Every year, Synology rearranges its NAS. Not wholesale, but selectively.
It doesn't improve every product in the line, just those it says don't compete well with competitors' options.
Some lines are no longer updated, which explains how the DS218Play is still part of the lineup after four years and is now cooling off in the 'value series'.
By contrast, the plus NAS series now consists of five designs from 2020, two from 2021, and the new machine we're reviewing today, the DS1522+.
In consumer NAS models, this is the only 22-series released so far, though we expect more models before the end of this year.
Our concern is that the DS1522+ falls into Synology's regular launch quagmire where they try to avoid undermining other models across their range.
With so many products, Synology has created an almost impossible minefield to navigate, leading to strange choices that can confuse their customers.
As the first big new 22-series NAS, is the DS1522+ an upgrade worth considering, or another half-empty option?
Price and Availability
In the UK, the DS1522+ costs €719 from several major online retailers, but can be found for less than €700 in some places. This price point is important because it is the official MSRP of the previous DS1520+ design. The older model can be had for over €650.
For US customers, Amazon.com has this hardware for €699.99, and the DS1520+ is at least €40 cheaper.
The selection of desktop NAS with five or more bays is small, but a cheaper alternative is the QNAP TS-653D-8G. It has six bays, two 2,5GbE LAN ports, and most importantly, a standard PCIe card slot for upgrading in any way that suits the owner. And it all costs about €50 or €50 less than the DS1522+.
For those who just want file serving, TerraMaster makes multiple NAS that have the same or more bays and cost much less.
Design and features
From a purely aesthetic point of view, there is not much to discuss here. To the casual observer, the DS1522+ looks nearly identical to the machine it directly replaces.
It has the exact dimensions and almost the same ports in most of the same places. The differences between the two cases are very subtle.
It is different, however, in terms of an access panel on the rear of the unit for an optional 10GbE network adapter, and the placement of the four 1GbE ports is slightly offset to make room for them.
What's a bit annoying about the 10GbE adapter is that it's Synology's proprietary slot design, and right now the only card that will fit is an E10G22-T1 10GbE adapter.
The great thing about this card is that it has an RJ45 design that can also work at 1Gb, 2,5GbE or 5GbE if you don't have 10GbE.
Except you have to pay for a 10GbE adapter, even if you choose to use lesser technology.
Technical sheet
This is the configuration of Synology DiskStation DS1522++ reviewed by TechRadar:
Processor: AMD Ryzen R1600
RAM: 8 GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM (expandable up to 32 GB)
Storage: 5x 3,5" or 2,5" SATA HDD/SSD, 2x M.2 2280 NVMe SSD
LAN ports: 4 x 1GbE (RJ-45), 1 x 10GbE optional
External ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 2 x eSATA
Expansion: via eSATA (2 x DX517) for 10 additional drive slots, proprietary card slot
Weight: 2,7 kg without discs
Size: 166mm x 230mm x 223mm (width x depth x height)
Warranty: 3 years limited
We don't understand what Synology has against 2,5GbE, but they made their card's end plate so small that it would probably be difficult to fit two 2,5GbE ports to it with a potentially more useful card.
Although proprietary, this card connects to PCIe 3.0 with two lanes, offering a total of 16 Gbits of bandwidth. Therefore, using it for a single 10GbE card underuses the available lane.
The insertion of this card is the only element of any installation that requires tools since two small screws hold it in place. Drives, NVMe modules, and memory can be installed without tools.
Most of the changes in this design are mainly related to the motherboard as it is the first Synology NAS to use the AMD Ryzen Embedded R1600 processor.
It's hard to gauge whether the DS1522+ appears to be another step in a larger transition to AMD Ryzen silicon. Based on the efficiency of these chips and the power they offer, this path makes strategic sense.
Other NAS manufacturers have switched from the Intel Celeron J4125 to its Celeron N5105 replacement. In a head-to-head comparison between the Ryzen R1600 and the Celeron N5105, it seems to divide them a little. The Celeron is quad core without hyperthreading and the R1600 is dual core with hyperthreading, allowing both to handle four threads.
Where they start to diverge is that the Ryzen's base clock is 2,6GHz, compared to the Celeron's 2,0GHz, and Turbo Boost is also more important.
But that's only a small part of that equation and that's why the R1600 ended up in the DS1522+.
While the memory speed is slightly faster on the Celeron, the Ryzen SoC can handle more RAM, 32GB, not the 16GB on the Intel chip.
While having this much RAM may only appeal to those who run a lot of applications on their NAS, that's exactly the scenario the DS1522+ is ideal for.
