Synology RT1900AC Router

[thiggins]

Retail price in Europe is said to be below €150, so I'm guessing €149.99.
It's about €125/$140 in Taiwan - http://24h.pchome.com.tw/prod/DRAG08-A9006JB51

Thanks. Have they set Europe price? It doesn't go on sale there until November.

 

[thiggins]

Why can they not combine their Router and NAS all in one.... and charge as slightly more then the NAS they are selling?

Thecus has done this for years. Routing features are very basic, however.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Why can they not combine their Router and NAS all in one.... and charge as slightly more then the NAS they are selling?

I dont know about others but most people i saw they have their Router and NAS sitting next to each other.

I just dont want two pieces of equipment.....

Many of their NAS units have had multi NICs and the ability to be a router. So what they did here, is break out the router, add wireless..and make it dedicated.

 

[BSR]

One improvement Synology might offer (over most other router manufacturers) is more frequent firmware security updates. They are fairly rapid with updates for their NAS boxes as new threats appear.

 

[phrehdd]

We have seen NAS units with 4 port connections offering DHCP etc., seems like making a small NAS with multi-port and WiFi would be the next progression. This could be a NAS that serves as an access point or bridge or perhaps when 802.11ac 3200 become more common, it would have its own dedicated handshake with the main WiFi router at 5 or 2.4.

In the meanwhile, I don't think this router would be for me but others might enjoy. If the rougher was perhaps including 1-2 "slots" for 2.5 drives I think that would have made a compelling offering. It would serve as a mini NAS, a backup/time machine and private cloud. Synology certainly is up to the task and we'll see what the future brings. - A smart WiFi router with NAS features and programs.

 

[sfx2000]

I was a bit surprised they went with Broadcom for the SoC, esp. since they have much experience with the Marvell Armada line - and Armada could have facilitated native onboard SATA, unlike the Broadcom chip that is being used.

They have to walk a fine line, as they likely don't want to cannibalize their lower end NAS devices.

 

[RMerlin]

I was a bit surprised they went with Broadcom for the SoC, esp. since they have much experience with the Marvell Armada line - and Armada could have facilitated native onboard SATA, unlike the Broadcom chip that is being used.

They have to walk a fine line, as they likely don't want to cannibalize their lower end NAS devices.

Something sounds off. For instance the chosen CPU. If it's really that CPU, the specs I found after a quick search stated it was a single core CPU, not dual core.

 

[pege63]

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/RT1900ac#spec

 

[sfx2000]

Something sounds off. For instance the chosen CPU. If it's really that CPU, the specs I found after a quick search stated it was a single core CPU, not dual core.

Dual Cortex-A9 at 1.2GHz, 16 bit RAM interface, so basically from a HW perspective, not much different that any other BCM AC1900 class router - seeing that it does have a native SATA interface, would have been nice to include an M2.Sata (or mSATA) on the board for expansion.

Note the crypto-engine - which could be very useful for certain things...

More info here - http://linuxgizmos.com/cortex-a9-soc-targets-linux-based-nas-devices-and-80211ac-routers/

 

[sfx2000]

Found these on the Web...

Board Pron... pretty decent layout - see how they move the USB3/SDIO quadrant as far away as possible from the RF section and antennas?

They did a pretty decent job here - better than most (best layouts I've seen so far in the AC1900 class is WRT1900ac, AP ExtremeAC, and Google TP-Link OnHub, I would add the Synology AC1900 to that list).

Passive cooling might worry some (the BCM SoC's tend to run a bit warm...)

 

[LoneWolf]

Have they stated what the intended use is for that onboard SD card slot on the left side of the pictures?

 

[pege63]

Look att the Videos at page 1

 

[pege63]

Found these on the Web...

Board Pron... pretty decent layout - see how they move the USB3/SDIO quadrant as far away as possible from the RF section and antennas?

They did a pretty decent job here - better than most (best layouts I've seen so far in the AC1900 class is WRT1900ac, AP ExtremeAC, and Google TP-Link OnHub, I would add the Synology AC1900 to that list).

Passive cooling might worry some (the BCM SoC's tend to run a bit warm...)


View attachment 4590 View attachment 4591

Where did you find this pictures?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Thanks. Have they set Europe price? It doesn't go on sale there until November.

Well, the European price I got was from a Synology presentation in German, so it might still change, but according to the screenshot below, the retail price is said to be below €150.

Also, for those asking for a NAS with Wi-Fi, well, they did make the DS213air, but it was a terrible mish-mash of components and most likely flopped.

 

[L&LD]

I agree mixing router with NAS is not ideal.

But unless they offer this product with an Intel i3 platform or higher and with more than 8gb ram, it will remain in the interesting section rather than a fully work capable option.

The $400 price tag is just silly. eMMC 4GB drive is worth $1.50 at most.

 

[remixedcat]

I was a bit surprised they went with Broadcom for the SoC, esp. since they have much experience with the Marvell Armada line - and Armada could have facilitated native onboard SATA, unlike the Broadcom chip that is being used.

They have to walk a fine line, as they likely don't want to cannibalize their lower end NAS devices.

BCM is typically better performing then marvel or even QCA.

Specially for stuff like Roku devices, Denon HEOS, Sonos, UE, etc.... Tested a few of those with various wifi aps and various chipsets. have the least issues with BCM based radios/chips and I've tested over20 APs/routers with tons of media devices. Roku themselves uses BCM chips/radios.

sonos,heos,and UE hate atheros chips for some reason....

 

[sfx2000]

BCM is typically better performing then marvel or even QCA.

Not really, they're all pretty close, but they do have different performance profiles...

Krait and Armada have much better memory controller performance compared to generic Cortex-A9... They're all ARM-V7 variants... Cortex-A9 suffers a bit, even compared to the in-order single core Cortex-A8 - Krait and Armada don't have that problem

My comment was in general that Synology does have a lot of experience with Marvell, and as a result, it's likely they've done a fair amount of optimization there with regards to the basic application stack.

Not saying bad choice, the BCM they picked is a bit beefier than the standard BCM SoC's we see currently in the AC1900 class..

 

[sfx2000]

eMMC 4GB drive is worth $1.50 at most

Would have been nice to see 32gb eMMC, as the cost delta isn't much, and pin compatible..

Having the eMMC though, it's a very good step over general NAND - not just faster, but more reliable over the long term..

 

[L&LD]

Would have been nice to see 32gb eMMC, as the cost delta isn't much, and pin compatible..

Having the eMMC though, it's a very good step over general NAND - not just faster, but more reliable over the long term..

If they're going to give us anything and charge $400 for it, 64GB would be the minimum (don't know if 128GB eMMC drives exist).

We can get a 64GB eMMC touch tablet with a detachable keyboard and an OS (that would normally cost $100 by itself) and a 500GB hdd (in the keyboard) for that price.

A router is much simpler, cheaper and has less licensing costs than a full fledged notebook with all those options.

 

[sfx2000]

If they're going to give us anything and charge $400 for it, 64GB would be the minimum (don't know if 128GB eMMC drives exist).

Not sure where that $400USD price point kicked in...

Quoted 150 Euro's is about $167USD, which puts it smack in the middle of the AC1900 class...