Synology has been on a tear lately, with product launches happening in quick succession. Approximately a month back, we had the launch of the 2013 2-bay lineup (DS213 and DS213+). The 4-bay lineup (DS413 and DS413j) was launched on September 18th. Today, we have the launch of two products targeting different market segments.

DS2413+

The DS2413+ is the first the latest 12-bay tower form factor NAS from Synology in the standard business product lineup. Along with the optional DX1211, users can have up to 24 bays at their disposal. With a passively cooled CPU design and dual GbE LAN with failover support and hot-swappable drives, reliability and uptime get an added boost. With link aggregation, Synology claims speeds of up to 201.03 MBps reads and 196.87 MBps writes under RAID5. Though Synology didn't confirm the specifics, the NAS is probably based on the Intel Atom D2700 platform which has two cores running at 2.13 GHz.

The business oriented features of the DS2413+ include VAAI for improved VMware support, LUN backup software and ADS support for domains up to 100K users/ groups. Synology also takes special care to point out the photographer-friendly features and packages available for the DS2413+.

The DS2413+ is available for purchase today and is priced at $1700.

DS213air

The DS213air is one of the innovative products to grace the NAS market this year. In their quest to offer differentiating features, Synology seems to have found an interesting niche. The DS213air is based on the DS213 platform (Marvell Kirkwood based 2-bay NAS). It integrates a single band (2.4 GHz) 802.11n radio (we are awaiting clarification on the exact speeds - 150 Mbps / 300 Mbps / 450 Mbps. Update: It is an Atheros-based 2x2 configuration) on-board.

The 802.11n radio can be used in multiple ways:

  • Wireless hotspot: When connected over Ethernet to a router / switch, the DS213air can be configured as a wireless hotspot to provide Wi-Fi capability in the network.
  • Wireless router: When connected directly to the modem through Ethernet, the DS213air can act as a wireless router to provide Wi-Fi access to various wireless devices.
  • Wi-Fi client: The radio can also be used to connect the NAS to the network wirelessly (freeing up the Ethernet port). This is unlikely to be a usage mode for most users since Wi-Fi reach / reliability will never match up to what can be obtained through a wired connection.

The other specifications are similar to that of the DS213 launched last month. The DS213air is available for purchase today and is priced at $307.

 

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  • krabe - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link

    "The DS2413+ is the first 12-bay tower form factor NAS from Synology in the standard business product lineup." The DS2411+ preceded it.
  • UpSpin - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link

    The price for the DS2413+ is just crazy. How do they justify such a high price? The thing consists of a PSU, a case, HDD bays and the mainboard, maybe a custom made, so make it twice as expensive as a consumer model. So you're at maybe $500 total. Add a custom software on top of it, research costs and profit and you end at max. $1000.
  • webmastir - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link

    In all fairness, DSM is a solid piece of work. I give them credit for making a very nice UI.
  • bill.rookard - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link

    considering it contains no drives at all. If you think about the basics of what they're offering, it's the equivalent of an Atom motherboard with 4 SATA ports ($100), 2 extra 4 port SATA PCI/PCI-e cards ($15 each), a case ($50), a PSU ($50), and software. Looking at the basic parts cost (ok, customization aside), you're still looking at $250-$300 in parts at FULL RETAIL price - let alone what they might get in volume discounting.

    That means they're looking at over $1000 for the software?

    Before the Thailand floods, I could have built something like that AND populated it with 2TB drives for that price, then dropped FreeNAS in and called it a day. And it would have sported a much more powerful processor than an Atom 2700 for any software add-ons I wanted.
  • no stress - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link

    what processor are you thinking about?

    keep in mind, many dont want a more powerfull processor, but instead they want a more power efficient processor.

    ps. i got a DS409+ with 4*2TB and it rocks. i can recommend it as the best NAS i ever had
  • ap90033 - Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - link

    I think you are full of it. I have tried to price a decent matching system and have not come close to the pricing you state. Plus all the headache with making sure it works with freenas or whatever.
  • MichaelD - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - link

    The 2413+ is a little pricey, but...the software/UI is solid and performance looks good. They wisely included dual gigabit LAN with failover, but where they really failed is in the PS. Why no redundant PS? This is an enterprise-level device, no doubt. And no redundant power? For a device in this class AND at this price, that is a huge oversight IMO. For less than the price of the 2413+ I can buy a 15-drive SAS/SATA backplane/SAS expander with redundant PSU and slave it to any number of devices that support a PCI-E SAS/SATA RAID card and have way more capability than this offers.

    But I understand the general target market for this device: SMB/SOHO. Many of these devices will be shoved in a closet with no HVAC b/c "it makes too much noise", where the heat will kill drives and eventually the PS. For non-mission-critical data, this thing on a good AVR UPS will make a good storage solution. You wouldn't catch me putting any of my DBs on here though.
  • DanMandor - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - link

    A system like the DS2413+ is used in an IT environment, and trust me, Synology SAN's and NAS's are worth every penny you put into them. But you aren't just paying for the product, you're paying for support as well. Any time we have issues with Synology gear, we have them in SSH sessions within a matter of hours and the issue fixed typically within a day. Sure, you can custom build something for that price. But after building, configuring, testing and the works, it's not worth the time. You want to throw an expander onto these things? Just plug it in and go. Show me a custom build that has all external 3.5" drives hot-swappable with RAID rebuild without reboot and infiniband expansion for not only a price that's comparable, but also the same end experience.

    When you're in IT, you really don't want to waste your time messing around with something that takes you hours to put together, get up and running, and stress tested. You pay a premium for equipment that comes ready to go with a solid warranty. 12 drive expander? Plug it in and go. I'm sorry, but you just can't beat that. No having to do major configurations other than spending the couple of minutes creating your shares and you're good to go. You can't even consider touching that without huge amounts of testing and equipment.
  • jramskov - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - link

    "Synology also takes special care to point out the photographer-friendly features and packages available for the DS2413+."

    Anyone able to expand on that?
  • Gr8Ape - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - link

    this looks like it: http://www.synology.com/dsm/dsm_app.php?lang=enu (Photo Station)
    <em>Photo Station is an online photo album integrated with a blog for you to easily share photos, videos, and blog over the Internet. The package offers in-depth integration with various social networking sites. You can browse photos saved on your DiskStation via any major browser and mobile devices.</em>

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