Synology DiskStation DS1813+ Review

Synology release a wide range of NAS systems every year, and today we are looking at the DS 1813+ which has been designed from the ground up to cope with the demanding enterprise environment. The DS1813+ is built for speed, it incorporates a dual core processor and can scale with multiple DX512 expansion bays to support a total of 72TB of storage. The DS1813+ ships with four GB LAN ports, Link Aggregation Support and an expandable RAM Module, 2GB of DDR3 memory is installed in the factory with support for up to 4GB. Internally it can support 8x 4TB hard drives for up to 32TB storage and even has wireless support, if you invest in an additional dongle. DiskStation DS1813+ Highlights: 211.88 MB/sec Writing, 352.39 MB/sec Reading. Four LAN Ports with Link Aggregation Support. Scale up to 72TB with Synology DX513. Expandable RAM Module (Up to 4GB). CPU Passive Cooling Technology & System Fan Redundancy. VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V Ready. High Availability and Automatic Failover by SHA. Powered by Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM). The Synology DiskStation DS1813+ ships in a large branded box with the product information available via a sticker on the top. The DS1813+ is protected between foam and a plastic sheet. There is a peripherals box supplied which includes a regional specific power plug, drive mounting screws, a key for locking the bays and some lan cables. Synology software and an installation guide is also included. The unit itself is built to the standards we have come to expect from Synology, with a metal body housing the inner components. The rear of the unit has several USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA port, a power port, two fans, several USB 2.0 ports, 4 GB Lan ports and a reset button. The unit dimensions are 175x340x233 mm. The front fascia has a power switch and LED indicators for network and drive activity. The side panels have the company logo nicely engraved into the metal. Each of the eight drive bays can be pressed in for release and drive installation. Each bay can be locked with the supplied key, a necessary option given the business oriented environment. With all the drive bays removed, we can see the SATA daughtercard in all its glory, complete with 8 power and data connectors. The drive bays are well constructed and have the necessary holes for mounting 3.5 inch drives. The front locking mechanism of each bay is well made and should last a long time. Unfortunately Synology have opted for tough plastic for each of the drive bays, rather than metal. Removing the outer shell is easy enough and we can see the construction inside. Synology are using a high grade metal chassis for this unit which is the reason it weighs over 5kg. The motherboard is located on the side of the DS1813+, protected against the outer metal chassis by a plastic cover. There is a hole cut in it as there is a ram expansion slot here. There is a single SODIMM slot which can accept a 2GB module, to double the count from 2GB to 4GB. The power supply is vertically mounted at the side of the unit, and the power cable runs across the top of the chassis to the motherboard. Synology are using a 250W Delta power supply in the DS1813+. The dual core 2.13ghz processor is passively cooled, aided by the high air flow from the two large rear mounted fans. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. We have looked at the Synology DiskManager Operating System many times in the past. It is one of the finest operating systems on the market for a NAS system/server, and doesn’t need a high specification list of hardware to run well either. The multitasking support means that multiple tasks can be handled simultaneously. It is important to ensure that the newest software package is downloaded directly from the Synology website over here. It would take a dedicated indepth review to cover all of the options in this software, but we will skim some of the options which we have detailed in the DS713+ review a short while ago. Setting up a volume doesn’t take too long and the options available will vary depending on how many drives you have available. Options are available for single volumes on RAID, or Multiple volumes on RAID. With only one drive in our system we can only have a ‘BASIC’ setup. The screenshot above shows the other options however, Raid 1, Raid 5, Raid 5+Spare, Raid 6, Raid 10, JBOD and RAID 0. This stage of volume creation is important. If you are using an older drive which you aren’t sure about, it is best to use the longer disk check and select ‘Yes’. Be aware this can take a serious amount of time, as the system has to remap bad sectors, if found. The format process will vary depending on how many drives you are using and the RAID mode. When the drive is ready, the system health will change to indicate a ‘good status’. This is a new addition in the latest revision and will help inexperienced users who may find the wealth of settings confusing. It is important to set up a shared folder at this stage, so you can access the storage across your network from multiple computer systems. The main settings can be accessed from the control panel options at the top left. The NAS will also flag updates and alerts top right. The Package Center is the main area for downloading and updating the NAS, if you want to use third party software. This is a nice touch, although we found this panel rather slow to update for us. This section of the interface is expanding on a regular basis. The main control panel window gives access to the main settings and configuration options. These are all labelled clearly and easy to navigate and find. If you use a network of mixed devices then this panel is important, as you can configure Windows, Macintosh networking and the NFS service. FTP can be set up in a dedicated panel. We recommend you give the server a unique name. If you have several Synology NAS systems in the same network, they default to the same Diskstation name, which means your Windows network will only see one of them. The Control Panel has dedicated Media Indexing options. It can scan for multimedia files including videos, photos and music. The NAS system can be used for automated backing up of special folders. There is also the option to set a speed limit, if it has a negative impact. You can restart the NAS system automatically after failure and adjust the fan speed mode between three settings. External devices can be connected and accessed via this panel. USB printers can also be connected to the DS713+ NAS. The DiskManager software offers many applications for media and networking support. Photo station supports BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f image formats and 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3 video formats. The DNLA/UPnP Media Server can support both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg, Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless audio formats. 