A Look Inside

It's now time to strip the NAS down to discover what components it hides inside.


Taking apart this unit wasn't the easiest thing in world. Lots of screws had to be removed, and only after we took the front and rear side out could the center cover be detached. We, as you can see by the above photos, fully dismantled the small but expensive NAS.


This is the front LED board of the NAS.


The mainboard is very small because it only hosts the essential components. It is equipped with two PCIe slots.


Gigabit Ethernet controllers which are provided by Intel (82574L). These support port trunking and Jumbo frames.


This small PCIe expansion card houses both SATA ports.


In the second PCIe slot sits the card that holds the two USB 3.0 and single eSATA port. The USB 3.0 controller is an EtronTech EJ168A.


The dual-core Atom CPU (D2700) is cooled by a small aluminum heatsink. Since its TDP is low (10W max), only passive cooling is used, boosting reliability and reducing noise output.


The chipset that supports the DS713+ is probably the Intel ICH10 southbridge and, more specifically, the ICH10R or 82801JIR I/O controller that supports up to twelve USB 2.0 and six SATA II ports along with Intel's Matrix Storage Technology. The latter offers all popular RAID levels and has JBOD support.


There is only one RAM slot, so you have to switch the stock 1 GB DIMM out for a higher capacity one to upgrade the RAM total, but you have to fully dismantle the NAS first, something easier said than done.


The monitoring IC is an ITE IT8728F.


This small PCB, attached to the main one through a 10-pin connector, hosts a chip of Samsung flash memory (K9F1G08U0D-SCB0) and a UT165-L46 controller. The flash memory stores a part of the DSM operating system used for booting up the system. The main part of the DSM is installed on the HDDs.


A Silicon Image Sil3531, a single-lane PCI Express to single port Serial ATA (SATA) II host controller is soldered to the mainboard. This controller is used to connect an expansion unit to the NAS (e.g. DX513) through the eSATA port.


We also found a PIC16F883 8-bit microcontroller on the mainboard.


The buzzer/speaker of the NAS.


The PLL Clock Generator is a 9DB403DGLF IC. The clock generator IC is an SL28EB742ALC.


The 2-Phase CPU controller, an NCP6131 IC.


The single 92mm diameter fan is made by Y.S. Tech, and its model number is FD129225LL-N (12V, 0.12A, 1900RPM, 36.3CFM). Its speed is kept at low RPMs during normal operational loads to minimize noise output. It uses, according to Y.S Tech, Sintetico bearings looking to be of high quality. These should last longer than sleeve or double-ball bearings.