Synology DiskStation DS1522+

Designed for home and small-business users who require lots of storage capacity and multiple RAID options, the Synology DiskStation DS1522+ ($699.99) is a five-bay network attached storage (NAS) device that offers speedy performance and a hefty catalog of NAS apps. It's equipped with a host of I/O ports, and you can outfit it with a 10Gbps LAN adapter for high-speed network connectivity. The price may seem steep for a bare-of-drives NAS chassis, but if you require a multi-bay NAS that can be expanded as your storage needs change, it is money well spent. All of that makes the DS1522+ our new top pick for multi-bay NAS devices.

Locking Sleds for Added Security

The DS1522+ uses a black enclosure that measures 6.5 by 9.0 by 8.7 inches (HWD) and has five front-loading, hot-swappable bays. As with nearly all of the NAS devices that we review, the DS1522+ does not come with drives, so you’ll have to factor in the cost of five drives when planning out your data storage budget. The drive sleds are tool-free and can accommodate 2.5- inch and 3.5-inch hard drives or solid-state drives (SSDs), and can be locked for added security. The DS1522+ comes with two keys for locking the sleds, as well as mounting screws (for use with 2.5-inch drives), a power cord and adapter, and a LAN cable.

Also on the front, off to the right, are a power button, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, LED activity indicators for all five drives, and a Status indicator that blinks green when the Disk Station Manager (DSM) operating system is booting. (It turns solid green when DSM is ready to use.) A blinking orange LED indicates a system error, such as overheating or a degraded volume.

The rear panel is home to four 1Gbps LAN ports, which support link aggregation for network failover and load balancing. Also back here are two eSATA expansion ports, a second USB 3.2 (Gen 1) port, a reset button, and a power port. Finally, a handy network upgrade slot can be used with Synology’s 10Gb Ethernet module ($149.99) for enhanced 10Gbps networking. A pair of 92mm cooling fans keeps the whole works (card and drives) chill.

A NAS With...AMD Ryzen Inside?

Under the hood are a dual-core AMD Ryzen R1600 CPU running at 2.6GHz, 8GB of DDR4 RAM (which can be expanded to 32GB), and two M.2 NVMe SSD cache slots. The DS1522+ has a raw internal storage capacity of 80TB (assuming five 16TB drives) and supports multiple RAID configurations, including Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), JBOD, Basic, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10. It also supports the Btrfs and ext4 file systems. If you require more storage, you can pick up a Synology DX517 Expansion Unit ($469.99) and add up to 10 more drives for a total raw capacity of 240TB. The DX517 hooks up to your master unit via one of the eSATA ports mentioned.

The DS1522+ uses the same DSM operating system as all other Synology NAS drives, including the DS1019+ and the DS920+. The user-friendly OS features a Microsoft Windows-like interface with desktop icons that make it easy to do NAS tasks such as create storage volumes, back up data, and assign user rights.

When you first launch DSM, the desktop is populated with icons labeled Control Panel, File Station, Package Center, and DSM Help. As you download apps, icons for each one will be added to the desktop. Two windows on the right side of the screen display information such as total (running) uptime, CPU and RAM usage, and the device’s LAN IP address. Also, a Main Menu icon in the upper left corner of the desktop screen gives you access to other programs. These include the Storage Manager (where you can create volumes and configure RAID settings), Active Insight (which lets you send data to Synology for faster resolution of technical issues), and Security Advisor (which scans for malware, checks password strength, and keeps your software up to date).

Use the Package Center to access and download any of 99 Synology and third-party apps; the selection lets you use the NAS as a multimedia server, a cloud server, a video surveillance center, a backup server, a mail server, and more. The Control Panel icon is where you go to configure network and security settings, set privileges, configure files services and file sharing, and create user groups. The File Station icon, meanwhile, lets you access your data via a web browser and organize folders and files. And the DSM Help icon takes you to a screen where you can view tutorials and help articles.

Testing the Synology DiskStation DS1522+: Impressive File-Transfer Performance

Synology NAS drives have always been easy to install and configure in our testing, and the DS1522+ was no different. You can install and configure it with the Synology mobile app or via a web console (I chose the latter).

I started by installing a 10TB Seagate Ironwolf drive in each of the five sleds, connected the NAS to my router, and powered it up. I downloaded the Synology Assistant utility to my desktop PC (also connected to the router), opened the utility, and it immediately found the DS1522+. I tapped Connect and Install and downloaded the latest version of the DSM operating system. After several minutes, the NAS rebooted, and I tapped Start.

I gave the device a name, created an administrator account and password, and launched the DSM desktop. I was prompted to create a storage pool and volume, and selected SHR as my RAID option and Btrfs for my file system. The volume was immediately created with, a total storage capacity of 34.9TB. The software needed around 18 hours to optimize the volume, after which I was ready for testing.

The DS1522+ returned impressive scores on our file-transfer performance tests, in which we move a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of video, photo, music, and office document files between the NAS and a host PC and record both the read and write speeds.

Its write score of 90MBps was faster than the ioSafe 1520+ (85MBps) and the TerraMaster F5-422 (80MBps), but couldn’t keep pace with the Asustor AS5304T (98MBps). The DS1522+ scored 89MBps on the read test, matching both the ioSafe 1520+ and the TerraMaster F5-422. The Asustor AS5304T took top honors with a score of 96MBps.

Verdict: Top-Shelf Scalable Storage

Whether you’re a home user looking to store multimedia files and share them in the cloud, or a small business that requires a scalable storage solution with multiple RAID options, the Synology DiskStation DS1522+ NAS is an excellent choice. With five drive bays, two embedded M.2 NVMe SSD cache slots, and the ability to add 10 more drives via an expansion unit, it offers plenty of storage options. It is also equipped with numerous I/O ports and offers an easy and relatively affordable path to 10Gbps network connectivity.

It’s one of the more expensive multi-bay NAS drives we’ve tested, but its solid performance, beefy features, and massive catalog of apps earn it an Editors’ Choice award for multi-bay NAS drives.