If So Great, then Why Leave?

As this was my first real home labbing project,  my services and needs beyond a very basic Plex Server running media started growing faster than the performance of the Synology box could really keep up with despite:

• Realtek RTD1619B, quad-core 1.7 GHz

• 2 GB DDR4 RAM (soldered)

• 4 Hot Swappable Disk Bays

• 2 x 1GbE RJ-45 LAN ports

• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports

• Power Consumption: Approximately 32.41 W during active access and 4.97 W during HDD hibernation.

...that last point was a real sticking point for me - and if you're a novice to homelabbing, or don't have technical knowledge yet, the synology web UI is familiar and helpful to navigate and learn on - however, as I began to experiment with docker containers on other machines, Container Manager, once seeming so helpful and intuitive began to feel like constraints.

Over time, this setup became limiting, i didn't just want storage that worked, i wanted to understand how it worked. I wanted to design my own RAID layouts, control how disks were grouped, debug issues at the system level and build storage as part of a larger system, not a standalone appliance, i have too many computers already and wanted to shrink it down as much as possible. That's when i knew it was time to move on to Syrup Mark 2