Designed for home and office use, the DiskStation DS418 4-Bay NAS Enclosure from Synology allows users to share and synchronize files across multiple devices and public cloud storage services from virtually anywhere, while also helping to boost work productivity enhance team collaboration, and engage in real-time 4K H.265 video transcoding. It is equipped with four drive bays that are capable of natively supporting 3.5″ SATA hard drives, as well as 2.5″ SATA hard drives and SSDs. Using its four drive bays, this NAS will allow you to store and share a large number of files, including videos, music, photos, and documents with up to 2048 user accounts and 200 concurrent connections.
The DS418 runs on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) OS, which is a browser-based operating system which helps to simplify managing your Synology NAS. Its CPU is a 1.4 GHz Realtek RTD1296 Quad-Core and its 2GB of DDR4 RAM allows frequently-used files and applications to be quickly accessed. The NAS is capable of achieving sequential read speeds of up to 226 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 170 MB/s, while a dedicated hardware transcoding engine can transcode 10-bit 4K H.265 video on-the-fly. Also featured are two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, which allow it to be connected to your Windows or Mac system, and network connectivity is achieved via the dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing your stored data to be shared with users throughout the network and support link aggregation and failover. Data may also be made remotely available through the free iOS and Android applications. Using the integrated 4K multimedia server on the DS418, Video Station and DS video can be used to convert and play 4K videos from most computers, mobile devices and other media players that don’t support Ultra HD formats.
For those who require RAID support, the DS418 supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10, as well Synology Hybrid RAID and Basic RAID, each of which offers performance, data redundancy, or a combination of both. For those who do not require a RAID, JBOD is also available, allowing each drive bay to be individually utilized.
The DS418 is engineered to be energy efficient. Not only does it offer two 92 x 92mm fans to help keep the system running cool at all times, its noise dampening design of 20.9 dB(A) makes for quiet operations. The server supports numerous scheduled power on / off cycles and hard drive hibernation to further minimize power consumption and operation expenses.
The Synology DiskStation DS418 4-Bay NAS Enclosure operates on 100-240 VAC at 50/60 Hz and includes an accessory pack, a 90W AC power adapter, a power cord, and two RJ45 LAN cables. It is protected by a limited 2-year warranty.
Raleigh Herzog (verified owner) –
Installation of the drives was super easy. Setting up the software was difficult. You kinda have to do your research first to determine how to set it up. It’s fairly quiet with only the fans going when it’s asleep. It’s not very fast, but I use it only as backup.
Nora Nolan (verified owner) –
My only regret is that I waited until now to experience all the advantages of a NAS over multiple shared drives. Love the USB port for USB Backup to am external drive. I was also impressed will all the applications that are included/free with my DSM OS. I plan to buy a 2nd unit in the future to setup off-site sync.
Rita Fritsch (verified owner) –
I was disappointed with this unit when I found out you can not use the Synology Active Backup for Business on this unit. Active Backup is a great tool to backup your local systems. Had to buy a different backup solution.
Queenie Nicolas (verified owner) –
My DS418 was running fine until, surprise surprise, just outside of the warranty period. Slot 1 began failing, showing disks as ‘crashed’, no matter which disks I used. A filed ticket and attached Event Logs with Synology confirmed my suspicions. Expecting maybe a consolation prize like, I don’t know, a repair policy that I’m willing to pay for? A coupon for 10% off since it’s only 5 months out of warranty? Nope – nothing. Synology says to toss it and buy a new unit. What a colossal mound of e-waste. This is Apple-like behavior. Synology WILL tell you that you have a brick on your hands and to go buy another when you’re just out of warranty. I no longer trust them. Seriously reconsider this unit and Synology in general.
Orie Weimann (verified owner) –
I’m not a huge fan of Synology in terms of customizability and features (over OEM Truenas boxes), but this one has been great as a secondary NAS. I have multiple Amcrest camera logging to it using the surveillance station (had to buy additional licenses since it only comes with two free ones), and I also dump my temporary files likes Downloads to it with no issues. Not sure if this will give me issues in the future, but it has been fine in the past month or so.
Lindsay Bartell (verified owner) –
I upgraded my aging DS413j to this DS418 and I couldn’t be more pleased. Synology are without a doubt the best in class. The box and design is very well thought out and easy to access the drives. I simply took my 4 old HDs, put them in this box, booted up, and it detected that I was migrating and walked me through a couple of questions and I was up and running. It even did the DSM update from 6.x to 7.x (keeping all my settings as necessary!). I was thrilled as I had forgotten to backup my configs in my excitement and was worried I’d have to put the drives back in the old one and hook it up to the network and power and all that. Nope! The GUI speed is noticeably faster with this hardware. The old box was very pretty but sluggish and even a bit painful sometimes to use in spite of that. This one feels like a native OS with no lag. It detected a bunch of my apps needed updating and did that too. Another side-effect that I was hoping for and proved to be true is the speed. I was getting about 300-800 Mbits/sec using IPerf3 (oh, do yourself a favor and install the synocommunity repo too). With the same exact cable, network, PC, etc. I now get consistently over 900. But wait, there’s more. Plop in that 2nd cable and the magic really happens and I see easily 1.3 Gbits and even as high as 2 Gbits!!! That bonding is insanity and well worth the upgrade alone. The Synology Drive is the real reason I wanted (DSM7) and I’m just getting into it. But the TWO backup windows apps are now a single one that is much nicer. Same with the android apps. The old ones felt a bit jenky and amateur looking. The new ones seem much more polished and intuitive. I researched a bunch before making this decision and despite the ’18 being 4 years old, it is still the solid choice when you compare specs, especially to the DS420. And if you don’t know, the model numbers simply mean…DS, then #bays (with external, so 9 means you may have 4 here but an eSATA port for the 5 bay extender box), last 2 is the year created (not manufactured), j = home use, value then plus I’d personally advise against any 2 bay, I mean at that point are you even NAS bro? Speaking of, another crazy thing about 4+ bays is if a drive is going SMART bad or I just need more space, I simply power down, pop out ANY of the drives, pop in a new drive, boot up… give it time and it will automatically do the needful and shuffle the bits/parity/etc across the pool (you can use it during this process BTW and also this process can take DAYS depending on sizes, so don’t panic). Incredible. Can’t say enough good about Synology NAS.
Obie Carter (verified owner) –
Buying a NAS was really a means to getting more storage and redundancy so my data was safe. With the Synology NAS, you get so much more with the built-in tools like Photos, Backup, Shared Folders and Plex. The ability to slowly expand storage over time (instead of just buying a new external hard drive) is fantastic. So far, it has worked perfectly and really has changed the game for me with my storage.
Ezra Cronin (verified owner) –
Having been a QNAP person forever (mostly because of the price-point) I moved over to this Synology. It’s a great piece of hardware! Interface is snappy, it’s feature-rich, and overall a pleasant experience. Save yourself the hassle and go with Synology.