At first I would like to thank Synology for offering a sample of their DS112+ High-Performance 1-bay NAS Server for testing and reviewing.

 

About Synology:

"Founded in 2000, Synology is a young and energetic company dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. Our goal is to deliver user-friendly solutions and solid customer service to satisfy the needs of businesses, home offices, individual users and families."

Product Features:

High Performance

The Synology DS112+ is designed for business users who demands high-performance for file sharing and running of office applications. The Synology DS112+ delivers an average 107.92 MB/sec reading and 76.66 MB/sec writing speeds in a Windows® environment1. Coming with USB 3.0 support which offers transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbps, namely 10 times faster than USB 2.0, DS112+ takes less time for data transfer for external hard drives and consumes less power.

Peace of Mind with Data Encryption

The Synology DS112+ is equipped with an encryption engine which offloads the encryption calculation task away from the main CPU, helping to improve file transfer speeds of the DiskStation. Data protection is an important matter for businesses of all sizes. Highend features previously available only on enterprise level hardware are now accessible via Synology DS112+ to small and medium-sized businesses. DS112+ provides share-level AES 256-bit encryption to aid in the prevention of unauthorized access attempts to the hard drives.

Rich Office Applications

Synology DS112+ runs on the renowned operating system, Synology DiskStation Manager, (DSM) offering applications and features designed specifically for SMBs. Directory Server package turns Synology DS112+ into an LDAP-based directory server which is capable of centralizing the management and authentication of user accounts for different applications, therefore enhancing network security and reducing management costs. Internet file access is simplified by FTP server and the web-based File Station. Synology DiskStation eliminates the requirement of advanced FTP knowledge for Internet file sharing. With just a few clicks, FTP service can be established. File Station provides easy file navigation on your DSM desktop, allowing you to move or copy files without installing any software on your client computer.

The built-in mail server offers a professional mail service and the USB printer sharing capability minimizes businesses’ cost by sharing printing resources throughout the office. VPN Server package offers an easy VPN solution that turns your DS112+ into a VPN server, providing a secure way of connecting to a private LAN at a remote location.

Complete Backup Solutions

A backup wizard is provided for backing up data from DS112+ to another Synology DiskStation or any rsync server via an encrypted connection, or to an external hard drive via USB 3.0 or eSATA connection. The wizard also makes it easy to back up DiskStation data to the cloud via Amazon® S3. In addition, users can back up and restore DiskStation shared folders in multiple versions using Synology Time Backup package.

Shared Folder Sync allows users to synchronize a specific folder from Synology DS112+ to another DiskStation– a server-to-client backup mechanism that takes place whenever something is changed on the server side. Users will be able to share documents within their local office seamlessly and safely with encrypted connection. When your DiskStation is down, you will be able to have an immediate backup running in no time.

Energy Efficient with Cool and Quiet Design

Synology DS112+ is designed with energy efficiency in mind. Not only does it provide a larger fan and the smart airflow to keep the system running cool 24/7, its noise dampening design makes it really quiet (18.4 dB) compared to PC counterparts. The support of Wake on LAN/WAN, multiple scheduled power on/off and hard drive hibernation can further reduce power consumption and operation cost. All Synology products are produced with RoHS compliant parts and packed with recyclable packing materials. Synology acknowledges the responsibility as a global citizen to continually work to reduce the environmental impact of every product produced.

 

Product Specifications:

 

The ones that have seen our other reviews with Synology products will be familiar with the packaging, which is about the same; the DS112+ NAS comes packed inside a blue-themed cardboard box, provided with a handle, for easy transport:

 

 

 

On one of the box sides, we can find supported applications by the product, represented by graphical icons:

 

 

 

Moving on, we will find a short list of hardware specifications, product features, package contents and supported languages:

 

 

 

Another list of features is graphically represented on the opposite side:

 

 

 

After opening up the box, we will see some warning messages printed near the black plastic handle:

 

 

 

The inside packaging is split into multiple areas, some with the accessories and one with the NAS itself:

 

 

 

 

Besides the power lead, we will also find documentation inside a transparent plastic bag, the power adapter and the LAN cable:

 

 

 

Some info about the GPL modules can be found on a separate leaflet:

 

 

 

Several tips are also offered in multiple languages:

 

 

 

The power adapter has a LED on the top side to signal normal operation:

 

 

 

On the back side we'll find the usual sticker, which informs us of the power rating on both input and output:

 

 

 

The necessary screws are also provided in separate bags, which help securing the case and the drive onto the frame:

 

 

 

For additional protection, the NAS enclosure is further wrapped inside a thin foam material:

 

 

 

The DS112+ NAS is compact, having similar dimensions of a regular external HDD enclosure:

 

 

 

On the frontal area we will find the activity LEDs, the power button with LED, along with the model number:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both NAS laterals have ventilation holes through the Synology logo:

 

 

 

 

On the bottom side, we will locate some extra spaces meant for ventilation, along with a sticker and four rubber feet:

 

 

 

On the sticker we will find the product model number, power rating and a small drawing that shows how to open the enclosure:

 

 

 

On the back side of the enclosure, we will find the 60mm cooling fan, an eSATA port, two USB 3.0 ports, one RJ45 port, one Kensington lock port and also the DC-IN port. A small RESET hole is present for getting the unit to the factory defaults:

