Although I didn't get any help about making a decision between these 2 brands, it turns out that I didn't have a choice but to get the Qnap as the Synology model that I wanted is not available in my area. After setting the Qnap up (and it was really painless and easy), I am so glad to say that Qnap exceeded my expectations! Everything that I wanted for an entry level NAS in terms of setup, speed and expandability. I have 2 internal hard drives (on RAID 1) installed and 3 USB hard drives attached and visible on all PCs. All of my 3 PCs have synchronized folders and my files are accessible anywhere I want (inside and outside my network).
Having the USB drives attached to the NAS instead of direct to the PC prevents slowing...