NAS by stefan @ 2013-10-15
Synology has NASes available for all price ranges. In this review we will look upon one of their offering aimed at budget conscious people, with two internal bays for 3.5’’ drives (for 2.5’’ we need to purchase an optional adapter), which also features a single-core 1.2Ghz processor along with 512MB of RAM and runs the latest version of DSM.
At first I would like to thank Synology for offering a sample of their DS213j 2-bay NAS Server for testing and reviewing.
"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."
High-Performance Multimedia Processing with Smart Energy Management
With a RAID 1 configuration in a Windows® environment, Synology DS213j delivers read and write speeds of over 100MB/sec and 70MB/sec respectively, allowing you to share an entire Blu-ray quality video in less than 3 minutes. The built-in Floating-Point Unit CPU speeds up thumbnail processing to enhance photo viewing at different resolutions, while the large 512MB RAM ensures maximum speed when running multiple multimedia applications.
Synology DS213j is designed with energy efficiency in mind. Not only does it provide a large 92mm fan and smart airflow to keep the system running cool 24/7, but its noise dampening design makes it quiet compared to a public space in a library. Support for Wake on LAN/WAN, multiple scheduled power on/off, and hard drive hibernation can further reduce power consumption and operating costs.
Your Data is Safe with Synology
DS213j with Synology Hybrid RAID helps you balance storage capacity and data redundancy so you can have your space and use it too (custom RAID configuration available for advanced users). Your DS213j is also the ideal one-stop centralized backup solution: from PCs to NAS, NAS to NAS, NAS to peripheral storage media (such as USB stick) or NAS to remote storage via a whole host of options.
24/7 Download Portal
Feed your data-appetite with Download Station, your 24/7 download portal. With its comprehensive built-in BT search engine, you can find and download files in just a few clicks. So turn off your PC and let your DS213j download all your content directly to your centralized storage. With DS download on iPhone® and Android™, you can manage download tasks even while on the go.
Personal Entertainment Center
Enjoy multimedia easily with Audio Station, and Video Station. Find movies and TV shows online or record your favorite programs with a DVB-T stick, and play them on all devices including Windows, Mac®, DLNA, AirPlay®, Bluetooth, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
Take photos on your mobile device and let Instant Upload automatically send them to your DiskStation so they are ready for sharing through Photo Station or social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and Picasa.
Anywhere/Anytime Availability
QuickConnect and EZ-Internet configure your DS213j for accessing over the Internet with minimal effort. Combined with Synology’s mobile apps for every popular feature, including DS photo+, DS audio, and DS video for anywhere multimedia access, DS download, DS file, and DS cloud for seamless file download/access/synchronization, DS cam for home security, you can enjoy your NAS anywhere, any time.
Powered by Synology DSM
Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) is a web-based OS that provides private cloud service. It is designed to make your everyday living easier.
The built-in Package Center allows you to download and install the packages designed specifically for your unique needs, whether it’s sharing files on the cloud, sharing photos on an online album, setting up a VPN environment or even an antivirus to protect your system. All will happen with just a few clicks.
The simple interface allows you to obtain and configure storage capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your personal cloud and lets you access it anywhere. Synology DSM will help you maximize productivity and get more out of your digital assets with minimal fuss.
