Prime Members: Synology 4-Bay NAS DiskStation DS918+ (Diskless) Expired

This is the lowest its been in a long time, good price if you need a NAS. This is one of the best NAS systems around, and probably the best one with 4 hard drive bays.

FWIW - A word of caution here, based on personal experience. DO NOT ENTRUST ALL YOUR IMPORTANT DATA TO ONE DEVICE, FILE SERVER OR NOT! It doesn't matter if your server has 2 drives or 10 drives - don't do it!

Full disclosure: I live in north Florida, and we are subject to severe weather here, including lightning.

I used to have a file server (not a Synology, but it doesn't matter) on which I had virtually all my info. It being a mirrored system I thought my data was safe as everything was automatically mirrored to the other drive (two 3 tb WD Reds). Also, all of my devices were powered through UPS's.

My internet service is Comcast. Lightning struck near my house. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that was connected by an ethernet cable to the cable modem was fried, including the file server (including the WD drives), a couple of switches, a security camera, and 2 computers. I also lost a couple of tv's through the power line surge (I still don't understand why more of my stuff wasn't fried through the power wiring, but I'm grateful they weren't).

So, yes, I thought I was protected against data loss, but I was wrong.

I now have ditched the idea of a file server and use a couple of external USB drives. I back up religiously and never (except for the few minutes it takes to mirror one of the USB drives to the other) have both my backup drives connected to a computer at the same time. I also now run everything wirelessly from my cable modem (except for a couple of devices that I can live without).

I got lucky in that my secondary computer was wirelessly connected to my cable modem, so not everything was lost - but I lost enough to teach me a lesson. Yes, homeowners did cover the loss (minus deductible of course), so I wasn't out a huge amount of money, but the frustration of dealing with everything is horrendous. NB - Save your receipts for everything!

File servers are great devices, and I really liked mine; it worked flawlessly right up to the end! Just be aware of your vulnerabilities.

Yes, I have one running plex and pi hole for a month now, so far I'm pretty happy with it, if you have plex pass you can enable hardware transcoding. Also, grab a couple of WD element drives and shuck them, they are on sale as well.