Synology DS1618+ 6-Bay High-Performance NAS Review

Specifications and A Closer Look

Hardware Specifications

The specifications are taken directly from the manufacturer homepage. They are valid at the time of the review, but they may be subject to changes in future revisions of the product.

Software Specifications

Add-On Specifications

A look at the Bottom

We start by turning the NAS upside down and look at the bottom of the unit. This is usually a featureless side, except for the rubber feet, but not so for the DS1618+. The hatch you see at the top of the photo is what hides the two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots. They take normal SO-DIMMs as well as ECC, but you need to use the same in both. By default, it comes with a single stick of non-ECC memory.

The two Sides of the NAS

The two sides are identical and their only feature is the Synology logo. The logo is also a clever way to add air intake to the NAS as the name is made of a mesh material.

The rear of the unit

The most interesting part of the NAS is probably the rear side. There are two large 92mm fans in the centre. You can easily gain access to them for cleaning by removing four screws only. There is no need to open the whole system up for that. The power connector is located at the left side and you need to make sure that the cable is properly seated in it. It is located deeper than most of this kind of power connectors.

All the connectors are at the bottom of the unit. There is an eSATA port at each side. Between them are four LAN ports and two USB 3.0 ports.

The PCIe expansion slot is located at the right side. This is the only part you’ll need to open the entire chassis up to install, the rest is easily accessible from the outside.

A closer look at the front

While the front of any Synology NAS looks great with the rounded edges and clean layout, there aren’t many features as such. A lot of drive bays in the middle and some status, buttons, and ports around them. Each drive tray has their own LED output for drive status and activity.

The power button is located at the top centre of the unit with status LEDs around it. As mentioned above, the drive trays have the drive’s covered. What’s left is the status and alert LEDs as well as one for each of the LAN ports.

Almost hidden at the bottom right corner is a USB 3.0 port. We also see the drive lock mechanism on this photo.

Drive Trays

Synology’s drive trays allow for tool-less installation for 3.5-inch drives, if you wish to do so. You can still screw them in if you rather want that, but it isn’t needed. This makes the installation of drives very quick and hassle-free. The drive trays are suitable for 2.5-inch drives, but they always have to be screwed in. You can see the screw holes for this kind of drives at the bottom of the tray.

And this is how the trays look with drives installed in them.