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
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
Gigaplex - Saturday, September 12, 2020 - link
It's also hard to implement in a reasonable power envelope, which adds significantly to the cost.throAU - Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - link
The other issue with 10GbE over copper is that the requirements for cable/bend radius/etc. are different from Cat5E and it requires a re-write unless you were originally cabled for it.And to be honest the vast majority of end user desktops don't even see significant improvement going from 100 meg to gigabit.
Most office workers simply don't do that much data. Even streaming 4k video is easily done over 100 megabit with modern codecs and as things move to the cloud, having 10 gig on your desk makes no differences if you're communicating over a slow speed WAN link anyway.
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
You dont need to run wire through the walls. You can just run a cable between your NAS and your desktop/wifi router.Ubiqutious - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
and ? How does that allow me to quickly move 8TB of data from my Laptop to my NAS ? I just run a USB C hub connected to my Laptop and a couple SSDs but even that is painfully slow.I don't understand a NAS (lots of and fast storage) at all unless you have wired points that people use. If you want to fileshare, WiFi is so slow you can just plug a storage device into your router. I have a 12 TB drive plugged into my router for filesharing via SAMBA across the house. I can plug another in if I want more storage. No WiFi is faster then the spinning platters of my slow HDD. I own my own place and there are even a couple wired points but they are never where I need them to be. So the TV and Android Box connected to it is about the only thing wired in, and I use Kodi on the little Android box from the Samba share anyway.
I keep thinking what am I missing out on by not having a NAS and I can never figure it out.
sandtitz - Saturday, September 12, 2020 - link
My Synology NAS syncs pictures from my Onedrive and my wifes's Google Drive (both free tiers and constantly full).It's also used for backing up the household computers and I used to use it for storage for my (now broken) media player. The kids still watch the saved films and TV shows using their own laptops and phones.
My router has 4x4 802.11ac + Gbit ethernet and the slowest link is the NAS (budget model, can't quite saturate the Gbit interface), and the pair of 5400 rpm drives w/ random access.
Except for the RAID mirroring, cloud sync and SMTP alerts - I could use my router's USB port for sharing files like you do, although my router's Samba implementation is 'anonymous/full access for everyone' - which just doesn't cut it for me. External USB drives are available with RAID as well, but you can't get alerts for it.
close - Sunday, September 13, 2020 - link
With enough technical skills there's nothing on a home NAS that you can't achieve with alternative solutions. But a NAS really lowers the bar for the skill you need to configure a share, backups, security, a Plex server, a photo library, cloud sync, a web server, etc. and server that to the whole house. And it all comes in a neat compact package with low power and noise. For this it's all but guaranteed 10G is not needed.A 6-bay 10G NAS is probably less for the home and more for a small business but it achieves kind of the same. Very few people would *need* this in the home.
imaheadcase - Monday, September 14, 2020 - link
Because you don't have a need for it is why you can't think of a reason. Despite that, people who edit movies/photos. Home developers that store assets on them, etcI know a guy that has like 1TB of raw sound files he uses for a game he is working on. lol Lots of reasons people need lots of storage.
Gigaplex - Saturday, September 12, 2020 - link
Not if there's a wall in the way.azfacea - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
the problem with this logic is that most of the developed world now has gigabit internet in the 60$/month range.why would you buy a NAS, when a mega or one drive sub is much cheaper and has the same perf. These products are utter garbage after 20 years of recycling gigabit ethernet with the "most ppl dont need more" slogan.
Qasar - Monday, September 14, 2020 - link
"why would you buy a NAS, when a mega or one drive sub is much cheaper and has the same perf. " why? maybe because some one may not want that type of storage, and would prefer to use a nas. what happens IF your internet access happens to go down ? then what ? cloud storage is good for some, and NAS storage is good for others. its called personal preference.