Synology DS1019+ NAS Review

Does the Synology DS1019+ NAS live up to the Hype?

As soon as we have heard about the brand new DS1019+ NAS from Synology, I think it is safe to say that we are excited. Synology has an impressive history of great desktop NAS devices for home and business needs and therefore a brand new 5-bay is always worth checking out. The new Synology 5-bay DS1019+, however, breaks ground on a new kind of 5 HDD/SSD server from Synology, adopting some of the latest innovations of the previous generation, whilst simultaneously changing the format of previous 5 hard drive server they have released previously.
SOFTWARE - 8/10
HARDWARE - 7/10
PERFORMANCE - 7/10
PRICE - 8/10
VALUE - 8/10


7.6
PROS
👍🏻Dual M.2 cache
👍🏻Great RAID Options
👍🏻Excellent choice of Apps
👍🏻Snapshot Replication
👍🏻BTRFS and SHR
👍🏻Support Plex
👍🏻Virtualization
👍🏻4K Video transcoding
👍🏻Full Plex Transcoding
👍🏻Hot-Swap trays
👍🏻DLNA Compliant
👍🏻Expandable
👍🏻RAM upgradable
CONS
👎🏻No Copy button
👎🏻Only 1Gbe Ethernet ports
👎🏻No PCIe slots
👎🏻Only 4GB and 1 HDD Bay different to DS918+
In fact, the new Synology DS1019+ bears striking resemblance to the DS918+ released in 2017 later and this has made some people wonder if the DS1019+ is just the same 4-Bay NAS with an extra media bay and 4GB more memory slapped on the end. It’s a fair point and worthy of discussion, so let’s find out.

The Synology DS1019+ NAS – Design

The retail box of the Synology DS1019+ is fairly standard, in line with other Synology NAS and although rather understated, gives more than enough protection for your new NAS through transit and onto your desktop. Not to labour the point, but aesthetics in retail packaging is never really been something Synology has had time for, which is an understandable position. Given that most buyers of the DS1019+ will do so online, the need for striking retail boxes to stand out on a shop shelf is rather unnecessary.
Once opened, we found the Synology DS1019+ NAS itself, along with the following accessories
  • Tray Keys
  • SSD Screws
  • AC Power Adapter
  • AC Power Cord
  • 2x RJ-45 LAN Cable
  • Quick Installation Guide

Those that have seen the Synology DS1517+, DS1515+ and DS1513+ will be surprised to see that Synology has created a new chassis for the release of the DS1019+ NAS. The older 5-Bay NAS chassis used previously featured a metal external chassis and spring-loaded hard drive trays (as well as other hardware distinctions that we will cover later on).

There is no denying that, for many, it will feel like a little bit of a step down in physical design to switch to the Synology DS1019+ with its plastic chassis and slightly more plastic trays. It certainly assists in lowering operational noise though and we will have to perform live for like performance tests to see if this is detrimental to the output.
The hard drive trays themselves are screwless in design and mean that installation is both quick and tool-free.
All 5 trays can be locked and support both 3.5″ and 2.5″ media drives, this includes the very latest 14TB NAS drives from Seagate Ironwolf and HGST Ultrastar DC, as well as pretty much ANY SATA based solid state drive (SSD)
Much like other Synology NAS, the DS1019+ chassis does not feature an LCD panel, but rather multiple LED lights denoting system health and network connectivity at any time. These can be dimmed/brightened as needed and are considerably more informative than people give them credit for!
there is also the extremely useful and often overlooked front mounted USB 3.0 port that allows you to backup the contents of the NAS to an external drive or alternatively backup multiple external drives to the NAS each into separate volumes. This can be done manually in the DSM software, or automatically once a drive is introduced to the USB Port in the USB-Copy application available in the 1019+ software.
The chassis itself is remarkably similar to that of the DS918+ and in fact, is a modified design to this older chassis. This means that NAS internal hardware and overall temperature levels are controlled very well, with ventilation passing through them as easily and effectively as possible. The sides of the Synology DS1019+ NAS feature the logo of the Synology brand, fully ventilated, to further assist airflow as the rear fan based active cooling passes air through the chassis.

The Synology DS1019+ NAS – Hardware

If we turn the Synology NAS around we are able to see that the rear of the DS1019+ is remarkably similar to that of the DS918+ and noticeably different to that of the DS1517+ NAS.
The Synology DS1019+ removes the 4x  RJ45 based LAN ports featured on the DS1517+, in favour of two LAN ports. These support link aggregation, effectively doubling your upload and download to this device. It is also worth highlighting that the newer DS1019+ 5-Bay does not feature a PCIe slot, so upgrading to 10GBe is not an option.
There are two rear fans that can be manually or automatically controlled to lower/heighten the rotations per minute (RPM) and control the temperature within the DS1019+ NAS.
We also find further USB ports for adding further external storage or supported USB devices, such as Uninterruptible Power Suppliers (UPS) or wireless aerials to make the NAS cable free. Though I would not recommend the latter if you have heavy file transit in mind.
Next, we find the red eSATA port used for expanding your storage by a further 5-Bays (hence the 10 in the name) with the connection of the DX517 expansion NAS. This expansion can be used to further grow your RAID storage, use as an independent storage volume, or to set up an identical clone of NAS RAID for a synchronised high availability backup.
At the base of the DS1019+ NAS, we find what makes the biggest difference between the DS1517+ and the newer Synology NAS, namely 2x NVMe SSD slots
These slots can be used to install super fast NVMe storage drives and vastly improve your internal read and write operations as needed. This will be of particular use to those running large file operations constantly, virtual machine use, or those looking to make high volume data transfers frequently where the same files are being used by 10’s, 100’s or 1000’s of users all the time.
The fact that there are two individual NVMe enabled slots is because you have the option of Read-Only cache and Read and Write cache. The former improves retrieval of data that already exists on the NAS for access and all data stored in the cache is really a clone of that which is already on the hard drive volume, without live data being exchanged amidst instructions. Where is read and write cache provides the vastly improved speed of file transmission within the NAS and assists both read and write instructions between the NAS and the users. Remember though that a Read/Write cache is a RAID 1 configuration of the available SSD media and therefore with effectively half your total available cache space.
Despite the inclusion of the NVMe based SSD cache upgrade, it is still a shame to know that the best external transmission speeds you will reach are 2Gb/s LAN over link aggregation, and not the potential 10Gbe NIC upgrade advantages available when upgrading the DS1517+ NAS.

