Product Comparison: Synology DS216j vs Synology DS215j

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Synology DS216j 2-Bay Desktop Network Attached Storage

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Synology DS215j 4TB (2 x 2TB WD Red) 2 Bay Desktop NAS Solution

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General Specifications

Brand

Synology

Model

DS216j

DS215j

Origin

Taiwan

About the Product

SynologyDiskStation DS216j is a 2-bay NAS server which perfectly fits home and personal users to build your own personal cloud. Simple yet powerful, Synology DS216j offers you a new experience of effortless data sharing, multimedia streaming, and cloud synchronization under its neat and sleek appearance.

Designed for home and personal users, DS215j is a 2-bay NAS server featuring a dual-core CPU and rich features. Enjoy effortless data sharing and backup, multimedia streaming, and cloud synchronization without exceeding your budget. Your own cloud starts here.

Key Specs

Hard Drive Capacity

4 TB

Number Of Slots

2 -bay

Storage Drive Type

3.5”, 2.5”

Hard Drive Capacity
Number Of Slots

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Synology DS216j 2-Bay Desktop Network Attached Storage

The default config is to have redundancy at the expense of losing capacity. 2 of my friends have also bought these on my recommendations.
Forum advice is squarely in favour of WD 'Red' hard drives; better safe than sorry I say. I found the 'sweet' price vs capacity point to be 3TB.
Once you get going and think bigger than just a network storage device the options are limitless and the online community is always building and supporting new features.
Love this, I paired with two wd red drives, and obsoleted several hard drives into a single storage solution.
Probably the best storage system you can buy for home and small office use.

Synology DS215j 4TB (2 x 2TB WD Red) 2 Bay Desktop NAS Solution

This is an excellent, good looking, cheap, quiet, and well designed NAS RAID enclosure.
Ordered the product with two WD Red drives, 2TB each, setup in RAID 1 to give an overall 2TB storage with redundancy, safe to say installation was a breeze and now 4 PC's are backing up to the product and all of them are capable of streaming media from the built-in media server.
This NAS drive supports multiple users with ease, tied up with a Netgear router. The "extras" are excellent (and the most useful are free) if you want to set up your OWN cloud server so you can reach your files while travelling or visiting family or friends. Good for large photoalbums and music...
This is a fantastic NAS, best that I've had so far. Other users have complained about ease of use, but it's almost Plug 'n' Play.
This is my first NAS and I bought Synology because of their great reputation. I did hesitate before investing this substantial sum of money in this solution to my storage needs, but I must say I'm very pleased that I did it.Easy to get going.

Size & Weight

Color

White

Height

6.5 in.

Width

3.9 in.

Depth

8.9 in.

8.86 in.

Weight

4.4 lbs.

1.9 lbs.

Features

CPU

Marvell Armada 385 Dual Core 1.0 GHz

Marvell Armada 375 Dual-Core 800 GHz

RAM

0.512 GB

RAID Support

non-RAID, Synology Hybrid RAID, Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6

RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD

Extras

Dual-core CPU with hardware encryption engine, Over 112.75 MB/s reading, 97.6 MB/s writing, Easy to use web operating system on any browsers, Everywhere access with iOS/Android/Windows ready mobile apps

Floating Point Unit Enabled for Multimedia Processing, Runs on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)

Included Software

Disk Station Manager 5.1

What customers say about "Features"

Synology DS216j 2-Bay Desktop Network Attached Storage

Fitted second disk, let it get on with rebuilding the RAID (on default settings) which took a long time but it all happens in the background and doesn't interfere with normal use.
I've gone for a raid config that gives me 16TB of storage but obviously no redundancy.
I have 2 3Tb drives running RAID (mirrored), and had I known the full capabilities of this, I'd have wanted 4 drives in there.
Now all my eggs are in one basket, I have it setup as a raid, so some peace of mind in that they are backed up each day, User friendly a kid could set it up.
A perfect starter NAS, enough CPU power for the average user.

Synology DS215j 4TB (2 x 2TB WD Red) 2 Bay Desktop NAS Solution

Has a good range of configuration options, ranging from the simple to understand and implement, to pretty complex, 'you need to know what you are doing' configurations.
Fast (if not down the end of a network connected via a fairly low rated AV Powerline adapters, Not as fast as the higher rated (and significant more expensive models)
I used to have a SugarSync subscription, which promised to sync my data across multiple devices and backup my data to its cloud. I tried it out for 4 months and was bitterly disappointed with its speed and, crucially, its execution.
It's has TimeMachine support for my MacBook Pro, so now it backs up the laptop according to the schedule.
The Synology DSM software is very feature rich and easy to use.

Interfaces

LAN Speed

1000 Mbps

Number of LAN

Number of USB

eSATA

HDMI

What customers say about "Interfaces"

Synology DS216j 2-Bay Desktop Network Attached Storage

Functionally excellent with a well thought out user interface over operating hardware/software with default behaviour matching the vast majority of use cases. Simply outstanding.
Great value for money and the admin interface is easy to use. Inserting the drives is also easy.
The DSM software has a brilliant, easy to use interface and migrating settings from my old unit was a simple and painless process.
This works perfectly, the synology interface is superb and customizable, a number of really useful tools and apps. Perfect!
The interface can be a bit confusing but plenty of google help out there. I have not really played with it since standing it up on my network, but no issues so far.

Synology DS215j 4TB (2 x 2TB WD Red) 2 Bay Desktop NAS Solution

The external USB3 and USB 2 ports are pretty essential for me as archiving/backup - I have used WD 2 TB passports for this.
One thing worth noting, you need to connect this NAS to a Gigabit network to get the most out of it. If you have a router supplied by your ISP it will probably have on 10/100Mbs LAN ports, and at best AC wifi.
Performance-wise it's very quick and I've had no problems at all copying things to and from it, nearly maxing out a gigabit connection on most occasions.
My Panasonic smart TV also picks up the NAS automatically through a wireless connection, allowing me to play media content on it without having to connect it with any leads.
It was well packed and came with all the screws for the disks. It was easy to connect up and get switched on.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

2 year(s)

Certifications

DLNA-Certified

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Link