Synology has backtracked on its controversial self-branded drives-only policy, restoring the ability to use third-party and certified HDDs and SSDs on its 2025 Plus series NAS units. With the launch of its latest DiskStation Manager 7.3, users can once again use 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs from brands like Western Digital and Seagate, without losing out on crucial features.

Earlier this year, the company had restricted core functionality for third-party and non-certified drives, including support for storage pools, health monitoring, deduplication, and firmware updates. The company made Synology-branded and Synology-certified drives compulsory, claiming that users of the Plus series NAS models would benefit from higher performance, increased reliability, and more efficient support.

In a way, the company forced users to rely solely on Synology-branded disks to unlock full capabilities. This reportedly resulted in community backlash, which eventually allowed rival brands to take advantage and promote their own hardware as more open and flexible alternatives.

For context, Synology does not manufacture its own hard drives. Instead, the company uses rebranded drives from popular vendors such as Seagate, Toshiba, or Western Digital, and applies a custom firmware. This firmware effectively acts as a form of digital rights management (DRM), which ensures that only these specific drives can access the NAS system’s full range of features and performance options.

With the latest update, Synology has restored some crucial features and aligned newer NAS models, including the DiskStation DS925+ and DiskStation DS1525,+ closer to how its NAS systems worked before introducing the policy. The company is also said to be working with major drive manufacturers to broaden the range of officially certified storage options.

Notably, the change does not apply to M.2 storage drives, meaning that creating storage pools still requires drives from the official Hardware Compatibility List.

Apart from restoring third-party drive support, Synology’s DiskStation Manager 7.3 introduces important upgrades focusing on performance, security, and flexibility. According to the official release notes, users will get access to intelligent data tiering for better storage efficiency, new security indicators for improved threat detection, support for native exFAT for external devices, email moderation for MailPlus, and enhanced collaboration tools like shared labels and advanced file locking in Synology Drive. The update also adds AI integration through the Synology AI Console with data masking and filtering.

The new disaster-resistant ioSafe 1520+ NAS announced this month could protect drives in temperatures of up to 1,550ºF/843ºC (in accordance with the ASTM E-119 testing standard) for up to 30 minutes as well as keep the drives safe for up to three days when submerged in up to 10 feet/3 meters of water. 

With modern high-capacity hard drives, storing loads of data locally is fairly easy and cheap. But what if you want not only to store data but protect it against natural disasters, fire or flood? This is exactly what disaster-proof NAS and servers from ioSafe are for, as they can withstand extreme heat, floods, and physical impact. 

As far as storage capabilities are concerned, the catastrophe-proof ioSafe 1520+ NAS can house up to five hot-swappable 3.5-inch hard drives, meaning that it can store up to 100TB using 20TB HDDs depending on the RAID configuration. Also, it can be further expanded with disaster-resistant expansion modules to host up to 300TB of data. Furthermore, the drives' contents can be encrypted using the AES-256 algorithm. 

The ioSafe 1520+ runs the Synology DSM operating system designed primarily for business users (so do not expect to run sophisticated multimedia or consumer-grade software on it). On the hardware side of matters, ioSafe's 1520+ NAS is based on the Intel Celeron J4125 system-on-chip (four cores, 1.5 GHz ~ 2.30 GHz, hardware AES-256 support) paired with 8GB of DDR3L memory. It can connect to a local network using four GbE ports (up to 2GbE is supported when two ports are aggregated) and supports various external storage devices using its USB 3.0 Type-A and eSATA interfaces. 

For a five-drive NAS, the ioSafe 1520+ is pretty large and heavy: it measures 406×483×534mm (16×19×21 inches, W×L×H) and weighs 29 kilograms without drives and 33 kilograms when fully packed. 

ioSafe positions its disaster-proof 1520+ NAS for those who want to protect their data, but do not want to store their information in the cloud. 

"The new 1520+ offers our customers data center-class storage while saving customers over 75% of the cost of one year of cloud storage," said Robin Wessel, Executive Vice President of ioSafe. "With unprecedented speed-to-recovery, media companies and creative professionals, businesses and government agencies can recover the massive amounts of data they generate without loss when a water leak, wildfire, or virtually any major disaster occurs." 

ioSafe plans to begin shipments of its 1520+ NAS in February, 2022. One diskless unit can be purchased for $1,919 (down from its list price of $2,399), whereas a fully populated NAS with five 14TB HDDs can be pre-ordered directly from the company for $11,999 (down from the list price of $14,999). 

Whether you're running a small business and need to store a lot of data on your local network or you're a home user with a ton of media files, a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device can really help. The best NAS systems will allow you to combine multiple physical drives into one server and provide plenty of speed for reads and writes over the LAN.

This Prime Day, there are a number of NAS devices on sale and we've posted the best deals below.

For more Prime Day savings, check out our Prime Day live blog and lists of the best Prime Day gaming PC and laptop deals, best Prime Day SSD deals, best Prime Day Monitor Deals, Best Prime Day Dell Gaming deals and the best Prime Day hardware deals overall. Our sister site, TechRadar, has a broader list of Amazon Prime Day deals that includes product categories we don't typically cover such as smart home devices, TVs and phones.

Synology didn’t have a booth at the Nangang Exhibition center for Computex 2017. Apparently the company wanted lots of space in which it could show off its products in a more interesting way, and getting such a large booth at the main Computex show would have been bloody expensive. That left Synology with no other choice but to leave the main show area.

The products that will be of high interest to the majority of users are the 2-bay DS718+ and 4-bay DS918+ NAS servers. Both servers are equipped with the quad-core Intel Celeron J3455 CPU, which supports the AES-NI instruction set, meaning that network transfer speeds with encrypted files won’t suffer a major performance drop (as is the case with servers that don’t have CPUs with hardware encryption engines). Those NAS units also support 4K transcoding and are compatible with the Btrfs filesystem as well as the omnipresent (at least in this product category) EXT4.

The DS718+ has 2GB of DDR3L RAM which can be expanded up to 6GB, while its larger brother comes with 4GB RAM which can be upgraded to 8GB. The 2-bay NAS can accommodate up to seven drives with the use of the DX517, while the 4-bay NAS can host up to nine drives using the same expansion unit, which of course in both cases has to be bought separately.

Finally, another interesting feature of the DS918+ is a new chassis design that provides easy access to the mainboard’s two M.2 2280 (NVMe) slots. You can use those slots to create a super-fast SSD cache, allowing for much faster network speeds. The specs of the DS718+ don’t mention anything about M.2 support, but, because it is probably based on the same mainboard as its big brother, it will most likely support M.2 drives as well. But the DS718+ doesn’t come with any removable covers, so even if it has the M.2 slots, you will have to fully dismantle it in order to take advantage of them.

Besides routers, Synology is also interested in the gateway market, and this is clearly shown in the new SG1000, which is a security gateway offering advanced VPN solutions and hardware accelerated Layer-7 traffic control along of course with a firewall. At the internals of this machine is a 1.7GHz dual-core CPU supported by 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The operating system that it uses is the Synology Network System Manager (NSM) and its security features also include user awareness and intrusion prevention. Obviously, this product addresses business environments mostly and not home users.

The budget-oriented DS418j is the successor of the DS416j. It uses a 64-bit, dual-core ARM A53 CPU, clocked at 1.4GHz. It has 1GB of RAM, while its predecessor only had 512MB. The same NAS supports up to 16 IP cameras and if you use 10TB HDDs, its raw capacity can reach 40TB. This is a very interesting product for home users that need lots of capacity, but don’t want to spend much.

Other new NAS releases from Synology include the 6-bay DS3018xs, which uses a dual-core Pentium D1508 CPU and can scale up to 30 drives with a couple of optional DX1215 units, and the FlashStation FS1018, which is a 12-bay NAS supporting 2.5” SSD drives. It uses the same CPU with the DS3018xs, has 8GB DDR4 ECC RAM which can be expanded up to 32GB, and it can also take a PCIe 3.0 compatible high speed NIC card. If you can afford lots of SSDs, the FS1018 can accommodate up to 36 of them if combined with a couple of DX1215 expansion units.

Home and business environment surveillance is of huge importance, and Synology has the VS960HD for this purpose, which supports up to 96 channels at 720p with 10 FPS (frames per second). H.265 decoding and 4K output are also supported, and this small machine has a couple of HDMI outputs. It is nice to see HDMI ports on Synology products and we wish this was also the case for its NAS servers, which are based entirely on streaming and not on local display via HDMI or DP ports. From the moment its major competitors (QNAP, Asustor, and Thecus), offer HDMI and in some cases DP ports, we believe that Synology should also follow this road in its multimedia-oriented NAS servers

Introduction

Two-Bay Network-Attached Storage (NAS) appliances offer excellent value for storing your data in a secure, central location. The smaller systems offer many of the same features as the larger NAS products, but at a much lower price point. In many cases, the smaller systems improve upon the setup procedures, thus making the initial process easier for less tech-savvy users. 

Users with more technical experience will find great value in some of the products we're testing today. The systems in our roundup fall under two categories; feature-rich or simple to use. None of the products is overly complicated, though, and you shouldn't overlook some of the most feature-rich models if you lack technical experience. Network-attached storage is an excellent way to learn a new discipline, gain experience and enjoy the advanced features.

All six systems in the roundup perform well at basic tasks. You can transfer files to and from the systems over a network at acceptable speeds. You can store the data in a redundant (i.e. safe) RAID 1 array, and even use the systems as a small application server. You may be surprised to learn that basic features now include the ability to access your data from anywhere in the world, even on a non-PC.

Advanced features found on some of the products include built-in antivirus, folder encryption, iSCSI support over the network and an HDMI port for direct video output to a display device, such as a TV. 

Specifications

The Western Digital My Cloud Mirror is slightly different from the other products in the roundup because it is the only model that ships with hard disk drives installed. The other products ship diskless from the factory, but some resellers will build your NAS with hard disk drives before shipping the package to you. Third parties create the bundle packages, so we will not cover the bundle pricing or value-add services that some resellers offer. 

We can divide the six systems into two categories based on processing power. The two key players here are Intel and ARM. The Intel-based systems typically offer more features, more processing power and also demand a higher price. The ARM-based systems support basic NAS features and often ship with less system memory. They do have an attractive cost advantage for users that are just looking for core features.

We laid out many of the key specifications in the chart above, and each system provides its own mix of features. Only some of the systems will support an HDMI output to use the system as a media center, for instance. Folder encryption and iSCSI support also vary.

Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

All six of the value-centric systems fall between $200 and $300, and the Western Digital (WD) My Cloud is the only system that ships with hard disk drives. The WD offerings retail from $299 (4TB model with 2x 2TB HDDs) to $699 (16TB model with 2x 8TB HDDs), and there are several price points in between to account for different capacities.

Five of the six systems ship with a standard 2-year warranty. The Asustor AS3102T is the sole exception with a 3-year warranty. Asustor is one of the newest NAS manufacturers, and it is part of Asus (yes, the motherboard company).

Each of the systems ship with an external power supply, an Ethernet cable and minimal documentation. Full manuals are available online for download.

The QNAP TAS-268 ships with a mini QWERTY keyboard / remote control in the package and Asustor sells an optional remote control. All of the systems that include an HDMI video output have software-based remote control options available for Android and iOS.

The ever-growing software and feature list is actually the ultimate accessory package for all of the products. Asustor, QNAP and Thecus release at least one new feature or software package each month. Synology and Western Digital bring new features at a slower pace, but the companies still have a solid foundation of industry-standard features.

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Asustor AS3102T & QNAP TAS-268

Asustor AS3102T

Asustor, a division of Asus, is the youngest NAS manufacturer in our group today. As such, the company is hungry. Asustor often prices its products aggressively, and they receive lengthy warranties and ship with more hardware features compared to similar products. Asustor's weakness is its software features. The company releases new software features each month, but its volume is lower than QNAP and Thecus. That said, Asustor has all of the basics covered, and most of the advanced features as well.

The Asustor AS3102T ships in a full-color retail-ready package. The kit includes an external power supply, Ethernet cable, screws for mounting 3.5-inch hard drives, power cable, paper quick start guide and an optical disk with additional manuals and software.

Asustor designed the AS3102T to sit in the open. The attractive (for a NAS) textured cover, and minimum LED lighting allows users to place the system in the living room next to a set-top box and Blu-Ray player. The single USB 3.0 port on the front is the only sign that the NAS is a computing device. The front of the system also has an infrared receiver for the optional remote controls, or users can just use the Android or iOS IP-based application.

Users can expand the system with other peripherals via the two additional USB 3.0 ports on the back. The system uses a single gigabit Ethernet port to connect to your wired network.

This system also comes equipped with an HDMI port. A menu that displays the video applications automatically appears when you connect the device to a TV. Asustor recently added Netflix, which accompanies existing applications that the user can select in the menu system. The standout feature here is Kodi, a media-focused application that has a cult following and thousands of users that contribute to building plugins that expand the feature set.

The system uses an Intel Braswell processor that is more powerful than the ARM-based processors found in many of the other systems in our roundup. Two gigabytes of system memory allow users to run more software applications simultaneously, and it also improves many of the core functions, such as DLNA multimedia distribution and file transfer performance.

QNAP TAS-268

QNAP leads the NAS industry in both software and hardware features. Over the last two years, the company has pushed the boundaries of commodity enterprise hardware with low-cost, mass manufactured systems that support features previously reserved to boutique builders of custom storage systems. The TAS-268 falls at the other end of the pricing spectrum, but the underlying software is nearly identical. QNAP's enterprise push has trickled enterprise features down to its low-cost Intel-based systems, but even some of the standard features are not available yet for the new ARM platform. 

This system is the first from QNAP to use a new dual operating system feature. The underlying software is QNAP's QTS system that the company based on Linux with a custom, easy to use graphical interface. The HDMI display runs Google's Android operating system. The software already supports all of the features and additional software that you would expect with Android, including PlayStore for Android's full catalog. We found the Android software to be functional, but it was not as polished as we expected.

We also found the QNAP software to be lacking, which surprised us. QNAP did not include many of its staple offerings that it developed in year's past, but the list of applications has grown since we first started testing the device.

The QNAP TAS-268 system is the only product in our roundup to include a remote control. The remote includes a USB cable for charging and features a full QWERTY keyboard. Other accessories include an external power supply and paper quick launch guide. The TAS-286 uses a tool-less design for the removable cover and hard drive bays.

The QNAP brand has been synonymous with build quality, but don't expect too much from this low-cost system. The piano black and white finish is probably the best way to display plastic. That said, its rare to see any QNAP system covered in plastic.

QNAP also designed the TAS-268 to sit in the open. The system features a single USB 3.0 port on the front for quick access to thumb drives or for charging cell phones and tablets. We found four USB 2.0 ports for additional expansion on the back of the system, as well as the HDMI port for multimedia functions. A single gigabit Ethernet port connects the system to your wired network.

The TAS-268 uses an ARM v7 dual-core processor with two gigabytes of system memory. The combination is powerful, but it does not deliver the same smooth user experience that we found with the Intel-powered systems. QNAP advertises the HDMI display as 4K compatible, but it only provides up to 15 frames per second with H.264 and 30 frames per second with H.265.

Synology DS216j & DS216+

Synology DS216j

We have two systems from Synology in our review. The DS216j follows the same path as the Asustor and QNAP systems we've already discussed, which means that Synology designed it for entry-level users who want redundant storage at a low price point. At $169.99, the DS216j has the lowest price of the products we're testing, but the processing power and system memory also trail many of the other products.

Synology is one of the most well-known NAS manufacturers and has a loyal following that it earned through years of successful releases, quality support and simplified interfaces. Synology, like Asustor, QNAP, and Thecus, uses the same software interface throughout its entire product line. If you master the setup and management of one Synology system, then you already understand how the software functions on its other NAS. Like the other companies, Synology aggressively brings new features to market, but it falls behind QNAP in the breadth of its library of applications.

Most NAS systems sell online in the US and Europe, so Synology isn't too concerned with flashy graphics on the package. If you do find a Synology NAS in a brick and mortar store, the simple label will explain the hardware inside and list a few basic facts.

The DS216j ships with a paper quick installation guide, screws for mounting the drives, gigabit Ethernet cable and the power hardware.

The Synology DS216j is our third and final system to use the new clamshell design. The system is nearly all plastic except for the inner cage and I/O ports.

The system is small so that the user can place it anywhere. Without an HDMI direct-to-monitor connection, the system doesn't have to be tied to the living room. The system supports DLNA, so users get a hefty dose of multimedia features, but the playback processing takes place on another device, such as a Smart TV or ROKU / Sonos-type of device.

This system uses an Armada 385 1GHz dual-core processor with 512MB of system memory, which is the same as the Western Digital My Cloud Mirror that we examine later in this review. The processor is powerful enough to manage local data transfers and push some light-use applications, such as over-the-web (cloud) data access, but we wouldn't try to run any heavy-lifting applications on this system. 

Synology DS216+

The Synology DS216+ moves up the product stack and is much more powerful than the DS216j (covered above). This system uses a more powerful Intel SoC processor that supports encrypted folders, and it is the first hot-swap NAS in our roundup, which means that if a drive dies in the RAID 1 array, you can replace it without turning the system off, thus avoiding downtime.

The DS216+ uses the same packaging we found on the lower-priced DS216j. Two stickers outline some of the features and its capabilities.

Users get a paper quick launch manual, external power supply and cable. An Ethernet cable is also included in the package, though it is not in the picture.

The DS216+ adds more hardware features to the mix than the lower cost products. The front panel places more emphasis on the features of the NAS with its status LEDs and USB 3.0 port. The system also has a one-touch-copy function button next to the port. Users simply plug in a portable hard drive and press the button to copy the contents of the USB drive to the NAS.

The DS216+ is the only system in our roundup that includes an eSATA port for storage expansion. Users can use the port with a single storage device, or with an add-on chassis that supports more than one drive via a SATA expander. Two USB 2.0 ports on the back give users more options for expansion or accessories, and a gigabit Ethernet port rounds out the IO options.

The system uses an Intel dual-core SoC and 1GB of system memory. This combination delivers high network throughput performance, but we discovered some odd behavior during our testing. The DS216+ supports Encrypted folders and iSCSI over a network, and similar to the other systems in the roundup, users can access data through the internet with a cloud application.

Thecus N2810 & Western Digital My Cloud Mirror

Thecus N2810

The Thecus N2810 is the last product of the group that truly looks like a traditional NAS. The N2810 is the most expensive system, but it is also the most powerful. It features an Intel SoC and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports that provide seven different link aggregation modes. All three of the USB ports are 3.0, and an HDMI port provides direct-to-monitor video playback. Thecus enabled all of its software applications for this system, and it even released its new Thecus OS 7 operating system in tandem with the NAS.

