Synology Launches 12-bay DS2413+ and Wi-Fi Enabled 2-bay DS213air

Synology has been on a tear lately, with product launches happening in quick succession. Approximately a month back, we had the launch of the 2013 2-bay lineup (DS213 and DS213+). The 4-bay lineup (DS413 and DS413j) was launched on September 18th. Today, we have the launch of two products targeting different market segments.

DS2413+

The DS2413+ is the first the latest 12-bay tower form factor NAS from Synology in the standard business product lineup. Along with the optional DX1211, users can have up to 24 bays at their disposal. With a passively cooled CPU design and dual GbE LAN with failover support and hot-swappable drives, reliability and uptime get an added boost. With link aggregation, Synology claims speeds of up to 201.03 MBps reads and 196.87 MBps writes under RAID5. Though Synology didn't confirm the specifics, the NAS is probably based on the Intel Atom D2700 platform which has two cores running at 2.13 GHz.

The business oriented features of the DS2413+ include VAAI for improved VMware support, LUN backup software and ADS support for domains up to 100K users/ groups. Synology also takes special care to point out the photographer-friendly features and packages available for the DS2413+.

The DS2413+ is available for purchase today and is priced at $1700.

DS213air

The DS213air is one of the innovative products to grace the NAS market this year. In their quest to offer differentiating features, Synology seems to have found an interesting niche. The DS213air is based on the DS213 platform (Marvell Kirkwood based 2-bay NAS). It integrates a single band (2.4 GHz) 802.11n radio (we are awaiting clarification on the exact speeds - 150 Mbps / 300 Mbps / 450 Mbps. Update: It is an Atheros-based 2x2 configuration) on-board.

The 802.11n radio can be used in multiple ways:

• Wireless hotspot: When connected over Ethernet to a router / switch, the DS213air can be configured as a wireless hotspot to provide Wi-Fi capability in the network.
• Wireless router: When connected directly to the modem through Ethernet, the DS213air can act as a wireless router to provide Wi-Fi access to various wireless devices.
• Wi-Fi client: The radio can also be used to connect the NAS to the network wirelessly (freeing up the Ethernet port). This is unlikely to be a usage mode for most users since Wi-Fi reach / reliability will never match up to what can be obtained through a wired connection.

The other specifications are similar to that of the DS213 launched last month. The DS213air is available for purchase today and is priced at $307.