Last year we had an opportunity to review Synology’s DiskStation DS416j, a Network Attached Storage device. We liked every aspect of this device and based on the benchmarks and in depth discoveries gave a highest rating we could. This year Synology is releasing a newer model of 'J' series, DS418j. DS418j is a physical replica of DS416j however, internal components has been improved drastically to improve performance and features. Our friends at Synology has provided us with a DS418j for evaluation. Review Sample Provided by: Synology Product Name: DS418j Product was given in exchange for work done to produce this review. Packaging Packaging of DS418j is recycle friendly. The shipping box is plain with just a sign of DiskStation on the front. Internal packaging consists of plastic foam that holds everything together and a plastic bag that keeps DS418j unit free from accidental scratches and dust. Just like DS416j, Synology included all that you are going to need to get up and running in no time. What is helpful with all of the Synology NAS products is the Quick Installation Guide which is included. In the image above you can see few bags of screws (for HDD and SSD), power brick, power cord and Ethernet cable. Supported drives that could be used in DS418j are 3.5" SATA HDD, 2.5" SATA HDD and 2.5" SATA SSD. Specifications Basic to RAID 1 Basic to RAID 5 RAID 1 to RAID 5 RAID 5 to RAID 6 Hardware Specifications CPU CPU Model Realtek RTD1293 CPU Architecture 64-bit CPU Frequency Dual Core 1.4 GHz Hardware Encryption Engine Memory System Memory 1 GB DDR4 Storage Drive Bays 4 Compatible Drive Type*(See all supported drives) 3.5" SATA HDD 2.5" SATA HDD 2.5" SATA SSD Maximum Internal Raw Capacity 40 TB (10 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) Maximum Single Volume Size 108 TB Notes "Compatible drive type" indicates the drives that have been tested to be compatible with Synology products. This term does not indicate the maximum connection speed of each drive bay. The maximum single volume size is not directly related to the maximum raw capacity. (Learn more) External Ports RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port 1 USB 3.0 Port 2 File System Internal Drives EXT4 External Drives EXT4 EXT3 FAT NTFS HFS+ exFAT* Notes exFAT Access is purchased separately in Package Center. Appearance Size (Height x Width x Depth) 184 mm x 168 mm x 230 mm Weight 2.21 kg Others System Fan 80 mm x 80 mm x 2 pcs Fan Speed Mode Full-Speed Mode Cool Mode Quiet Mode Low-power Mode Brightness adjustable front LED indicators Power Recovery Noise Level* 20.6 dB(A) Scheduled Power On/Off Wake on LAN/WAN Power Supply Unit / Adapter 90W AC Input Power Voltage 100V to 240V AC Power Frequency 50/60 Hz, Single Phase Power Consumption* 21.22 W (Access) 8.97 W (HDD Hibernation) British Thermal Unit 72.41 BTU/hr (Access) 30.61 BTU/hr (HDD Hibernation) Environment Temperature Operating Temperature 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F) Storage Temperature -20°C to 60°C (-5°F to 140°F) Relative Humidity 5% to 95% RH Certification FCC Class B CE Class B BSMI Class B Warranty 2 Years Notes Power consumption is measured when fully loaded with Western Digital 1TB WD10EFRX hard drive(s). DSM Specifications Storage Management Maximum Internal Volume Number 256 Maximum iSCSI Target Number 10 Maximum iSCSI LUN 10 Supported RAID Type Synology Hybrid RAID Basic JBOD RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10 RAID Migration Volume Expansion with Larger HDDs Synology Hybrid RAID RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 Volume Expansion by Adding a HDD Synology Hybrid RAID RAID 5 JBOD Global Hot Spare Supported RAID Type Synology Hybrid RAID RAID 1 RAID 5 SSD Support SSD TRIM File Sharing Capacity Maximum Local User Accounts 1024 Maximum Local Groups 256 Maximum Shared Folder 256 Maximum Shared Folder Sync Tasks 2 Maximum Concurrent CIFS/AFP/FTP Connections 100 Windows Access Control List (ACL) Integration NFS Kerberos Authentication Log Center Syslog Events per Second 100 Add-on Packages (learn more about the complete add-on package list) Chat Maximum Users 10 Notes The number of concurrent HTTP connections for Chat was configured to the maximum. CPU and RAM usage were both under 80% when the number of maximum users was reached. Cloud Station Server Maximum Number of Concurrently Connected Devices 100 Maximum Number of Synced Files (ext4) 100,000 / single file reaction time 789 ms Notes The maximum number of concurrently connected devices refers to the maximum number of devices that can remain connected at the same time. For more information on file processing capability, please refer to the reaction time for file processing. File reaction time refers to the preparation time required for other devices to start downloading a 1KByte file from a Synology NAS after the file has been added to the NAS. RAM expansion was not used during testing. Non-encrypted shared folders were used during the aforementioned testing. Download Station Maximum Concurrent Download Tasks 30 exFAT Access (optional) Media Server DLNA Compliance Office Maximum Users 10 Maximum Simultaneous Editing Users 10 Notes CPU and RAM usage were both under 80% when the number of maximum users was reached. For tested models with expandable memory, the maximum amount of RAM was installed. Client performance may affect maximum simultaneous editing users. Client PCs used for testing: Intel Core i3-3220 / 8GB RAM Surveillance Station Maximum IP cam (Licenses required) 16 (including 2 Free License) (See All Supported IP Cameras) Total FPS (H.264)* 480 FPS @ 720p (1280x720) 240 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 150 FPS @ 3M (2048x1536) 100 FPS @ 5M (2591x1944) Total FPS (MJPEG)* 224 FPS @ 720p (1280x720) 150 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 100 FPS @ 3M (2048x1536) 60 FPS @ 5M (2591x1944) Notes Surveillance Station throughput is tested with Axis network camera, using continuous recording with live view from Surveillance Station and motion detection by camera. Live view and recording are sharing the same stream from the camera. Video Station Video Transcoding Group 2 (See more) VPN Server Maximum Connections 5 Environment & Packaging Environment RoHS Compliant Packaging Content Main Unit X 1 Accessory Pack X 1 AC Power Adapter X 1 AC Power Cord X 1 RJ-45 LAN Cable X 1 Quick Installation Guide X 1 Optional Accessories Surveillance Device License Pack VS360HD A Closer Look at the Synology DS418j DS418j is physically identical to DS416j. The only difference between DS416j and DS418j is the small print of 'DS418j' in the front of the enclosure. The rear configurations are identical as well. Here we have a proprietary power connector, Gigabit LAN connector, two USB 3.0 connectors and a pinhole reset switch. In order to install drives in to DS418j you need to remove four screws from the back of the device and remove the cover. The drive sleds are conveniently placed for the users to remove them as need to. The whole enclosure is actively cooled by two 80 mm fans. These fans are not PWM enabled however, it is possible to adjust their RPM from within the OS. (Full-Speed Mode, Cool Mode, Quiet Mode, Low-power Mode) Motherboard of DS418j is well designed without any glue or visible silicone. The first thing that jumps out is the passive heatsink over what it seems a metal plate. And as you can see from the image above is off centered. The 'metal plate' is actually a protective enclosure for ram. Later in the review we will take a look at the CPU which is passively cooled. LAN connections are filtered by a 1000 base-t magnetic module Bothhand USA (24hss1041a-2) These type of magnetic modules are used in order to minimize the noise on the network. We see these kind of modules on almost all NAS devices. Chip that is responsible for PCI Express, Serial ATA and USB 3.0 connection on DS418j is Asmedia (ASM1061 b1nk2001a2 1651) This particular controller enables transfer speeds up to 6Gbps on Serial ATA connections. Just like in DS 416j all of the voltage requirement are being controlled by Altera (5m80z) module. CPU of DS418j is provided by Realtek CPU RTD1293PN. This is a new type of CPU from Realtek so I wasn’t able to find much of information on it. However here is the link to RTD1186 for general understanding what this series of CPU is capable of. One of the signature features of this CPU is that it is able to transcode at higher frames per second for H.264 and MJPEG. This Dual Core CPU is clocked at 1.4GHz with 64 bit architecture. Around the CPU is where the 1GB DDR4 is located. Unfortunately I could not remove the metal shielding to show you the DDR4. Daughter board that connects drives to motherboard is also identical to the one in DS416j. Synology is using the same SAS connectors on this board however, still no support for SAS drives. Front panel are identical as well however I did found some flux residue on the connectors and the master switch. Just like DS416j DS418j comes with plastic hard drive sleds. Installation of the drives is very simple. Just mount the HDD or SDD in the appropriate holes and secure them with enclosed screws. I will be using HDD and SSD drives in my benchmarks. Synology DiskStation DS418j Start-up Wizard This section of installation is from our previous review of DS416j is identical to DS418j installation. After installing the drives, you’ll need open a browser window and go to the IP Address of the DS418j. The first task the wizard will step though is updating your firmware. As long as the NAS has access to the Internet, it will go to Synology’s website and download the latest and greatest firmware. If the NAS cannot connect to the Internet, a manual install option is available. The DiskStation DS418j will show an installation progress meter while installing the firmware. After installation is complete, the NAS will reboot. After the device reboot, you will be taken to the next step of the process which, is to set the NAS’s name on the network and set up an administrative user name and password. The next page will ask how you would like the updates to install from Synology and when to schedule them. To get up to speed you are offered to install some of the useful applications with just a click of a button. The next step in the setup process is to create a QuickConnect ID. QuickConnect is Synology’s solution allowing users to access the data on the NAS anywhere they can get Internet access without having to worry about configuring networking equipment. The final pages is the configuration confirmation page. After you click the next button, you’ll be taken to the DSM desktop. DiskStation Manager (DSM) User Interface DiskStation Manager or DSM is the interface you will use to configure the NAS with; the latest released version is 6.1.3 Update 5 available for download. There are a lot of configuration options in DSM. I am covering what I feel is the most important options in order to get the NAS up and running on the network. After the initial configuration, anytime that you’ll want to log into the NAS, you’ll need to enter the username and password that was set up in the Startup Wizard. After logging in, you’ll be taken to the