The latest Synology DS213j 2-bay NAS is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box with a handle and a green/white color scheme:
On one of the box sides we will get to see a description of the Hardware, Package contents and more:
The different types of applications are shown on the opposite lateral:
Opening the top cover will reveal the separate compartments:
Besides the power lead, we will also find a separate cardboard box with the rest of the bundle:
The power brick is accompanied by a black LAN cable, mounting screws for the drives and for securing the enclosure, but also documentation:
One “Read this First” small guide is included along with some words regarding the GNU General Public License and an installation disk:
The power brick is manufactured by EDACPOWER ELEC. And is rated on the output 12V, 5.42A:
The NAS enclosure is also fully wrapped inside a foam material bag:
We are dealing again with a white shiny plastic chassis as we have seen with the DS213air:
On the front we have the main LED area along with the power button:
The LEDs are placed for showing the system status, LAN activity, but also Disk1/2 read/write operations:
The power button also has a blue LED in the middle, which blinks during boot-up and shutdown procedures:
In the lower left corner we can see the product logo:
On both left and right sides, the Synology logos act as intake grills:
In the back we have a single 92mm silent fan, but also one Reset button hole, two USB 2.0 ports, one LAN port, the DC-IN jack and a Kensington lock button:
On the bottom side of the enclosure we can see a small sticker with the power rating, which also shows how to open the enclosure (by sliding). Four large rubber feet help the unit to be stable on the surface we will put it on and in front there are some additional ventilation areas:
After the removal of the plastic cover, we will reveal the internals, which can hold two 3.5’’ HDDs; indeed, the unit does not come with 2.5’’ drive support from the start but for this we will have to buy some optional disk holders from Synology:
The bays have rubber grommets for avoiding vibration transmission to the rest of the chassis:
Besides the grommets, we also have extra rubber material on the inside of each bay:
The daughterboard with the SATA Data/Power connectors can be easily seen (Synology marks the top bay as being HDD1 and the bottom one HDD2:
We can also see nearby the 3-pin fan connector:
By removing only a few screws, we will also have access to the rest of the components; this model is equipped with a single-core 1.2Ghz processor (Marvell 6281) which is only cooled by a small heatsink:
Two Hynix H5TQ2G83CFR memory chips can be spotted which are rated at 1333Mhz and we have a total of 512MB:
A lithium Mitsubishi 3V CR2032 can be also spotted on the board, for retaining CMOS settings:
One extra connector is placed in the corner of the PCB, for communicating with the Power On/Off switch and LED:
The rest of the activity LEDs are SMD and can be found soldered onto the motherboard:
Here is an example of a 3.5’’ drive installed in the primary bay of the NAS:
The LEDs are not very bright, but pleasant to watch when the unit is during operation:
If all went fine with the initial power-up, if everything went fine, we should be able to detect the NAS in the Assistant list; if the unit is not detected, then we could have a problem with the drive initialization (Synology NASes work the best with unformatted drives; if the drive we are using was previously removed from a NAS from another manufacturer, we should connect it to a computer first and remove the extra partitions manually):
The setup procedure will imply specifying the DSM file we have previously downloaded:
Next we will be asked of the server name and password for the admin account:
The network configuration can be specified in the next page:
Finally, we will see the setup progress page which will take us to the various stages like media format, DSM installation and so on:
After the first stage of the setup has been completed, we can go to the DiskStation web page:
The DSM interface is familiar to us since we have looked upon it for a lot of times. The GUI is structured like a desktop from a regular operating system, so it is quite accessible for many, right from the beginning. On the left we will find icons for easy access of various applications, in the middle we have the Quick Start Wizard (Guide), and on the right there are some widgets displayed:
The next logical step would be to create a volume on the drives/drives; the wizard will help us pass through different steps:
A dialog prompt will remember us that all data on the disks will be erased during this procedure:
Next, we will have to select RAID type and if the NAS should perform a disk check after the volume creation:
A final dialog will show us the settings we have just modified:
Depending on the drive capacity and speed, the volume will be created slower or faster; after the creation has been completed, it will pass through an optimization procedure:
We will be able to access the NAS resources easier if we create shared folders; the next wizard will help us define some and also assign permissions for each user:
Let’s get a bit more in-depth with the DSM menu presentation. After accessing the web interface, we will be asked of the user name and password (initially we only have the admin account available, with the password set during the setup procedure):
As we have shown you the desktop interface during the initial setup section, we will jump right to the Control Panel area, where we can find a lot of options we can modify:
The Win/Mac/NFS section will allow us to enable different file services like WFS, Mac and so on:
The User section will allow us to customize the currently defined passwords, user groups, privileges, quota and speed limit for each user:
In the Shared Folder area, we will be able to define new directories on the specified volume, along with the respective privileges:
When we will need to access the NAS from outside, we will also have to configure options inside the Web services section:
DDNS service providers can be also specified in the next menu:
Inside the QuickConnect area, we will be able to set the server in such a way so the specified applications will be accessed without the need of configuring port forwarding rules of our router:
The Firewall and QoS menu from CP allows us to set rules, configure Traffic Control and customize other Security options for the current connections:
The Network menu will let us configure in detail the connection parameters:
From the DSM Settings menu, we will be able to choose a specific template for the Login page, but other miscellaneous options too:
Next we have the Regional Options from where can set the time zone, NTP service or language:
The Notification menu takes care of different types of, well, notifications, on email service, SMS or even Push:
The Hardware menu will allow us to modify some settings regarding fan control, sound signals, connected UPS systems, power schedule or HDD hibernation:
If we have printers or other external storage devices to the NAS, they will be shown here:
We can also update the DSM version in the next menu, automatically or manually:
The Media Indexing Service is useful for automatic scanning of multimedia files inside the preset folders:
We can also specify some conversion settings along with other folders which can be searched for multimedia content:
The Package Center is the first place to go in order to maximize the functionality of our Synology server. Here we will find the available applications which are grouped in specific categories:
The Resource Monitor section allows us to see live graphs regarding the CPU usage, Memory, Disk activity or Network traffic:
Besides that we have advanced details on the running processes, current connections and more:
The System Information tab will show us details regarding the installed CPU, total memory quantity, product serial number and more:
Here we will be also able to see more info regarding the network connection, storage configuration, running services and more:
Let’s also pass through some of the regular Synology apps; first we have the File Station, which makes the file browsing quite easy between volumes:
Here are some of the file operations we can perform with this application:
The Audio Station is a well-known application which has been improved continuously; after the media has been indexed, it will appear in the designated areas:
The application can be also run in a smaller version:
With Cloud Station we can how our very own private storage cloud, free of charge; we will be able to connect from everywhere to it by using the QuickConnect ID:
In order to access the Cloud Station, we need to install additional software on the computer, available on the Synology website:
The software will work in a similar way as with Dropbox, IDriveSync and co:
Next we have Download Station, which can be used for BitTorrent, HTTP, FTP, NZB protocols in order to perform downloads without the use of a computer:
For backup purposes, we can always install the Glacier backup utility, which is easy to use:
Media Server app will allow us to use the server in order to playback content on DLNA/UPnP digital media adapters:
PhotoStation can be used for organizing our images in different albums, which can be accessed with ease afterwards:
Video Station app is easy to use, it will search the video files inside the designated folders and provide additional info if necessary:
The video files/movies can be played back in a new browser window, via the integrated player:
We have some applications available for both iOS and Android platforms: DS File, DS Photo+, DS Audio, DS Video, DS Cloud. DS Audio can access with ease the server and will have similar functionality as the one inside the web interface:
Another example is DS Photo+ which can help us browse through our album collections:
CPU : Intel I7 3750K Retail @ 4.7GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 OC
RAM : GeIL EVO CORSA 16GB 2400MHz C11
Video : Sparkle GeForce GTX 560 Calibre
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11
Case: Cooler Master ATCS840
To test the NAS performances, the DS213j was populated with a single OCZ Vertex 4 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:
As extras, we have also included ATTO Disk Benchmark and Anvil:
Synology refreshes each year most of its previous releases by including more RAM, optimizing the enclosure and so on. The DS213j comes with a really light chassis which can be opened without difficulties but not without the use of screws. Compared to the more expensive variants, we do not have removable plastic trays so the drives need to be installed right inside the bays; however, the anti-vibration properties have not been lost, Synology including rubber grommets in the important areas.
The unit features only a single core CPU at 1.2GHz and while driving the costs down, we are also getting a power efficient unit for home use which can be left on 24/7. If we need to clean the fan once in a while, its blades are very accessible once the unit is opened up.
As usual, we get most of the DSM advantages with this unit, which is really user friendly and features installable apps for enhancing even more the product functionality. However, we have seen that the interface is not as snappy as on the more expensive variants, while the transfer speeds in our tests were quite good for a product meant for budget conscious people. The main apps are also brought in to mobile devices so we can access our server wherever we are.
What we really did miss out was the inclusion of the USB 3.0 ports, which we hope that Synology will include into the next revision.
The DS213j Synology NAS can be picked up online for about 175 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Synology for offering the sample for review.