It was fine for day to day storage use, and I could install some of the other packages, but if pressed it showed its limitations. My 211j had an ARM processor and 128MB of RAM. The difference between models is usually the amount of RAM and types of processors. You'll probably hear the fan(s), but mine aren't much louder than a soft whir. Mine's pretty damn quiet, but I also have it in a dedicated data closet. No real way of telling until they start coming out en masse. I've read that the newer chassis will support 4TB drives without issue. I could not add or delete any of the onboard apps. It took about 48 hours for it to complete, but I could use the Synology during the expansion, i.e. The expansion took place in the background. Not a big deal for me, but it is for some. The one thing about Synology's lower end boxes is that they do not have hot-swappable bays, so you have to power down in order to make any drive changes. I got another 2TB drive and added it to the array. I initially had 2x2TB drives in the chassis. Online volume expansion works pretty seamlessly. I have my 4 bay model set up in SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID). I upgraded from a 211j due to running out of room. Any alternatives without building my own ZFS box? What is Synology's release schedule (i.e. Can I plug in a single drive and use that as the target for my machine backups (three Macs and two Windows machines)?

Is the 413 significantly better than the 413j? I see the obvious things (like the ports) but I'm not sure how needed those are. Is there built in functionality for replication (we may split time between two residences and it would be great to have the media synced up even if the rest of the data is not).

Is it truly quiet? Could I stick it on the top of the bookcase in the living room and not worry about the noise while watching a movie off it? What is the likelihood they will support >16TB volumes once bigger drives come out? Thin-provisioning/online volume expansion: If I do spring for 4TB which would be sufficient right now, I would probably want to add more when the price comes down)-how easy is it to expand? So I've got a few questions I'm hoping someone can fill in. But the web site isn't great (or maybe I'm missing the good stuff), and I don't know anyone personally with one. Synology seems to be the brand most often referred to positively, and it seems to have the functionality I'd like. So I'm finally looking into this so that I can centralize my movies, photos and music, and make it easier for remote access.

Plex media server synology ds413