Synology Introduces DS1621xs+ - First Desktop x86 DSM NAS with Native 10GbE
by Ganesh T S on September 11, 2020 11:35 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- NAS
- Synology
- Xeon-D
- DiskStation
Synology is one of the top-tier vendors in the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) network-attached storage (NAS) market for SOHOs, SMBs, and SMEs, with QNAP being the other major player. While QNAP has a wide variety of hardware platforms to choose from in each market segment, Synology has been big on segmentation - restricting Xeon CPUs and native 10GbE to their rackmount offerings. Only their Annapurna Labs SoC-based desktop units have had 10G SFP+ support till now. That changed recently with the introduction of the DS1621xs+.
The Synology DS1621xs+ uses a Broadwell-DE Xeon-D processor (D-1527) - These SoCs are a better fit for storage platforms compared to the networking-focused Skylake-D SKUs. The 6 built-in 3.5" hot-swappable drive bays are complemented by two M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots. There are two 1 GbE LAN ports and a 10GBASE-T port. Two eSATA ports help the unit support two DX517 expansion chassis, allowing the unit to support a total of 16 bays.
On the software side, similar to all other x86 NAS units from Synology, the DS1621xs+ also comes with support for both ext4 and btrfs internal volumes. Synology claims read speeds of up to 3100 MBps with additional 10G NICs in the expansion slots.
| Synology DS1621xs+ Specifications | |
| Processor | Intel Xeon D-1527 (4C/8T Broadwell-DE x86 Cores @ 2.20 (2.70) GHz) |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4-2666 ECC SODIMM (upgradeable to 16GB x 2) |
| Drive Bays | 6x 3.5"/2.5" SATA 6 Gbps HDD / SSD (Hot-Swappable) (Expandable with 2x DX517 up to 16 bays in total) |
| Network Links | 2x 1 GbE 1 x 10 GbE |
| External I/O Peripherals | 3x USB 3.0, 2x eSATA |
| Expansion Slots | 1x PCIe 3.0 x8 |
| VGA / Display Out | None |
| Full Specifications Link | Synology DS1621xs+ Specifications |
| Price | $1600 (Newegg) |
It is heartening to see Synology finally introduce 10GBASE-T NAS units in the desktop form-factor. The DSM software carries some unique applications (like the Synology Office suite) that QNAP doesn't currently have in their QTS operating system. On the other hand, QNAP's hardware variety - particularly in terms of NBASE-T and 10GbE support even in their SOHO offerings is also attractive. Overall, it is good for consumers to have more options to choose from in the COTS NAS market.
Source: Synology
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Spunjji - Monday, September 14, 2020 - link
Citation needed on the gigabit internet claim. I'm based in the UK, where the most widely-available service is 516Mb and around 44% of households can get it. A whopping 8% of us have FTTP.Jokes that aren't really jokes about the UK no longer being part of the "developed world" aside, I feel like you're overstating your claim.
BearInBrisbane - Saturday, September 19, 2020 - link
I don't know where this equivalency between availability of gigabit internet = developed world leaves us in Australia. August 2020 figures (from Speedtest Global Index rankings) out OZ at average DL of 64.55 Mbps. Which puts us at number 61 (just above Uruguay and Grenada) and I had always considered that Australia ranks as a 'developed' country. We are getting a 'countrywide' rollout of 'fast' broadband through govt organised NBN (cable, fixed wireless, satellite) and gigabit is only going to be potentially available for the lucky few (maybe 20%) who are getting connected by FTTP. I was lucky and got connected by FTTC (fibre to curb - getting 48Mbps on a 50 Mbps plan good day), the greatest majority are FTTN (to the node) who might be lucky to see 50 Mbps if that. Still better than my 12 Mbps capped 4G connection tho.
deil - Monday, September 14, 2020 - link
We had 2.5G though that can be ran on short cat5e which is usually the case of small appartments, and its an limit where most of us will draw the line.James_Edge - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
It was, the DS1817 had it back in early 2017. The reason it doesn't tend to be fitted as standard to Synology NAS boxes is twofold, firstly it raises the cost/price of the NAS and anyone who wants it can add it via the expansion slot anyway. Secondly there are multiple ways to connect 10GbE, and RJ45 isn't currently the most popular for home NAS setups, this extra RJ45 port is useless for people with SFP+ switches/cards in their home setup (currently the cheapest/most popular way to do it).ats - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
Probably because it takes a lot more hardware than is available in the vast majority of NAS systems to actually use 10Gb in the real world. For one, looking at peaks read speeds with an SSD for NAS system performance is pretty off. Realistically, you are going to be using mech drives with peak read speeds of ~200MB/s but realistic sustained speeds of 10s of MB/s at best. Maxing out much beyond Gb enet generally takes more than a single raid set.Gigaplex - Saturday, September 12, 2020 - link
RAID5 speeds on spinning platter can exceed 500MB/s too, which also saturates 5Gbit.ats - Sunday, September 13, 2020 - link
only if you are doing purely sequential and are the only user. at which point, why are you using a multi-bay NAS when you can get the same performance with direct attach over usb...also given the sizes of modern spinning disks, using any form of striped raid is pretty counter productive. If you need the redundancy, go to straight mirror sets, esp in the consumer nas space with its severely limited bays. For rust, anything less than +2/+3 redundancy has been counter productive for a while.
close - Monday, September 14, 2020 - link
The use cases for locally attached vs. network are quite different. Performance is just one aspect. The most important one to make a difference is that one is available over the whole network (at whatever performance point) and the other one is not. And that's one hell of a difference for most use cases.inighthawki - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
>> why was 10GbE not introduced years back on NAS systems ?In the consumer space, setting up a NAS that needs or even can use that bandwidth is extremely unlikely. If they're using mechanical drives, your read and write speeds will tank the moment you do anything that doesn't involve very large sequential transfers. Most consumers won't be putting SSDs into something like this as well. Not to mention the complete lack of routers and switches with anything more than gigabit ethernet in the consumer space. I bet 99.99% of home users do not have anything more.
As much as it sucks for advanced users, 1Gb ethernet is probably more than plenty for the vast majority of people purchasing this type of device. Those who want more have plenty of options for higher bandwidth devices or know how to roll their own NAS.
Jake13942 - Saturday, September 12, 2020 - link
Intel Xeon D-1527 was released in Q4 2015, Synology is charging $1600 for this LOL