Synology DS213+ 2-Bay Diskless DiskStation NAS - $309.97 + ~$10 shipping

The DS212J that you have currently is just excruciatingly slow in my opinion. I don't have the best review and numbers in front of me on the differences http://www.andrewsreviews.co.uk/tm [andrewsreviews.co.uk] but you can definitely see a general trend of speed with the better processors and larger amounts of RAM.

The DS213 is essentially the same as the DS212+ both having a 2Ghz Marvell ARM processor along with 512mb RAM. The DS213+ has a completely different dual core PPC 1.067GHz processor with free point calculations and a built in encryption chip. That's the technical jargon of the differences. The biggest change you would see in the DS213+ vs DS213 is in handling encrypted files. I read in a review that the DS213 almost goes to a crawl when trying to deal with many encrypted files. However, the DS213+ has a chip optimmized for that and performs quite admirably. This is very important for some people.

My biggest want from the DS213+ is the dual core processor and it's ability to better transcode video files (up to 1080p) to my various media hubs (HTPC, ipad, Android, etc). This is where the dual core processor helps a lot and it is said that the DS213+ should be able to run Plex with transcoding (perhaps not the best at 1080p).

But these new models come with many other features that are better than in DS212J too such as autoLAN on, USB 3.0, eSata, better power consumption, etc.

The main thing is that there is definitely a sale on the DS213+ model which makes it the same price as the DS213 and at that point, it's a no brainer for me to go with the DS213+. Hope that helps.

thanks for the reply.

i agree with you on DS212J in terms of speed, however it's sufficient enough for me. i expected the R/W speeds to be low (i get write speeds of around 30MB/s on a gigabit switch). it worked perfectly for media sharing on my home network along with media playback on WD TV live plus w/ wdlxtv

i'd be interested in testing the streaming capabilities on my phone/tablet at school and see how that performs (Although i believe it only supports AVI or MP4 at the moment? correct me if i'm wrong).

I think you will be disappointed with the transcoding... http://forum.synology.com/enu/vie...00&t=55789

I believe that is mostly dealing with the DS213 which is a single core ARM processor. I know that the DS213+ isn't perfect either but I've read around that transcoding is working pretty for the units thanks to the PPC dual core although it struggles on 1080p coding. The Plex software hasn't been completely optimized yet either. Other members have said that the original DiskStation Video Station software has allowed for good transcoding with the DS213+ so hopefully they'll be able to transfer a bit of that code over

Either way its a great deal. However the msrp is actually 370 so in actuality you're saving 60 which is still good

But should give you an idea of performance increase over ds213. Probably not a lot.

Either way its a great deal. However the msrp is actually 370 so in actuality you're saving 60 which is still good

But should give you an idea of performance increase over ds213. Probably not a lot.

i mean i'll say it again this is a great deal, but TC keep saying it'll decode video will surely disappoint people. if you're buying this as a media all-in-one solutionn, you're definitely doing it wrong. build yourself a small server if that's what you want. but this paired with some cheap HTPC or android device will surely make you happy