The N2810 ships in a full-color retail package with several paper manuals, a software disk that includes Acronis software for backing up your computers, and access to Thecus' extensive library of software applications. Accessories include an Ethernet cable, external power supply, keys for the locking drive bays and a cable clip to secure the cables to the back of the system (to ease cable management).

The system features three USB 3.0 ports, and two of the ports are on the back of the system for expansion purposes. Thecus tied the USB port on the front of the NAS to a one-touch-copy function. The Thecus NAS is the only system with locking drive bays and a metal exterior shell in our comparison pool, and the company supplies four keys for the two drive bays.

Dual Ethernet ports provide users with several connectivity options. You can run the system on two separate networks, or combine the ports for performance and/or redundancy.

The N2810 has ample processing power to make use of the dual Ethernet ports. It features an Intel Braswell SoC processor and 2GB of system memory from the factory. The Intel processor can use up to 4GB of system memory in a dual-channel configuration, and this is the only system in our roundup that users can remove the SODIMM modules and replace them with 1x 4GB stick. Increasing the system memory gives users a smoother user experience and the ability to run more applications at one time. The additional memory also boosts simultaneous file transfers and provides higher speeds.

WD My Cloud Mirror

The second-generation Western Digital My Cloud Mirror is the oldest product in our roundup, but it continues to be a big seller. Western Digital is the fastest growing NAS manufacturer and has products in many retail chain stores. Retail availability is a big advantage, and it provides local warranty coverage from a physical store, which for many users equates to extra peace of mind.

The system is unique in the roundup because it is the only system to ship with hard disk drives. WD offers the system in five different configurations that range from 4TB to 16TB.

All of the systems focus on simple setup and operation, but unlike many of the other systems, the My Cloud Mirror doesn't offer many third-party application packages. The system focuses on automatic PC, phone, and tablet backup as well as cloud access (accessing your data over the internet).

We used the My Cloud Mirror 4TB for our tests. The NAS ships in a full retail package that includes a wall-wart-style power supply with attached cable, an Ethernet cable and a quick start guide.

The My Cloud Mirror is the NAS made for your mother (or another non-technical person), and as such, it is the easiest of all of the systems to setup and manage. With that comes, or in this case, goes, many advanced features found on some of the other units in this review. The system features two USB 3.0 expansion ports on the back.

The WD NAS provides similar hardware to the Synology DS216j. Users get 512MB of system memory coupled with a low-power Marvell SoC processor. Western Digital offers some application packages to enhance the usability of the system, but the library is very spartan in comparison to the other products.

SMB Performance Testing

Testing Notes

All six of the systems work with traditional SMB/CIFS file transfers. SMB is the easiest NAS protocol because it simplifies file access to where you can simply type in "\\name_of_nas\folder_name" in file explorer to access the data on the system. We test and highlight the performance of SMB encrypted folders and iSCSI volumes on applicable models, but not all of the systems support the features.

Our test system is a modified Quanta MESOS CB220 Cluster-In-A-Box multi-node server. We upgraded the system with two Intel E5-2670 V1 processors and 128GB of system memory per node. An Intel X520 network interface card with two 10GbE ports resides in each node, as well. The system allows us to deploy four test nodes that execute custom software scripts in industry standard test software to measure our base performance metrics. 

The test system and devices under test connect via a Netgear M6100 fully-modular switch, which provides ample 10GbE and 1GbE ports to sustain our large testing environment. This round of NAS testing is the second time we've used this switch. We discovered an issue with our previous switch and some NAS products that significantly reduced file transfer performance. The Netgear M6100 doesn't give us the same performance issues, and it allows us to expand our test environment while still running a dedicated network. 

Sequential Read Performance

The sequential read tests reveal two distinct performance tiers. You would expect this segmentation with the different processors in these systems, but the dividing line is not that clear.

For this class of product, we are looking for high performance at low queue depths. Most users will use these systems for file transfers in single-user environments, so most of the transfers will take place one at a time (sequentially). Typically, when you copy and paste files from your desktop into a NAS folder, it occurs at a queue depth of one. The queue depth increases to 2 if you start two separate transfers simultaneously, and so on.

We expected the Intel-based systems to dominate nearly all of the tests, but that isn't the case. The Asustor AS3102T, Synology DS216j, and Western Digital My Cloud Mirror provide the best performance at low queue depths with 128BK data blocks. Of the three, only the AS3102T uses an Intel processor.

This behavior highlights that firmware and software play just as large of a role in performance as the hardware does, particularly during light workloads.

Sequential Write Performance

The manufacturers release new firmware at a fairly consistent rate to update the products, increase performance, add features, and smooth performance inconsistencies. Many of the systems use DRAM as a cache buffer, which helps to smooth performance, because hard disk drives, by nature, are inconsistent.

The sequential write tests expose some performance abnormalities. All of the products, except the QNAP TAS-268, provide similar performance while writing 128KB sequential data. At higher queue depths, the TAS-268 matches the performance of the other products, but it lags behind the other NAS during light workloads.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

The sequential sweeps test cycles through mixed workloads in 10-percent increments. We begin with 100-percent reads (on the right of the chart) and add more right data until we reach the left side of the chart with 100-percent writes. We highlight the 70-percent read test with additional charts because this is the standard mixture for measuring workstation storage performance.

The Western Digital My Cloud Mirror performs very well in these tests while the other products follow the traditional "bathtub curve."

Random Read Performance

The Thecus N2810 performs slightly better with random read data across the range of queue depths. The Synology DS216+ trails the other products in these SMB tests. We spent a considerable amount of time retesting the DS216+ in an attempt to smooth out the issue. Each system requires eight days to complete the full test suite, and we retested the DS216+ with four different software releases, but could not isolate the issue.

The other NAS appliances converge together and provide nearly identical random read performance.

Random Write Performance

The random write test spreads the test pool out and gives us more separation. Most of the products are very consistent and waver only slightly as the queue depth increases, but the Synology DS216+ is, for lack of a better term, all over the place. This pattern reveals high performance as the cache algorithm buffers the incoming data and then low performance as the NAS flushes the buffer to the drives.

Random Mixed Performance

The mixed random test shows how the cache allows the systems to absorb the incoming data at a higher rate than they can read it back to the host system. Again, we highlight the 70-percent read workload with additional charts to characterize workstation performance. 4KB transactions simulate running Windows-based software over the network, and 8KB data highlights VMware performance trends. 

Standard Server Workloads

Very few users, in any, will run a heavy-use email or database server on these entry-level systems, but we like to see the tests to examine the mixed-workload performance in the latency over IOPS charts.

Consumer NAS Workloads

Normally we sort the different products by arranging them based upon performance (best on top, worst on bottom). However, that makes isolating a specific model difficult in this case, because every model on the list is under examination.

Intel's NASPT program tests with recorded traces, which highlights real-world performance better than other techniques. We use the longer batch test setting to record the results, which repeats the workload three times and then provides us with the average results.

Most of the systems performed well in some tests but suffered in others. The Asustor AS3102T and Thecus N2810 provided relatively high performance during each workload, and they also stand out for delivering balanced performance.

Encrypted Folder SMB Performance Testing

Only half of the six systems in the test pool support encrypted folders. Encryption keeps lost or stolen drives from being accessed without the user-selected key. You can encrypt as many folders as you want and use a different key for each. Intel baked encryption-acceleration technology into its Braswell processors, and that shines through in the performance results. The Synology DS216j is the sole Marvell-based system that supports encrypted folders, but the difference between the accelerated and non-accelerated architectures is clear.

Sequential Read Performance

The two Intel Braswell Celeron-powered systems (AS3102T and DS216+) dominate the read bandwidth tests at a low queue depth with encrypted folders, but the low-cost Synology DS216j catches up to the other systems at queue depth 8.

Sequential Write Performance

The Synology DS216+ enjoys a performance advantage against the two other systems during sequential data writes to encrypted folders. The Asustor AS3102T trails slightly, but it doesn't deliver the same performance consistency.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

The Asustor AS3102T comes out on top during mixed-sequential transfers (data moving to and from the NAS simultaneously). The DS216+ isn't far behind in any of the 80% charts that we use to isolate desktop performance. The Marvell processor in the Synology DC216j is a bit underpowered for this workload, and it struggles to keep pace with the Intel-based appliances.

Random Read Performance

The Synology DS216+ displays an odd performance profile at various times throughout our test suite, and it trails the lower-cost DS216j in this test. Most users use SMB to transfer data for long-term storage, which is, by nature, a sequential workload. These tests are representative of relatively rare use-cases, such as storing a Steam directory on the NAS and mapping the folder to your PC. iSCSI works better for that use-case, though.

Random Write Performance

The AS3102T increases its lead during this test, but the two-bay Asustor systems don't exhibit the huge performance gulf that we see when we compare its larger NAS to others. Asustor uses more aggressive buffer settings on its large systems, but with only 2GB in the AS3102T, there isn't a lot of spare memory left for the performance-boosting additive.

Random Mixed Workload Performance

Again, we observe the two Intel-based systems with hardware-accelerated encryption deliver a 2x performance increase over the Marvell-based system. This test uses random data, so most users will not encounter this type of environment in a simple usage scenario. 

iSCSI Performance Testing

Four of the systems support iSCSI. The Thecus N2810, another Intel-based system, joins the group for this round. The three systems that support encrypted folders carry over, as well.

Many casual computer users have never heard of the iSCSI interface, or are even aware of what it does. The technology allows users to share a block of the storage space on the NAS with PCs as a local storage volume. Your desktop computer sees the space and manages it exactly as a hard drive mounted inside the chassis. The storage volume then presents itself to the user as a drive letter, similar to a secondary hard drive.

Unfortunately, some software will not install to mapped storage. iSCSI reports as a physical drive in Windows, which is an important technical distinction with a deeper underlying impact that affects how the operating system manages the drive. iSCSI also supports native command queuing (NCQ), which is a performance-enhancing feature that is not available for traditional mapped storage volumes. NCQ allows the system to reorder the incoming data requests to optimize, and reduce, head travel when the HDD retrieves the data. This increases performance when the drive returns the data to the host system. 

Sequential Read Performance

iSCSI performance is often better than mapped storage, and all of the systems provide similar performance while connected via iSCSI, too. The Thecus delivers a solid opening round with iSCSI by delivering slightly better performance than the other systems in two of the three tests.

Sequential Write Performance

The sequential write test highlights the separation between the Intel and Marvell processor systems when writing data. The Synology DS216j offers amazing value, but you shouldn't expect it to provide the same performance as the Intel-based systems.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

In general, iSCSI allows systems to provide higher performance than SMB does. The native command queuing (NCQ) support provides smoother performance for a more consistent experience with application workloads.

Random Read Performance

Windows applications rely heavily on 4KB updates, so any Windows application running on a NAS will be 4KB heavy. It's also possible to use these systems for VMware, but it optimizes the data traffic for 8KB random data. The two Synology systems scale the best during random read workloads.

Random Write Performance

The Asustor and Thecus systems perform better with random data writes. If anything, the tests today show that no system outperforms another in all workloads or formats. Each system has a strength somewhere, even if it is just its pricing or its performance during basic usage patterns. 

Random Mixed Workload Performance

Most of the systems group together during the mixed random workload test. The Thecus N2810 trails with lower IOPS performance, but it still delivers a strong showing.

iSCSI Desktop Workloads

In these tests, we measure the amount of time it takes to complete each task. The results are very close to, if not a little faster, than a local 7,200 RPM hard drive installed in the host system. The difference is that the NAS provides a resilient and redundant storage pool with less of a chance of data loss.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, there isn't a standout product in the group that outperforms the other competing devices in all tasks. In some ways, this is representative of the NAS market as a whole. Some may take that in a negative way, but we see things differently. The market has a lot of diversity from the many manufacturers, and competition is good for the market. It pushes each company to find new ways to deliver better of everything with the same common set of components.

Early in the review, we detailed each NAS appliance's components, such as the CPU, memory, drive bays, network configuration, HDMI and so on. In reality, all of the companies have access to the same set of components, and the component selection influences the features and the way we use the NAS. For the most part, every system we looked at supports the same basic features. If the feature you want runs in software and the system has enough processing power to support it, most likely it is included. This includes basic network file transfer capability, access to your data through PCs and non-PC devices over the cloud (internet connection and configuration required), and DLNA media streaming.

Some of the systems claim to support the features fully, but the performance and experience are just not the same during use. One of the most popular third-party applications is Plex Media Server, which allows you to stream content to other devices. It supports everything from your new 4K smart TV to tablets and even older cell phones with smaller displays. Plex can transcode the video stream, which is a CPU-intensive task, to match the device's playback capabilities. All of the systems we tested today officially support Plex, but that doesn't mean all of the systems run all of the features smoothly. The systems with Intel processors don't have a problem with the Plex software because the Braswell-class CPUs feature integrated transcoding engines that provide a radical boost to transcoding performance. The feature is so well implemented in the AS3102T, DS216+ and N2810 that the CPU usage doesn't even increase 10% while transcoding video on the fly. The Arm-based systems have a much harder time, and the end result is often choppy video playback on your viewing device.

Looking beyond the basic features, we found some nice additions on several of the systems today. HDMI video completely changes the NAS and our outlook of what we use it for. In my house, we have a small 2-bay NAS connected to every TV. The kids have a NAS; my wife has her NAS, and I have my NAS. All of the systems replicate the data back to a central NAS. Is it a NAS, is it a media center, or a "cloud storage" device? Well, yes, yes and yes. It is all three, and then some.

I would suggest either the Asustor AS3102T or the Thecus N2810. If the system's primary function were multimedia, then I would choose the Asustor AS3102T because I like the multimedia setup and features of this system. Asustor has spent a lot of time on enhancing the user's interaction with multimedia. It's one of the core features, and not on just this Asustor product, but of all the NAS we have tested from the company. If I needed a general purpose NAS that will never, or only occasionally, handle multimedia functions, then the N2810 is my pick.

The Thecus N2810 is the most well rounded of all the systems we tested today. The TAS-268 is not far behind, but QNAP needs to further optimize the new dual operating system feature. That said, the N2810 is the most powerful, feature-rich system of those tested today. It's also the most expensive diskless system of the group.

The two Synology and Western Digital systems offer the easiest setup procedure and friendliest software environment. It shouldn't come as a surprise that those systems also give users the least amount of extra features beyond the core basics. The Synology systems give users more features than the Western Digital NAS does. The My Cloud Mirror does ship with hard drives preinstalled and takes the whole premise of simple setup, simple use and "simple everything" to a new level. It's the minimalist of the group, and it is very good at making your new NAS experience easy. 

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When we hear “Synology,” NAS units are probably the only thing that comes to mind, but the company hopes to change that perception with the release of the RT1900ac, which was revealed earlier this year at Computex.

The RT1900ac marks Synology’s first venture into the consumer router market. The company hopes to set the RT1900ac apart from competing AC1900 routers with the Synology Router Manager, its proprietary operating system. The NAS-maker touted the SRM’s easy to use, desktop-like interface and regular free updates, which should make managing the RT1900ac hassle-free. Advanced users may use the RT1900ac as a VPN server, RADIUS authentication server, DNS server and more with additional, downloadable packages. Users may also remotely manage the RT1900ac with an application available for Android or iOS devices.

The SRM Network Center will purportedly offer advanced networking tools, allowing power users to tweak the RT1900ac to its full potential. Such features include monitoring network traffic, controlling Internet availability by device or application, and establishing parental controls. Users may also selectively control the RT1900ac’s beamforming technology towards supported devices.

The Synology RT1900ac offers dual-band speeds of up to 1900 Mbps and support for 802.11b/g/n/ac. On the hardware side, the RT1900ac is equipped with a dual-core CPU clocked at 1.0 GHz; 256 MB of DDR3 memory; and three omni-directional, high gain antennas. The router’s IO includes five RJ-45 Gigabit ports (four for LAN and one for WAN,) a WPS switch, an Eject button for the USB 3.0 port SD card reader, a Power button, a Reset button and a Wi-Fi On/Off button. 

Synology’s RT1900ac are expected to be available in the U.S. during Q1 for $149.99.

Alexander Quejado is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware and Tom's IT Pro. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Specifications, Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

Most of Synology's products don't include a lot of fancy add-ons that distract you from what a NAS is actually for. The company's DS415+ is no exception. If you need a product to store data, this is a solid choice in the vast sea of competing four-bay products.

Synology has used the (admittedly classy-looking) DS415+ case design for many years now. Its feature set hasn't changed much either. Evolutionary steps from Synology are decidedly incremental in nature. Advances usually come from the internals, with heavy reliance on Intel to push new technology.

Over the past five years, we've seen other appliance manufacturers go off the deep end with new bells and whistles tacked on to their small and medium network-attached storage servers. And we sometimes find ourselves wondering what we are actually looking at: a NAS device, a media center or a desktop replacement?

Synology doesn't give us any issues there. When you buy one of its products, you're getting a storage appliance. With its laser-sharp focus, the company does networked storage really well.

Specifications

The DS415+ uses Intel's quad-core Rangeley design that was rolled into the Atom family of SoCs. Rangeley and its sister processor Avoton contain Silvermont cores. The duo is used in digital signage, light application servers, network products like routers and, as shown today, in an SMB NAS. With a maximum thermal design power (TDP) of just 15 watts, the 2.4GHz quad-core processor delivers a lot of performance in a very small power envelope.

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Rangeley supports up to 64GB of system memory, but Synology loads the DS415+ up with just 2GB of DDR3 via a single SO-DIMM slot. Moreover, the company doesn't build in an easy-access trap door for upgrading the RAM. Should you decided to dig in to swap that module out, expect to void your warranty.

The DS415+ supports Synology Hybrid RAID along with RAID 0, 5, 6 10 and JBOD. There are four hot-swappable tool-free drive trays and an eSATA port on the back for expansion. On this specific model, you can't use eSATA to increase the capacity of the internally-configured volume, unfortunately. Most users with four drives available for an array use RAID 5. Synology's Hybrid RAID is also an option, allowing you to swap drives in a live environment to increase capacity. Just make sure the previous rebuild is finished before moving on to the next drive. Synology Hybrid RAID works like RAID 5 when single redundancy is selected. And you only get one option for the array's file system: EXT4.

Technically, SSD caching is supported to accelerate random read operations. It's unlikely that you'll use this feature, but it is possible to run three hard drives in RAID 5 with solid-state storage serving as cache. You can read Synology's SSD Cache white paper here. We don't test SSD cache performance on systems with fewer than seven drive bays, but we do look forward to reviewing one of Synology's larger platforms with SSD cache enabled in the future.

You also get access to two USB 3.0 ports on the back of the DS415+, along with a single USB 2.0 port on the front. There isn't a one-touch copy button on this model, but it is possible to back up data from USB-connected devices.

Network I/O comes from two gigabit Ethernet ports that can run independently or teamed with 802.11ad link aggregation. Synology includes support for other teaming technologies that don't require special network switches. With those options combined, users should see sequential file transfers greater than 200 MB/s.

