Customer Reviews

Synology DiskStation 5-Bay (Diskless) Scalable Network Attached Storage DS1010+ (Black)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two years ago I built a file server from a MAC G5, then upgraded to a DROBO 4 bay server with DROBOSHARE. The move to DROBO was a mistake, as it was slower and more cumbersome than the G5. The transfer speeds became a bottleneck to our production and I began to notice issues with the info on the files, such as "created" and "modified" dates changing to values that were clearly out of the norm.

After a lot of research, we went with the Synology DS1010+. Partly due to the favorable reviews, and partly due to the feedback from Synology when I made inquiries.

We received the DS1010+ on Friday (10/15/2010). I installed 2 new Hitachi 2TB Deskstar drives I had ordered new, and moved one Hitachi 2TB drive from the DROBO to the new server. Hitachi is the only drive I use.

Startup and setup went without a hitch, the included CD instructions are thorough and easy to follow. The DSM interface is a powerful tool, and it makes setting up the volumes and users a cinch. The DSM utilizes a web browser.

I've set up servers at several daily newspapers, HPs, MACs, and Dells. None of them were as easy as the Synology machine.

As far as speed, the server is on a network gigabit switch. On transferring files from the DROBO to the SYNOLOGY I noticed speeds in excess of 21,500,000 BPS. Bear in mind that while the DS1010+ is connected by Cat. 5 cable to the switch, the DROBO is connected by USB to the DROBOSHARE, so the USB connector is the limiting factor.

In testing the access from all our MACs on the network, I can say that the speed of this machine is impressive. Even while transferring multiple folders to the DS1010+ access was fast and I never saw the machines memory usage or CPU usage peak above 10% - 12%.

We are using large graphics and jpeg files, as well as Nikon RAW files and Indesign INDD files. Currently we have a little over 1TB stored on the server, with a projected 2TB once all the files are moved. My next plan is to purchase a second DS1010+ and install is as a remote backup server at another location. An easy process with the Synology software.

This is an impressive machine, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to use a server. As I gain more experience with the DS1010+ and can confirm its reliability, I will update this review.

There is a setup wizard you can download to find the DS1010+ on your network, update its firmware (you have to download that yourself too), and configure it ready to be managed further. Quite simple to do.

The management options have everything I could want except for automatic SMART testing of the drives. This feature has been requested and I expect it to make it into a future firmware update. It takes about 3 clicks per drive to start a SMART test on each drive anytime you want to run one (you can have all 5 drives testing at once if you click fast enough).

I ordered 6 2TB LP Seagate drives, 5 to put in Synology DS1010+ in RAID5 and one to keep on-hand for a spare. Over Gigabit Ethernet, the 5900RPM just won't be any issue. I still get over 110MB/sec transfers from the Synology. The drives have all been working fine and have passed multiple SMART tests. The drives DO take a few seconds to spin up if you allow them to spin down after idle. The DS1010+ spins them up 2 at a time if you happen to be watching the lights when it happens, so it's a delay of at least 10 seconds but it's not intolerable. If that's a problem for you, don't allow them to spin down in your power settings.

I did enable Jumbo Frames 9K and have copied many TB of files onto the DS1010+ with no issues (I did many byte comparisons after enabling Jumbo Frames to ensure no corruption was occurring).

The Synology DS1010+ and 5 LP drives together use about 55 Watts total. Very low power compared to leaving my main workstation on all the time (at least 250 Watts when idle). Now my HTPC and STB's can access shares when my main PC is off.

i really can't say anything bad about it. it takes different sized and manufacturered hard drives like a champ. (in fact, i put some in tool less because it just seem to fit better.) since i have a mix of old drives, i expected it to act a little weird... and it does: from time to time it will say a drive is about to go out. then it miraculously fixes it. ... the temperatures of the drives are pretty close to each other. (the fujitsu runs hotter than the rest ... weird.) ... the wd green drives seem to always be a bit of a stickler at starting up. sometimes that messes with the mac's time machine activation. (time machine says the drive isn't active when in reality it just didn't wait long enough for the drive to spin up.)

it's pretty quiet. the firmware is actually easy to update. ... hell i thought i was going to have to get a server in the future to do my media sharing and camera controls ... but this looks like it will be able to do it all.

i definitely think its worth the price. after two previous attempts at having a nas-like device (drobo, drobo s) ... i'm very happy with this purchase.

low maintenance and there when you need it. (unlike drobo.)

OH ... one weird thing ... you can turn this into two completely different servers ... one for the internet and one for the intranet. all in one box. ... (it's completely separate because it has two separated ethernet ports for this purpose.) this is the kinda stuff that makes me get a geek boner.

I was such a huge fan of the Drobo until I started having issues, and over time realized there are many downsides to such a proprietary system and bad tech support. The newer drobos may be better, but the first and second gen were just WAY TOO SLOW!

Anyway, that got me looking around for a replacement and after a lot of research I settled on this unit, and have not been disappointed.

I use it as a media drive all the computers at my house (4 mac computers) and a media center that streams QT movies from it to a ATV. It works great, and is so much faster than what I had before.

In addition to being faster, it's way more feature rich. The things you can do with it are amazing. From a FTP server and web server to torrent download engine, and even have it archive to services like S3 from Amazon. I have not had time to try out all of the features, but i'm really super impressed.

One thing I've learned in the past is to never cheap out on your drives, and for me the only choice was Hitachi. I purchased (5) 2TB/7200 32 meg cache drives and the drive gives me great throughput.

Hitachi 2 TB Deskstar SATA 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive HD32000 IDK/7K

The one thing to be aware of is that it is not a quite unit. When the drives are being read and written to it can really get kind of loud (maybe it's the drives specificall?), but since mine is located in the basement away from everything and where it's cool it's not an issue for me.

