Synology DS1522+ Review

The DS1522+ is Synology’s newest addition to their performance-driven NAS portfolio designed for both home and business users, replacing the Synology DiskStation DS1520+ as its successor. Featuring a compact 5-bay build, the Synology DS1522+ is highlighted by its AMD Ryzen R1600 processor. The biggest change of all though is the addition of an expansion port on the back of the NAS to allow users to add a single-port 10GbE interface for greater network performance.

The DS1522+ is Synology’s newest addition to their performance-driven NAS portfolio designed for both home and business users, replacing the Synology DiskStation DS1520+ as its successor. Featuring a compact 5-bay build, the Synology DS1522+ is highlighted by its AMD Ryzen R1600 processor. The biggest change of all though is the addition of an expansion port on the back of the NAS to allow users to add a single-port 10GbE interface for greater network performance.

As noted, a big change in this family is the CPU. The DS1522+ is powered by an AMD Ryzen R1600 (2-core 2.6 GHz with burst up to 3.1 GHz, an upgrade from the Intel Celeron J4125 used in the previous model), 8GB of non-ECC DDR4 RAM standard (upgradable to 32GB), and support for 3.5/2.5-inch SATA drives and M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs for its dual cache slots.

For networking, it comes with four 1GbE LAN ports (sadly no multi-gig) with network failover support and is quoted to deliver up to 736MB/s sequential read and 796MB/s sequential write with the mini 10GbE network module installed.

Synology DS1522+ 10GbE Support

The biggest upgrade over previous generations is the addition of 10GbE connectivity, although the path Synology took on the 15-series model over the years has somewhat limited certain features.

The DS1517+ offered a PCIe slot to add supported NICs, although M.2 cache slots were not onboard the NAS. The DS1520+ added M.2 cache slots but skipped over network expansion options. That said, it is nice to finally have both on the model finally, but it would be even nicer if it was from the factory.

If you want the single port 10GbE port, it doesn’t come with the option right out of the box. This is a NAS meant for content creators, smaller businesses, and enthusiasts who don’t have the budget of larger organizations. Those requiring 10GbE networking are also still fairly uncommon. So, to drive down potential unnecessary costs, Synology decided to instead give users an easy and more affordable way to add it if/when they need it.

10GbE support is added via installing the E10G22-T1-Mini card in the newly available network upgrade slot. The DS1522+ is the first NAS to use this type of card/slot combo and allows Synology to offer 10GbE support without having to change the device’s physical size. For those that do want to take that path, it will take the $699 MSRP of the DS1522+ and add on an additional $149. So if you are comparing models, take the full price into consideration.

Synology DSM

The DS1522+ fully supports Synology DSM like all releases, which includes multimedia management, hyper/desktop backup options, snapshot replication, and virtual machine manager. The DS1522+ can also be transformed into a surveillance hub for both home and work using the newly released Surveillance Station 9.0. The newest version of this software allows users to monitor multi-floor layouts and dual records to the cloud to safeguard footage from being lost. Overall, this is a highly versatile NAS solution with a powerful range of applications at its disposal.

Backed by a 3-year warranty (extendable to 5 years in select regions), the diskless version of the Synology DiskStation DS1522+ goes for roughly $700. This is the same launch price for the DS1520+ a few years ago.

Synology DiskStation DS1522+ Specifications

Synology DiskStation DS1522+ Design and Build

The Synology DS1522+ is one of the more compact, 5-bay home office NAS solutions available, and is meant to be easily accessible beside a workstation. It looks identical to the DS1520+, sporting the usual black design from Synology’s Plus series we’ve come to know, with the five drive bays front and center. To right are the indicator lights, USB 3.0 port, and power button, while the sides of the NAS have Synology branding that doubles as ventilation for the device.

Turning the NAS around to the back panel reveals the dual system fans that run along the top (and take up about most of the real estate). Below this are four 1GbE RJ-45 ports, a reset button, two eSATA ports, the power port, a USB 3.0 port, and the Kensington Security slot. A significant change from other models in the Synology lineup is the external power supply now, versus one fully integrated. It reduces the size of the NAS itself, but you still need an external power brick.

The biggest addition to the back panel (compared to the DS1520+) is the networking port slot, which is accessed by removing the two Philips head screws. Once open, you can insert the E10G22-T1-Mini card into the slot, adding a single 10GbE RJ-45 port to the Synology NAS without the need to disassemble the entire thing.