Price, Warranty & Accessories

We found Synology's DS415+ at Newegg and Amazon for $578, and available from other e-tailers for more. The price is comparable to competing four-bay systems.

Synology's warranty covers NAS products for two years. As we've said before, we would like to see the industry transition to five years or more, as these systems generally stay in use for five to 10 years. The two-year coverage is standard across this segment though, so we can't fault Synology.

Synology includes an external power brick, a power cord, two Ethernet cords and a quick installation guide. The drive sleds are tool-free, but the system also comes with screws for mounting 2.5-inch drives.

Software

Features

DiskStation Manager is now up to version 5.2, and Synology continues making steady progress in its software package. Many NAS-oriented operating systems are as thorough as Windows. Many of Synology's features are designed in-house, and others are built for Linux, packaged with a Synology GUI and plugged into the DiskStation Manager software. You can read more about DiskStation Manager here and the mobile applications here.

Add-on packages include:

• Antivirus Essential
• Antivirus by McAfee (Trial)
• Audio Station
• Central Management Systems
• CloudStation
• Cloud Sync
• Directory Server
• DNS Server
• Download Station
• Glacier Backup
• HiDrive Backup
• iTunes Server
• Java Manager
• Mail Server
• Mail Station
• Media Server
• DLNA Certification
• Note Station
• Photo Station
• RADIUS Server
• Surveillance Station
• Time Backup
• Video Station
• VPN Server
• Docker Support

Interface

The next six images show just how easy it is to configure a Synology NAS appliance for its first use.

After seven pages, the DS415+ is online and ready to go. While it's true that most NAS appliances are easy to set up, Synology's process is the quickest, filling in the most details with the least amount of user interaction.

Logged in, you're hit with a desktop-like experience sporting a full color GUI and a help section to guide you through any advanced features you want to utilize.

On the top-left is a control center shortcut for advanced configuration options and other frequently-used features.

A less intimidating control panel is also available if you need to build user groups, add users or configure shared folders. 

If an update is available for the DiskStation Manager software, there's an option to have the system notify an administrator, who can download and install the update in just a few clicks.

Synology NAS appliances start with an IP address assigned by your router through DHCP. More than likely you'll want to assign a static address to the device, and the software makes this easy. Other configurable fields, such as DNS and your gateway, can be set in the same place.

There are options for indexing media files for DLNA distribution, but they increase the background scanning activities.

Permissions can be set either by feature or by folder. The system has an option that is turned on by default to enable memory compression—a feature Synology says improves the system's responsiveness. Indeed, the operating system seems snappy enough when moving through menus and pages. Since this platform only has 2GB of memory, we'd say the compression capability works well.

With an array in place, you're able to manipulate more of the storage options. Synology exposes both volumes and pools. The pools allow disks to sit under the volumes, and those disks can host more than one volume. For example, one drive might have part of a RAID 0 array on it, while also being part of a RAID 5 array.

SSD caching is now an option for many of Synology's products. A wizard will walk you through the SSD cache configuration process, offering helpful tips on which settings to use.

In the past, Synology's add-on packages weren't up to the same standards as some of its competition. Recently, though, the company caught up and now offers many great options that move NAS beyond storage and into the application server space.

A Closer Look

The Synology DS415+ ships in a retail-friendly package, though our sample arrived in a simpler brown box with DiskStation branding. Our review unit predated broad availability, so we can only assume that Synology didn't have its packaging ready yet. 

Synology's four-bay enclosure has been around for many years and is used for several products. The design is good, but it's showing its age. The front cover forces air to change direction, reducing the noise caused by air passing through the system. It pops off easily and is held in place by friction with four rubber grommets.

Aside from the piano-black plastic cover, the rest of the system is a matte black finish. It's an interesting texture, but not one that can be wiped down easily with a paper towel (small fibers get trapped in the surface). On top of that, the mirror-like cover attracts loose fibers through static electricity.

A series of LEDs along the top-right edge of the DS415+ show system status and disk activity. Just below, on the lower-right corner, there's a power button and LED status light. A USB 2.0 port is also in this area, hinting at the chassis' age. Portable storage backups would happen much faster with USB 3.0 connectivity, and a one-touch copy button would certainly add useful functionality.

The Synology logo doubles as a cooling vent on the side of the system. Most of the air passes over the drive bays, though.

Two cooling fans on the back of the system keep installed storage from overheating. Overall, the system is very quiet thanks to a controller that automatically adjusts the fan's rotation speed. Hotter-running drives will naturally make the fans spin faster, but armed with our Seagate 4TB NAS disks, they were inaudible from a few feet away.

Two fans give users redundancy if one fails. Low cost parts like fans that run constantly can fail at a higher rate than other components.

Most of the I/O comes from the rear panel. Two gigabit Ethernet ports facilitate network connectivity, while USB 3.0 and eSATA allow for expansion. A Kensington lock cutout makes it possible to secure the enclosure with a cable.

The drive trays are tool-free when paired with 3.5-inch disks. You can also use 2.5-inch drives that attach, through holes at the bottom, to the trays. Synology wisely includes screws for the 2.5-inch drives in its accessory pack.

4-Corner Testing

Sequential Performance

Before we jump into the real-world workloads, we'll run a handful of synthetic tests. This helps us understand each product's strengths and the areas where performance could be improved.

All of the appliances we're testing were armed with 4TB Seagate NAS hard disks. As a rule, we use RAID 5 array on all systems with six or fewer drive bays. Larger platforms are tested in RAID 6. And some workload servers are tested in RAID 10 for Tom's IT Pro.

In all but one test, we use a single gigabit Ethernet port from the device being tested to a Netgear S3300-52X 100/1000/10,000 switch. We use a Quanta MESOS CB220 server on the other end to administer the workloads. The MESOS CB220 connects to the network via 10 gigabit Ethernet.

In this section, we read and write sequential data using a few different techniques for recording performance. First, we look at I/O at a queue depth of one while scaling up the block size. This is similar to the way ATTO works, but our version lets us drop to a queue depth of one, while ATTO's minimum is four.

In the next series of tests, we measure sequential reads and writes at two block sizes—128KB and 1MB—while increasing the queue depth from one to 256.

Synology's DS415+ ran flawlessly through both suites. The Asustor AS7004T with a Core i3 processor performed slightly better in a few measurements, but we'd expect that given its higher-end CPU. The AS7004T also boasts four times as much DRAM.

The mixed workload tests deserve special attention. Here, we test with two different block sizes and start with 100 percent reads. In 10 percent increments, we add writes to the mix until we finish with 100 percent sequential writes. As you can see, the systems perform well at the 100 percent extremes. The area in the middle with mixed reads and writes creates a bathtub curve where throughput drops. Our goal is to identify the appliance with the lowest fall-out as it reads and writes data.

The second chart takes a snapshot of the 70/30 mix. This workload is widely considered to be optimal for measuring workstation performance.

All of the systems fare about the same in these tests, but the two based on Marvell SoCs demonstrate the shallowest bathtub curve as the mix equalized at 50 percent.

Random Performance

Next, we run the same tests, this time using random data and smaller block sizes. Random performance is often de-emphasized in the NAS world. After all, most file transfers are sequential. But if you use your NAS to run applications from a host PC, you will want a system that can handle random transfers fairly adeptly.

We're using 4KB and 8KB measurements; 4KB is often associated with Windows environments and 8KB is VMware's magic number.

The DS415+'s random reads scale well as queue depth increases. We didn't see a large increase from a queue depth of one to two, but between four and eight there was a large boost to IOPS.

The random data sweeps show a different profile from our sequential results. Still, all of the charted systems perform similarly in these tests.

SMB, iSCSI & Standard Server Workloads

SMB/CIFS Workloads

The real-world NAS workload tests over SMB agree with our synthetic benchmark results. Synology's DS415+ delivers respectable performance. In a few metrics, it even outperforms the Asustor AS7004T, which costs nearly twice as much.

The DS415+ is also really well-balanced, with only a slight deviation between its read and write numbers.

iSCSI Desktop Workloads

Microsoft introduced iSCSI support in Windows 2000, but the feature didn't take off in home or small office environments until small SSDs became affordable. Desktop enthusiasts can use the technology to run Windows and a handful of applications from local storage, and then install less critical apps to the NAS. iSCSI gives the host PC a drive letter for a volume of storage on the networked appliance.

In the office, system administrators can use iSCSI to centralize data. Keeping all of the important files locked away ensures the right users get the information appropriate to them.

With all of our time-based results calculated and converted to throughput, we see where the systems land. Synology's DS415+ falls right in the middle, and doesn't trail QNAP's TS-453mini by much at all.

Multi-Client Testing

The multi-client test moves us away from the Quanta CiB setup and over to 10 dual-Xeon servers loaded with a pair of Hotlava Shasta NICs, each of which supplies 12 gigabit Ethernet ports per server. Through the magic of Hyper-V, each server mimics 12 office-class desktops that run workload scripts with real Microsoft Office software applications on the device being tested.

Synology's DS415+ makes it through our multi-client test in good shape. Its throughput drops off at 96 clients, and the latency chart shows us why: that's where the system becomes overwhelmed. 

Traditional Server Workloads

The IOPS scaling we saw in our synthetic tests at increasing queue depths carries over to traditional server workloads. The quad-core Rangeley-based Atom in the DS415+ is older than the Celeron J1900 in QNAP's TS-453mini. But we think the IOPS it adds are worth paying a little more for. Intel's ARK tells us that the Atom costs an extra $20 and consumes five more watts. But if you want to use your system for serious workloads, you know which processor to pick.

Conclusion

Synology sells a lot of NAS appliances, but over the years, I've never really been impressed with the company's products. Does that change with the DS415+? Yes and no.

The DS415+ chassis is like the old Chieftec case that everyone bought in 1998 but you could find new in 2008. It's still effective; however, newer models from other manufacturers are more compact and only require one large fan, compared to the DS415+'s two smaller fans. The NAS also puts a USB 2.0 port up front, right where we'd like to have USB 3.0 connectivity accompanied by a one-touch copy button for backing up data from external storage devices.

Aside from the portable storage backup, none of this really matters to someone just looking to add storage to a LAN or access an Internet-attached repository. For most of us, that's enough. All of the HDMI, 7.1-channel sound and home automation gizmos are extras that look nice on a specification sheet, but are often impractical and go unused.

DiskStation Manager, Synology's GUI, is now up to version 5.2. And the company is starting to get more competitive by adding software-based features to its storage platforms. Docker, the latest craze in virtual technology, was brought up by Synology and QNAP right around the same time. The rest of the NAS appliance makers are still trying to catch up. Synology also released SSD caching early on. Clearly, value-added capabilities are showing up in DiskStation Manager much sooner now than in the past.

The DS415+ ships with only 2GB of DDR3 RAM, but the compression engine allows the DiskStation Manager to remain snappy. Even with compression, the small system memory size will prevent you from loading this system with a lot of applications.

This model is all about storage, and it's very good at that primary task. Our test results tell the story there. We didn't find any weak spots from the optimizations Synology has in place. In fact, the system is so well-tuned that it competes with Asustor's AS7004T, which costs nearly twice as much.

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NAS maker Synology entered the router market by revealing the RT1900ac router at Computex 2015. Similar to Synology's NAS products, the new router uses a specially designed operating system, called Synology Router Manager (SRM). This new OS shares many similarities with the DiskStation Manager (DSM) OS that the company's DiskStation and RackStation NAS products utilize. SRM features an intuitive and windowed interface, which will help even the inexperienced users to get the most out of their router without having to mess with the Command Line Interface (CLI).

The router's OS offers many options, which will make even the hardcore IT administrators happy. SRM provides upload/download limitations per service and application and allows you to block access to groups of sites (e.g. warez, chat etc.) instead of having to set the names of the sites that you don't want users to have access to one by one. SRM also includes advanced QoS (Quality of Service) prioritization and many other interesting options. Through SRM's package center, the user is also able to install many applications on the router, enhancing its capabilities and usability.

In addition to the older 802.11b/g/n protocols, the RT1900ac supports the newest 802.11ac standard, offering up to 1900 Mbps transfer speeds under optimal conditions. It is based on the Broadcom chipset and has a 4 GB flash memory. The new router also offers four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a single USB 3.0 port, which can be used to share remote storage drives or printers with other users that are connected to the router. There is also a card reader installed on the device.

The RT1900ac router is expected to be available during the end of Q3 2015 with a price ranging from $150 to $200.

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Synology’s newly unveiled DS415play NAS is a larger capacity version of the company's 2-bay DS214play. This unit is geared for home users and enthusiasts expecting a seamless multimedia experience.

Like the 2-bay version, the DS415play features an Intel CE5335 Evansport SoC with 1 GB DDR3 RAM. It supports 1080p full HD video transcoding and lets users stream videos from the likes of Apple TV, iOS and Android devices. Although it doesn’t have an eSATA port for capacity expansion like the DS214play, it does support up to 24 TB capacity.

The DS415play runs on Synology's DSM 5.0, which has a refreshed Windows-like UI design, remote access with QuickConnect, and support for Chromecast.

The DS415play is currently shipping and available for $540, more expensive than the 4-bay Evansport models from Thecus and Asustor. Although there are higher spec models available from other NAS manufacturers at the same price, you are getting the firmware advancements that come with the Synology brand.

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Seagate recently released its new line of NAS and NAS Pro storage. The NAS (network attached storage) series comes in 2 and 4-bay models, while the NAS Pro series is available in 2, 4, and 6-bay models. 

Seagate’s NAS OS 4 user interface is new, and has a redesigned Device Manager for easy access to settings and preferences. This UI promises to make it easier for businesses to manage without a dedicated IT team. While both the NAS and NAS Pro series are aimed at the business users, they also suit the demands of the consumers and enthusiasts looking for higher specs at a good price.

The Seagate NAS series is geared toward SOHO users and comes with a Marvel Dual Core 1.2 GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. It is currently available for purchase and pricing starts at $169 (2 bay) and $299 (4 bay) for diskless setup. Its direct competition is Synology’s DS214 ($299) and DS414 ($479), which feature a Marvell Armada XP Dual Core 1.066GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM.

The higher spec NAS Pro series comes with the newest Intel dual core 1.7GHz C2000 series processor and 2GB of RAM. This is a high-spec unit available at the following price points: $349 (2 bay) and $499 (4 bay).  The NAS Pro competes with QNAP’s TS-269L ($349) and TS-469L ($539). 

While Seagate is relatively new to the network attached storage market, the company has introduced five new SOHO/SMB products with competitive pricing.

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Asus At Computex 2013

This month our editorial teams from Germany, Italy, and the U.S. were on the ground in Taiwan, covering the Taipei International Information Technology Show (better known as Computex) to bring you information about upcoming and prototype products. In this third and final installment, we have information from 19 different manufacturers!

Asus

Beginning with Asus' booth, we caught a glimpse of the MB168B+, an external 15.6" 1080p display driven by a USB power for mobile multi-monitor functionality. With a thin 8 mm profile and weighing in at just 800 grams (less than two pounds), it's as easy to tote as a tablet. The screen's carrying case doubles as a stand, and the MB168B+ adjusts its orientation automatically if you have it in landscape or portrait mode.

Asus' 27" VN279QLB was the second display we checked out. Boasting a resolution of 1920x1080, this IPS-based screen is clearly intended for use in multi-display configurations, owing to that super-thin bezel. Expect it show up for sale sometime in July.

The PQ321 is Asus' first 4K monitor. A 31.5" diagonal measurement and resolution of 3840x2160 yield a 0.182 mm dot pitch. It comes equipped with one DisplayPort and two HDMI 1.4 inputs. It's expected to arrive this month at a $3800 MSRP. Later this year, the company says it's planning to launch a 39" model, pictured to the right.

The upcoming Zenbook Infinity Ultrabook employs a 2560x1440 multi-touch screen, Gorrilla Glass 3, and a fourth-gen Core processor based on the Haswell architecture. This svelte machine weighs in at 2.6 lbs and should be available in September.

Perhaps the most interesting mobile platform at Computex was Asus' Transformer Book Trio. The three-in-one design includes a 10" Atom-powered tablet that runs Android 4.2.1 and a keyboard/docking station equipped with a mobile Haswell-based CPU driving Windows. You can plug the tablet into the dock and use the combination in Windows or Android. Or, use the dock separately with an external monitor (not included) as a workstation. When the dock and tablet are joined under Android, both batteries combine to deliver a purported 15 hours of runtime. Availability is expected in September.

Another mobile device, Asus' MeMo Pad HD7 is a 7" tablet also running Jellybean. It includes a 10-point multitouch IPS panel at 1280x800, a MediaTek quad-core processor, 16 GB of on-board storage, front and rear cameras, a microSD slot, and a Type D Micro HDMI output. According to company representatives, the MeMo Pad HD7 offers up to 10 hours of battery life.

None of those specifications sound particularly impressive, until you hear that it's supposed to cost about $150. Expect this tablet to surface in the third quarter in four different colors.

On to the PC components. We went hands-on with Asus' new ROG Poseidon graphics card design, featuring what the company claims is the world's first hybrid air/liquid cooler on a GPU. It will launch aside GeForce GTX 700-series boards in the near future, we're told.

Asus' mini-ITX ROG Maximus VI Impact motherboard was on display as well, and it earned Tom's Hardware's Best Of Computex 2013 award for high-end features like an 8+2-phase voltage regulator, 802.11ac Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0, an overclocking tool panel placed near the rear I/O panel, including LED debug display, power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons, and a SupremeFX audio card with high-end capacitors, amplifiers, and shielding. Expect it to arrive in the $300 range.

The Mini-ITX Z87I-Deluxe is pretty much a cheaper $200 counterpart to the ROG Impact, with a similar multi-phase power daughterboard and 802.11ac connectivity. It sports six SATA ports, and Asus claims it's the first mini-ITX board with four controllable fan headers.

We also saw some artistic-looking Z87-based motherboard mods that were worth checking out.

Finally, we scoped out Asus' ET2702IGTH all-in-one PC with a 27" 2560x1440 display, Haswell-based Core i7 processor, Radeon HD 8890A graphics, 16 GB of DDR3, Thunderbolt connectivity, SonicMaster audio, and an external subwoofer. This system is expected to be available in July for $2000, including a Blu-ray combo drive.

Corsair And Quantenna At Computex 2013

Corsair

In Corsair's booth, we started with its newest enclosures. The Carbide Series Air 540 is a double-wide dual-chamber EATX case that puts actively-cooled components on one side of the motherboard, and passively-cooled items on the other. The idea is that with cables and drives out of the way, air flows freely in the chamber that holds the CPU, PCIe cards, 3.5" hot-swappable drives, and fans. It's designed for air cooling, but liquid cooling is supported. According to Corsair, the case will cost about $139 when it hits retail.

