The Synology DS918+ is designed for small and medium-sized businesses and IT enthusiasts. With a powerful built-in AES-NI hardware encryption engine, DS918+ provides exceptional encrypted file transmission. Also capable of transcoding up to two channels of H.265/H.264 4K videos at the same time, DS918+ is ideal for sharing and storing ultra-high definition media content.
Here we take a quick look at the retail package, unbox it for you and give you a really quick review of the product.
The Synology DS918+ is one of Synology’s best offerings but there is a wide arange of options to choose from. Here are some of the more popular variants:
| Synology Disk Station DS218+ – NAS server w/ 2TB Wd Red | ₱ 24,900.00 |
| Synology Disk Station DS1819+ 8Bay – NASserver | ₱ 56,799.00 |
| Synology Disk Station DS718+ – NAS server (2GB RAM) | ₱ 26,900.00 |
| Synology 4Bay Disk Station DS918+ – NASserver (4GB Memory) |
₱ 33,000.00
|
We’ll test the product further so we can tell you how it performs and how easy/hard it is to operate/use then write our full review. Watch out for that.
For now, here are the complete specifications:
| Hardware Specifications | |
| CPU | |
| CPU Model | Intel Celeron J3455 |
| CPU Architecture | 64-bit |
| CPU Frequency | Quad Core 1.5 burst up to 2.3 GHz |
| Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI) | |
| Hardware Transcoding Engine | H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-2 and VC-1; maximum resolution: 4K (4096 x 2160); maximum frame rate per second (FPS): 30 |
| Memory | |
| System Memory | 4 GB DDR3L |
| Memory Module Pre-installed | 4 GB (4 GB x 1) |
| Total Memory Slots | 2 |
| Memory Expandable up to | 8 GB (4 GB x 2) |
| Notes | Synology reserves the right to replace memory modules with the same or higher frequency based on supplier’s product life cycle status. Rest assured that the compatibility and stability have been strictly verified with the same benchmark to ensure identical performance. |
| Please select Synology memory modules for optimum compatibility and reliability. Synology will not provide complete product warranty or technical support if non-Synology memory modules are used for memory expansion. | |
| Storage | |
| Drive Bays | 4 |
| Maximum Drive Bays with Expansion Unit | 9 |
| M.2 Drive Slots | 2 (NVMe) |
| Compatible Drive Type* (See all supported drives) | 3.5″ SATA HDD |
| 2.5″ SATA HDD | |
| 2.5″ SATA SSD | |
| M.2 2280 NVMe SSD | |
| Maximum Internal Raw Capacity | 56 TB (14 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) |
| Maximum Raw Capacity with Expansion Units | 126 TB (56 TB + 14 TB drive x 5) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) |
| Maximum Single Volume Size | 108 TB |
| Hot Swappable Drive | |
| Notes | “Compatible drive type” indicates the drives that have been tested to be compatible with Synology products. This term does not indicate the maximum connection speed of each drive bay. |
| The maximum raw capacity is not limited by the maximum single volume size. Synology NAS models may utilize capacities over the maximum single volume size as long as each volume created is below the limit. (Learn more) | |
| Expansion of the internal volume is only supported if the combined single volume size does not exceed the maximum limit of 108TB. | |
| External Ports | |
| RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port | 2 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support) |
| USB 3.0 Port | 2 |
| eSATA Port | 1 |
| File System | |
| Internal Drives | Btrfs |
| EXT4 | |
| External Drives | Btrfs |
| EXT4 | |
| EXT3 | |
| FAT | |
| NTFS | |
| HFS+ | |
| exFAT* | |
| Notes | exFAT Access is purchased separately in Package Center. |
| Appearance | |
| Size (Height x Width x Depth) | 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm |
| Weight | 2.28 kg |
| Others | |
| System Fan | 92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs |
| Fan Speed Mode | Full-Speed Mode |
| Cool Mode | |
| Quiet Mode | |
| Brightness adjustable front LED indicators | YES |
| Power Recovery | YES |
| Noise Level* | 19.8 dB(A) |
| Scheduled Power On/Off | YES |
| Wake on LAN/WAN | YES |
| Power Supply Unit / Adapter | 100W |
| AC Input Power Voltage | 100V to 240V AC |
| Power Frequency | 50/60Hz, Single Phase |
