8 Things to Know About the DS1821+ SATA Bays and NVMe Slots

Eight full-size SATA bays The DS1821+ offers eight 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch SATA drive bays, giving you serious storage density for a desktop NAS.

Two M.2 NVMe slots are cache-only The two NVMe slots cannot be used for storage pools, only for caching. This is a missed opportunity at this scale.

No NVMe storage pools You cannot create dedicated NVMe storage volumes, limiting high-speed storage options.

SATA bays support both drive sizes Each bay accepts 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SATA drives, offering flexibility in drive selection.

Cache improves performance for frequent reads NVMe caching speeds up access to frequently used data, but does not increase total storage capacity.

Cache is optional You can run the NAS without any NVMe cache if you do not need the performance boost.

Eight bays are rare in desktop models Most desktop NAS units top out at four to six bays, making the DS1821+ unusually dense.

Plan for cache if you use many drives With eight drives, caching can help reduce latency, but the limitation to cache-only slots is frustrating.