Next up was the 330R, an enclosure designed for quiet operation with sound dampening material on every panel. Everything else about the 330R is the same as Corsair's 300R. The company says the 330R will sell for $89.

A representative at the booth mentioned that customers have been asking for different mechanical switches in Corsair's keyboards, so it had a number out on display at Computex. Additionally, Corsair acquired Raptor Gaming, a German company that also makes peripherals.

Speaking of, the K50 is the first Corsair-developed Raptor keyboard. It's backlit, with a full set G keys, and features anti-ghosting functionality. This model costs $100.

The K70 is not new, but it can be had with Cherry MX Brown and Blue switches now.

We got a kick out of the K65 portable keyboard due to its size and the fact that it sports the same key spacing as a full-sized model for $89.

There are two new mice from Corsair in the shot above. The M30 (right) is an updated version of the Raptor M3DKT, sporting a 4000 DPI sensor and a $50 price tag. The M40 (left) sits at the high end of the Raptor family, with the same optical hardware as the M60 and M65, but no metal on the bottom. It does feature a system to allow customization of weight and balance, and should sell for $60.

Finally, Corsair showed off some new memory. Its Vengeance Pro line-up fits between the Vengeance and Dominator Platinum families. This memory will be available with a 3200 MT/s C11 XMP profile, in multiple colors.

Quantenna

Next, we sat down with Sam Heidari, CEO of Quantenna. He told us about the semiconductor company's goal to drive Wi-Fi performance, range, and fidelity with a zero-packet error rate. Company reps showed some demos of its second-generation 802.11ac chipset, featuring 4x4 multi-user MIMO. Sam told us that he considers 4x4 MIMO to be the most important part of the ac standard, with signal processing that allows double the bandwidth when communicating with two receivers at the same time.

The first demo was actually a video that showed Quantenna's chipset delivering a high-def video stream without dropped frames or reduced quality more than 400 feet through multiple walls, and over 1500 feet outdoors.

Given limited space, the live demo wasn't as expansive. Instead, Quantenna pushed three high-def streams to three separate receivers in the same room from a single access point. The technology isn't available yet, but we look forward to putting the chipset through its paces when it shows up in a testable product.

Rosewill At Computex 2013

Rosewill had a ton of new products on display at this year's Computex. The company is working hard to transcend its Newegg house-brand roots. For starters, the Stealth chassis reps showed off to us is an attractive, tool-free design that prioritizes easy access with a hard drive dock up top (like the Blackhawk cases), 1/2" of cable management space in the back, and three 120 mm fans. It should be available toward the end of this year for $70.

The company's Throne chassis was announced at CES, though a new gunmetal color showed up at Computex. The black model with red LEDs should be available in July, a while version with blue LEDs is expected in a few months, and the gunmetal chassis will show up later this year. If you hadn't previously heard about this one, it's an EATX upgrade from Rosewill's Thor with an interchangeable hinge, four controllers able to handle four fans each, and one inch of cable management space in the back. Vents up top are adjustable for airflow and appearance. The case supports two 140 mm intake fans in front, two under those top vents, and one exhaust fan in the back. Rosewill says its Throne will sell for $180.

Rosewill had a custom-painted Throne on display called AirRunner. The side panels are adorned with gold leaf; it's no wonder the company didn't want anyone touching this exhibition piece.

Next, we were introduced to the Neutron, an enclosure designed to house a mini-ITX motherboard. It offers one externally-facing 5.25" bay for an optical drive and four 3.5" bays for hard drives. The motherboard tray is mounted horizontally and comes off with one screw. The side bezels (with USB ports and the power button) are interchangeable, facilitating some degree of customization. Rosewill bundles two 140 mm fans in front and one on the back. You can even use liquid cooling if you want.

The last case Rosewill's reps showed off for us was called the Rise. It's distinguished by a very short 17" front-to-back length, while still offering the height of a full tower. Its optical drive slots are mounted above the motherboard, while it puts the power supply underneath to facilitate that horizontal constriction. To demonstrate the way this looks in practice, three GeForce GTX Titan cards were installed in SLI, all fitting perfectly. Airflow through the case is facilitated by two 140 mm fans in front, one up top, and an exhaust fan in the back, though the demo system employed liquid cooling instead. Expect this one to be available later in 2013 for $160 or so.

Rosewill also introduced us to its Silent Night-series power supplies, which are fully modular and fanless. The 500 and 600 W models should show up in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

The Epoch is Rosewill's first digital power supply brand, including 850, 1000, and 1200 W models. They come with a mini-USB 2.4 GHz wireless dongle that transmits data to the PC. The software UI that corresponds to the power supply is attractive, allowing you to monitor fan speeds, efficiency, and voltages.

At the top of Rosewill's power supply hierarchy is the 80 PLUS Platinum-rated Tachyon family, available in 1000 and 1200 W models, and the 80 PLUS Gold-rated Capstone at 1000 and 1300 W.

Rosewill also introduced new mechanical keyboards at the show. The company claims its RK-9200 is the world's first dual-LED mechanical keyboard, with red and green backlit keys and four lighting modes. It comes with a braided, removable USB cable and is available with Cherry MX Blue, Brown, Red, or Black switches. It should be available soon for about $140.

The compact RK-9000 and RK-9100 are also coming in the latter half of this year. The -9000 has dedicated function keys, while the -9100 does not, instead offering backlit red LEDs. These keyboards are also bundled with a removable braided USB cable.

Of course, what are new keyboards without mice? The optical RM-9100 has three profiles, on-board memory, and four settings from 800 to 8200. Expect it to arrive in the second half of this year. The RM-9000 is programmable, has removable weights, adjustable colors, and a resolution range between 400 to 3200 DPI. Both mice should sell for around $40.

Rosewill also offers wireless routers. The T900N-X is a dual-band 802.11n model a few months out, though we already know it'll sell in the $90 range. The T1750AC-X is a 2x2 (450) and 3x3 (1300) 802.11ac router with two USB ports, coming in the second half of 2013.

Finally, we saw the upcoming Aiolos Plus cooler with four direct-contact heat pipes. Unfortunately, the company doesn't have an estimated price for it yet, but expects it to show up sometime in the second half of the year as well.

Lian-Li, Patriot, NZXT, And SanDisk At Computex 2013

Lian-Li

Lian-Li had some new enclosures in its booth at Computex this year. First, we saw the double-wide PC-D600, an EATX case with two 120 mm and three 140 mm fans, which the company hopes to make available by the end of this year.

The large EATX PC-V2130 includes two 120 mm fans in front, one in the rear, and four on the side of the enclosure.

The microATX PC-V358 folds open, and your motherboard mounts flat on the bottom. This case sports three 120 mm fans.

Lastly, we checked out the PC-Q30, a uniquely stylish mini-ITX enclosure that employs a single 140 mm fan for airflow. It's expected to arrive in the U.S. next month for $139.

Patriot

Patriot is in the process of shifting its focus to address an increasingly mobile-oriented market. Company reps started by showing off its Fuel+ external battery line-up. The small square-shaped 1500 mAh charger works exclusively with Apple devices sporting a Lightning connector. Thankfully for PC enthusiasts, the larger 2200 and 3000 mAh rectangular models feature a generic USB port. The largest 5200, 6000, 7800, and 9000 mAh versions offer 2.5 A output to charge devices faster. Patriot claims the mobile batteries retain 70% of their potential after 300 cycles (estimated to be two years of use), and members of the Fuel+ family will cost between $40 and $100.

Next, we were introduced to the Aero, a wireless mobile hard drive and Wi-Fi pass-through device available with 500 GB or 1 TB of capacity. Essentially an upgraded 320 with tweaked firmware, Patriot says the Aero might achieve a bit more wireless range. But the main feature is support for larger drives.

We also saw Patriot's new 64 GB s-mini and Tab USB 3.0 thumb drives.

Patriot wrapped up our booth tour by showing off its Supersonic Magnum USB drive, available with up to 256 GB of capacity for $299.

NZXT

NZXT was exhibiting a handful of fully-modular power supplies for value-oriented shoppers. Its Hale82 V2 is 80 PLUS Bronze-certified. The 550 W model sells for $80, while the 700 W version is $100. Both feature a 135 mm fan, which is quieter than the 120 mm coolers used previously due to fewer RPM.

The new H230 chassis was also on display. This is an entry-level enclosure, designed to be affordable, but also quiet with three 120 mm fans (one for exhaust in the back, and two for intake up front). It has a removable hard drive cage and uses the same sound dampening material as the H2 at a $70 price point.

Company reps also showed us its Phantom 530, a revamped version of the original Phantom at the same price point, with features like steel latches, fully modular hard drive cages, liquid cooling support, room for a 360 mm radiator up top, and a 240 mm radiator in the front. While the original Phantom had a 120 mm fan in back and 24 mm of cable management space, the Phantom 530 sports a 140 mm blower and and 35 mm of space behind the motherboard tray. Expect the new version to go on sale this month for $130.

Incidentally, a demo system based on the 530 was on display with three Kraken coolers; the original Phantom wasn't Kraken-compatible.

Speaking of liquid cooling, we spotted a prototype universal VGA bracket that's compatible with the Kraken X40 and just about any other Asetek-branded cooler. These were demonstrated on two GeForce GTX Titan cards, each using a Kraken X60. This bracket is expected to cost about $15 when it's launched.

SanDisk

SanDisk released the mainstream Ultra Plus in January, and now the company's higher-end Extreme II is available as well. You can purchase the 120 GB model for $130, the 240 GB version for $225, and the 480 GB flagship for $450 on Newegg. It's an exceptionally fast drive based on 19 nm flash memory. Read our review of this product here: SanDisk Extreme II SSD Review: Striking At The Heavy-Hitters.

ECS And Zotac At Computex 2013

ECS

ECS surprised us with the number of products it was showing off at Computex. To start, we caught our first glimpse of its new L337 Gaming sub-brand. As the name suggests, hardware in this family is aimed at enthusiasts. Two boards, the Gank Domination and Gank Machine, were both prominently on display, representing ECS' Z87 Express-based L337 platforms. We're told the word Aggro will accompany AMD-based boards in the same family.

The Gank boards we saw were feature-rich, sporting multi-GPU support, Sound Core3D audio chipsets, 802.11n Wi-Fi controllers, Bluetooth, and dual Killer Ethernet controllers.

The high-end Z87H3-AX Domination and Z87H3-AX Extreme are virtually identical except for a different color scheme. Both feature four PCI Express x16 slots, but don't incorporate a bridge chip to divide bandwidth up. Naturally, then, bandwidth is limited depending on the configuration you use.

The more mid-range Z87H3-A2X Domination and Z87H3-A2X Extreme enable three PCIe slots for graphics cards.

Next, we learned that ECS' product portfolio is being restructured into three categories: Pro (for use in the workstation space), Deluxe (light gaming and multimedia functionality), and Essentials (home desktop, theater, and general productivity). All three tiers employ the same orange and blue branding, which we find a little confusing, though the text and size of the orange band on the boxes varies. That aside, the result is much more cogent than the company's past efforts at segmentation. Many of the newly-named Pro, Deluxe, and Essentials boards are simply re-branded products, though it's easier to tell where they exist in ECS' line-up now.

One of the new boards we saw was the Kabini-based KBN-I Essentials. You can choose between an A6-5200 or E-2100 APU.

The Z87H3-A4 Deluxe and H87H3-TI (mini-ITX) are also fresh models in ECS' line-up.

Our eyes were drawn to a prototype H81 Express-based motherboard with an MXM slot for graphics. Expect it to arrive in the September time frame, accompanies by a Radeon-based module for use in all-in-one enclosures optimized for Intel's Thin Mini-ITX standard. The platform isn't branded; it's for use by system integrators.

Speaking of all-in-ones, ECS manufactures the G24 chassis with a 21.5" touchscreen. It sells on Tiger Direct for between $430 and $615, depending on whether you buy it with a motherboard. Most of these things are probably going to be purchased by integrators, though we've also shown enthusiasts how to put their own all-in-ones together in Take That, iMac?: Build Your Own All-In-One PC. 

The last thing we saw in ECS' booth was a mini-ITX ARM-based motherboard for Android-based platforms. We're intrigued to see the x86 and ARM overlap grow in the low-end PC market.

Zotac

We saw Zotac's GeForce GTX 770 AMP! at the show, already shipping and significantly overclocked with a 1150 MHz GPU and 7200 MT/s memory data rate. Zotac's dual silencer cooler finishes the package.

The Zbox ID90 is an impressive micro-sized computer containing a desktop-class Core i7-3770T processor with HD Graphics 4000, unlike most small PCs that leverage mobile components. It has two DDR3-1600 memory slots (supporting up to 16 GB), HDMI and DVI outputs, dual-gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. It comes two ways: barebones or Plus, the latter of which includes 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard disk. Expect to see it available in the near future.

SilverStone At Computex 2013

This year is SilverStone's tenth anniversary, and the company had a variety of new products to display at Computex. We'll start with the ARM22SC LCD monitor mounts, available for about $220 (Ed.: This actually just landed in our SoCal lab). The display arm allows for lots of vertical and horizontal movement, as well as 90 degrees of rotation for monitors up to 24" in size. It shouldn't be difficult to find just the right position for your desk. 

The next stop on our tour is good news for audio enthusiasts: SilverStone's EB01-E digital-to-analog converter and EB03 Amplifier. Both should be available within the next quarter around $200.

We also saw a prototype graphics card enclosure that relies on Thunderbolt connectivity. Equipped with a 450 W power supply, we'd say this product has potential given our experiences with external graphics solutions already.

SilverStone is updating its flexible SATA power bridge with the new CP06-E4 (sporting four connectors) and -E2 (a two-connector model). Like the previous version, it contains capacitors to stabilize power for hot-swapping, though this improved version is much more flexible and longer, putting less stress on the connectors. It should be available in July.

The NB04 is a one-piece notebook cooler with a large 160 mm fan under its vented surface. The solid aluminum structure accommodates up to 15" laptops.

The new Tundra-series liquid cooling system employs an all-metal waterblock with no screws on the nickel-plated copper base, which is soldered for better thermal performance. Even the mounting bracket is aluminum. SilverStone's radiator design is incredibly robust, and we found it impossible to bend the fins with our fingertips. In addition, the radiator is designed with pipes traversing the fins to increase surface contact area for more efficient heat transfer. The single-fan TD03 is $80, while the TD02 and its double-sized radiator is $110.

SilverStone's representative showed us a prototype liquid cooler than uses heat from the CPU to act as a pump. It employs a slim water block and liquid with a low evaporation point, requiring only that the radiator is mounted higher than the CPU. While this design removes the pump as a failure point, it does rely on relatively high temperatures to work, so the company is assessing its viability.

Starting with SilverStone's NUC-based enclosures, the PT14, PT15, PT16, and PT17 are pictured above. The first two are pretty standard, but the PT16 can pop up its top to accept an extra 2.5" drive for storage. The PT17 is an AMD-based design, built around the promise of a NUC-sized motherboard that Sapphire pledged to produce this year. We expect all of these cases to cost around $40 when they hit retail.

The DS380 is a mini-ITX case that's a little larger than most. It offers eight hot-swappable 2.5" drive bays with a SATA/SAS-compatible backplane, three 120 mm fans, and room for a full-sized graphics card. Company reps say this case will be available by August for about $150.

SilverStone's slim HTPC-oriented cases make an appearance in the shot above. On the left is its ML04, almost the same as the popular microATX ML03, but with different front panel. The ML05 are next, both essentially shrunken mini-ITX versions of the ML03 employing SFX power supplies. The ML05 has an acrylic panel, while the ML06 features aluminum up front.

Here's a prototype of SilverStone's Raven case, which is particularly exciting to us. Clearly designed as an alternative to game consoles and some of the boutique enclosures out there, it includes a riser card to support full-sized graphics cards. The name and design aren't final. However, we might see something that looks a lot like this by the end of 2013.

The last new case that SilverStone's team showed us was the MM01, code-named the mammoth. That nickname doesn't refer to the enclosure's formidable dimensions, but rather its ability to survive harsh conditions. We're told it's the only case able to cope with the restrictiveness of a HEPA filter, ensuring that dust stays out and air leaving the case is cleaner than the air coming in. It also sports angled vents to ensure that any spills flow away from the parts inside. Expect to see the MM01 in late 2013 selling for somewhere around $300.

We also looked at a number of power supplies, beginning with the SFX form factor. In addition to the company's ST45SF-G 450 W modular offering (boasting a 37 A +12 V rail), the new ST30SF 300 W with a 22 A rail features a silent mode where the fan disengages under less than 40% load, or less than 55 degress Celsius. Expect that one to show up in August for $50.

Next up was the 1200 W Zeus with digital controls. SilverStone's software lets you pick between one or multiple rails (similar to the unit we just previewed from Rosewill), alter voltages, and even adjust the fan curve. This fully modular unit should be available in the next quarter.

Finally, the Strider family is updated with modular 750, 850, and 1500 W flavors that include soft cables for easy installation, including the 24-pin ATX connector.

Antec And In Win At Computex 2013

Antec

Antec demoed its upcoming digital power supply control software called Grid. which lets you set a target voltage on each rail, define current limits, and customize fan speeds (notice a pattern here with the latest crop of PSUs?). The representative even made it a point that logs are not kept so that writes to an SSD are minimized.

The new software is married to Antec's High Current Pro Platinum (HCPP) Grid power supply family, available in 850, 1000, and 1300 W flavors. These PSUs feature 80 PLUS Platinum ratings, modular cabling, and a new feature called OC Link that allows two power supplies to work in tandem. They're expected to start selling before the end of the year.

In support of its OC Link technology, Antec introduced a Nineteen Hundred case with space for two power supplies. It's absolutely colossal, and will be available in a couple of months for around $300. This case and the OC Link infrastructure earned Tom's Hardware's Best Of Computex 2013 award for introducing heretofore unknown power scalability to the PC market.

Next, we were introduced to the LSK600, a mini-ITX option that should be available in the second half of this year. It accommodates graphics cards up to 11 inches long.

The NSK4100 is Antec's new budget-minded ATX offering, supporting liquid cooling and two fan mounts.

The P100 is a fresh addition to the company's performance line, an entry-level version of the P182 designed to minimize noise. This ATX case has a removable drive bay and should arrive in 2 or 3 months at a reasonable $70 price point.

And now for the company's Kuhler H20 family of liquid cooling systems. To avoid Asetek's patent, Antec moved the pump behind the fan shroud and deployed diffuser fan blades to move more air through the dead spot. Three new models include the 1250 (double-wide radiator and two fans), the 950 (double-height radiator with two fans), and the 650 (single radiator and one fan). These products are expected to land in July or August for $110, $100, and $70, respectively.