Adding this functionality opens up a lot of benefits for users. Creative professionals will be able to edit large video and image files directly from the NAS, while businesses will be able to allow numerous employees to simultaneously access larger files hosted on the DS1522+. Home users who want to maximize their storage speed or build a highly-efficient media streaming system will also benefit greatly from using a 10GbE infrastructure.

Synology DiskStation DS1522+ Performance

Review Configuration

For our testing, we configured the Synology DiskStation DS1522+ in RAID6 using five 16TB Synology HDDs. We also leveraged two Synology SNV3400 M.2 SSDs for testing with read and write cache enabled.

Enterprise Synthetic Workload Analysis

Our enterprise shared storage and hard drive benchmark process preconditions each drive into steady-state with the same workload the device will be tested with under a heavy load of 16 threads with an outstanding queue of 16 per thread, and then tested in set intervals in multiple thread/queue depth profiles to show performance under light and heavy usage. Since NAS solutions reach their rated performance level very quickly, we only graph out the main sections of each test.

Preconditioning and Primary Steady-State Tests:

• Throughput (Read+Write IOPS Aggregate)
• Average Latency (Read+Write Latency Averaged Together)
• Max Latency (Peak Read or Write Latency)
• Latency Standard Deviation (Read+Write Standard Deviation Averaged Together)

Our Enterprise Synthetic Workload Analysis includes four profiles based on real-world tasks. These profiles have been developed to make it easier to compare to our past benchmarks as well as widely-published values such as max 4k read and write speed and 8k 70/30, which is commonly used for enterprise drives.

• 4K

• • 100% Read or 100% Write
  • 100% 4K

• 8K 70/30

• • 70% Read, 30% Write
  • 100% 8K

• 8K (Sequential)

• • 100% Read or 100% Write
  • 100% 8K
• 128K (Sequential)
  • 100% Read or 100% Write
  • 100% 128K

First up are the enterprise workloads, where we measured a long sample of random 4K performance with 100% write and 100% read activity. For IOPS, the DS1522+ showed 171 IOPS read and 1,718 IOPS write in SMB and 2,544 IOPS read and 1,755 IOPS write in iSCSI. With cache, numbers were expectedly better, posting 3,060 IOPS read and 18,317 IOPS write in SMB, and 81966 IOPS read and 55,510 IOPS write for iSCSI.

 

Moving on to 4K average latency, the Synology NAS showed 1490.35ms read and 148.94ms write in SMB, while iSCSI reached 100.61ms and 145.78ms for reads and writes. With cache, the latency improved to 83.62ms read and 13.97ms write in SMB and 3.12ms read and 4.61ms write in iSCSI.

 

Next up is 4K max latency, where the DS1522+ recorded 2824ms read 2805ms and write in SMB and 4045.3ms read and 913.042ms write in iSCSI HDD performance. With cache enabled, we saw latency drop to 665ms read and 199ms write in SMB and 66.52ms read and 102.29ms in iSCSI.

 

In our last 4K test (standard deviation), we saw the DS1522+ with 128.01ms read and 230.59ms write in SMB and 185ms read and 125.84ms write in iSCSI. Using cache, the NAS boasted 25.12ms read and 4.23ms write in SMB and 1.45ms read and 6.65ms write in iSCSI.

 

Our next benchmark measures 100% 8K sequential throughput with a 16T16Q load in 100% read and 100% write operations which showed similar read and write performance for both HDD-only and cache-enabled. For the former, the DS1522+ was able to reach 32,287 IOPS read and 21,668 IOPS write in SMB and 104197 IOPS read and 55,459 IOPS write in iSCSI. With cache enabled, SMB showed 32,376 IOPS read and 21,760 IOPS write, while iSCSI recorded 103,899 IOPS and 48,328 IOPS in reads and writes, respectively.

 

Compared to the fixed 16 thread, 16 queue max workload we performed in the 100% 4K write test, our mixed workload profiles scale the performance across a wide range of thread/queue combinations. In these tests, we span workload intensity from 2 thread/2 queue up to 16 thread/16 queues. In throughput, the HDD configuration posted a range of 444 IOPS to 1,458 IOPS (iSCSI) and 218 IOPS to 217 IOPS (SMB), while the cache showed 10,851 IOPS to 56,191 IOPS (iSCSI) and 1,541 IOPS to 581 IOPS (SMB).

Looking at average latency with our HDD configuration, SMB showed a burst speed of 18.24ms and finished at 1,176.67ms, while iSCSI recorded 8.98ms at burst and finished up at 175.42ms. With cache enabled, SMB ranged from 2.59ms to 439.6ms while iSCSI showed 0.36ms to 4.55ms.