| Power Consumption* | 28.8 W (Access) |
| 12.6 W (HDD Hibernation) | |
| British Thermal Unit | 98.27 BTU/hr (Access) |
| 42.99 BTU/hr (HDD Hibernation) | |
| Temperature | |
| Operating Temperature | 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F) |
| Storage Temperature | -20°C to 60°C (-5°F to 140°F) |
| Relative Humidity | 5% to 95% RH |
| Certification | EAC |
| VCCI | |
| CCC | |
| RCM | |
| KC | |
| FCC | |
| CE | |
| BSMI | |
| Warranty | 3-year hardware warranty, extendable to 5-year coverage – EW201 |
| Notes | The warranty period starts from the purchase date as stated on your purchase receipt. (Learn more) |
| Power consumption is measured when fully loaded with Western Digital 1TB WD10EFRX hard drive(s). | |
| Noise Level Testing Environment: Fully loaded with Seagate 2TB ST2000VN000 hard drive(s) in idle; Two G.R.A.S. Type 40AE microphones, each set up at 1 meter away from the Synology NAS front and rear; Background noise: 16.49-17.51 dB(A); Temperature: 24.25-25.75˚C; Humidity: 58.2-61.8% | |
| DSM Specifications ( See more ) | |
| Storage Management | |
| Maximum Internal Volume Number | 512 |
| Maximum iSCSI Target Number | 128 |
| Maximum iSCSI LUN | 256 |
| iSCSI LUN Clone/Snapshot, Windows ODX | YES |
| SSD Read/Write Cache (White Paper) | YES |
| SSD TRIM | YES |
| Supported RAID Type | Synology Hybrid RAID |
| Basic | |
| JBOD | |
| RAID 0 | |
| RAID 1 | |
| RAID 5 | |
| RAID 6 | |
| RAID 10 | |
| RAID Migration | Basic to RAID 1 |
| Basic to RAID 5 | |
| RAID 1 to RAID 5 | |
| RAID 5 to RAID 6 | |
| Volume Expansion with Larger HDDs | Synology Hybrid RAID |
| RAID 1 | |
| RAID 5 | |
| RAID 6 | |
| RAID 10 | |
| Volume Expansion by Adding a HDD | Synology Hybrid RAID |
| JBOD | |
| RAID 5 | |
| RAID 6 (with Expansion Unit) | |
| Global Hot Spare Supported RAID Type | Synology Hybrid RAID |
| RAID 1 | |
| RAID 5 | |
| RAID 6 (with Expansion Unit) | |
| RAID 10 (with Expansion Unit) | |
| File Services | |
| File Protocol | CIFS/AFP/NFS/FTP/WebDAV |
| Maximum Concurrent CIFS/AFP/FTP Connections | 1,000 |
| Maximum Concurrent CIFS/AFP/FTP Connections (with RAM expansion) | 2,000 |
| Windows Access Control List (ACL) Integration | YES |
| NFS Kerberos Authentication | YES |
| Account & Shared Folder | |
| Maximum Local User Accounts | 2,048 |
| Maximum Local Groups | 256 |
| Maximum Shared Folder | 512 |
| Maximum Shared Folder Sync Tasks | 8 |
| High Availability Manager | |
| Log Center | |
| Syslog Events per Second | 800 |
| Virtualization | |
| VMware vSphere 6 with VAAI | YES |
| Windows Server 2012 | YES |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | YES |
| Windows Server 2016 | YES |
| Citrix Ready | YES |
| OpenStack | YES |
| Add-on Packages (learn more about the complete add-on package list) | |
| Antivirus by McAfee (Trial) | |
| Central Management System | |
| Chat | |
| Maximum Users | 1,500 |
| Notes | The number of concurrent HTTP connections for Chat was configured to the maximum. |
| CPU and RAM usage were both under 80% when the number of maximum users was reached. | |
| For tested models with expandable memory, the maximum amount of RAM was installed. | |
| Cloud Station Server | |
| Recommended Number of Hosted Files | 1,000,000 |
| Recommended Number of Concurrent Sync Clients | 1,000 (the number of connections that can be maintained when the recommended number of hosted files was reached) |
| Notes | The maximum number of concurrently connected devices refers to the maximum number of devices that can remain connected at the same time. |
| The maximum number of hosted files refers to the maximum number of files that can be indexed and hosted by the Cloud Station Server service. RAM expansion was not used during testing. | |
| Non-encrypted shared folders were used during the aforementioned testing. | |
| Document Viewer | |
| Download Station | |
| Maximum Concurrent Download Tasks | 80 |
| exFAT Access (optional) | |
| MailPlus / MailPlus Server | |
| Free Email Accounts | 5 (Licenses required for additional accounts) |
| Maximum number of concurrent users | 100 |
| Maximum Server Performance | 1,052,000 emails per day, approx. 32GB |
| Notes | The CPU and RAM usage were both under 80% when testing the maximum number of concurrent users. |