Finally, we were reintroduced to Antec's wireless Bluetooth speakers, first shown at CES. The SPZero weighs only 500 grams and can be daisy chained to an unlimited number of SPZeros, which is an interesting feature for parties. The SP1+ is a step up from the SPZero, with added NFC capability and eight hours of play time on a three-hour charge. The larger SP3 can't be daisy chained, but features two internal speakers with a 20 W output for $219. Expect them all to hit the market at the end of this year.

In Win

In Win is becoming known for manufacturing limited runs of spectacular, unique (and expensive) PC enclosures. The company didn't disappoint at Computex, showing off the KingSize case. Available for $1500 in August, it features aluminum construction and real glass panels.

Next up was the Tou, built with semi-transparent aluminum tempered glass. The buttons in front are pressure sensors on the glass panel. You might find the case available in Q4 for $800.

Lastly was In Win's upcoming Serenity power supply. This 900 W model should be available in August for $180.

Gelid, Netstor, Qnap, Synology, OCZ, And G.Skill At Computex 2013

Gelid

Gelid had an interesting idea on its hands: a dedicated router cooler. Expect to see this item toward the end of July for around $15.

The company was also showing off fans, braided cables, and its GC-Extreme thermal compound. Representatives were claiming that its thermal paste is ideal for LN2 overclocking because it doesn't conduct electricity, corrode, bleed, or cure. In fact, ASRock bundles it with its Z77 OC Formula motherboard.

Netstor

Netstor showed us the NA333TBS, an external enclosure that hosts up to 16 hard disks and three PCIe slots. This product uses a Thunderbolt cable for connectivity and includes an 80 PLUS Silver-rated power supply. Expect it to show up in a couple of months for about $2000.

Qnap

QNAP specializes in business-oriented NAS hardware, but also sells some more mainstream offerings. The new TurboNAS TS-470 Pro will be available soon, featuring a 3.3 GHz Intel Core i3-3220, 2 GB of RAM, and space for four hard disks with a maximum capacity of 16 TB. It comes with a built-in media center and is capable of encoding 4K video streams.

Synology

Synology presented its new USB Station 3, an enclosure that turns any external USB hard disk/flash drive/SDXC memory card into a compact and convenient NAS. Expect it to arrive around August.

Like all of Synology's NAS products, the USB Station 3 comes with the company's DiskStation Manager software. It features a clean interface with a lot of options, and works in Windows and OS X. A new version should launch in July, too.

The DS214 and DS214+ are higher up the company's product portfolio, each with two hard disk bays. Availability is expected in the third quarter of 2013. They both support hot-swap functionality and come armed with 1.6 GHz Atom processors. The DS214+ is additionally able to transcode 1080p video on the fly. It sports 1 GB of memory and has additional connectivity options like an SD card reader and extra eSATA ports.

OCZ

OCZ was showing off two new modular Fatal1ty power supplies: a 550 W model available on Newegg for $70 and a 750 W version still on the way.

The Vertex 450 is also pretty new. It employs 20 nm NAND, and is available in 128 and 256 GB capacities. If you want to know more, check out OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB SSD Review: Can We Call It Vector Jr.?

G.Skill

At the G.Skill booth, we saw the company's 3000 MT/s Trident X memory, available now in a 16 GB kit with a 32 GB option a few weeks out. Representatives claim it's the fastest memory validated by Intel.

We were then shown G.Skill's new entries into the audio market. The Ripjaws R71 headset features 10 drivers for surround sound, a noise-cancelling microphone, and a touch-control pod. Expect it at the end of 2013 or the beginning of next year.

The Ripjaws D71 is the company's low-end model, with two drivers and a simpler control pod.

NAS manufacturer Synology clearly aimed to impress at this year's CeBIT by showcasing a plethora of new products, including a range of NAS units powered by Intel's Atom CE5300 SoC and a new USB station. First, we have the DS1513+ and DS1813+, which are NAS devices that provide space for five and eight drives, respectively, and are powered by the Intel Atom D2700. Both units feature "silent and screwless trays" and four gigabit ethernet ports.

In a similar vein to the previously reported "Intelligent NAS Units" from Thecus, Synology has introduced the DS714, a NAS unit powered by the Intel Atom CE5315 SoC clocked at 1.2 GHz. The unit features a single gigabit ethernet port and HDMI output that allows the NAS to act as a media server and directly output content. The DS714 is expected to be released in June 2013 and may be working on a budget version of the DS714 with a more basic chassis.

To suit the lower end of the NAS market, Synology has announced the DS213j, which includes 512 MB of RAM, a 1.2 GHz Marvell ARM controller,- and a quiet rubber-mounted fan.

Finally, we have Synology's USB Station 3, which features two USB 3.0 ports, a Micro SD card reader, and a SD card slot that holds the unit's firmware. The last item is completely user replaceable, and the card's unused space can be used for storage and shared through the device.

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Intel's Pineview Platform Replaces Cedarview In Networked Storage

A little over two years ago, the first NAS servers employing Intel’s dual-core Atom processors started showing up with the then-modern D510. Our impressions at the time were very positive. Qnap's TS-459 Pro and Thecus' N4200 showed that the third-generation Atoms could serve as a strong foundation for network-attached appliances, beating the common Marvell Kirkwood mv6281 ARM and Freescale MPC8533 (PPC architecture) processors when it came to network data transfer speeds.

We weren’t as excited when Intel's Atom D510 gave way to the company's Atom D525. Our review of Qnap’s TS-559 Pro (Atom D510) and TS-559 Pro+ (Atom D525) showed that the newer version offered barely any data transfer speed advantages.

Technology marched on though, and Intel introduced new Atom processors based on the Cedarview platform at the end of 2011. These were manufactured on a 32 nm node, whereas the older Pineview-based CPUs were etched using 45 nm lithography. Maximum TDP went from Pineview’s 13 W to Cedarview’s 10 W. The Atom N2600, N2800, and D2700 all included GMA 3650 integrated graphics engines.

Intel's Atom D2700 processor, in particular, became popular with network storage vendors both because of its speed at 2.13 GHz and ability to exploit the integrated graphics for HDMI output. Of course, whether or not there’s really a need for a NAS server able to put a picture directly onto your television is something you'd need to decide for yourself. Cedarview-based processors do employ DDR3 memory controllers, though, whereas the Atom D525 could use either DDR2 or DDR3.

The current crop of network-attached appliances, like those from Synology and Thecus, are completely transitioning over from Intel’s Atom D525 to its D2700. Interestingly, though, the company is phasing out the Atom D2700, while its D525 is still available. Go figure.

Naturally, we wanted to know how much impact switching from Intel’s Atom D525 to its Atom D2700 actually makes on storage performance. We're benchmarking Synology’s DiskStation DS412+ and Thecus’ N4800, looking at their data transfer speeds and respective features as well.

Synology DiskStation DS412+: A Familiar Sight

The Synology DiskStation DS412+ might look familiar to our regular readers. It’s basically the big brother of the Synology DiskStation DS212+ that we've already reviewed. It has four hot-swap-capable drive bays on the front, which are hidden behind a black plastic shroud. Next to the front cover are five status LEDs that convey information about drive activity and system status. A power button and USB 2.0 port are the only other features of an otherwise-clean front panel.

Air circulation is provided by two 92 mm cooling fans at the back of the case. A pair of LAN connectors, an eSATA interface, and two USB 3.0 ports are placed just below the fans. As with Synology's DiskStation DS212+, the DiskStation DS412+’s chassis is mostly made out of plastic. Synology went with a rough texture, which we didn’t particularly care for when we reviewed the DiskStation DS212+, and we still don’t like now. It makes the enclosure difficult to clean because dust tends to settle in and is hard to get out.

As we've established, the DiskStation DS412+ has an Intel Atom D2700 processor inside. It also sports 1 GB of DDR3 memory. On the software side, Synology uses its own Linux-based NAS operating system called DiskStation Manager (DSM).

Thecus N4800: NAS With Multimedia

We don’t know if Thecus decided that a design team was too expensive, or that its two-year-old N4200 was just a good foundation for a new product. Either way, the company's N4800 looks almost identical to the older four-drive model. The only difference is the color of the two USB ports up front, which are now blue to show off their USB 3.0 support. Thecus covers its drive bays with a door, creating a clean-looking front panel. A pair of OLED displays relay information about drive activity, network status, current network settings (like IP and network gateway addresses), and warnings. The only other buttons accessible up front control the device's on/off status and facilitate navigation of the information display's menu system.

Around back, the N4800 comes armed with two Ethernet ports, a pair of USB 2.0 connectors, an eSATA interface, VGA output, an HDMI connector, and an audio output. There’s also a closed slot that can be used to accommodate a 10 GbE card. An interesting feature, which the N4800 shares with the N4200 and N4200PRO, is a slot for an included battery. In essence, this makes the N4800 a NAS server with an integrated uninterruptible power supply (UPS). This is a really nice feature, and we’d like more manufacturers to include it.

NAS TV

Thecus takes advantage of the Atom D2700’s integrated graphics capability. The company arms its N4800 with 2 GB of DDR3 memory, which is twice as much as Synology's DiskStation DS412+. This allows Thecus to market its N4800 as a media server that can be connected directly to a display device (most likely a TV) for audio and video playback.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to try this feature because it wasn't supported by the firmware yet. Regardless, we're doubtful that many folks will want to set up a NAS appliance next to a media center. It's much more probable that you'd want to stream content from a networked server tucked away in a closet somewhere over a wired or wireless network to a small HTPC.

The N4800 is configured via a browser-based graphical user interface. It’s a far cry from Synology’s DSM, and not in a good way. It’s less intuitive and looks dated. We asked Thecus about this, and company representatives told us that a new firmware, including a new version of the browser-based configuration system, is in the works. Thecus also offers a live demo of the current version.

Benchmark System And Power Consumption

We maintained each of the servers' default settings and set the maximum transmission unit (MTU) to 1500. We used four Samsung Spinpoint HD103SJs in each NAS device. The N4800’s firmware was version V2.01.05, and the DiskStation DS412+’s was version 4.0-2219. All of the details are in the following table.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We benchmarked the two NAS servers with Intel's NAS Performance Toolkit. A detailed description can be found in Benchmarking With Intel's NAS Toolkit.

Noise

Thecus's N4800 and Synology's DiskStation DS412+ are quiet. During normal operation, the N4800 produces 29.6 db(A), and the Synology DiskStation DS412+ produces 30.2 db(A). Our subjective impressions went the other way; Thecus' NAS seemed louder due to the tone of the sound, bothering us more.

Power Consumption

Our power consumption benchmarks are mixed. The N4800’s power supply unit seems to be more efficient, drawing 1.9 W when the system is turned off. Synology’s DiskStation DS412+ draws 3.3 W.

This trend reverses once the NAS servers are on, writing to all drives (a workload encountered during a RAID rebuild). The Synology DiskStation DS412+ draws 48.2 W, which is less than the N4800’s 54.0 W.

Benchmark Results: Multimedia

We're including the Synology DiskStation DS411+II and Thecus N4200PRO in our benchmark as a basis for comparison. These systems employ Intel's Atom D525 processor.

The NAS servers demonstrate similar performance when it comes to sequential writes of large amounts of data. It's interesting that Synology manages to do better with the DiskStation DS412+ than it did with the DiskStation DS411+II. Thecus, on the other hand, doesn't do much better with its N4800 than it did with the N4200PRO.

Each NAS server's sequential read performance is similar to their sequential write performance. Synology's DiskStation DS412+ and Thecus' N4800 give us almost identical data transfer rates and manage to do somewhat better than their predecessors. The N4800 does slightly better here than it did in the video recording benchmark compared to Thecus' N4200PRO.

When it comes to looking at small files, these two NAS server generations perform about the same. Once again, using RAID 5, the new Thecus N4800 underperforms the company's older N4200PRO.

More benchmarks can be found in our picture gallery.

Benchmark Results: Office

Synology's DiskStation DS412+ wins the backup benchmark ahead of the competition and its own DiskStation DS411+II. As we saw in the “photo album” benchmark on the previous page, Thecus' N4800 lags behind its N4200PRO.

The older Intel Atom D525-based Thecus N4200PRO manages to take the crown in our backup recovery benchmark ahead of the competition and the new N4800. At this point, we're wondering if Thecus needs to optimize the N4800’s firmware to at least match its previous offering.

Our office productivity benchmark shows fewer differences between the two vendors and their successive generations of storage devices. For the most part, all machines perform fairly similarly.

More benchmarks can be found in our picture gallery.

Intel's Atom D2700 Could Boost Speed, But Thecus Needs An Optimized Firmware

The jump from Intel's Atom D510 to the Atom D525 was really just a minor update that didn’t generate any large (or even noticeable) improvements in storage server performance. Refreshed models serving up extra throughput could have certainly come in handy for adding additional services to existing appliances. However, the new processor simply did not make much of a difference.

Transitioning from the Atom D525 to Intel's Atom D2700 gives us a very similar, and equally disappointing, evolutionary experience. The difference in clock rate of 330 MHz between the Atom D2700 and its predecessor had us hoping we'd see more significant improvements this time, particularly since the Atom D525 was only 133 MHz faster than the D510 it replaced. It turns out, however, that when it comes to data transfer rates, the latest NAS devices are just as fast (or slow) as the old ones.

We do think the faster processor impacts the responsiveness of each machine's Web-based UI, though. Navigation feels snappier, and pages load faster.

For anyone without a NAS device currently, a new system with Intel's Atom D2700 is a good way to not only centralize storage, but also run other services like a MySQL database or Web server. Synology and Thecus both include several interesting features, such as TwonkyMedia server support and virus scanning. Both stand to benefit from additional processing power. Would we be inclined to upgrade an older NAS appliance with one of these new ones, though? Probably not, unless one of the software features really stands out to you. Otherwise, expect comparable performance and comparable looks.

Thecus' N4800: Neither Here Nor There

You should think twice before actually using the Thecus N4800 as a media player in your living room, hooked up directly to a TV via HDMI. It might be quiet, but, at the end of the day, it’s still actively-cooled. So, quiet shouldn't be confused with inaudible. Its noise would likely get old really fast during quiet scenes in movies. In addition, the firmware to make this possible wasn't even available in time for our review.

It’s not that we think using a NAS server as a media player is a bad idea. It’s an interesting design that has some potential. This is just the wrong product for it. Four-bay NAS server models like Thecus' N4800 are designed for the small and medium business (SMB) sector. This user group is usually much more interested in factors like performance and dependability than running a media player.

The integrated battery backup shows that Thecus does have its SMB customers' best interests in mind, though. Built-in UPS functionality worked well throughout our review, and it's something we'd encourage other vendors to start thinking about.

Synology DiskStation DS412+: Great Speed, Mature Firmware, No Integrated UPS

Our benchmarks show that Thecus' N4800 often performs worse than its predecessor. But this isn’t the processor’s fault. Synology shows us how to get more performance from a NAS with its DiskStation DS412+, beating the Atom D252-equipped DiskStation DS411+II in our benchmarks. We think the problem stems from Thecus' firmware, then. Not only does it need to be optimized for better performance, but the Web-based GUI could also use an overhaul, especially compared to Synology’s user interface.

Synology's DiskStation DS412+ offers good data transfer speeds and easy usability. It's easy to configure and use. Synology uses its DSM firmware, now version 4.0, across the company's product line. It’s well thought out, intuitive, and even looks good.

If data safety and uninterrupted operation are your main considerations, Thecus' N4800 might still be the better choice, especially if you can live without a pretty GUI. Just because we don't like it as a media player doesn't mean it's not a capable NAS server. And its UPS is a great feature to have.

We swung by Synology's booth at Computex this week and caught sight of not one but two NAS solutions that the company is showing off at the conference. The DiskStation DS413 is a four bay NAS based on a 1 GHz Freescale CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 2 USB 3.0 ports and a new hibernation mode for improved efficiency. The DS413 also boasts high encryption performance with AES 256bits encrypted read and writes speeds at 48.38 MB/sec and 24.10 MB/sec, respectively. It also snagged a Best Choice award for the show.

"The DS413 features system hibernation mode that is unparalleled within the industry with minimum energy consumption at 3.3 watts. Synology’s breakthrough technologies allow users to remotely bring system back online from system hibernation mode simply via web access," the company said in a statemebt.  Synology DS413 deploys Freescale dual core CPU with 1 GB RAM, benefiting users with a faster and more enhanced multitasking experience."

Also on show was the DS213 Air, which is a consumer NAS with two bays, a 1.6 GHz CPU, 256 MB of RAM, and two USB 3.0 ports. You can also access it directly with a Web UI, iOS and Android apps. 

_{Follow @JaneMcEntegart on Twitter.}   

Thecus And Open-E: Enterprise-Class Storage For SMBs?

Small and medium businesses, government offices, health care providers, and research institutions generate lots of data every single day. All of that information needs to be archived and protected. As a case in point, the German Electron Synchrotron, DESY, in Hamburg, generates 100 TB of raw data per experiment, and a typical health care provider can generates hundreds of gigabytes per month in patient records.

Beyond simply storing data, managing it cost-effectively is critical, as is delivering the information to users and applications where and when they need it. Business-class storage devices are designed to do that over a number of different interfaces. Direct-attached and network-attached are two of the most popular, though storage area networks built on Fibre Channel or iSCSI technology are popular as well.

Even as enterprise-grade technology increasingly finds its way into SMB environments, NAS remains a moderate-performance, affordable technology for small- and medium-sized businesses. Flexible protocol support and provisions for backup technologies like data replication and synchronization are particularly attractive.

There are plenty of network-attached appliances available. However, the selection thins out considerably you filter by reliability, performance, enterprise support, and reasonable cost. Thecus sent over its N8800PRO to demonstrate that a storage server with redundant power supplies, a multi-core host processor, and performance-oriented networking can be had for about $1600 without hard drives. Add eight of your own 2 TB nearline SATA disks and the unit's cost hovers around $3600.

But an accessible price tag isn't the only interesting aspect of this NAS device. You can also install Open-E's Data Storage Software V6 on it, which expands its feature set beyond what Thecus' own firmware offers. Some of Open-E DSS 6.0's capabilities include iSCSI, CIFS, and Fibre Channel support. Installing the third-party firmware is relatively easy from a flash drive or CD. As the installation process progresses, device drives (needed for the storage and Ethernet controllers) are automatically configured.

In the pages that follow, we'll discuss how Open-E DSS 6.0 and Thecus' N8800OPRO interact, with an emphasis on the third-party operating environment. There are integrators who offer package deals, pre-installing Open-E DSS 6.0 on the Thecus appliance. The cost of that combination often depends on the features you enable and the storage array installed.