desktop. The desktop functions in a similar manner to the Windows desktop on your PC. You can create shortcuts to the most used configuration items in the menu. By default, a small monitoring application launches in the lower right side of the page. The application displays quick details on the utilization and health of the NAS. The main application on the menu that will be used to configure the NAS will be the control panel. The control panel has most of the options that will be needed to get the NAS up and running. By default a lot of the services needed, such as file services have already been turned on. After the disk volume has been created (next section) you’ll just need to create shared folders and assign permissions and the users can start using the NAS. Users and groups can be created to give access to the NAS’s shared files and folders. If no users are created, you will need to give the guest or public account read/write access to the shared files. If you run a Windows Active Directory domain, you can configured the NAS to synchronize user information from your domain. At that point, you will also be able to grant domain users access to shared folders and eliminates the need to create separate users for your domain and your NAS. The network menu is where all the networking configuration is done. Synology DS416j has one network interface, it cannot be configured for load balancing or fail over. However, it is worth mentioning that other models with multiple network interfaces can take advantage of creating a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) and LACP in order to do load balancing (managed switch required). Keep in mind that creating a LAG will not increase bandwidth from a single host. It increases the overall bandwidth the NAS can use on your network to multiple hosts. If you don’t have the ability to cable your NAS for example in a dorm room, you can install a USB wireless or blue-tooth adapter and get network access that way. The security tab allows you to configure such items as user interface timeouts, firewall, and certifications. The firewall tab can be used to restrict network traffic to and from the NAS in order to help protect it from network attacks and can help reduce the chance of a network breach. The NAS also offers denial-of-service protection and the ability to install your own certificate to further secure the NAS. Testing Methodology System Configuration Case Cooler Master Cosmos II CPU AMD FX-8370E Motherboard ASRock 990FX Killer Ram 2 GB G.Skill F3-12800CL9q DDR3-1600 GPU Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 Hard Drives Samsung 850 EVO 256gb SSD Network Cards Dual Port Intel Pro/1000 PT Switches ALLIED TELESYN AT-9924T ADVANCED LAYER 3+ GIGABIT 24-PORT NETWORK SWITCH, Boot (2.6.6-02) Cat6E cables used for network testing. Power Supply Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W 2 Western Digital 8 TB 5400 RPM desktop drives were installed and used in the NAS tests in addition, 2 Patriot Spark 256 GB SATA III SSD drives were used in respected benchmarks. Hybrid Raid benchmarks were tested with 4 Seagate 4 TB 7200 RPM desktop drives. A dual port Intel network card was installed in the test system. The Synology DS418j in all RAID arrays used a Single Static Volume. Network Layout For all tests the NAS was configured to use the a single network interface. One CAT 6 cable was connected to the Allied Telesis AT-9924T from the NAS and one CAT 6 cable was connected to the workstation from the switch. Testing was done on the PC with only 1 network card active; the Killer network card and the corresponding software were disabled for the testing. The switch was cleared of any configuration and left in a un-configured state. Jumbo frames was not enabled and no changes to the network interfaces was made. Software All testing is done based off of a single client accessing the NAS. To test NAS Performance I used The Intel NAS Performance toolkit. The Intel NAS Performance toolkit simulates various tasks for storage devices such as video streaming, copying files and folders to and from the NAS as well as creating content directly on the NAS. To limit caching, a 2GB G.Skill memory module was used in all tests. All options in the Performance toolkit were left that the defaults. The NAS performance test is free to download. You can pick up a copy for yourself here. All tests were run a total of three times then averaged to get the final result. RAID 0,1,5 Tests were run after all the RAID arrays were fully synchronized. RAID Information Images courtesy of Wikipedia JOBD or Just a Bunch Of Disks is exactly what the name describes. The hard drives have no actual raid functionality and are spanned at random data is written at random. RAID 0 is a stripe set and data is written across the disks evenly. The advantage of RAID 0 is speed and increased capacity. With RAID 0 there is no redundancy and data loss is very possible. RAID 1 is a mirrored set and data is mirrored from one drive to another. The advantage of RAID 1 is data redundancy as each piece of data is written to both disks. The disadvantage of RAID 1 is write speed is decreased as compared to RAID 0 due to the write operation is performed on both disks. RAID 1 capacity is that of the smallest disk. RAID 10 combines the 1st two raid levels and is a mirror of a stripe set. This allows for better speed of a RAID 0 array but the data integrity of a RAID 1 array. RAID 5 is a stripe set with parity. RAID 5 requires at least 3 disks. Data is striped across each disk, and each disk has a parity block. RAID 5 allows the loss of one