| For tested models with expandable memory, the maximum amount of RAM was installed. | |
| Read-write SSD cache was enabled in 5-bay (and above) NAS models with 2 SSDs units installed. | |
| The performance of the mail system will slightly decrease in high-availability mode due to data synchronization between the two servers. | |
| Functions that were enabled in all of the tests above: anti-spam, anti-virus, DNSBL, greylist, content scan, full-text search (English only). | |
| Media Server | |
| DLNA Compliance | YES |
| Moments | |
| Facial recognition | YES |
| Subject recognition | YES |
| Auto Color & Rotate | YES |
| Moments Select | YES |
| Snapshot Replication | |
| Maximum Snapshots per Shared Folder | 1,024 |
| Maximum of system snapshots | 65,536 |
| Surveillance Station | |
| Maximum IP cam (Licenses required) | 40 (including 2 Free License) (See All Supported IP Cameras) |
| Total FPS (H.264)* | 1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) |
| 840 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) | |
| 550 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) | |
| 300 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) | |
| 180 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160) | |
| Total FPS (H.265)* | 1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) |
| 1200 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) | |
| 900 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) | |
| 550 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) | |
| 300 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160) | |
| Total FPS (MJPEG)* | 720 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) |
| 500 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) | |
| 330 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) | |
| 200 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) | |
| Notes | Surveillance Station throughput is tested with Axis network camera, using continuous recording with live view from Surveillance Station and motion detection by camera. Live view and recording are sharing the same stream from the camera. |
| Synology Drive | |
| Recommended Number of Hosted Files | 500,000 (applies to files indexed or hosted by Synology Drive. For file access through other standard protocols, refer to the File Services section above) |
| Recommended Number of Concurrent Sync Clients | 450 (the number of connections that can be maintained when the recommended number of hosted files was reached) |
| Notes | For tested models with expandable memory, the maximum amount of RAM was installed. |
| Exceeding the limits above may result in longer response time in file operations. | |
| Btrfs file system and non-encrypted shared folders were used during the aforementioned testing. | |
| Synology Office | |
| Maximum Users | 1,800 |
| Notes | Multiple files were opened for testing and each file was edited by 30 users simultaneously. |
| CPU and RAM usage were both under 80% when the number of maximum users was reached. | |
| For tested models with expandable memory, the maximum amount of RAM was installed. | |
| Client performance may affect maximum simultaneous editing users. Client PCs used for testing: Intel Core i3-3220 / 8GB RAM | |
| Video Station | |
| Video Transcoding | 4K Group 1 (See more) |
| Maximum Transcoding Channel Number | 2 channel, 30 FPS @ 4K (4096 x 2160), H.264 (AVC)/H.265 (HEVC) or |
| 2 channel, 30 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080), H.264 (AVC)/H.265 (HEVC)/MPEG-2/VC-1 | |
| Virtual Machine Manager | |
| Recommended Virtual Machine Instances | 4 (Learn more) |
| Recommended Virtual DSM Number(Licenses required) | 4 (including 1 Free License) |
| Notes | Virtual Machine Manager is not supported on hosts running Synology High Availability. |
| The specifications vary depending on system configuration and memory size. | |
| VPN Server | |
| Maximum Connections | 20 |
| Environment & Packaging | |
| Environment | RoHS Compliant |
| Packaging Content | Main Unit X 1 |
| Accessory Pack X 1 | |
| AC Power Adapter X 1 | |
| AC Power Cord X 1 | |
| RJ-45 LAN Cable X 2 | |
| Quick Installation Guide X 1 | |
| Optional Accessories | Surveillance Device License Pack |
| D3NS1866L-4G DDR3 non-ECC SO-DIMM | |
| Expansion Unit: DX517 X 1 | |
| VS360HD | |
| VS960HD | |