Thecus' N8800PRO Eight-Bay Storage Server

Thecus claims that its N8800PRO is an enterprise-grade NAS device. It's driven by a 1.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4 GB of DDR2 memory. The motherboard is the same one found in Thecus' N7700, in case you're familiar with that appliance. Two gigabit Ethernet ports are exposed through a factory-installed PCI Express-based add-in board, and an optional 10 Gb card can be plugged into an available PCIe x8 slot. The rack-mountable N8800PRO is 2U high and features two power supplies for redundancy. Its firmware is stored on two DOM (disk on module) devices, also for redundancy. Our test unit from a German integrator included DOMs with the Open-E software, which replaced Thecus' default modules.

You can install as many as eight 3.5” 66 Gb/s SATA drives into the N8800PRO. The drives are attached to caddies with screws, and the caddies can be hot-swapped. RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 are all supported. Moreover, operation as an iSCSI target is supported right out of the box.

Dig a little deeper into the hardware and you see that four pairs of two disks correspond to a quartet of SiL3132 PCIe x1 to two-port SATA 3Gb/s controllers. This means you don't get hardware-accelerated RAID support. Rather, the Core 2 Duo shoulders the processing load of software-based RAID.

Technically, you're able to daisy-chain as many as eight JBOD enclosures using the N8800PRO's single eSATA port. Although that'd give you a theoretical 72-disk ceiling (and, factoring in the 3 TB models already on Thecus' compatibility list, a 216 GB capacity limit), the performance limitations of that many disks communicating through a single 3 Gb/s port should be pretty clear...and potentially debilitating.

The appliance's eight drive bays are arranged as such: three on the left, two in the middle, and three on the right. Instead of giving you a ninth bay, that space is occupied by an LCD read-out that conveys the server's IP address and subnet mask, plus system status.

In addition to its integrated gigabit Ethernet jacks, the N8800 features an RS-232 port for communication with a UPS and two USB 2.0 ports for attaching external hard disks and other peripherals, such as printers.

Thecus N8800PRO: Peeking Inside

Removing the top cover of the N8800PRO exposes its innards. You see the eight hard disk bays on the right, two power supplies in the upper-left, and the motherboard below them.

Here's a front view without the top cover:

Looking around back, we see the redundant power supplies and a quartet of fans responsible for keeping the hard drives cool.

Here's a close-up on the four fans, which cool eight drive bays.

Although this is a storage appliance, the motherboard looks like something you'd find in a PC, for the most part. An embedded processor is actively cooled, and a couple of memory modules come pre-installed. Risers enable PCIe-based expansion.

Now we zoom in to the new DOM with Open-E's firmware pre-installed.

Thecus' N8800PRO With Open-E DDS 6.0

Regardless of your experience level with network-attached storage devices, Open-E DSS 6.0 (actually, a customized version of the software installed on our appliance) is easy to set up and configure thanks to a number of helpful wizards, a well thought-out Web interface, and unambiguous menu designations.

After logging in for the first time and entering a license key, you can start setting up the NAS server. It's a five-step process if you're configuring the device for a Windows-based network: configure the network card, configure the software RAID, creating a volume group, create users, and configure network shares.

Most folks will typically set the system up using a wizard after logging in for the first time. That involves choosing an interface language, picking an administrative password, configuring IP addresses, selecting a time zone, setting the time, and assigning a server name. The German builder who sent our sample already specified a default configuration, though, so we were able to skip that step entirely.

Open-E: Configuring A RAID Array

After selecting the disks that you want to be part of the RAID array , Open-E sets up the software-based configuration on Thecus' N8800PRO. We chose to use all eight disks in a RAID 6 arrangement. Initializing the 16 TB array took about 12 hours, which is neither impressively fast or frustratingly slow for an array of this size.

Once the array is in place, the system displays a summary screen of all RAID-oriented parameters.

As an aside, if you want to optimize the array for throughput or I/O performance, you can modify its block size between 4 and 256 KB. In addition, you can choose the algorithm to use for RAID 5 and 6, affecting the array's performance.

Open-E: Creating A Volume Group

After a RAID array is created, you're able to form one or more volume groups on it. One of the advantages that a volume group offers is the ability to dynamically expand or shrink down the road, as capacity needs change. Furthermore, a volume can be replicated to another storage device over a WAN, for example, or used as a WORM (write once read many) volume for data archiving. WORM volumes are particularly useful for archiving, a task that goes hand-in-hand with the target audience for this appliance.

Open-E: Creating Users And Network Shares

In order to use the Thecus N8800PRO with Open-E as a NAS server, access permissions have to be configured. You can create users and user groups directly on the server, or alternatively make the server a member of a Window domain or Active Directory server. For fine-tuning access to individual folders, you can use Windows access control lists (ACLs).

As you can see in above screen shots, quotas are not supported in this customized version of Open-E. If you need quotas, however, you have the option of upgrading to the full version of Open-E.

Creating Network Shares

The Web interface allows you to conveniently create Windows-based network shares.

Open-E: Admin Settings, iSCSI, And Fail-Over

Apart from its typical storage management menus, Open-E DSS 6.0 also has menus that allow you to control access to the server itself.

You can restrict Web-based GUI access to one particular IP address.

Connections to the server can be secured by TLS, SSL v3, or a combination. You can obtain usage statistics like server load and network traffic via SNMP, and then graph them with RRDTOOL.

In addition to the Web GUI, password-protected console access via SSH is also available.

iSCSI Initiator

Open-E DSS 6.0 can not only serve as an iSCSI target, but also an iSCSI initiator, facilitating storage expansion.

Fail-Over

If a server is mission-critical, availability becomes an even more important consideration than even performance. Downtime is simply not acceptable. Because hardware defects are almost impossible to anticipate, enterprises typically employ redundancy in those mission-critical environments. Thecus addresses this to the best of its ability, employing redundant power supplies and, of course, support for RAID modes that withstand one or two drive failures.

But what if the appliance's memory goes out, or maybe its RAID controller? Open-E DSS 6.0 has a built-in fail-over mechanism able to designate a primary and a secondary node. In the event of a hardware failure, the redundant node automatically assumes the primary server's role, and service continues uninterrupted without intervention. Then, with slightly less urgency, the failed node can be replaced with a working system, which then becomes a redundant secondary.

Open-E: System And Hardware Status

The Web-based UI lets you view the most important system parameters in your browser.

All connections to the server via SMB/CIFS, FTP, NFS, AppleTalk, and iSCSI are listed.

The same goes for the network parameters.

Performance data, such as CPU and memory usage, plus network load, are logged over time and can be displayed as graphs, making it easier to spot load peaks or bottlenecks.

Log files are also available, making it easier to pick out and analyze problems. They can be downloaded through the GUI for printing or post-processing.

Test System And Benchmarks

Of course, we couldn’t help but to benchmark Thecus' appliance with Open-E. The N8800PRO is currently our only eight-bay NAS server, precluding comparisons to competing models. However, in the interest of including some degree of baseline performance, we do have data for a couple of five-bay servers, Qnap's TS-559 Pro+ and Synology's DS1511.

You'll want to take these results in context. Depending on your own target environment and performance-oriented settings (stuff like the block size, RAID algorithm, physical disks operating concurrently, or addition of the 10 Gb Ethernet option), the throughput you see could be higher, or even lower. There's also the fact that we're comparing different drives. The N8800PRO submitted to us included Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 disks, while the drives installed in the Qnap TS-559 Pro+ and Synology DS1511 were Samsung HD103SJs.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We use Intel's NAS Performance Toolkit to test the NAS devices that make their way through our lab. You can read more about this software in Benchmarking With Intel's NAS Toolkit.

Sound Level and Power Dissipation

It is fairly obvious that a rack-mounted server like the N8800PRO was never intended to live its life next to your workstation. Its power consumption, which hovers around 114 W, isn't too bad. However, its acoustic output is less tolerable. Eight total fans generate a sound level of 53.4 db(A). This is certainly no personal video server.

Benchmark Results: Multimedia

In short, the video playback and recording performance of Thecus' N8800PRO running Open-E trails the five-bay NAS servers from Synology and Qnap. It's worth noting, however, that the N8800PRO's host Core 2 Duo has to perform XOR operations for an eight-disk RAID array, whereas the other servers are presented with a comparatively lesser five-drive load. Thus, we'd expect to see the lower throughput reflected here.

Benchmark Results: Office

The N8800PRO's showing in our office productivity suite is likely affected by the same issue. The block size we used, 64 KB, is best-suited for applications that write and read many small files. It's possible that performance could be optimized by adjusting that setting.

Open-E Makes Creating Storage Servers Easier

Although we installed Open-E's Data Storage Software V6 on a purpose-built network storage appliance, DSS is really just a plug-and-play solution able to turn any system into a NAS server with iSCSI functionality. The fact that it's not a full-fledged operating system simplifies the initial setup and ongoing administration. No, you won't find print server functionality or iTunes server support, but that's intentional. More of an enterprise focus means you see additions like InfiniBand and Fibre Channel SAN support instead.

While the scope of DSS V6 seems limited compared to some of the consumer-oriented storage devices currently available, the operating environment has plenty of functionality for the applications it most effectively addresses. DSS appeals to business users with features like replication and fail-over, snapshots, and WORM support for archiving of business data. It can even be used to satisfy high-availability, mission-critical requirements. Because it supports Windows domains as well as NIS and LDAP domains, businesses can seamlessly integrate DSS into their existing IT infrastructure and expand their networked storage. In contrast to the firmware that Thecus ships, Open-E is compatible with VMware ESX, ESXi, and vSphere, as well as Citrix Xen Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM. The default firmware is only certified with VMware ESX and Citrix.

The fact that Open-E's software is easy to set up and use is a big plus. You can install it directly to a NAS or boot into it from a CD or flash drive. In the case of our NAS device, even a DOM works really well. If your organization standardizes on Open-E's DSS, you can use hardware from many different vendors and run the same software on them, simplifying day-to-day management and tightening security at the same time. Open-E maintains a comprehensive knowledge base and offers several support levels. The company says its operating environment is continuously being enhanced and maintained. Moreover, a comprehensive list of drivers ensures that the sixth generation of Data Storage Software runs on almost any hardware. Our Thecus 8800PRO only encountered one compatibility issue: its LCD seemingly wasn't supported, remaining stuck on a boot message that reads “Self Test in progress..." 

Although the N8800PRO is fairly affordable, there's no doubt that it's intended for business environments with a server room and dedicated rack space. In that context, it, along with Open-E's DSS software, serves as an affordable vector into the world of professional-grade storage solutions. And support for volume groups makes it easy to set up a first NAS appliance or consolidate existing servers to optimize a company's storage infrastructure.

Open-E offers a free version of DSS V6 for IT managers interested in auditioning the software. It's called DSS 6.0 Lite. And although that build lacks iSCSI fail-over, 10 Gb Ethernet support, and is limited to 2 TB of storage, most of the full version's features are there and worth trying out.

Synology at Computex showed its DS3611xs, the 12-bay NAS DS3611xs that packs a Sandy Bridge processor at 3.1 GHz (we imagine a Core i3-2100), 2 GB of RAM (expandable to 8 GB). Four USB 2.0 ports, two InfiniBand ports and four Gigabit connections (or two 10 GbE).

The bay can accommodate 12 drives, 3 TB each, for a total of 36 terabytes. But if you need more space, you can connect up to two DX1211 expansion units, each with an additional 12 bays in order to reach a total capacity of over 100 terabytes.

These will start shipping in July, but you'd better have your checkbook ready as they're going to cost over $2000.

Qnap TS-x59 Pro+ Series: Incremental Improvements

For a long time, mass-produced network-attached storage devices have given our readers a mixed impression of what they can do (and why they cost so much, frankly).

The included software often only includes basic functions like network file sharing via SMB/CIFS protocols. Moreover, the data transfer rates for important tasks like writing file backups fall disappointingly in the low double-digit MB/s range. Performance is, to a great degree, dependent on the processor built into the device. And most of the time, those processors are pretty darned anemic.

That's one reason why NAS manufacturers tend to focus on other value adds. Over time, they optimize their respective firmwares, rework the hardware internals (while still abiding by strict thermal and power requirements), and equip them with as many convenience convenience-oriented features as possible. For instance, it's difficult to find a NAS device these days that doesn't function as a media server, as well as a data storage unit, delivering multimedia content via UPnP DLNA. Firmware with integrated Web serving capabilities, including a PHP interpreter and MySQL database, is equally widespread. And there are still other differentiators cropping up all over.

Bear in mind that most of the value-adds tacked onto each vendor's firmware is enabled by adequate processing power. While many devices use ARM- and PowerPC-based processors due to their efficiency (for example, the Synology DS408j, which is based on an 800 MHz Marvell Kirkwood 88F6281 ARM processor and ranked in the top third of our NAS Charts), a significant increase in performance is generally achieved by using Intel's Atom processors.

Historically, most NAS manufacturers used the Atom D510, which is equipped with two cores and runs at a clock speed of 1.66 GHz. This CPU was released in the first quarter of 2010. A further evolution of the Atom processor lineup was presented in the second quarter with the D525 model. This one has the same two cores and four threads (enabled by Hyper-Threading), but runs at 1.8 GHz. Not only does it support DDR2-667/800 memory, but it also accommodates DDR3-800 RAM. The benefit of higher clocks and faster memory support are reasons enough for appliance engineers to rework and refresh their products.

At the end of December 2010, Synology released its DS1511+, based on the Atom D525, while Thecus introduced the N4200 Pro, also using the 1.8 GHz processor. A third popular NAS vendor, Qnap, also has devices using the same generation of low-power processor. It released products ranging from two-bay to eight-bay products, all of them equipped with Intel’s Atom D525 processor, as indicated by the plus in this family's nomenclature.

We were curious whether the "+" would be represented by an increase in data transfer rates. Therefore, we asked for a test sample, which found its way to our lab in the form of a Qnap TS-559 Pro+. Our findings are summarized on the following pages.

Hardware And Pricing Details

We only recently had an opportunity to take a closer look at the sister model of the device reviewed in this article. The Qnap TS-559 Pro (without the +) scored well thanks to its quality workmanship, efficiency, reliability, and good data transfer rates. The drawback to fairly well-polished NAS devices is usually their price. The applied to the TS-559 Pro, and it again becomes a discussion point with Qnap's TS-559 Pro+. At launch, it sold for more than $1000, and a quick look online reveals prices that still exceed that four-figure sum. And that's without hard drives, which you'll still need to buy.

Been There, Done That: The Housing

If you're prepared to shell out serious cash for the TS-559 Pro+, you of course expect something in return: mainly, good performance, an attractive housing, and capable software. If you're familiar with this unit's predecessor, the Atom D525-equipped TS-559 Pro+ won't hit you with any visual surprises. As before, Qnap's TS-559 Pro+ is housed in a rugged steel case.

Familiar Layout At The Rear Of The Housing

To be perfectly clear, the TS-559 Pro+ uses the exact same same housing as its predecessor. The dimensions are identical (185 mm height x 210 mm width x 235 mm depth). The same can be said about the connections at the rear of the device. Qnap relies on its tried-and-tested configuration of four USB 2.0 ports, two SATA 3Gb/s interfaces, and two gigabit Ethernet ports. The VGA connection familiar to users of the TS-559 Pro is also available, attributable to the Atom D510 and the Atom D525's integrated graphics unit. That's a cost-saver, since it circumvents the need for a motherboard-down graphics solution. 

Ventilation of the TS-559 Pro+'s interior is achieved through a regulated 120 mm fan. A second, smaller fan transports waste heat from the integrated 220 W power supply.

Sticking With What Works

If you're hoping to find new features on the front of the devices, we have to disappoint you. As with the rear of the device, the design of the plastic-covered front is reminiscent of the TS-559 Pro. The new model also comes with a USB 2.0 port and a one-touch copy button. The power button at the lower-left is also in the same location as on the previous model. Ditto for the status, LAN, USB, and SATA LEDs, along with the LCD display and its Enter/Select button, which switches the information shown on the LCD and allows for basic input, such as IP address configuration.

Qnap's deliberate reproduction of the TS-559 Pro's exterior design indicates that the manufacturer intends only to refresh and not to overhaul the product line, as can also be seen with the lockable drive bays. These are also installed vertically into the TS-559 Pro+, following the design of the TS-559 Pro model. Accordingly, the solid disk tray accommodates not only 3.5" hard drives, but also 2.5" drives.

The Interior Is New

If you're looking for fresh features on the TS-559 Pro+, you have to look inside. As already mentioned, the Intel Atom D525 dual-core processor is new. The TS-x59 Pro series used the somewhat older Intel Atom D510 with its clock rate of 1.66 GHz, while the TS-x59 Pro+ series runs at 1.8 GHz thanks to the upgraded processor. A glance into the interior reveals that the TS-559 Pro+ uses the same DDR2 memory as its predecessor. Qnap doesn’t highlight this fact; the product description on its Web site speaks only of 1 GB of RAM, omitting to mention which type of RAM this is. To avoid creating false hopes, we would appreciate a little more transparency in this matter.

However, the question of whether DDR3 RAM would have had a significant effect on data transfer rates is an unresolved one. From a business standpoint, it is fully comprehensible that Qnap does not opt for DDR3, as it would have required a redesigned motherboard. Aside from the fact that DDR2 and DDR3 are supplied with different voltages, they are not pin-compatible. In the end, a new board may have resulted in a more substantial redesign of the NAS system, incurring development costs, which would have probably driven the device beyond its already-steep $1000+ price tag.

A Glance At The Software And Specifications

As with the housing, Qnap's software displays no weaknesses and demonstrates what a modern NAS device can do. A detailed discussion of its functionality is beyond the scope of this article, but we’ll provide a quick summary: the functions leave almost nothing to be desired. Experienced users should accomplish the rapid configuration through a Web browser in a few minutes.

For inexperienced users, the Web interface of a new TS-559 Pro+ presents an installation wizard that guides the user in six steps through the initial configuration. The name of the NAS server and the IP address are entered here along with indications of which network, file, multimedia, and Web server services are to be activated. The Qnap TS-559 Pro+ accommodates heterogeneous networks and supports access to AppleTalk and NFS via SMB/CIFS. Network users can access content over an iTunes or UPnP multimedia server and Web presence is enabled by the integrated LAMP servers (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). The decision whether or not to activate only the Apache server or the MySQL server is left to the user.

The firmware supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6, of which the latter two can be operated with a spare drive in a hot-swap configuration. For professionals and businesses, it is possible to integrate the Qnap TS-559 Pro+ with a network as an iSCSI device. The TS-559 Pro+ supports the virtualization solutions VMware vSphere (ESX/ESXi 4.0 and higher), Citrix XenServer (5.6), and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

If you want to test the administrative interface before buying the device, we recommend taking a look at the live demo provided by Qnap. There you can use your own data to try out the system prior to purchasing it, including the administration interface, the Web file manager, as well as the download and multimedia stations.

