Manufacturer: Synology Price: $ 1100 US Author: Steven Walton Date: 09/10/2013

[ Introduction ]

Today we are checking out the DiskStation DS1813+ from Synology. The DS1813+ is powered by an Intel Atom D2700 dual-core processor and features a 2GB memory buffer with a potential storage capacity of 72TB. With the recent release of the DSM 4.3 software the DS1813+ now supports SSD caching and this is a feature we are keen to check out... Synology now offers an extensive range of DSx13 series NAS devices covering 2-bay, 4-bay, 5-bay, 8-bay and 12-bay models. They have also used a wide range of processors covering options from Intel, Marvell and Freescale. The flagship Intel Atom D2700 models include the 2-bay DS713+, 5-bay DS1513+, 8-bay DS1813+ and the 12-bay DS2413+. All models with the exception of the DS713+ come loaded with 2GB of memory and all can support external expansion units such as the DX513. Having now reviewed all Atom based models, with the exception of the DS1813+, it was time to review this late model in the DSx13 series. That said, with the DS1813+ being almost identical to the DS1513+, with the exception of a few extra drive bays, we held off with our review until the DSM 4.3 software was officially released. Back when we tested the DS1513+ in July Synology had just released the 4.2 version which brought about a number of improvements. With version 4.3 we again find a number of improvements as well as some exciting new features. Synology has officially added TRIM support for SSD’s which is great news for those hoping to create ultra-fast volumes. Yet even more exciting is the support for SSD caching which allows for the use of high-speed SSDs to speed up large hard drive volumes. SSD caching is a feature we plan to test extensively in all of our benchmarks to see how much improvement can be made to hard drive volumes. Of course we will also run our typical battery of tests using Western Digital’s Red hard drive series.

Table of Contents >>> Introduction <<< Synology DS1813+ Internal Hardware DSM 4.3 - SSD Caching NAS Installation Test System & Power Consumption Benchmarks: File Download Performance Benchmarks: SSD Caching Performance Benchmarks: File Upload Performance Benchmarks: File Copy Performance Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark 3.0 Benchmarks: Atto Disk Benchmark Conclusion Next Page ->

zoidberg

Posted on: 09/11/2013 09:26 PM I have been looking everywhere for info on the ssd caching so thank you. It does not look like its worth it at the moment.

FireStone

Posted on: 09/21/2013 11:04 AM Thank you for going to some much effort with the SSD cache testing and for including as much info as you could. For months I have been all over the Synology forums trying to find out exactly what was included in this review. Shame after all that its a bit of a let down

Gabi

Posted on: 09/23/2013 01:54 PM Hi, Thanks for this review. I was concerned that it was two disks for the SSD cache, I then looked online at other documentation and your facts had confirmed that. I raised the query with Synology and they now state that only 1 disk is actually required. This was their reply. "You don't need to use 2 anymore. 2 SSDs were required when caching was exclusive to the RS10613xs+. Our WP needs updating." Could this be correct? Thanks, Gabi

Steven Walton Posts: 104 Joined: 2010-02-08

Posted on: 09/24/2013 04:58 AM That certainly wasn't the case when we tested, I will look into this. There is no reason why they couldn't do this so I do expect to see if in a future firmware update.

Jordan

Posted on: 04/30/2014 11:38 AM Any plans to retest this setup using DSM 5.0? Apparently, the SSD cache is now a write cache as well (though it still requires two drives).