Introduction

We would like to thank Synology for supplying the review sample.

Synology, without any doubt, is one of the key players in the NAS server market and all Synology products we have reviewed so far managed to achieve high price/performance ratios. So, naturally we expect the same from the DS713+, the test subject of today’s review.

According to Synology, the DiskStation 713+ is a robust, scalable NAS server for business environments. Don’t let its only two available bays fool you—it can easily be upgraded with the Synology DX513 expansion unit connecting to the DS713+ via the eSATA interface for seven bays and up to 28 TB in total. Only acquire the NAS initially, but obtain the DX513 or DX213 to then add either five or two more HDD bays.

The DS713+'s other characteristics are high-end as far as NAS server standards go since it is equipped with a dual-core Atom processor, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports that support Link Aggregation, two USB 3.0 ports, and 1 GB DDR3 RAM. The box also runs Synology’s DSM (DiskStation Manager) operating system featuring a windowed and intuitive interface that is very easy to use by even novice users. DSM offers an endless list of features, and we are going to analyze most of them during this review. You can run through this live demo to check DSM out on your own. It will show you why Synology NAS servers are so popular not only amongst administrators but also regular users.