NAS by stefan @ 2013-12-02
The DS1513+ NAS from Synology comes with a redesigned enclosure which features removable fans, new screwless trays, 2GB of DDR3 RAM (with the possibility of upgrade to 4GB), an Intel Dual Core CPU at 2.13GHz and no less than four LAN ports with Link Aggregation support.
At first I would like to thank Synology for offering a sample of their DS1513+ 5-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."
Superior Performance
The Synology DS1513+ is built for speed. With dual core CPU and expandable RAM capacity, the DS1513+ is ideal for the mission critical tasks of SMBs as well as the most intensive applications from data-encryption to video-transcoding. With link aggregation, Synology DS1513+ can deliver up to an average 350.94 MB/sec reading and 202.34 MB/sec writing speed under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows® environment.
Resilient and Reliable
In addition to superior performance, the DS1513+ is built for reliability. Four LAN ports provide redundancy in the event of unexpected hardware failure while hot swappable drives also help to minimize system downtime during drive replacement. Furthermore, passive cooling technology eliminates the dependency upon a dedicated processor cooling fan. Should a fan fail, built-in redundancy mechanisms will spin up functional fan(s) to improve ventilation.
Uninterrupted availability is a critical goal for all businesses; however, many businesses worldwide still remain unprepared for disaster. Synology High Availability (SHA) can ensure seamless transition between clustered servers in the event of server failure with minimal impact to applications to decrease the risk of unexpected interruptions and costly downtime.
Unparalleled Flexibility
As your data storage needs grow, Synology’s DS1513+ can grow with you. The DS1513+ can be connected to dedicated expansion units for additional storage on the fly, growing capacity with minimal effort. When paired with two DX513 expansion units1 through specially designed eSATA connectors, raw capacity can be as high as 60 TB.
Feature-Rich Business Applications
Put your data to work with Synology’s DS1513+. With Windows ACL and LDAP support DS1513+ fits easily into any existing workgroup environment, providing detailed access control and efficient privilege settings. A wealth of SMB applications including printer sharing, VPN server, ERP software, mail server, web server, anti-virus, and network video surveillance, allows a single Synology DS1513+ to replace several pieces of traditional hardware and helps to maximize your productivity while keeping cost and effort to a minimum.
Easy Backup Solutions
To protect your critical business data, DS1513+ can become a centralized backup target for consolidating fragmented and unstructured information across your network through a range of options. PC users can backup to DS1513+ with Synology’s Data Replicator, while DS1513+ also fully supports Mac OS X®'s native Apple® Time Machine®. Synology’s own backup wizard can back up information to another Synology NAS or any rsync server, with the option of using an encrypted connection, or to an external hard drive via USB 3.0 or eSATA. The wizard can also back up your information to the cloud, including Amazon® S3, Glacier, and STRATO HiDrive.
iSCSI and Virtualization Ready
With the iSCSI support in DSM, the Synology DS1513+ provides a seamless storage solution for virtualization servers, such as VMware, Hyper-V, and Citrix.It is the ideal alternative to SAN solution for businesses. Affordable and costeffective,iSCSI allows SMB users to consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts with the illusion of locally-attached disks.
Energy Efficient Design
Synology DiskStation are designed and developed with energy efficiency in mind. Compared with the average PC counterparts, Synology DS1513+ consumes only 51 watts in operation. Wake on LAN/WAN and scheduled power on/off features can further reduce power consumption and operation costs. HDD hibernation can be configured to take effect automatically when the system has been inactive for a specified period of time to save energy and extend hard disk life. All Synology products are produced with RoHS compliant parts and packed with recyclable packing materials. Synology acknowledges the responsibility of a global citizen and works continually to reduce the environmental impact of every product.
