Products · Synology · NAS
Synology DS918+
- Processor
- Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake)
- Memory (RAM)
- 4 or 8 GB
- Released
- 2017
Product page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued Full AI report
Configurations
Pick one to see which models it runs. More memory lets larger models fit; bandwidth sets how fast they answer.
| Configuration | Memory | Usable for AI | Bandwidth | LLMs that run well | Launch price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) | 4.0 GB | 2.0 GB | 15 GB/s | 23 of 622 | — |
| Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) · upgraded to the maker's maximum | 8.0 GB | 5.2 GB | 15 GB/s | 27 of 622 | — |
Specifications 4.0 GB configuration
| Maker | Synology |
|---|---|
| Type | NAS |
| Processor | Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 GB) |
| Memory (RAM) | 4.0 GB |
| Usable for AI models | 2.0 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 15 GB/s |
| FP16 compute | 0.0 TFLOPS |
| Runs models on | CPU cores |
| Drive bays | 4x 3.5" SATA HDD or 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD + 2x M.2 2280 NVMe SSD |
| NAS system | DSM 7.x |
| Containers (Docker) | Yes |
| Virtual machines | Yes |
| Memory upgrade | DDR3L non-ECC SODIMM · 2 slots · up to 8.0 GB per the maker · non-ECC |
| Availability | Discontinued (sold used or refurbished) |
| Notes | Intel Celeron J3455. x86-64 with Container Manager, but RAM tops out at 8 GB officially and the Intel Celeron J3455 (4C/4T) is a low-power CPU (Celeron J-series lack AVX), so only 1-4B-parameter quantized models are realistic, slowly. |
| Product page | www.synology.com (opens in a new tab)Discontinued |
Running AI on the Synology DS918+
It can, with limits: expect small models only, at modest speed. Models run on its CPU cores, and this configuration leaves about 2.0 GB for them after the NAS system and its storage services. The grades below assume the NAS isn’t busy with backups or media work at the same time. More memory is the upgrade that matters most: see the configurations.
Apps you can install to run models
| App | How it installs |
|---|---|
| Ollama + Open WebUI | In a container (Docker) |
| Any Linux guest running llama.cpp / Ollama | In a virtual machine |
AI features from Synology
| Feature | What it does | Where the AI runs |
|---|---|---|
| Synology AI Console (cloud providers) | Admin console that connects Synology Office, MailPlus, Chat, Drive etc. to Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Baidu AI Cloud, Google AI Studio/Vertex AI, OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. | Cloud service or another computer |
| AI Console de-identification | Masks names and other sensitive entities before text is sent to a remote AI provider, using small local language models run through Container Manager. | On the NAS |
Best LLMs for the Synology DS918+ 4.0 GB
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | LFM3 1.7B | Q3_K_M | 1.7 GB | 3.8 tok/s | Slowtight fit |
| 39Basic quality (D) · 39 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | PaddleOCR-VL 1.6 0.9B | Q4_K_M | 1.5 GB | 5.3 tok/s | Slow |
| 39Basic quality (D) · 39 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | MiniCPM-OCR 1.0 1.3B | Q4_K_M | 1.7 GB | 3.9 tok/s | Slow |
| 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | LFM3-VL 2B | Q3_K_M | 1.8 GB | 3.4 tok/s | Slowtight fit |
| 34Basic quality (D) · 34 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | MiniCPM5 1B | Q4_K_M | 1.6 GB | 4.7 tok/s | Slow |
| 38Basic quality (D) · 38 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | MiniCPM-V 4.7 1B | Q4_K_M | 1.8 GB | 3.3 tok/s | Slowtight fit |
| 30Basic quality (D) · 30 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 58/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | LFM2.5 1.2B Instruct | Q4_K_M | 1.6 GB | 4.3 tok/s | Slow |
| 33Basic quality (D) · 33 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 58/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | TMax 2B | Q3_K_M | 1.8 GB | 3.5 tok/s | Slowtight fit |
| 30Basic quality (D) · 30 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 57/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | LFM2.5 2.6B | Q2_K | 2.0 GB | 3.1 tok/s | Slowtight fit |
| 24Basic quality (D) · 24 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Qwen3.5 0.8B | Q4_K_M | 1.4 GB | 5.8 tok/s | Slow |
Best Image models for the Synology DS918+ 4.0 GB
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39Basic quality (D) · 39 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 48/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | SDXL Turbo | FP8 | 1.6 GB | 2.0 min | SlowCPU offload |
| 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 46/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Realistic Vision V5.1 | FP16 | 1.3 GB | 17.8 min | Very slowCPU offload |
| 40Fair quality (C) · 40 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 46/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | DreamShaper 8 | FP16 | 1.3 GB | 17.8 min | Very slowCPU offload |
| 28Basic quality (D) · 28 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 44/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | SD Turbo | FP16 | 1.3 GB | 71 s | SlowCPU offload |
| 35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 43/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Stable Diffusion 1.5 | FP16 | 1.3 GB | 17.8 min | Very slowCPU offload |
| 30Basic quality (D) · 30 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 43/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | LCM DreamShaper v7 | FP16 | 1.3 GB | 3.7 min | Very slowCPU offload |
Best Video models for the Synology DS918+ 4.0 GB
None of the video models in our catalog fit in this much memory.
Best Decision models for the Synology DS918+ 4.0 GB
| Quality | Model | Quant | Memory | Speed | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Jina Reranker v3.5 | Q8_0 | 1.6 GB | 51.4 s | Very slow |
| 84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Jina Reranker v3 | Q8_0 | 1.6 GB | 51.4 s | Very slow |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | GLiNER2.5 Decide | Q8_0 | 1.2 GB | 22.7 s | Very slow |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | FRIDA-Decisions | Q8_0 | 1.7 GB | 38.0 s | Very slow |
| 80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Qwen3 Reranker 0.6B | Q8_0 | 1.6 GB | 51.4 s | Very slow |
| 79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | mxbai-rerank-large v2 | Q5_K_M | 1.9 GB | 131.8 s | Very slowtight fit |
| 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | Llama Prompt Guard 2 86M | Q8_0 | 1.0 GB | 26.0 s | Very slow |
| 76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. | mxbai-rerank-base v2 | Q8_0 | 1.3 GB | 42.0 s | Very slow |
Other products with the Intel Celeron J3455 / N3450 (Apollo Lake) NAS (4 GB)
TS-251BProduct page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
TS-253BeProduct page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
TS-453BeProduct page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued- F4-421Product page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
- F5-422Product page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
- F2-422Product page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
- F4-422Product page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
ZimaBoard 432Product page (opens in a new tab)Discontinued
Spec sources
Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.