For maximum latency in our HDD configuration, we saw 763.12ms to 5,336.14ms in SMB and 594.39ms to 3976.2ms in iSCSI. With cache enabled, the DS1522+ posted 598.54ms to 1,150.08ms and 32.62ms to 398.31ms in SMB and iSCSI, respectively.

Moving on to standard deviation results, the DS1522+ posted 24.95ms to 658.1ms in SMB and 16ms to 338.23ms in iSCSI for our HDD configuration. When cache was enabled, the DiskStation showed 6.23ms to 72.96ms (SMB) and 32.62ms to 398.31ms (iSCSI).

The last synthetic benchmark is our 128K test, which is a large-block sequential test that shows the highest sequential transfer speed for a device. In this workload scenario, we saw pretty much identical read performance across the board.  The DS1522+ had 1.15GB/s read and 993MB/s write in SMB and 947MB/s read and 1.15GB/s write in iSCSI. With cache enabled, the DS1522+ showed similar results, posting 1.15GB/s and 964MB/s for writes and reads in SMB, respectively, and 1.15GB/s read and 766MB/s write in iSCSI.

 

Conclusion

The DS1522+ is a follow-up to the DS1520+ and another addition to Synology’s Plus series of SMB/SOHO NAS solutions. Like its predecessor, the 5-bay DiskStation is outfitted with dual M.2 SSD caching bays to add quite a bit of performance flexibility, which was certainly established during our benchmarking. This time around, however, it features an AMD Ryzen R1600 CPU (compared to the last gen’s Intel Celeron J4124 4-core), up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, dual DX517 expansion bays supports (to scale as your business grows), and four 1GbE ports.  Like all Synology devices, the DS15222+ is powered by DiskStation Manager (DSM), the company’s comprehensive NAS OS that features a vast range of multimedia and file management applications.

The biggest upgrade to the new DiskStation is support for 10GbE connectivity through an add-on card. This is a fairly big deal, as the DS1520+ was missing this functionality (i.e., Synology decided to remove the open PCIe slot used for 10GbE cards), which left users with only four 1GbE ports to transfer data.

That said, 10GbE support is added through an E10G22-T1-Mini card ($150) that is easily installed via the network upgrade slot on the back panel. Synology’s decision to make this a modular, optional add-on allows them to drive down the price of the NAS, as not everyone needs 10GbE networking. Those who do will be able to greatly benefit from its speed, including content creators and businesses dealing with large files and needing the ability to allow multiple people to access them at once. The card is expensive though and proprietary, it would have been neat to see Synology adopt the open standard OCP slot here instead.

For performance, we looked at both HDD (five 16TB Synology drives configured as RAID6) and SSD caching (two Synology SNV3400-400G SSDs) configurations using both SMB and iSCSI connectivity. In our 100% read/write random 4K performance test, we saw 171 IOPS read and 1,718 IOPS write in SMB and 2,544 IOPS read and 1,755 IOPS write in iSCSI while cache posting 3,060 IOPS read and 18,317 IOPS write in SMB, and 81966 IOPS read and 55,510 IOPS write for iSCSI with cache enabled

During our 8K sequential throughput tests, we saw 32,287 IOPS read and 21,668 IOPS write in SMB and 104197 IOPS read and 55,459 IOPS write in iSCSI for HDDs. With cache enabled, SMB showed 32,376 IOPS read and 21,760 IOPS write, while iSCSI recorded 103,899 IOPS read and 48,328 IOPS write.

Lastly, in our large-block sequential test, the DS1522+ posted 1.15GB/s read and 993MB/s write in SMB and 947MB/s read and 1.15GB/s write in iSCSI. With cache enabled, the DS1522+ showed similar results, posting 1.15GB/s and 964MB/s for writes and reads in SMB, respectively, and 1.15GB/s read and 766MB/s write in iSCSI.

Overall, the Synology DS1522+ is a solid choice for SMBs and home users looking to add a scalable NAS to their network. We were very happy to see that Synology brought back 10GbE support to the popular SMB line, which significantly improves I/O performance when combined with the dual M.2 NVMe SSD caching. Beforehand, users had to either combine the DS1819+ with a 10GbE/SSD combo card or increase their budget considerably to purchase a much higher-class model (like the DS1621xs+) to get these networking speeds. Thankfully, home users and SMBs now have a much more affordable way to benefit from a 10GbE-compatible DiskStation with the DS1522+, even if a proprietary design.

Synology DiskStation DS1522+ at Amazon

Engage with StorageReview

Newsletter | YouTube | Podcast iTunes/Spotify | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | RSS Feed