Synology DS1019+ is designed for small and medium-sized businesses and IT enthusiasts in mind. Arriving with an Intel Celeron J3455 CPU (4 core, 1.5-2.3Ghz per core) and 8GB of memory, the DS1019+ hardware is remarkably impressive. With a powerful built-in AES-NI hardware encryption engine, the DS1019+ provides exceptional encrypted file transmission that compares well with non-encrypted use. The NAS is also capable of transcoding up to two channels of H.265/H.264 4K videos at the same time and this combined with the NVMe SSD cache options, means that you have significant hardware support available in the DS1019+ NAS at this price point.

The Synology DS1019+ NAS – Software

If you currently only DS918 NAS from Synology, then chances are that the Synology DS1019+ NAS will have little or nothing that you have not seen before. Featuring an identical CPU in the Intel Celeron J3455, this quad core 1. 5 GHz processor in the DS1019+ does not present a massive upgrade to you. However, for those looking for a robust storage NAS with RAID coverage and internal hardware that will stand the test of time, the newer and larger DS1019+ represents a great starting block for your network attached storage system

Unsurprisingly the DS1019+ Synology NAS drive arrives with all the software advantages available on a modern NAS, thanks to the DiskStation Manager (DSM) platform currently in version 6.2 and 7.0 soon to be available in Beta.
The DS1019+ NAS support a multitude of first-party applications and third-party apps for home and business use, such as:
First Party Apps
Synology Office (Docs, xls, PDF, etc – ALternative to Google Docs)
Synology Chat (Alternative to Skype for internal User Conversation/Collaboration + mobile app)
Synology Drive (Alternative to DropBox/Google Drive with 1-point access to all file types for Mobile and Desktop)
Synology Moments (Photo Sorting and Tagging system with Deep Learning)
Synology Calendar (Smart Calendar App, can be used in conjunction with other apps)
Synology Active Backup (Manage Multiple Server/PC backups via a single control point)
Synology Surveillance Station
Synology Virtual Machine Manager (setup and manage multiple VMs on your NAS)
Synology High Availability (for Syncing Synology NAS and having instant failover support to ensure constant connectivity)
Synology Cloud Station
Synology Multimedia Apps (Video Station, Photo Station, Music Station, File Station, etc)
MANY more
Third Part App Support
Plex Media Server
Google Drive, DropBox, ElephantDrive and other cloud migration
Docker for virtual application environments
Nakivo Backups
WordPress Site Hosting
vTiger CRM for Business
The DSM platform has evolved a great deal over the last few years and has become practically an entire reason to buy a Synology NAS on its own. You can of course try out the Synology DSM software platform before investing in a NAS, by visiting the link below and trying DSM 6.2 for yourself:

The Synology DS1019+ NAS – VERDICT

There is no denying that the Synology DS1019+ NAS bears a striking resemblance with that of the DS918+ released in 2017. Featuring internal hardware that is near enough identical, the same NVMe SSD cache and same ports and connections, the DS1019+ is not a suitable upgrade for those who already own the DS918+ NAS. Nevertheless, with an impressive price point for an additional media bay of storage, as well as being a much more capable follow-up to the DS1517+ (with much higher and improved internal performance too), the Synology DS1019+ NAS is a great release that although appears to tread on the toes of the DS918+, is definitely a NAS to buy in 2018 and 2019. With that internal hardware, 3 years of warranty and support of everything you need in a modern NAS, this is another great release from Synology.
PROS CONS
  • Dual M.2 cache
  • Great RAID Choices
  • Excellent choice of Apps
  • BTRFS and SHR
  • Snapshot Replication
  • Support Plex
  • Virtualization
  • 4K Video transcoding
  • Full Plex Transcoding
  • Hot-Swap trays
  • DLNA Compliant
  • Expandable
  • RAM upgradable
  • No Copy button
  • Only 1Gbe Ethernet ports
  • No PCIe slots
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Synology DiskStation DS1019+ 5-Bay Desktop NAS for SMB

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      Synology DS1019+ NAS Review
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      5 thoughts on “Synology DS1019+ NAS Review

      1. One of your CONS is wrong. The NAS comes with 8GB RAM, not 4GB. It states this on the synology website, and you even mention this in the content of your review “Arriving with an Intel Celeron J3455 CPU (4 core, 1.5-2.3Ghz per core) and 8GB of memory”…