drive without losing data. The advantage to RAID 5 is read speeds increase as the number of drives increase but the disadvantage is write speeds are slower as the number of drives is increased. There is overhead with RAID 5 as the parity bit needs to be calculated and with software RAID 5 there is more of a performance hit. RAID 6 expands on RAID 5 by adding an additional parity block to the array that is distributed across all the disks. Since there are two parity blocks in the array more overhead is used with a RAID 6 array. For a full breakdown of RAID levels, take a look at the Wikipedia article here. RAID configurations are a highly debated topic. RAID has been around for a very long time. Hard drives have changed, but the technology behind RAID really hasn’t. So what may have been considered ideal a few years ago may not be ideal today. If you are solely relying on multiple hard drives as a safety measure to prevent data loss, you are in for a disaster. Ideally you will use a mutli-drive array for an increase in speed and lower access times and have a backup of your data elsewhere. I have seen arrays with hot spares that had multiple drives fail and the data was gone. Intel NAS Performance Toolkit Results Following is the results of the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit benchmark for DS418j. As you can see DS418j device is very close in performance to other multibay NAS devices. RAID 0 HDD (2 Drives) RAID 1 HDD (2 Drives) RAID 0SSD vs RAID 1 SSD (2 Drives) Transfer of 380MB file. Synology Hybrid RAID Synology has a RAID array they call Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR). Essentially it is for those users that do not know a whole lot about RAID or those users that don’t want to fuss with setting up a RAID array. There are two options available for SHR, 1-disk (similar to RAID 5) or 2-disk redundancy (similar to RAID 6). The redundant disk basically mean you can lose n number of drives (n is the number of redundant disks) and the array will continue to work and data will still be available with no corruption. SHR also allows the use of mixed size drives meaning, that all the drives in your NAS do not have to be the same capacity. You can do the same with a traditional RAID array however, all the drives in the array can only use the amount of space available on the smallest drive. For example, in a 5 drive array the smallest disk is 250 GB. You would create a 5×250 GB raid array. With SHR, the system divides the disks into smaller chunks and creates additional redundant storage. There’s a catch however, you must have two of the largest drives installed. Taking the example above, with 5×250 GB drives, you could swap out 2 of the drives to 1 TB drives and be able to use all of the disk space available. Image provided by Synology. Besides ease of setup, SHR also allows you to expand to larger disks on the fly, one disk at a time. I was easily able to expand a 4 drive SHR array into a 5 drive array. However, it did take about 12 hours to add a 4TB drive to the array. Image provided by Synology. SHR does suffer from a performance hit compared to traditional RAID. In the result below, I took a 4 disk SHR 1-disk redundant array and compared it against a 4 disk RAID 5 array. Conclusion and Final Thoughts Last year I had an opportunity to review Synology's DS416j. This device offered a lot of features and what I saw I really liked. DS416 definitely was an eye opener. Since then Synology worked on improving their DSM (Disk Station Manager) and internal components of their 'J' series line up. Very recently Synology has retired DS416j and release a new and improved version, DS418j. DS418j is externally identical to DS416j in every way. (The same cooling, power, color) However the internal components have been improved. DS418j is equipped with 64-bit processor with 1 GB of DDR4 ram. This is a major improvement from the last year’s model. The new CPU is by Realtek that has just been released. What so special about this chip is that it has ability to transcode video at higher frames per second. This comes very handy when using DS418j as a surveillance station or as a media center.. With Synology's Package Center it is easy to pick the right app to run on DS418j. There are numerous applications available to install and use free of charge. The range of applications is anything from DNS Server to SugarCRM. Package Center also allows users to install custom applications manually. These features give a higher advantage to Synology over other NAS devices that do not offer any custom or pre-installed applications. Performance of the DS418j is up to par with all of the small/medium business NAS devices we have looked at so far. From what I have seen from the benchmarks and test data is that DS418j is a great home/small office NAS that can handle all the load that you will throw at it. Whether it’s a file server you are looking to have or surveillance station or media server DS418j will perform and deliver your content with ease. When comparing the prices of DS418j to other NAS devices in the same class, I feel that the price is very fair for a diskless NAS enclosure. This 4 bay NAS retails for about $ 300 USD at the time of the review. I do strongly believe that the price vs value of this product is fair as well. You do get what you pay for. Good product and another great job by Synology! amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "moddersinc00-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B074VB8DY7"; amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "14df061b3539b25f5569ddd526f5a43c";