The 5-bay DS1513+ NAS from Synology is shipped in a pretty standard medium-sized cardboard box with no fancy artwork on the outside. The box is provided with a plastic handle for easy manipulation:
On one of the box sides we will get to see a sticker which lists the hardware specifications, package contents, main product features but also supported languages:
After lifting the top cover, we will get to see some hints from the manufacturer regarding the firmware download page and support links:
The NAS is carefully protected inside the box with a thick layer of protective foam, while in the middle we will get to see the accessories enclosure:
We were used to finding a power brick through the Synology NAS bundles but this time it is not the case since the power supply is enclosed; besides the power lead we will get four LAN cables, keys for locking the trays but also screws for installing 2.5’’ drives:
Besides these we will get a leaflet regarding GNU General Public License and a Welcome note:
The unit is further wrapped inside a bag to avoid any development of scratches:
The design of the DS1513+ NAS is completely different compared to the DS412+, DS413 variants we have taken a look upon in the past. The chassis comes with a black metallic cover while the front is built from plastic:
Synology has preserved a clean and professional look without using different colors or fancy LCD displays; on the top we have the activity LEDs while in the middle we have a LED-lighted power button:
Coming from the left side we will get to see the Status and Alert LEDs; the small triangles on the top of each tray represent the HDD/SSD activity LEDs:
On the right we will get to see the LAN activity LEDs for each port:
On the lower area of the trays we have the locks:
The bottom right corner has the NAS code name printed in white:
The back side of the NAS is populated with many ports, while in the middle we have two 80mm quiet fans:
To the left we will be able to see the recessed power connector:
Further down we have one Kensington Lock port, the first eSATA port along with an USB 3.0 port:
In the middle we have a sticker with the list of MACs for each LAN port and to its right we will get to see the secondary USB 3.0 port:
Next to the right we will find the secondary eSATA port:
On the right side we have four USB 2.0 ports, four LAN but also a Reset button:
Unlike any NAS server we have reviewed before, the DS1513+ comes with removable fans which facilitate easy cleaning. In order to reach it we will have to remove the top and bottom screws:
After the fan is accessible, we can see that it can be also removed from the electrical board with ease:
On the sides we have a Synology logo which also doubles up as a ventilation grill:
If we look on the bottom of the unit we will see four large rubber feet:
An extra connector can be also spotted here:
The trays have been redesigned this time while still being able to house both 3.5’’ and 2.5’’ drives; the trays are made of plastic but of good quality and have vibration dampening properties thanks to the rubber grommets on the sides:
For 3.5’’ drives we do not need to use screws in order to fix them properly; this time around we have some extra lateral covers with plastic pins which hold the drives in place:
After we have removed the lateral cover of the tray, we will be able to see that the design is similar on this side to the older version:
After removing the top cover of the NAS, we will spot the second time a clean design of the manufacturer; the motherboard is located on the left side while the power supply is placed on the right:
The 240W PSU was built by Delta Electronics:
While we have 2GB of DDR3 RAM preinstalled, Synology permits us to install an extra of 2GB by using the SODIMM slot on the back side of the motherboard:
We will have to note that when installing a 2.5’’ drive inside a tray, we will have to remove the right plastic cover because otherwise the HDD/SSD won’t fit in its location cause of the plastic pins:
After powering up the NAS, we can navigate to the Synology Download page in order to get the latest DSM version along with the Synology Assistant application, which facilitates the Diskstation setup:
Synology Assistant will first search for the NAS on the network and display its current status, along with the IP address, MAC, previously installed DSM version and model code number:
In order to setup the NAS, we will have to locate the file we have just downloaded from the website:
Next we will be prompted to enter a new password for the default admin account, along with a custom server name:
Synology Assistant will then start to apply the actions and show a progress bar:
When the setup is completed, we will be able to “Log in to DSM”:
The web page will prompt us for the admin account and the password we have just set:
DSM looks like a regular desktop GUI, which is easy to use and the wizard can be used in order to set up the first or multiple volumes along with shared folders:
From the Volume Creation Wizard menu, we will be able to build a new RAID setup or single independent volume on each drive we have installed:
DSM will then ask us to create a single volume or multiple volumes on the RAID setup:
The disks we will use need to be selected at the next step:
Depending on the number of drives we have installed, multiple RAID modes will be available for selection:
A disk check can be performed on the drives if needed:
Next we will have to confirm the actions in order to start the build procedure:
After the Volume creation has been completed, we can see the current status inside Storage Manager:
For accessing the NAS via SMB we will also have to create one or multiple shared folders on the volume we have just created:
The last step would be to set permissions for the shared folder:
From the Control Panel section we will be able to alter most of the system-wide options:
Win/Mac/NFS section allows enabling file services for Windows, Mac and also the NFS service:
Miscellaneous FTP service options can be altered inside the next menu:
The User menu allows specifying new users besides the default “admin”, specify the user “Home” folder, but also adjust the password settings:
We can also specify user Groups:
The Shared Folder section will allow us to create new ones, each with its own permissions:
For specific applications we will have to enable Web Services:
DDNS services can be specified inside the next menu:
QuickConnect is an interesting feature of the DSM which allows accessing DiskStation features without configuring port forwarding rules via the router:
