Synology’s DiskStation DS1813+ ($1,000 street) is the updated version of the already praise-worthy DiskStation DS1812+. The new model is also an eight-bay standalone desktop unit with a whopping storage capacity of up to 32TB. Synology raises the bar for the prosumer/SMB NAS space, with excellent write speeds and the second-highest read speeds I’ve seen in testing with ixSystems FreeNAS Mini edging it out on reads, just slightly.

Even better, the NAS has updated its software and interface, and its feature set is even more impressive than that of the DS1812+. The device can also do double duty as an affordable SAN solution, one that is compatible with virtualization and can handle multiple domains in a business environment. Disk recovery and fault-tolerance is still solid, with Synology Hybrid Raid. The DS1813+ is a five-star Editor’s Choice for SMB NASes.

Specs
The DS1813+ ships with a dual-core 2.13 GHz Intel Atom processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM which is expandable up to 4GB (memory specs have been bumped up from the DS1812+’s default 1GB,/3GB maximum), and 8 drive bays that support 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA II or III hard disk drives as well as SSD. The number of drive bays can be upped to 18 with a Synology expansion unit providing a storage capacity of up to 72TB.

The drives are hot-swappable. The unit has two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, and two eSATA connections. The DS1813+ has an impressive four Gigabit LAN ports versus the DS1812+’s twin ports. The casing hasn’t changed from that of the 1812+ model except for the two additional LEDs that correspond to the activity of the two additional Ethernet ports. There is also an LED for “Status” and “Alert,” as well as a power button on the front of the device. Each disk bay has its own LED; when it’s green, the drive is in working order.

The DS1813+ ran cool and quietly during the course of testing, despite having dual fans (which are replaceable).

Setup and Interface
Setup of the 1813+ varies a bit from that of the DS1812+. There is no included disk. There is a small booklet included in the packaging which instructs users in installing disks, connecting the NAS to a network and then firing up a browser to http://find.synology.com. This address loads Synology’s Web Assistant, which will detect the DiskStation on the network. Web Assistant replaces the Synology Assistant desktop application. The Web app detected the DS1813+ I had connected to my test network and displayed within a browser window the device’s model name, IP address, MAC address, and status. It also showed me a Connect button. Clicking this button takes you to the DiskStation Manager version 4.2, the DS1813+’s software interface. Synology recently released version 4.3, I updated my testing unit this version from the interface. The new version has several new features that I’ll detail below.

Configuration and Features

Configuration and Features
DiskStation Manager opens to a Quick Start wizard which you can bypass and go right into the settings to configure. Otherwise, the wizard will walk you through initial NAS configuration tasks including creating volumes and RAID, creating shares, setting up users, and more.

The home screen also features a System Health widget which details the overall status of the device, a Resource Monitor, and a system activity log.

The DS1813+ can function as a file, print, backup, mail, FTP, and Web server. The features are extended through a number of packages that support IP camera surveillance, directory services, VPN, DHCP, antivirus protection, media server, photo management, iTunes server, BitTorrent and more. I believe that with DiskStation Manager 4.3, this is the most abundant offering of packages I’ve seen in Synology’s Download Center.

This device supports multiple protocols and enterprise features including CIFS (SMB), AFP, NFS, FTP, WebDAV, iSCSI, Telnet, SSH, SMNP and VPN. Security options include FTP over SSL/TLS, IP Auto-Block, Firewall, and encrypted backup over Rsync.

The device also supports IPv6, virtualization (it’s Hyper-V, VMware, and Citrix certified) as well as UPS management, Windows ACLs, and integration with Active Directory services. With the updated DiskStation Manager 4.3, there is now support for trusted domains, so the DS1813+ will allow you to manage and integrate users in multiple domains.

DSM 4.3 offers an enhanced Cloud Station, a downloadable package that along with Synology’s ezCloud service, lets you easily sync files between multiple computers and the NAS. It’s a handy way to remotely access data and is available for smartphones. Synology states the service is faster and now you can choose which documents and other files to sync across devices. Cloud Station is also available for Linux users.

Drive Recovery
As with most NASes in this class, the DiskStation DS1813+ supports S.M.A.R.T, a technology to help detect impending disk failure. Fault tolerance is achieved with Synology’s Hybrid RAID (SHR) which helps to keep data integrity in case of disk failure. SHR optimizes space, but you can also configure JBOD, RAID 0, 1 5, 6, 10.

Disk groups let you combine one or more physical disks into different RAID levels. You can create as many volumes on a disk group as you want. For scalability, the volume size expands in DSM as long as there is available space on the disk group. Not following the RAID details? Check out my Guide to RAID Levels.

I was impressed with how well the DS1812+ can perform drive and system recovery, and I had the same experience with the DS1813+ pulling a drive and hot-swapping another. Recovery was spot-on and my data remained intact.

The DS1813+ provided excellent Write speeds at 72 MBps, just a tad under the DS1812+ at 83 MBps. The DS1813+ excelled also at Reads at 108 MBps.

Here’s how the DS1812+ stacked up against NASes in its class:
Synology DiskStation I/O Performance Comparison Benchmarks

Another DiskStation Hit
With beefier specs including four Gigabit Ethernet ports and updated software that supports High Availability, full link aggregation, mobile app support, an expanded app store, and other great features, Synology once again knocks it out of the NAS ballpark

This powerful, user-friendly small business NAS is well worth the $1,000 price, although, with memory prices fairly low, I would like to see Synology push the NAS envelope even further and ship with 4GB of RAM by default. As is, the DiskStation DS1813+ is a five out of five star NAS and Editors’ Choice for SMB NASes.