is popular, I'm buying 6TB or 8TB) to save money.
As far as the SSD goes, I agree, but I'm not video editing. But, 128GB of unneeded RAM I got cheap, FTW!
Posted on 1/5/26 at 8:23 am to CAD703X
Synology used to be heavy on proprietary bullshite, drives and internals. Not sure if that's change or not, but I stay away from them because of it. Ugreen seems to be a good disrupter in the space with their pricing
I would check out minisforum too, if you want to go with something more customizable on the OS end
I would check out minisforum too, if you want to go with something more customizable on the OS end
This post was edited on 1/5/26 at 8:45 am
Posted on 1/5/26 at 8:52 am to bluebarracuda
quote:
Ugreen seems to be a good disrupter in the space with their pricing
this seems to be the case so much of the time. early leader gets cocky, tries to jail their customers and customers get fed up and another more friendly solution crops up and starts gobbling market share. dinosaur company then promises to 'back off' their lock-in policies but the damage is already done and their customers don't trust them.
This post was edited on 1/5/26 at 8:53 am
Posted on 1/5/26 at 11:12 am to CAD703X
I got a UGreen on Black Friday due to them being totally open for drives and OS. Very easy to set up and great build quality
This post was edited on 1/5/26 at 11:13 am
Posted on 1/5/26 at 11:30 am to Carson123987
i wish my drive had failed prior to black friday to get me off my arse but c'est la vie 
which model did you go with? I'm looking at the 4 bay. What OS did you decide on?
which model did you go with? I'm looking at the 4 bay. What OS did you decide on?
Posted on 1/5/26 at 12:14 pm to bluebarracuda
quote:
heavy on proprietary bullshite, drives and internals. Not sure if that's change or not, but I stay away from them because of it
They only went proprietary with their 2025 releases of NAS, which dropped "full support" for non Synology drives. They backed off of it quickly.
quote:
Yes, Synology has reversed its previous policy and now allows the use of third-party hard drives and SSDs with its 2025 DiskStation models following the release of the DiskStation Manager 7.3 update. However, M.2 NVMe drives still require Synology's own brand.
This didn't impact pre 2025 models at all.
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