All in all, I say you can't go wrong with this unit. I'm thinking of buying the add on expansion unit so that I can plug in 5 more drives.

I had to install software before I could access it. Not a bad thing just FYI. They even had a linux version! After that I was able to give it a static IP on my network and could access it through the web interface. Installing the drives was easy. Basically screw them to the tray and slide the tray in. The green light above the drive bay will come on when ready.

The web interface took a little exploration before I found all the options I wanted, RAID type, volume creation, monitoring... Anyway, once you know your way around very it's simple and easy to use. Transfer speeds are fast but depending on the type of RAID you choose you could suffer performance hits, simply do to the way the RAID functions.

I've had it for about 3 months now and no issues. It's a great product and I'm very happy with it's performance.

First, I admit that I hate open source anything. However, it is products like this that get me to lean the other way. Like many techies and especially us techies that work from home, we have hard drives everywhere. I had so many different sizes, brands, and so on. Different power cords. Some eSata and some just USB.

The DS1010+ came well packaged in a nice box. You do need to be a little bit of a tech, but basic setup was pretty much a breeze. I purchased 5 WD 2TB Caviar Black drives to use with this. The included CD would not work for me as my PC would not recognize it at all. So I assume it was bad. No big deal since Synology did have everything for download on their website. Installing the software was easy and their software detected the SAN quickly.

Initializing/formatting (parity check) 10TB worth of drives does take quite a while to complete, but honestly, 6 hours was not too bad. After that was done, I went in and looked at most of the settings you can manipulate via the browser. I setup the security and one share so I could test some things.

My initial testing of file writes (large files) to the SAN was very disappointing. After a lot of reading, I found that my dlink router was the issue. It had GB ports, but now I know just because it has those does not mean it actually transfers at a GB speed per port. So I bought a Cisco switch and large file transfers are so much faster by at least 8 times. The switch also supports binding the two Synology network ports together so they act as one.

The DS1010+ runs quiet and it sits only three feet away. It runs cool. It has lights on it, but they are not overly bright where they light up the room at night. You can configure many things via the browser. Some of the best features that they made so easy was this can be a media server where your XBox or PS3 can access media. That was too easy to setup. You can have it be an iTunes server which is also easy to turn on. SO the ease of configuration for many things is a nice plus.

My only complaint so far is that the setup of shares and the security leaves a lot to be desired, especially when you are used to software tools much better made than this. You can set them up of course, but the GUI for it is poor. I guess you would not be in it all that much though once you set it up, so not too big of a deal.

This unit plus the drives is not a cheap solution by any means, but as I look on my desk and I see the DS1010+ and one additional eSata drive, that I use for VMWare, versus the 10 drives I had with various power cords, then to me, it is worth every penny. If I need more space, I can just buy the add-on unit (510 I believe), hook it to the 1010+ and I then have a lot more storage.

So after a month of constant use, I would say this is a definite buy.

Hello all,
I purchased the Drobo FS as this would be my first NAS and all the reviews made me think this was the best. Well I returned within a week. Network speeds were the main reason and with 20-30 Mbps is way to slow on a Gigabyte network especially when moving 3-6 Terabytes of data.
After seeing the review of the DS 1010+ and the reviews on the web this was my second choice and after owning this NAS for a week I can say its one of the best NAS's for the price.
A friend of mine has a NAS that cost three times the price and does not offer the functionally that this NAS offers. My speeds are running from 70-120 Mbps as well the ease of use but this NAS has a lot of powerful options and allows for more then just a disk space.
Spend the time research all you can but this is the best NAS for the price.

This is great NAS. I first bought it because I do design work from my home office however it has become much more than a work related machine now. I originally wanted to set up a home network in which I could access my files from my other computers and have all the information secure, because I had a bad exprience with a hard drive about a year ago. Not only does this NAS do this with ease but it has also become my home entertainment system (connected to my PS3) with all my movies, family pictures and home videos, games, and is also my itunes library server so I don't have to have songs on individual computers!
On a weekly basis it backs up all my critical files from my computers so that is something I don't have to do manually anymore and is worth the peace of mind I have over losing files, pictures, etc...

A great way that I also use it now that I didn't think about before is that if I am out somewhere, friends, client, where ever I can access my files easily from anywhere with an internet connection (I have forgotten files before and this is great insurance).

I bought this NAS to upgrade from a Synology DS 209+II due to capacity reasons. Definitely no wrong choice. It performs excellent as expected and migration of my drives from the other system was a breeze. Second ethernet port binding to the router was a breeze giving added speed and accessibility.
Minor glitch with UPS acknowledgement, but Tech Support was right on it and things are good. I upgraded with (2) Enterprise Class Seagate drives, which run a little bit hotter than I want to, but the system perform without problems.

I have had the DiskStation for over a month and so far I have been extremely happy with it. I mainly use for an iSCSI SAN for VMware vSphere 4.1 infrastructure, but I do have a Windows and Apple share on the array. I populated it with 5 of the Hitachi 2 TB 7200 RPM drives. I originally was looking at a QNAP product, but this one was a few hundred dollars less, so I gave it a try - and I have no complaints so far! I would love to get the extension product to add another 5 drive bays to it (that was also a decision in buying). As others have commented it does get a little noisy and vibrates the desk under heavy read/write operations, but not so bad to be a bother. The only reason I do not give it 5 stars on everything is that the software does not seem to give me as much control as I would like, not a bad thing as prior to using this I used a bare bones Linux install and everything was command-line, but that did spoil me as far as total control was concerned...