Synology has sent over another one of their Network Attached Storage (NAS) servers for us to look at. Along with all of the typical things we look forward to, this one offers some new features that we are also excited to check out. The DS1515 is shown in the promotional image below, and from the model number and image we know that it is a 5-bay device. For this review, Synology has pre-populated the bays with 4TB Seagate brand drives, giving us a total of 20TB of storage to play with.



Another interesting features of the DS1515 is that it uses a processor that I had previously not encountered anywhere... The Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314. This is a budget friendly ARM-based SOC (system on chip) that offers four 1.4GHz processing cores, hardware based encryption, and floating point unit. There is also 2GB of DDR3 system memory, and with four Gigabit Ethernet jacks out back you can configure this thing for fail over or high speed link aggregation. The list below details some of the other features and specifications, but for a more comprehensive list please visit the official product page on the Synology website.

Features and Specifications:

Hardware Specifications:

» CPU:
   » CPU Model: Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314
   » CPU Frequency: Quad Core 1.4 GHz
   » Floating Point: yes
   » Hardware Encryption Engine: yes

» Memory:
   » System Memory 2 GB DDR3

» Storage:
   » Drive Bay(s): 5
   » Maximum Drive Bays with Expansion Unit: 15
   » Compatible Drive Type (See all supported drives):
      » 3.5" SATA III / SATA II HDD
      » 2.5" SATA III / SATA II HDD
      » 2.5" SATA III / SATA II SSD
   » Maximum Internal Raw Capacity: 40 TB (8 TB HDD X 5) (Capacity may vary by RAID types)
   » Maximum Raw Capacity with Expansion Units: 120 TB (8 TB HDD X 15) (Capacity may vary by RAID types)
   » Maximum Single Volume Size: 108 TB
   » Hot Swappable Drive: yes

» External Ports:
   » USB 3.0 Port: 2
   » eSATA Port: 2

» File System:
   » Internal Drives: EXT4
   » External Drives: EXT4, EXT3, FAT, NTFS, HFS+

» Appearance:
   » Size (Height X Width X Depth): 157 mm X 248 mm X 233 mm
   » Weight: 4.15 kg

» Others:
   » RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port: 4 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support)
   » Wake on LAN/WAN: yes
   » System Fan: 80 mm X 80 mm X 2 pcs
   » Fan Speed Mode: Cool Mode, Quiet Mode
   » Easy Replacement System Fan: yes
   » Wireless Support (dongle): yes
   » Power Recovery: yes
   » Noise Level: 22.4 dB(A)
   » Scheduled Power On/Off: yes
   » Power Supply Unit / Adapter: 200W
   » AC Input Power Voltage: 100V to 240V AC
   » Power Frequency: 50/60 Hz, Single Phase
   » Power Consumption: 32.3 W (Access), 18.2 W (HDD Hibernation)
   » British Thermal Unit: 110.21 BTU/hr (Access), 62.10 BTU/hr (HDD Hibernation)