Brief overview of specifications

Test System And Power Consumption

Test Configuration

We used the default settings of the NAS device for our testing, meaning that we didn't use the jumbo frames setting. Each of the RAID arrays used the firmware-recommended sxt4 file system. For our tests, we used the firmware version 3.3.4 Build 1019T. Instead of the Samsung 320 GB HD321KJ hard drive with 16 MB cache found in past NAS tests, we transitioned over to the HD103SJ model with a capacity of 1000 GB and 32 MB cache.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We tested the NAS device with the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit.

Noise Level

As both the housing and the fan of the TS-559 Pro+ are identical to those of the TS-550 Pro, we don't have anything new to report about noise levels. The 120 mm fan runs quietly and unobtrusively. It would be inaccurate to describe its operation as completely silent, but the gentle hum of the fan in normal operating mode is hardly noticeable, and would be drowned out by many PCs on the market.

Unfortunately, the vibrations of the hard drive in both the TS-559 Pro and the TS-559 Pro+ make an annoying rumble. A gentle pressure on the HDD bays is required to quiet the noise.

Power Consumption

Benchmark Results: Multimedia

For a better overview, we summarize the results sorted by RAID modes. For the purposes of comparison, we include the Synology DS1010+ in our charts, which we ran with firmware version 3.0.

In a direct comparison to its predecessor, the 1.66 GHz Intel Atom D510-equipped TS-559 Pro, the 1.8 GHz TS-559 Pro+ demonstrates an increase of just under 5 MB/s. In the other RAID modes, our testing also returns elevated data transfer values. However, as these range from 0.6 and 3.8 MB/s, they are not significant compared to the overall transfer rate.

More distinct differences are observable when looking at sequential reads. In RAID modes 0, 1, and 5, the speed increases by about 5 MB/s due to the higher processor clock speed. In the RAID 6 configuration we noted an increase of almost 17 MB/s. Apparently, the faster processor has more of an impact at double redundancy.

When transferring many small files ranging from four bytes to 102 KB, we see that the "+" model consistently delivers higher transfer rates than the Atom D510-equipped model. The increases were between 1.1 MB/s (RAID 1) and 2.7 MB/s (RAID 5) and are therefore not at all significant.

More benchmark results can be found in our image gallery.

Benchmark Results: Office

The results for our simulated system backup in a single container file benchmark are similar to those seen in the multimedia benchmarks. Here, too, the transfer rate increase is barely noticeable. Only RAID 6 shows a notable result: there is a transfer rate increase of 8.1 MB/s.

As with the HD video playback benchmark, a noticeable increase in speed occurs in RAID 6 here, with a bump of 15.2 MB/s. The difference between the TS-559 Pro and the TS-559 Pro+ is slightly higher in RAID 0, providing 16.5 MB/s better throughput.

Significant differences between the Qnap TS-559 Pro and the TS-559 Pro+ are not to be found with regard to office files. The influence of the Intel Atom D525 processor in Qnap TS-559 Pro+ mode is limited to increased performance of only 0.2 to 0.7 MB/s. When seen through the lens of a margin of error, the difference between the two devices in this discipline is essentially zero.

More benchmark results can be found in our image gallery.

Conclusion: Higher Speed, Higher Throughput

The Device

In renewing its TS-x59 series and specifically the TS-559 Pro, it was easy for Qnap to avoid mistakes. Take the quality casing and the interior of the previous series, add a mature and proven firmware, and exchange the processor for a newer model running 133 MHz faster. The move is of course evolutionary in nature, and it's a fairly logical step forward. From Qnap's perspective, simply adopting a new processor makes sense; it didn't incur any development costs, and the existing firmware is ambivalent to whether its commands are executed by an Atom D510 or an Atom D525 running slightly quicker. 

The Processor

The remaining question is precisely how much of a benefit is offered by the Intel Atom D525 dual-core processor. Considering the 133 MHz clock speed increase on the TS-559 Pro+, the boost to data transfer rates seems rather low. Quantifiably-higher transfer rates are mainly achieved in RAID 6 operation and where the transfer of data happens sequentially. But if a TS-559 Pro+ replaces a TS-559 Pro in a real-world environment, we'd bet that the difference wouldn't be noticed. Whether or not the processor makes itself evident depends on the application and user profiles; it's too small of a change to impress, though.

Recommendation

Currently, the TS-559 Pro and the faster TS-559 Pro+ are listed on Qnap's Web site. Both devices are also available from online vendors, and a closer look reveals a price difference of about $100 between the two.

Already priced up around $1000 without storage, these five-bay units are expensive. Near-term, users who've been toying with the idea of buying a TS-559 Pro will want to weigh the lower price with slightly lower performance in certain situations. Long-term, though, the TS-559 Pro will likely disappear (it was already deactivated on Newegg's site), only leaving the newer unit. It's 1.8 GHz processor doesn't offer any speed miracles on Windows networks, but a higher clock is always welcome, especially when it comes to the little Atom CPU.

Atom D510 And Encryption

Once you start getting into higher-end networked storage devices for SMBs, you often see value-added features like the ability to encrypt stored data to improve security. There are different ways to achieve this, which depend on the vendor. Some employ encryption at the partition level, while others encrypt at the file level.

Since these features generate a lot of interest from professional users concerned about protecting sensitive information, we decided to take a closer look at the encryption capabilities of several NAS devices: the TS-459 Pro by Qnap, Synology’s DS1010+ Synology, and Thecus' N4200.

Acceleration Through a Dedicated Cryptography Unit?

The NAS devices in this roundup all use the symmetric-key encryption AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key length of 256 bits. The encryption standard is generally considered very safe and is used industry-wide, as well as by authorities in various fields (it is approved by the U.S. government for encrypting documents, for example). It is not uncommon for USB flash drives or hard drives to employ AES, and because of the high computational cost of data encryption, these often come with dedicated encryption/decryption processors, greatly accelerating the cryptography process.

Intel’s addition AES-NI to its 32 nm Clarkdale-based Core i5 desktop CPUs, six-core Gulftown processors, and second-gen Core i5 and Core i7 chips impressively demonstrates how much dedicated acceleration hardware can increase the speed of the encryption/decryption process. More information about this can be found in the article AES-NI Performance Analyzed; Limited To 32 nm Core i5 CPUs.

Inevitable Performance Degradation Through Intel’s Atom?

Unfortunately, none of the tested devices from Synology, Thecus, or Qnap have a dedicated hardware cryptography unit for encrypting/decrypting data, revealing a huge potential drawback of data encryption directly on the network storage device. As a result, if you actually plan to use encryption, that functionality must be handled by the NAS device's host processor. In all three of our test cases, that's a meager Intel Atom D510, which of course lacks the AES-NI support that'd be needed to accelerate encryption in hardware.

The dual-core Atom processor is also tasked with handling XOR operations for the NAS devices’ RAID arrays. It is partly responsible for the data transfer rates of 100 MB/s and more (in gigabit Ethernet networks). Its network performance suffers once you apply the additional demands of compute-intensive cryptographic calculations, though. Just how much network performance do you lose when you trade throughput for security? Let's find out!

Thecus N4200

Thecus positions the N4200 as a business solution for small- to medium-sized companies, and it costs around $660. Customers can equip the NAS with up to four hard drives, and then apply RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, or 10. You can also integrate the N4200 using iSCSI. Again, it comes with a dual-core Intel Atom D510 processor and 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM.

Encryption Setup

The encryption setup is easily accessible via Thecus' Web interface, similar to the other two devices we're testing. When creating a RAID array, you can enable the encryption option. After the array built, its storage space is completely encrypted via a partition-level approach. The encryption password can be any string consisting of anywhere from one to sixteen characters.

Here's another interesting detail: you need an external drive connected to one of the N4200's USB ports when you create an encrypted partition on Thecus' NAS. This is just one more hassle, of course, but it's all in the name of security. For practical reasons, you'll probably want to use a thumb drive, on which key to decrypt data stored on the partition is stored.

Restart with the USB Drive

Once the encryption process is complete, the USB drive can be removed. Thecus recommends that you make a copy of the key and keep both the USB drive and the file in a safe place.

The USB drive is also required whenever you migrate or expand the RAID configuration. Once you're done with it, put it back in its safe place.

When creating the RAID configuration, you must select the option “Encryption” and enter a password in order to use the feature.

When creating an encrypted partition, Thecus notifies you of the fact that a USB drive is required and that this drive should be kept at a safe location. The dialog window does not mention that encryption might slow down data throughput, but the PDF manual does.

A password must be entered if the encryption mode is selected, and the encryption/decryption key file is generated based on what you enter.

A padlock icon indicates that the partition is encrypted when the operation is successfully completed.

Be careful: if the NAS is started without the USB drive, it does not indicate that there are any RAID configurations available.

The key files required for encryption/decryption are stored on an external drive that should be kept at a safe location, protected from unauthorized access.

Qnap TS-459 Pro

The Qnap TS-459 Pro also comes with a dual-core Intel Atom D510 CPU, 1 GB DDR2-RAM, iSCSI functionality, and four hard drive bays that can be used in the RAID modes 0, 1, 5, and 6. The NAS device offers good sequential data transfer rates of about 100 MB/s under normal operation, depending a bit on the RAID mode.

Encryption: Password or Key File

Just like the Thecus device, Qnap also uses partition-level encryption using standard tools like Linux dm-crypt and cryptsetup. You do not have to rely on the command prompt to set it up though, as this can be done easily via the Web-based interface. You cannot enable encryption for existing RAID partitions; it has to be done at the time of creation.

The setup process is rather similar to activating encryption on the Thecus NAS.

You have to activate the encryption feature and select a password when creating a RAID array with encryption enabled. The option “Save Encryption Key” saves the password on the NAS device, which means that the encrypted partition will be automatically opened and integrated into the system configuration after rebooting. Anyone who recognizes the potential vulnerability in this can disable the option and instead unlock the encrypted partition by entering the password manually in the Web administration interface after rebooting the NAS.

The Qnap NAS device requires a password between eight and sixteen characters.

We also get the usual warning that confirming the action will erase all data on the hard drives.

After the encrypted RAID array has been created, changes to the encryption configuration can be made through the menu item “Encrypted File System.” It is possible to delete a stored key from the configuration or to change the password of an encrypted RAID array.

If the encryption password is not saved, it must be input manually via the Web interface, or you can use a key file instead.

Synology DS1010+

The Synology DS1010+ also comes with a dual-core Intel Atom D510 and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. But unlike the devices from Qnap and Thecus, it encrypts data at a file level, instead of at a partition level. This is implemented via eCryptfs, which is rather similar to the popular TrueCrypt software. It creates a container that can grow or shrink in size dynamically as needed. The data stored in these container files is individually encrypted, while the information used to decrypt the files is stored in the unencrypted file header. In the following screenshots, we can see just how such a container is created, and what information from the encrypted file in it can be displayed directly in the Linux console.

Since Synology uses eCryptfs, the RAID arrays have to be configured and ready to go before enabling encryption. Setting up the encryption can be done when configuring file or folder sharing.

When sharing a folder there is a menu item in the Web interface called “Encrypt this shared folder.” This also requires the user to enter a password string that the encryption is based upon, and it has to be at least eight characters long.

If the menu item “Mount automatically on startup” is selected, the password is saved on the NAS device. This option allows you to automatically mount the encrypted folder after rebooting the device. But just like with the Qnap NAS, you should not use this feature if you are concerned about security (and if you're enabling encryption, there's a fair chance that you are).

Again, we receive a dialog box warning the user to store the key in a safe place, as the data cannot be decrypted without it. It also says that there might be a performance impact as a result of the encryption, and that the folder will not be available via NFS.

After confirming the operation, the encrypted folder is available just a few seconds later and the download of the key file that was generated from the password you entered is automatically accessed.

If you choose not to store the encryption password on the NAS, you can still access the encrypted folders after rebooting. This can be done either by entering the password via the Web interface or by using the downloaded key file.

If the encrypted folders are not mounted via eCryptfs, you just see a list of unintelligible letters and numbers when displaying the drive contents in the Linux console. After mounting them using the password, they are displayed as usual.

Test System And Details

The NAS servers in this story from Thecus, Synology, and Qnap are all equipped with the same core components: a dual-core Intel Atom D510 CPU and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. The Synology DS1010+ does come with five drive bays, setting it apart a bit.

After taking a look at the first results, we decided not to run the benchmarks using all the available RAID modes like we usually do, and the reason for that is shown on the next page.

Test Configuration

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit 

We tested the NAS devices using the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. 

The NAS firmware versions used in the tests were as follows:

• Thecus N4200: 3.00.12
• Qnap TS-459 Pro: 323 (0209T)
• Synology DS1010+: 2.3-1161

Benchmark Results: Multimedia

More Benchmark Results Can Be Found In the Picture Gallery.

All the NAS servers deliver solid performance in the data transfer rate benchmarks when configured with standard, non-encrypted partitions/folders. The units from Qnap and Synology even achieve data transfer rates of more than 100 MB/s when recording a video file. 

It is rather remarkable that, while the performance is almost equal with encryption enabled, the difference is immense with it gets turned off, particularly when you compare the devices from Synology and Qnap.

Overall, the performance hit attributable to encrypting your network-attached storage device is massive, leaving just about a fifth of the normal data transfer rates. And, it makes no difference whether the encryption is at a partition or at a file level.

The same thing can be seen during the “HD Video Playback” test. While the data transfer rates differ when the drives are not encrypted, the performance is approximately the same when it's turned on. 

When transferring small files from the NAS, the difference is not quite that huge. But still, performance drops of 50% or more are to be expected when enabling encryption.

Benchmark Results: Office

More Benchmark Results Can Be Found In the Picture Gallery.

The test results from the backup tests are just as disappointing as those from the “HD Video Record” benchmark. Performance losses of up to 80% just cannot be ignored. Again, it is striking how similar the performance is between the NAS devices when encryption is enabled.

The situation is similar in the other tests, though the Thecus N4200 is a little bit faster than its competitors. Only the 29.6 MB/s in the “Office Productivity” test in RAID 1 with encryption activated stands out a bit, and we do not know why. We considered blaming the test setup, but after closely reviewing the test settings and the equipment, as well as running the tests several times, we decided to exclude that.

Conclusion

The NAS servers used in this test are all designed for commercial or semi-professional environments, which to some extent is reflected in their lofty prices. The Thecus N4200 is about $670, while the Synology DS1010+ and Qnap TS-459 Pro cost a bit more.

That's quite a hefty sum to pay for a diskless enclosure that you still need to populate with storage. In many cases, that raises expectations, and you naturally assume data stored on the NAS server really is safe. Similarly, you also expect that, even if a hard drive in the server's array fails, you'll still be able to rebuild the configuration and keep that data available. All three NAS servers offer a variety of RAID modes and backup capabilities that really can prevent data loss when they're applied sensibly.

Data Loss Due To Theft

Data can, however, be lost in ways other than a drive dying. How about if a disk from a RAID 1 array gets stolen? What about the entire NAS unit (these things aren't exactly heavy)? That's not a far-fetched scenario, especially if your networked storage is installed in a high-traffic environment like a retail store or doctor’s office. It's nice that all of the NAS servers in this test can be chained down using a Kensington lock. But lightweight physical security might not be much of a challenge to a prepared thief.

Thecus and Qnap also equip their products (the N4200 and TS-459 Pro) with lockable drive trays. This means that even the bravest jerk with a well-placed screwdriver should be unable to get away with a hard drive without damaging its housing. Conversely, the hard drives in Synology's DS1010+ could even be stolen on the fly, though, since it does not have any lockable drive bays.

Encryption Protects Against Prying Eyes…

If you're going to the trouble of protected the NAS device and hard drives from physical theft, the surest way of safeguarding the data from unscrupulous eyes is to encrypt disk contents. The manufacturers make use of a tool that has been known by all die-hard Linux users for years, meaning that it is already quite common out there, and has seen a lot of use in practice. Thecus and Qnap apply their encryption to the entire partition, while Synology allows its users to encrypt only specific folders.

…At the Cost of Performance

Performance-wise, the tested products are not that different. A lack of encryption acceleration means that enabling the feature absolutely destroys performance on all three units.

The default data transfer rates of the three candidates are on a similar level in many benchmarks, although the Thecus N4200 shows slightly better results than the competition. Nevertheless, it must be said that the encryption performance leaves a lot of room for improvement. The implementation of a dedicated hardware cryptography unit would affect the data transfer rates very positively. Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 offers modest performance in everyday use, but for this type of encryption task, it is simply underwhelming, in turn affecting the data transfer rates. Maybe AES-NI has value in the embedded market; hopefully Intel has something planned there.

Use and Flexibility

When it comes to using encryption, Thecus employs the most complex implementation. In order to unlock an encrypted partition, the N4200 requires an external drive to be connected, which is then removed during operation and stored in a safe place.

Qnap’s approach to handling the encrypted partitions is also solid, and there is no reason to complain. Synology offers the most flexible single-folder encryption solution. While encryption has to be configured in advance on the NAS servers from Thecus and Qnap (which then becomes a permanent change to the partition), the encrypted database on Synology's DS1010+ can grow or shrink dynamically. The advantage here is that the most sensitive folders can be selectively encrypted without much effort, while other shared files or folders remain unaffected by the performance impact caused by the encryption. Also, existing files or folders can be encrypted at a later time, and not just when they're created.

If you are concerned about security, there is one thing that you absolutely should not do with these three NAS devices, and that is to store the password string required to decrypt the partitions or files on the NAS itself. Security always comes at the cost of some effort, but you should absolutely choose to manually enter the password to gain access to the encrypted partition or file after rebooting the NAS. That shouldn't happen very often anyway.

Build Your Own NAS

Even a few years ago, enabling easily-accessible storage space on your home network was a cumbersome exercise. The simplest way to go was probably taking old, leftover hardware and building a minimalistic server with sufficient storage capacity and using some preferred flavor of Linux as the OS.

With this being the case, Samba, the open source interoperability suite that adds Microsoft’s Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, was needed for Windows computers to be able to access the server. Luckily, those days are over. Today you can buy ready-made NAS servers that satisfy the needs of the home office (or even small companies). Some come with storage built-in; others give you the opportunity to pick your favorite hard drives.

NAS Devices for the End User

For a while now, storage companies like LaCie, Promise, QNAP, Synology, Thecus, Western Digital, and even Intel have been offering network attached storage devices that are easy to configure, targeting small home and office audiences discussed above. Those NAS boxes are enjoying increasing popularity, since they offer users the simplest way to provide storage space on the home network (and despite the fact that many enthusiasts would prefer to roll their own storage box). Again, the majority of these devices employ some flavor of Linux, but rather than forcing users to enter cryptic commands on the command line, they offer a comfortable Web-based interface that can be configured through a GUI.

Simple, Easy to Use, and Fully-Loaded

The majority of NAS devices are much more than just a networked location used to dump your data. Thanks to the modular nature of Linux as an operating system, which makes adding functionality quite simple, the current crop of appliances also doubles as print, Web, DLNA, and iTunes servers. Actually, the only thing holding back the inclusion of even more features is the fact that testing and validation takes such a long time, and no company is especially keen on releasing a half-baked product.