 

 

 

To get the unit open, we must slide forward the right side of the enclosure:

 

 

 

The back side of the PCB has a 3-pin connector where the 60mm fan is plugged in; the fan can be easily replaced when it wears out:

 

 

 

Onto the metallic frame, with the supplied screws we will be able to install a 3.5’’ HDD or 2.5’’ (with the optional disk holder):

 

 

 

To get a look at the PCB components, we will have to remove 4 additional screws; we will see the main board along with a daughterboard, linked to the main one with a cable:

 

 

 

On this side we will find two ELPIDA J1108BFBG memory chips:

 

 

 

The two USB 3.0 ports in the back are powered by the D720200AF1 controller:

 

 

 

The flash chip is a STMicroelectronics 25P32V6P:

 

 

 

The settings are kept saved until reset with the help of a CR1220 3V lithium battery:

 

 

 

On the corner, we will find the PCB model number, the serial and a version number:

 

 

 

The daughterboard holds the activity LEDs along with the power button:

 

 

 

The 3.5'' HDD can be installed really easy; first we have to slide it onto the metal plate until it gets plugged in to the SATA power/data connector:

 

 

 

Then we'll have to make sure that the fixing holes are aligned:

 

 

 

With the provided screws, we will be able to fix the drive properly to the metallic frame:

 

 

 

The installation procedure is identical to the one we have described in the past from the Synology NASes; to be able to use the product, after the hardware installation, we’ll have to power on the NAS and then start installing the Synology Assistant application:

 

 

 

We have observed during testing that it’s better to have the installed drive completely empty, without any partitions on it, for making sure that the NAS will be detected by the Assistant application:

 

 

 

By right clicking on the detected NAS and hitting “Install”, the application will prompt us for the DSM installation file; to make sure we get the latest version, we should hit the web and get the one there instead of installing one found on the supplied disk:

 

 

 

At the next step, we will be asked for the ‘admin’ password and the label of the Synology Diskstation:

 

 

 

The network configuration can be also set from the next dialog:

 

 

 

During the installation period, we will see the progress bar moving and the program will also show us the stages through which the NAS will pass:

 

 

 

When the installation is completed (it will take a while, even if a SSD is installed), we will be prompted to log into the DSM interface:

 

 

 

Inside the browser, DSM will ask for the user and password:

 

 

 

The Synology DSM 4.0 interface is rich and allows the NAS live monitoring with the information on the right like System Health, Resource Monitor, Recent Logs, Current Connections and so on:

 

 

 

The Wizard shows us the steps that we must follow to get the unit ready for usage:

 

 

 

From the Storage Manager section, we can customize and set multiple volumes for the installed disk:

 

 

 

We can also specify new shared folders inside the already created volumes on the storage media:

 

 

 

 

For these folders we can specify who has access to them and who does not:

 

 

 

The File Station helps us transfer files from the computer to the NAS and back, but also to organize the files and folder inside the NAS itself. To be able to navigate inside the host computer files, Java must be installed:

 

 

 

Many other menus can be accessed by pressing the top left button:

 

 

 

 

Of course, additional modules can be chosen for installation like Antivirus Essential, Audio Station, Media Server, Photo Station, Download Station and many more:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU : Intel I7 3770K Retail

CPU Cooler: CoolIT Vantage ALC

Motherboard : ASRock P77 Fatal1ty Professional

RAM : GeIL EVO CORSA 16GB 2400MHz C11

Video : Sparkle X580 Calibre

Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W

HDD : Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11

Case: Thermaltake Armor+ LCS

 

To test the NAS performances, the DS112+ was populated with a Patriot Torqx SSD, formatted with a single volume and the NAS was connected directly to the computer, to avoid any limitations by implying additional hardware like a router. The first simple test was performed by loading the test file onto a RAM drive and then it was copied to the NAS, at its shared folder. The speed was recorded with Total Commander:

 

 

 

The second test was to copy the same file back to the computer; for eliminating any HDD speed limitations, the file was copied back to the RAM drive:

 

 

 

For performing a more advanced test, the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit was used, for performing 5 different test runs; here are the results:

 

 

 

The DS112+ NAS Server from Synology is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses that do not need a huge amount of storage space (reported maximum internal capacity is 4TB), features enough connectivity options like eSATA and two USB 3.0 ports for connecting external storage devices. The NAS is powered by a 2GHz CPU and 512MB of DDR3 memory; this time, the adapter for installing 2.5’’ drives must be acquired separately and the NAS is cooled by a single 60mm silent fan. On the default setting, the insides of the unit get pretty warm, but Synology allows modifying the fan speeds from inside the DSM interface.

 

This being said regarding hardware, the unit operates with a rich selection of software, like on the more expensive NASes; we have File Station, Backup, Mail Server, FTP Server, Web Station and Print Server. Additional packages can be also installed and from these we can enumerate the Photo Station, Audio Station, Download Station, DLNA/UPnP Media server and many more.

Additional iOS/Android applications are available for accessing the NAS resources from within the network: DS photo+, DS audio, DS cam, DS file or DS finder.

 

The DS112+ NAS can be bought online for about 215 Euros, which is not a very high price considering the advantages.

 

Synology DiskStation DS112+ NAS Server Recommended For:

 

 

I would like to thank again to Synology for offering the sample for review.