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR and WMA3 video formats. It also can handle BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f ) image formats. iTunes Server is also supported with MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF audio formats, M4V, MOV and MP4 video formats and M3U, WPL Playlist Format. Two printers can be hooked into the system supporting LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk and Multi Functional Print Server. If all this isn’t enough it also offers the following iPhone and Android applications.: DS Photo+, DS Audio, DS Cam, DS File (iPhone only) and DS finder (iPhone only). Survelliance station is a useful feature, especially for a business. Users can hook an IP camera into the unit. We have looked at this in detail before and if you missed it before you can read it here. We are using a slightly different configuration than we have in most of our other networking articles – this means that these results today are not comparable to our other NAS reviews (except the RS3411XS and RS3411XS - which are priced at the ultra high end and were actually limited by our network). We are basing our network around two linked Belkin 1Gbit switches with 4x Gbit LAN connections to the NAS. We are using three separate RAID 0 configurations across 6x1TB (3 x 2TB Raid 0) hard drives set into a 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation configuration. This enables multiple connections to be linked in parallel to increase the link speed beyond the limits of any one single cable or port and to increase the redundancy for higher availability. Most implementations now conform to what used to be clause 43 of IEEE 802.3-2005 Ethernet standard, usually still referred to by its working group name of “IEEE 802.3ad”. The definition of link aggregation has since moved to a standalone IEEE 802.1AX standard. We are opening 9 connections and copying 3 big files to each of the paired Raid 0 drive configurations. To try and mirror a business environment we set up three local machines with 120GB ADATA S511 SSD drives to ensure that no local drive limiting will be a problem. Each of these drives are transferring multiple files, back and forward. The total bandwidth score is around 329 MB/s, a little short of the 352MB/s claims from the company. Still, these are very good results. The bandwidth is significantly lower than both RS3411XS and RS3412RPxs which achieved around 500 MB/s across the same network. It is worth pointing out that both RS3411XS and RS3412RPxs were hampered by our network at the time, however they were noticeably faster than the DS1813+ even under limited conditions. We managed to achieve a total of 200 MB/s when writing to the RAID 0 drives. A very strong result. We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Noise was measured from half a meter away with 8x 1TB drives installed. Noise levels are reasonably low, even when the system is loaded. Obviously in a work environment, the DS1813+ is likely to be locked away in a dedicated, sealed air conditioned IT room. Even in an office environment, the noise emissions were perfectly acceptable. With 8x Samsung 1TB drives installed, the NAS took around 77 watts at the socket under load. This dropped to 35 watts when idle. To test temperatures we maintained a steady 23c via our room conditioning unit. The two fans are quite active, especially under load and the temperatures in the central section of the unit seemed slightly higher than on the sides. The Synology DiskStation DS1813+ is a well built, high performance NAS system that will suit many small, and medium sized businesses. As we would expect from Synology, the performance is excellent, achieving well over 300 MB/s sequential read in our own tests. These units are built to withstand long term abuse in a 24/7/365 environment with Link Aggregation and redundancy support, in case of problems. The dual fan cooling system works well, forcing a high level of air across all hard drives and expelling excess heat out the rear of the unit. The build quality is excellent, the metal chassis is sure to appeal to the demanding business audience and the key locking system will help enhance security. The only negative point would be the plastic drive bays, we really feel Synology should be using metal in their construction specifically at this price point. The device is snappy under intensive situations, even when copying a series of files to multiple hard drives. The 2.13ghz dual core processor is powerful enough to handle many requests simultaneously and the 2GB of DDR3 memory can be upgraded with an SO-DIMM to 4GB. Ideal if you find it is running low on memory over the course of a day. The DS1813+ can be picked up for around the £750 inc vat mark in the United Kingdom, but you need to factor in the cost of storage as well. Still, it offers reasonable value for money and will be more than capable of handling the daily duties of a small to medium sized business. Pros: great build quality. good performance. class leading operating software. link aggregation. redundancy support. expansion support. Cons: plastic drive trays. faces a lot of competition between £700 and £1,000. Kitguru says: An excellent NAS system, offering good value for money.