In order to configure the network settings in more detail, we will have to access the specific menu:
The initial login page can be further customized and besides that we can configure the http/https connection along with various security settings:
From the Regional Options menu, we will be able to set the current date/time, GUI language or enable the NTP service:
Notifications can be also configured from the next menu like E-mail, SMS or even Push:
From the Hardware section we can configure options regarding Power management, Fan speed, Beep control, connected UPS settings, Power Schedule but also HDD Hibernation:
External storage devices and connected printers will show up inside the “Devices and Printers” menu:
If a compatible Bluetooth dongle is connected, it will also show up inside the next menu:
The Restore to Factory defaults settings are multiple, as we have seen with the QNAP QTS:
DSM can be easily updated via the interface automatically or manually. When Manual update is selected, we must prompt to the firmware file location:
For the Media Indexing Service we have some predefined folders where scanning will occur, but we can always add additional ones at will:
We can also specify file conversion settings:
Our Diskstation can be again backup to another server so our data will be even safer:
Certain shared folders can be synchronized via the specific service:
Remote Time Backup tasks can be performed for storing multiple versions of backup data on the Diskstation:
Certain tasks can be also programmed inside the next menu:
File Station app can be used for performing various file operations inside our NAS:
Storage Manager app we have presented before and here we can create new volumes, manage Hot Spare, SSD caches and more:
Package Center is the place where we can search for and install new applications for adding more functionality to our server:
The applications are split into different categories:
Resource Monitor app has multiple tabs from where we can monitor the current CPU usage status, memory occupancy, disk activity, but also network traffic:
The currently running processes can be found in the next tab:
We also have a separate tab for watching the currently connected users to the DSM:
From the System Information section, we can also access multiple tabs for accessing hardware/software information, Network configuration status, Storage information, enabled services and also reports:
Audio Station is one of the well-known DSM applications and with it we can playback audio content from our NAS, but also Internet Radio via ShoutCast and RadioIO services:
Cloud Station helps us sync multiple files between computers and we can also keep previous versions of each file for easy access. In order to benefit from this service we will also have to download and install the Cloud Station application from the website:
Download Station supports multiple protocols and we can search for content from inside the application:
If we install the Media Server app, we will be able to stream and play multimedia content on a wide range of devices with access to the network:
Photo Station 5 will allow us to nicely organize our photo collection into different albums:
After the photo conversion has been completed, we can also run slideshows:
Video Station is a multi-purpose application which allows us to playback video from different sources; the known movies and TV shows will be indexed and shown with details from the web:
The video files can be started right from the browser
Synology software also extends to mobile devices and regarding this we could remind of DS Finder, which shows information regarding the currently connected NAS, network configuration information, but also storage details. In order to be able to connect to the server we will need to supply the credentials:
Next we can explore our audio collection with the help of DS Audio app:
With DS Photo+ we will be able to watch our newly created photo albums, including slideshows:
We also have a file manager available with the name of DS File:
Various operations can be performed with the help of the application:
CPU : Intel I7 3750K Retail @ 4.7GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 OC
RAM : GeIL EVO CORSA 16GB 2400MHz C11
(2GB Exceleram DDR1333 for NASPT compatibility)
Video : Sparkle GeForce GTX 560 Calibre
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD
Case: Cooler Master ATCS840
To test the NAS performances, the DS1513+ NAS was populated with two SSDs, one OCZ Vertex 4 SSD and also the KingFast 128GB SLC SSD in RAID0, 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:
The DS1513+ NAS from Synology is another impressive product which sports five bays with redesigned plastic trays and the usual Intel Atom Dual Core CPU at 2.13Ghz along with 2GB of RAM. The memory can be upgraded up to 4GB if needed by simply removing the top cover and inserting an extra module on the back of the motherboard PCB. The server can be extended via expansion unit in order to include a maximum of 15 drives and 4 Gigabit LAN ports are to be found in the back which support LAN aggregation. The cooling system is composed of two silent 80mm fans placed in the back side of the unit which are fixed on metallic frames; these metallic frames are user-removable and allow an easy cleaning process, unlike other units we have seen in the past.
This is the first NAS from Synology we are reviewing and comes with an internal power supply (the other ones came with external power bricks) which is rated at 200W.
While the NAS has maxed-out the LAN port we have performed the tests on, inside the tech lab Synology have obtained no less than 202.34 MB/s writes and 350.94MB/s reads with Link Aggregation feature enabled.
DSM is still one of the most friendly server user interfaces we have seen and supports regular upgrades from time to time. We have tools for the NAS management, File Sharing, Backup, Multimedia, Mobile Support, Business Applications, Data Safety, Virtualization & iSCSI, Network and Server Management. The Cloud-ready feature will permit us to create a private storage space to sync data between devices, without relying on an expensive third-party provider.
What we would like to see at a future revision would be the inclusion of a HDMI port in order to use the NAS as a media center, a feature that has been embraced by other companies like QNAP or ASUSTOR.
The Synology DS1513+ can be picked up online for about 714 Euros, which does not make it very affordable for home use, but for SMB it should not be an issue.
We would like to thank again to Synology for offering the sample for review.