NAS and Hard Drive Selection

[mdf0207]

Hello,
I posted up debating either the Synology 920+ or the 923+ ... because the 923+ is newer, it is probably the on that I am looking to get :/ 
I have looked at the Synology compatibility list for the 923+ for the Seagate Ironwolf Pro drives; however, they're not listed ... but the Seagate Ironwolf are ... 
Are the former not listed because they're doing testing and probably will be compatible (Seagate ST4000NE001 IronWolf Pro) , or are they actually not compatible?
I only assume they would be compatible because they are for the 920+ ... 

What are they key differences between Seagate IronWolf and the pro - all I can see is the RPM .. some say lower RPM is better than the 7200 ... but others say the pro HDD (whcih are 7200) have a long life expectancy ... 

(as I am completely unsure if I'm getting the right machine with the 923+; I'm not sure if this is a sign to ditch the 923+ and get the 920+) hehe 
I think the 923+ is the right move as it's newer and will cope with plex things ...

one thing I'd also like to ask is about 'media-side' transcoding?
I recall in a video NASCompares (?Robbie) says that you can buy a 'lifetime pass' which would help out a 923+ NAS if it were to struggle (presumably this would be transcoding to then send/stream to a device?) ... 

Say I didn't have the pass , so the NAS was relied on; would the 923+ struggle sending the stream to devices (say a TV / iphone) which is linked on the same LAN  -- or is the problem rooted with streaming / sending the data via the net?

[ed]

Yes, Synology do not rush with HDD testing. They want you to buy their (Toshiba) drives. But, this do not mean the other drives are not compatible. They will work, but you may get a warning message that these drives are not yet added to their list.
Pro drives have longer warranty and few features like anti-vibration sensors etc. These drives are made for 8 or more bays NAS systems. And they are loud.
You do not need transcoding to stream media in your home network. Accessing videos remotely might need this feature. DS923+ can convert up to 1080p videos. DS920+ can convert 4k videos without using CPU raw power.

I hope this helps.

[mdf0207]

Yes, Synology do not rush with HDD testing. They want you to buy their (Toshiba) drives. But, this do not mean the other drives are not compatible. They will work, but you may get a warning message that these drives are not yet added to their list.
Pro drives have longer warranty and few features like anti-vibration sensors etc. These drives are made for 8 or more bays NAS systems. And they are loud.
You do not need transcoding to stream media in your home network. Accessing videos remotely might need this feature. DS923+ can convert up to 1080p videos. DS920+ can convert 4k videos without using CPU raw power. 

I hope this helps.

thank you, Ed - greatly appreciated.

[mdf0207]

Yes, Synology do not rush with HDD testing. They want you to buy their (Toshiba) drives. But, this do not mean the other drives are not compatible. They will work, but you may get a warning message that these drives are not yet added to their list.
Pro drives have longer warranty and few features like anti-vibration sensors etc. These drives are made for 8 or more bays NAS systems. And they are loud.
You do not need transcoding to stream media in your home network. Accessing videos remotely might need this feature. DS923+ can convert up to 1080p videos. DS920+ can convert 4k videos without using CPU raw power. 

I hope this helps.

thank you, Ed - greatly appreciated.

Can I confirm ... The 923+ doesn't have 4TB IronWolf Pro drives listed in their compatibility list (but they are listed for the 920+ ... because of this, I assume (and maybe wrongly, so please tell me if this is the case) that the drives will work in the 923+? 
I am only going for Pro for their warranty and data-recovery service ... 
I think because I only have 2-3TB of data on my drives, using a RAID 5 or SHR (not decided yet) , 4TB should be plenty (12TB total) ...

Am I right in understanding that in either RAID 5 or SHR that say in the future the drives are becoming full, I could look at 6-8TB and populate the NAS with them?

[ed]

Yes, these 4TB drives should work.
If you want to replace few drives with bigger ones in the future, you need to select SHR and not RAID5. Unless you connect DX expansion box.

I hope this helps.

[mdf0207]

Yes, these 4TB drives should work.
If you want to replace few drives with bigger ones in the future, you need to select SHR and not RAID5. Unless you connect DX expansion box.

I hope this helps.

thanks so much. 

So if you have RAID-5 , and then want to increase the size of the disks , you can't? whereas with SHR , you can?

Is SHR as reliable ?
Can Windows read a hard drive that has SHR setup ?

BTW are you the guy who does the videos with Robbie on the YouTube channel?

[ed]

Yes, only SHR supports drive mixing. RAID5 does not allow this.
SHR is practically the same as RAID5 to a degree. Equally reliable.
Windows will not recognise nor RAID5 nor SHR. You will need Linux for that to see drives from either of RAID.
Eddie from NAScompares