Synology recently refreshed their 8-bay SMB / SOHO NAS lineup with the DS1813+. Based on the same platform as the DS1812+ (Atom D2700), it added two extra network ports. However, due to the similarity in the underlying platform, the performance in most cases can be expected to be similar to last year's version, the DS1812+.

A number of Intel Atom D27xx-based NAS systems have been evaluated in our labs, even though we formally reviewed only one earlier this year, the LaCie 5big NAS Pro. The Thecus N4800 has made its appearance in a some benchmarks presented in our SMB / SOHO NAS testbed article. We are waiting for a firmware update to complete our 5big NAS Pro review, but, in the meanwhile, we have results from our evaluation of the Synology DS1812+ which was sent to our labs last year. In our experience, Synology manages to tick all the right boxes for the perfect consumer NAS (except for the pricing factor). Does the DS1812+ carry things forward, or do we have something to complain about? Read on to find out.