Synology DiskStation DS213+ Hardware Review
Synology's 2-bay NAS units have consistently performed well in our tests.?Today we are looking at the latest offering from the company, the DS213+, a high performance 2-bay NAS full-featured storage solution for small and medium businesses.
Unboxing
Our DS213+ unit arrived safely packaged in a fresh green and white box with a prominent Synology logo on it. Synology products are produced with RoHS compliant parts and packed with recyclable packing materials.
Bundled with the DS213+ chassis you will find the following included items:
- AC adapter
- Ethernet cable
- Software Installation CD for PC and Mac
- Synology Quick Start Guide
- HDD mounting screws (used to screw the hard disk drives into the bays)
First Impressions
The DS213+ features a black glossy removable front-panel on a mat-black chassis. In vertical order the LED's and ports available on the front are:
- Status LED
- LAN LED
- Disk 1 LED
- Disk 2 LED
- SD card port
- USB 2.0 port
- C copy button
- Power button
The green C copy button allows the user to quickly backup data from a connected USB storage device or inserted SD card to the DiskStation.
Simply push the copy button on the front panel and all files will be copied to the specific shared folder on the DiskStation.
A quick look on the back of the unit shows a 90mm exhaust fan which does a good job of keeping the DiskStation cool while remaining quiet.
Two USB 3.0 ports, RJ45 Gigabit LAN port, Kensington lock, eSATA port, and the AC connector and a label with the mac address and serial number.
Technical Specifications
| CPU | Dual Core 1.067 GHz |
| Memory | DDR3 512 MB |
| Internal HDD/SSD | 3.5″ or 2.5″ SATA(II) X2 (Hard drive not included) |
| Max Internal Capacity | 8TB (2X 4TB HDD) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) (See All Supported HDD) |
| External HDD Interface | USB 3.0 Port X 2, USB 2.0 Port X 1, SD Card Port X 1, eSATA Port X 1 |
| Size (HxWxD) | 165 X 108 X 233.2 mm |
| Weight | 1.25Kg |
| LAN | Gigabit X1 |
| Noise Level | 19.9 dB(A) |
| Warranty | 2 Years |
The Synology DiskStation DS213+ is a convenient light-weight yet powerful NAS server for business or home use. Powered by a low energy, dual-core CPU, explicitly a Freescale P1002 (PowerPC based), which integrates a security engine that supports all popular encryption algorithms.
For those that like details, we thought it would be fitting to mention, the power adaptor for this unit is made by EDACPOWER with a model # EA10721A-120 (12V 6A DC) and an input voltage rating of 100-240V. Lastly, the unit comes with a standard two-years warranty, and a somewhat hefty price tag.
Synology DS213+ HDD Installation
The storage capacity theoretically can reach 8 TB even though RAID levels are restricted by the two hot-swap HDDs.
Conclusion
Last year we've reviewed the?Synology DS212 Network Storage Appliance?with similar results. The Synology DS213+ is easy to setup right out of the box, no complicated installations, no hassle software. Because of its dual core processor this unit runs the entire system resourcefully and swiftly. Even though it's on the costly side, it does have its own bonuses, i.e. it's hibernation function, low energy consumption, updated (Version 4.1) DiskStation Manager operating system. The two hard disk storage bays in the DS213+ should be more than enough for most users but the lack of additional disk space could be a factor in business environments where RAID 5 or RAID 6 (which requires more than two disks) are often preferred for high data redundancy.
