There are few desktop 12-bay desktop NAS products on the market. In fact, the only ones we’re aware of are made by Synology, and with the old DS2411+ now being phased out, the last choice consumers have is the DS2413+. There are many eight-bay options to choose from, but again almost all are limited to eight drives except the DS1812+, which can be scaled up to 18 drives with the help of two DX513 modules. All of that is to say, it’s no surprise a stock 12-bay NAS that’s expandable to 24 drives isn’t cheap. The DS2413+ picks up where the DS2411+ left off with a retail price of $1,700. Given the specifications, we think this is reasonable. By comparison, the QNAP TS-1079 Pro costs $2,600 and only supports 10 drives – though it does have a Core i3-2120 that would dust the DS2413+’s Atom D2700.
With no real competition, the choice for those seeking maximum storage capacity in a NAS really need not look further than the DS2413+. As was the case with the DS2411+, we have found the DS2413+ to be an ideal solution for professional photographers, video editors and graphic designers who require massive amounts of storage out of the box with plenty of room to expand using Synology’s add-on box. Since reviewing the DS2411+, Synology has vastly improved its DiskStation Manager software – and that’s saying something given how good version 3.1 was. Build 4.2 is more powerful than ever with support for all the latest technologies and features. It would be one thing to recommend the DS2413+ because of its unrivaled capacity, but we think it’s one of the best quality NAS devices money can buy, in both hardware and software. Cons: We thought hard, the DS2413+ really is good.
