Designed for home and small business users who require lots of storage capacity and multiple RAID options, the Synology DiskStation DS1522+ ($699.99) is a five-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device that offers a fast performance and a large catalog of NAS applications. It is equipped with a large number of I/O ports and you can equip it with a 10 Gbps LAN adapter to connect to the high-speed network. The price may seem steep for a NAS chassis with no drives, but if you need a multi-bay NAS that can expand as your storage needs change, it’s money well spent. All of this makes the DS1522+ our new pick for multi-bay NAS devices.
Locking sleds for added safety
The DS1522+ uses a black chassis that measures 6.5 by 9.0 by 8.7 inches (HWD) and has five front-loading, hot-swappable bays. As with nearly every NAS device we review, the DS1522+ doesn’t come with drives, so you’ll need to consider the cost of five drives when planning your data storage budget. The drive sleds are tool-free and can accommodate 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives or solid-state drives (SSDs) and can be locked for added security. The DS1522+ includes two keys to lock the sleds, as well as mounting screws (for use with 2.5-inch drives), a power cable and adapter, and a LAN cable.
Also on the front, on the right, is a power button, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, LED activity indicators for all five drives, and a status indicator that flashes green when booting the Disk Station Manager (DSM) operating system. (It turns solid green when the DSM is ready for use.) A flashing orange LED indicates a system error, such as overheating or degraded volume.
The rear panel houses four 1Gbps LAN ports, which support link aggregation for network failover and load balancing. There are also two eSATA expansion ports, a second USB 3.2 (Gen 1) port, a reset button and a power port. Finally, a handy network upgrade slot can be used with Synology’s 10Gb Ethernet Module ($149.99) to upgrade to 10Gbps networking. A pair of 92mm cooling fans keep all the work (card and drives) cool.
A NAS with… AMD Ryzen Inside?
Under the hood is a dual-core AMD Ryzen R1600 CPU clocked at 2.6GHz, 8GB of DDR4 RAM (expandable to 32GB), and two M.2 NVMe SSD cache slots. The DS1522+ has a gross internal storage capacity of 80TB (assuming five 16TB drives) and supports multiple RAID configurations, including Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), JBOD, Basic, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10. It also supports Btrfs and ext4 file systems. If you need more storage, you can pick up a Synology DX517 Expansion Drive ($469.99) and add up to 10 more drives for a total raw capacity of 240TB. The DX517 connects to your master drive via one of the aforementioned eSATA ports.
The DS1522+ uses the same DSM operating system as all other Synology NAS drives, including the DS1019+ and DS920+. The easy-to-use operating system features a Microsoft Windows-like interface with desktop icons that make it easy to perform NAS tasks such as creating storage volumes, backing up data, and assigning user rights.
When you first start DSM, the desktop is filled with icons labeled Control Panel, File Station, Package Center, and DSM Help. As you download apps, icons for each will be added to your desktop. Two windows on the right side of the screen display information such as total uptime (running), CPU and RAM usage, and the device’s LAN IP address. In addition, a main menu icon in the upper left corner of the desktop screen gives you access to other programs. These include Storage Manager (where you can create volumes and configure RAID settings), Active Insight (which allows you to send data to Synology for faster resolution of technical issues), and Security Advisor (which scans for malware, checks the password security and keep your software up to date).
Use the Package Center to access and download any of 99 Synology and third-party applications; selection allows you to use the NAS as a media server, cloud server, video surveillance center, backup server, mail server and more. The Control Panel icon is where you go to configure network and security settings, set privileges, configure file and file sharing services, and create user groups. Meanwhile, the File Station icon lets you access your data via a web browser and organize folders and files. And the DSM Help icon takes you to a screen where you can view tutorials and help articles.
Synology DiskStation DS1522+ Test: Impressive file transfer performance
Synology NAS drives have always been easy to install and configure in our tests, and the DS1522+ was no different. You can install and configure it using the Synology mobile app or via a web console (I chose the latter).
I started by installing a 10TB Seagate Ironwolf drive in each of the five sleds, connected the NAS to my router, and powered it up. I downloaded the Synology Assistant utility to my desktop computer (also connected to the router), opened the utility, and immediately found the DS1522+. I tapped Connect and Install and downloaded the latest version of DSM OS. After a few minutes, the NAS rebooted and I tapped Start.
I named the device, created an admin account and password, and launched the DSM desktop. I was prompted to create a storage group and volume and selected SHR as the RAID option and Btrfs for my file system. The volume was created immediately with a total storage capacity of 34.9 TB. The software took about 18 hours to optimize the volume, after which it was ready for testing.
The DS1522+ scored impressively in our file transfer performance tests, in which we move a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of video, photo, music, and office document files between the NAS and a computer host and we record both read and write speeds. .
Its write score of 90MBps was faster than the ioSafe 1520+ (85MBps) and the TerraMaster F5-422 (80MBps), but it couldn’t keep up with the Asustor AS5304T (98MBps). The DS1522+ scored 89MBps on the read test, matching both the ioSafe 1520+ and the TerraMaster F5-422. The Asustor AS5304T took top honors with a score of 96 MBps.
Verdict: Scalable top shelf storage
Whether you’re a home user looking to store media files and share them in the cloud, or a small business that requires a scalable storage solution with multiple RAID options, the Synology DiskStation DS1522+ NAS is an excellent choice. With five drive bays, two embedded M.2 NVMe SSD cache slots, and the ability to add 10 more drives via an expansion drive, it offers plenty of storage options. It’s also equipped with plenty of I/O ports and offers an easy and relatively affordable path to 10Gbps network connectivity.
It’s one of the more expensive multi-bay NAS drives we’ve tested, but its solid performance, robust features, and massive catalog of applications earn it an Editors’ Choice award for multi-bay NAS drives.