Site downtime / Synology DS415+ memory expansion

Some of you may seen a short period of downtime for my blog just a little while ago. In order to compensate for any inconveniences it could cause for those who notice it, here is a blog post explaining why it had happened.

For quite a while now I host my WordPress blog on Synology DS415+ NAS box and I’m going to continue to do so (at least no plans to move back to wordpress.com or something else so far). So I recently bought this:

This is 8 Gb SO-DIMM DDR-III Kingston (KVR16S11/8 PC3-12800) which I bought from some local vendor in order to replace default 2 GB memory module which DS415+ NAS has installed in its default configuration. Officially Synology not supports memory expansion which is quite obvious from amount of work you need to reach out SO-DIMM slot 🙂 Also there is only one slot so you only can swap default module with new one. Number of people reported that they were successful with replacing memory modules on this box so I was pretty sure it will work out (don’t ask me about practical gains from memory increase – it’s a difficult part which I leave out in this blog post).

Entire process is straightforward and two question you may have is which memory modules will do and how to disassemble this box. Disassemble steps will be described below. As for memory modules I can say that factory preinstalled module labeled with DSL sticker and uses SEC chips (Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd.) and has the following specs: DDR3 1600 2GB CL11. So essentially I was able to replace it with 8 Gb PC-12800. By the way these fancy PC3-XXXXX numbers are module names in accordance with JEDEC standards, in particular PC3-12800 = DDR3-1600x standard, and 12800 is a theoretical bandwidth of a module.

So before replacing memory module we have 2 Gb:

Below you may find disassembly process steps. First switching off and disconnecting the box, and placing it in some convenient place. As you can see working 24×7 this box collects loads of dust rather quickly:

Removing drives, in my case I have 2 6TB WD RED drives and 2 vacant places 🙂 :

Box without drives/drive cages:

Removing screws on the back side of the box (3 in total). One on the top:

And two on the bottom:

The most difficult part is to remove this upper cover. After looking at the similar set of pictures posted by somebody on Synology forums I was confused by the pictures there highlighting some locks on the top of the device, don’t dry to apply force there, actually you have to push from the inside of the box part of the cover which is opposed to leds/button side – push it from the inside and try to slid this cover back so that it free from the two clips located where you push and slid it to free the cover from the locks on the top. I marked area near from the locks where you have to push:

Like I said it is most difficult part. You may need to watch this video to get an idea how exactly to do this step:

https://youtu.be/1PYp9CNdgn4?t=138

All the next steps are easy. Completely removing cover:

Removing 4 screws holding the metal frame for drives (two from each side):

Remove plastic part on the top of the metal cage which connected with one of the fans:

Unscrew and remove from its slot plate with SATA connectors:

Then remove metal cage completely:

Remove plate with ports:

After this unscrew 2 screws on the metal cover and you finally get access to main board and memory slot. Here it is with dust and pre-installed 2Gb memory module:

Old and new module side-by-side:

Main board with new module installed:

Next we repeat the step in reverse order and here is DS415+ box assembled again:

And once it is powered up we can see the final result of this process:

Now I have 8 GB of memory in my NAS, have you noticed that my blog works faster now? 😉 All the process took about 1,5 hour from switching off till power on with replaced memory module.