Decryptedtech.com has a comprehensive review of the Synology DS 1512+ NAS which is an Atom based NAS with 5 bays that can be expanded by using up to two DS510 expansion boxes giving a total storage potential of 15 drives.
In this post, they run through the features of the DSM software that this Synology (and all Synology devices) use. The review goes through many of the features of the software and shows a lot of screen shots. If you read this run through you will know just about everything important about the Synology software!
One of the more unusual features is the mail server:
There is a mail station that is available for Synology owners. You can setup your DS1512+ as your own mail server. You will have to install a small package to do this, but once you do you can send and receive email through your DiskStation. If you are worried about running your own mail server you can keep your Gmail account and simply have the DiskStation pull those emails down for you and keep them on your own server, then you can send email through the DiskStation to make sure that you keep the majority of your data (you will still have to keep your Gmail account clean though).
The Mail Station app uses the roundcube webmail service you also get spam protection built into the service which will help to keep some of the malware threats away.
The disk volume features are described:
The default volume structure is Synology’s SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) with a single drive for fault tolerance. You can change this easily and have options for RIAD 1, 0, 5, 10 as well as drive spanning and JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives) The SHR can also be configured to use two drives for fault tolerance if you are concerned about data redundancy.
They perform a comprehensive speed test which compares various raid level setups, from Synology's SHR, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 to RAID 10. Performance, as you would expect from a top consumer NAS, is outstanding:
The review ends up with a solid recommendation for the DS 1512+. Read the full review beginning here.
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