Choosing the Hard Drive: Performance or Efficiency?

NAS boxes might share very similar feature sets, but when it comes to hard drive options, their manufacturers go in distinctly different directions. On the one hand, there are units that come pre-equipped with hard drives and are thus ready to use right out of the box. On the other hand, you find models that follow the BYOD philosophy; build your own device.

This second class of storage products lets users choose the hard drives themselves. The upside to this is that you can also think about what you’re looking for in a drive (aside from capacity, of course). In general, a drive’s efficiency should rate higher than its performance. This may sound counter-intuitive. After all, higher performance is always better, right? Well, almost. In most cases, it’s not the drives that bottleneck performance. Rather, it is the NAS device itself.

That’s why we found ourselves wondering about the sort of difference we'd see if we equipped a NAS with energy efficient drives rather than fast spinning models. Samsung kindly provided the drives for our little experiment. Representing the eco-friendlier option, we have the Spinpoint F2 Eco Green with a capacity of 1TB spinning at 5,400 RPM, while the T166 drive with a spindle speed of 7,200 RPM and 320GB of storage space represents the speedier alternative. A Synology NAS server with four drive bays serves as our test bed.

The Test Bed: Synology DS409+

For this experiment in NAS efficiency, we chose Synology’s  DS409+ as our testbed. It comes equipped with 512MB of RAM, a Freescale MPC8533 CPU running at 1.06 GHz, and four drive bays. However, rather than using removable trays, the hard drives have to be installed directly in the drive cage. Two rear-mounted 80mm fans ensure that both the NAS itself and all of the drives mounted inside receive sufficient cooling.

Keeping Data Safe with RAID

Like all current NAS devices, the DS409+ features a Web-based administration interface. Here, you can select various RAID modes (namely 0, 1, 5, and 6) to increase performance, data security, or both. Additionally, other features that go beyond the basic task of providing data on a network via SMB are configured here as well.

A Multimedia and Download Server for the Home Network

On the multimedia front, these include a photo and media server that can show or play back images or audio and video files within the Web interface. There is also an integrated DLNA server (Digital Living Network Alliance) that can stream multimedia content from the NAS to other DLNA-compliant devices on the network. Finally, most current-generation NAS units can also act as a download station, supporting the most widely used protocols, such as http, https, ftp and BitTorrent.

E-Mail, Blog and CMS with your NAS

Many of the better-equipped models also offer Internet enthusiasts the option of extending their feature sets quite a bit. For example, it’s possible to equip a NAS device with an MTA (mail transfer agent), turning what was previously only your local data haven into a full-fledged mail server. Or how about this: install a MySQL server and use your NAS as the basis for your PHP-based blog or a CMS (content management system) for your Web page. At that point, you’ll be venturing back into command line territory again, though.

Drive Choice: Performance Or Eco? Spinpoint T166 Vs. F2EG

The Performance Option: Samsung Spinpoint T166 (HD321KJ)

We’ve been using Samsung’s Spinpoint T166 (HD321KJ) drives in our NAS tests for a while now. Originally, we picked this model because it offered high data transfer rates (for its time) while remaining affordable. Their capacity of only 320GB (definitely modest by current standards) actually works in our favor today, as it helps keep the time for some of our tests down. Besides, a higher capacity also means longer build times when initializing a RAID array. Believe us, waiting 24 hours for a terabyte of RAID storage to finish a build is about as much fun as watching the proverbial paint dry.

But let’s get back to the drive. Like all SATA/300 drives, Samsung’s HD321KJ supports both native command queuing (NCQ) and hot-swapping. It spins at 7,200 RPM and sports 16MB of cache as a buffer. To reach its nominal capacity, it employs two platters of 167GB each.

Peak data throughput comes in at 83 MB/s, although the hard disk performance benchmark h2benchw measured about 64 MB/s for both reads and writes. For reference, current 3.5” desktop drives can push about 120 MB/s. On the other hand, the RAID configurations found in most modern NAS servers are limited more by their processor than the hard drives, so even slower drives don’t usually become a bottleneck.

In the context of this comparison, the Spinpoint T166 is also a good reference point for users looking to upgrade an older NAS with newer drives. Aside from the obvious benefit of providing much more capacity, newer drives also tend to consume less energy.

The Eco Option: Samsung Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen (HD103SI)

Our other drives were also provided by Samsung. We opted for the Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen (HD103SI). Like the HD321KJ, this terabyte drive is built using two platters, each of which can store 500GB of data. Unlike the T166, the F2 EcoGreen is a current-generation drive, meaning that there are also some other notable differences.

Like its older sibling, Samsung’s HD103SI supports NCQ and uses the SATA/300 interface. However, the newer model sports 32MB of cache, twice as much as the T166.

At the same time, Samsung has dropped the spindle speed from 7,200 RPM to only 5,400 RPM in order to achieve the drive’s ambitions where low power consumption is concerned. Nonetheless, the drive achieves sequential read and write speeds of around 84 MB/s, while its maximum throughput comes in at over 100 MB/s. That’s not bad at all, considering the comparatively low spindle speed.

A Look at the Hard Drives

Pros And Cons Of Going Green?

Reasons to go Green

As you can see in the table on the previous page, the newer Samsung HD103SI draws about three watts less power than the older HD321KJ. While this is partly due to the slower rotation speed of its 5,400 RPM spindle, other technological advances in hard drive manufacturing also contribute to the lower power consumption.

When a computer or NAS is equipped with a single hard drive, a power consumption difference of only three watts is negligible. However, that should be the exception for NAS devices. Loaded with the four drives our testbed system can house, the difference jumps into the two-figure range. And that can definitely make a difference when the time comes to pay your electric bill. A welcome side effect is that the NAS stays cooler as well, which also means that the unit runs quieter since its fans can spin more slowly.

Those worried about having to pay a premium for a more eco-friendly hard drive model can relax, as disks with a spindle speed of “only” 5,400 RPM tend to be slightly less expensive than faster drives aimed at the performance segment.

Does Eco mean Lower Performance?

But what about performance? Is there a penalty for using an eco-friendly drive in a NAS device? As mentioned above, when we take a look at the components that make up a typical NAS, we find that the hard drives are not actually the bottleneck. Rather, it’s often the NAS’ RAID engine.

To keep their appliance's prices at an affordable level, manufacturers often forego the inclusion of a dedicated processor for this task, instead letting the NAS’ host processor handle the burden of XOR calculations required for RAID levels 5 and 6. On the downside, this method is much less efficient than having a dedicated RAID chip. As a result, data throughput is highly dependent on the processor that a NAS uses.

Test Setup And Results

As in our previous NAS tests, all measurements were taken with jumbo frames disabled in our Gigabit Ethernet LAN. Our NAS used firmware version DSM 2.1-0844 for all benchmarks.

You can find additional Benchmark graphs in our Image Gallery.

There is hardly a difference between the drive models where write speeds are concerned.

Aside from its lower power consumption and heat dissipation, Samsung’s newer drive, the Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen HD103SI, enjoys other benefits as well. For example, despite its lower spindle speed, it can read data faster than its older sibling, the Spinpoint T166 HD321KJ.

Comparing Temperatures And Power Consumption

To compare power consumption, we looked at the entire system, equipping our Synology DS409+ with four Samsung HD321KJ (320GB T166) or four Samsung HD103SI (1TB F2 EcoGreen) drives. Then, we measured power consumption at the wall socket while the NAS was initializing a RAID 5, when the unit was idle and once more with the hard drives powered down.

Depending on the test, the power consumption of the four 7,200 RPM drives and the four eco drives differs by between 7 and 10 watts for the entire system. Depending on how long you stick with one configuration, that can amount to somewhere between 60 and 86 KWh over the years. 

Of course, that alone hardly justifies a hard drive upgrade. However, it is a factor to bear in mind when building a new NAS. The same goes for a drive upgrade to increase a NAS’ capacity. It’s actually a no-brainer, since the newer green drives aren’t only more energy efficient than the older ones, but faster as well.

Finally, the eco drives also produce less heat. Compared to their faster-spinning siblings, we found them to run between four and six degrees Celsius cooler.

Conclusion

When buying a BYOD NAS device or upgrading an existing NAS server with newer drives, users have to choose which hard drives are the best for their purposes. Indeed, buyers have a vast selection of choices where capacity is concerned, with modern drives ranging from 160GB to two terabytes per drive. However, with energy costs continually rising, it makes sense to keep a drive’s efficiency in mind, especially for NAS devices that house several drives.

Data Throughput is Limited by the RAID Engine

Our comparison showed that the difference in write performance between faster and slower spinning hard drives is minimal to nonexistent when they are used in a NAS. Instead, the NAS’ RAID engine becomes the limiting factor. Even when reading, drives with a spindle speed of 7,200 RPM aren’t necessarily faster. Indeed, our test bed achieved better read performance when it was equipped with the slower-spinning eco drives, since Samsung’s newer HD103SI achieves a better average data transfer rate than the HD321KJ to which we compared it.

Lower Power Consumption and Less Heat

Higher read rates aren’t the only advantage to an energy efficient upgrade, though. The system’s overall power consumption also drops because 5,400 RPM drives draw less power than their 7,200 RPM siblings. A welcome side effect of this is that the eco drives also produce less heat, meaning your NAS can run cooler and, since its fans can operate more slowly, and quieter to boot.

Check for Compatibility

Despite all of their advantages, there is one caveat when it comes to using energy-efficient drives in a NAS. Before you buy the drives of your choice, make sure to check your NAS’ hard drive compatibility list. After all, not all disks, regardless of spindle speed, may be compatible with your device. Some of the drive’s features may not be supported. If, for example, HDD Sleep Mode is ignored, the drives never spin down and the power consumption advantage of the eco models would go to waste.

Functionality Over Performance?

The Synology Disk Station DS207+ looks a lot like any number of other network attached storage (NAS) devices. You connect it to a data network and save files on it, across as many as two hard drives. Like many new NAS devices designed for the home and small businesses, the DS207+ also comes with some additional functions that turn it into a home server.

Don’t underestimate the utility tied to centralizing data. By collecting information from individual workstations onto one RAID-protected repository, you drastically reduce the risk of losing important files in the event of a crash.

Synology’s solution under the microscope today provides obligatory UPnP support, iTunes server functionality, and a number of user administration options—admittedly, nothing special so far. In order to stand out from the crowd, Synology significantly extends the device’s capabilities. We did raise one question in response, though: does network performance suffer as a result of a device like this with lots of usability-oriented bells and whistles?

Classical File Server Or NAS Device?

When it comes to delivering hardware able to serve up large quantities of data for several networked users, your choices are at least somewhat limited. There’s the ever-popular classical file server based on an aging Intel or AMD system running Windows or Linux. Of course, going this route requires that you know how to set up a RAID controller, install a server operating system, and set up Linux services like Samba. On top of that, you also have to consider the effort involved in installing updates for the operating system.

We’re well aware that this is the direction many enthusiasts will go. But for users who need a reliable storage solution ready to go, right out of the box, rolling your own dependable NAS can be a time-consuming proposition. If you’re looking to recycle old hardware, though, by all means, recycle away. But don’t write off the convenience of a purpose-built NAS, either.

User-Friendliness

This is where NAS devices come into play. They are usually easy to use and don’t require a lot of knowledge about either storage or networks. The configuration is usually achieved through a Web-based interface, which can also be used to load necessary scripts. The user doesn’t have to touch the underlying operating system or deal with configuring the RAID array. There is usually an wizard of some sort that even helps you with the setup, explaining the benefits and compromises of features like RAID 1 and 0. Synology follows the tenets of ease-of-use with it’s own Web-based interface, the "Disk Station Manager.”

Configuration and Operating Cost

NAS devices differ in more than just their usability. Another important aspect to consider is the number of hard drives you can add to your appliance of choice. This is especially crucial if you want to run your hard drives in a RAID configuration. Of course, NAS devices with two hard drives can only support RAID modes 0 and 1.

Which RAID Modes Do Home Users Need ?

In a RAID 1 configuration, the data from one hard drive is mirrored onto the other in real time, so it won’t be an issue of information loss should one of the hard drives die, as long as you replace it in a timely fashion. In RAID 0 mode, both physical hard drives are combined into one logical hard drive with data split up and distributed over the hard drives. The advantage of this is that read and write processes can be executed more quickly, but if either hard drive dies, all of your data is lost.

If You Want It Done Right, Do It Yourself

The DS207+ from Synology supports two hard drives, which can be operated in the aforementioned RAID 0 and 1 modes. But as opposed to the previously-introduced Maxtor Shared Storage II, the customer has to perform the configuration manually before the device is ready to use.

The DS207+ goes by the BYOD (bring your own drives) principle, costing about $329 without its own disks installed. This can be an advantage if you have unused hard drives laying around and you want to keep using them in a NAS device. But even if not, high-capacity storage is uber cheap right now, so you can add a pair of terabyte disks for right around $200 more. The maximum hard drive capacity that the DS207+ can handle is 2 TB, naturally.

Power Consumption

In times of rising energy prices, operating cost becomes an important criterion. The amount of power that the DS207+ uses is low in comparison to full-size file servers: 33 watts during operation and 28 watts in idle mode. In sleep mode, with the hard drives turned off entirely, power consumption drops to just 11 watts.

Running the DS207+ 365 days a year, 24 hours a day (and assuming an average power consumption of 20 watts), the operating cost adds up to just under $45 for the entire year.

Build Quality and Accessories

The white plastic housing of the Synology DS207+ is solid and well-constructed, and the front of the housing is well-organized. LEDs inform you of the operating state of the hard drives, network activity, and the status of the Disk Station DS207+ itself. In addition to the On/Off button there is also a USB port and eSATA port on the front. Data from a USB storage media can be copied directly onto the Disk Station by using the "USB Copy” button on the front.

More USB Ports

There are two more USB ports on the back panel of the DS207+. The unit supports USB storage mediums formatted with the FAT and NTFS file systems. It also supports USB printers and connections to UPS devices. It naturally attaches to the network via Gigabit Ethernet port. There is a reset button on the back too, as well as a notch in the housing for a Kensington lock. The 60 mm fan generates air circulation to help cool the housing.

The DS207+ comes with an external power supply, which provides a maximum of 5.8 amps at 12 V.

Accessories

The Synology DS207+ doesn’t have hard drive racks, so the drives must be mounted directly to the device. This means a larger number of accessories compared to other NAS devices that do have mobile hard drive racks. In addition to the external power supply with power cord, you’ll find two SATA power and data cables, as well screws for mounting the hard drives. Also included are installation and quick-start manuals, a software CD, and an RJ-45 Ethernet cable.

Installation Of Hard Drives

After opening the housing, the hard drives can be mounted to the metal mount. A detailed installation manual explains where the different cables must be connected to the motherboard. Even users with a little bit of hardware experience can easily install the hard drives.

There is one significant disadvantage to not having hard drive racks—the NAS device must be turned off if a hard drive has to be replaced. This means there will be times when your data is not accessible.

SATA Controller and CPU from Marvell

Inside the Disk Station there is a Marvell 88F5281 processor, which is based on the ARM architecture. The CPU is clocked at 500 MHz and complemented by 128 MB of main memory. The thermal power loss of the CPU is so low that it doesn’t even need a passive cooler, which eliminates potential noise from an additional fan. The 88SX7042 PCIe-to-Serial ATA controller is also from Marvell, and is used on the RocketRAID 2300 PCI Express RAID controller from Highpoint as well.

Web Interface And Test Setup

Installing Firmware

After installing the hard drives, you will have to install the NAS device firmware using "Synology Assistant," which is included on the accompanying CD. In order to get the firmware onto the device, you must install the software onto a PC and connect the Synology DS-207+ to the network. After starting the software, an assistant guides you through the installation of the firmware. This only takes a couple of minutes, after which the NAS device is ready to be configured. The Web interface used for setup can be accessed via port 5000. Current firmware versions can be downloaded from the Synology Web page.

Disk Station Manager

Synology has done a good job of developing the "Disk Station Manager" firmware, which is also used on more expensive NAS devices such as the Synology Disk Station DS408. The entire Web interface is based on the AJAX technology, a well-known part of Web 2.0 applications.

The menu structure is well thought out, and users who have never configured a NAS device before will easily find their way through it—all configuration options are directly accessible without complicated sub-menus. When configuring for the first time, you can also get help from several wizards.

Data Storage, Web Server, Blog And More

Besides using the DS207+ for data storage on your network, you can also use it as a Web server. Synology has thrown in a full-strength Apache server, including PHP support. It comes with a MySQL server.

The integrated "Photo Station" function enables you to publish photos and comments. If this is turned on, you can access a full-sized blog and picture administrator through the Web interface, with the ability to create user accounts and manage user privileges.

You can also access files that are stored on the Disk Station DS207+ via Web browser, using the "File Station" function. Access is controlled by entering a user name and password, which must be created in the administrator’s menu first. All services offered can also be accessed over an encrypted HTTPS connection.

Backing Up Local Computers

In order to back up data from a computer on the local network, the DS207+ not only includes its own backup program—Synology Data Replicator 3—but also several other well-known products, such as Acronis True Image, Symantec Backup Exec, and EMC Retrospect.

You can view more images in our Picture Gallery

Test Configuration

Like most new NAS devices, the DS207+ also supports jumbo frames, but we didn’t use them in our benchmarks. The benchmarks were performed on our reference platform. You can find details of the hardware configurations in the following tables:

The firmware version was DSM 2.0-0640.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We tested the Synology DS207+ with the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. You can find a more detailed description of the benchmark in the article Benchmarking With Intel’s NAS Toolkit.

Benchmark Results

You can find more test results in our Picture Gallery

Benchmark Results, Continued

You can find more test results in our Picture Gallery

Looking at the benchmark results, the DS207+’s hardware, with its 500 MHz CPU and 128 MB of main memory, is good enough to get the job done. The data transfer rates are at least as good as those of significantly more expensive devices, such as the Promise Smartstor NS4300N and the Qnap TS409 Pro. The performance drops when working with a lot of small files, like photos and office documents, but given the high functionality of this unit, that is acceptable.

Conclusion

Not everyone will like having to use screws instead of mobile hard drive racks in the NAS device housing. If one hard drive fails, the NAS device has to be turned off to switch out the hard drive, which makes interruptions in providing data for the network unavoidable.

Yet, in an environment where providing data continuously is not essential—like a home network—the DS207+ is a good alternative to comparable devices from Synology’s competitors. The Disk Station DS207+ offers good data transfer rates for its class, while details like the eSATA ports, an integrated Web server, blog function, iTunes server support, and a media server are a great value in this price class. Don’t forget support from the manufacturer, too: Synology continuously works on improving the "Disk Station Manager" firmware and adding new functions to it.

Synology DS207+

The Synology DS207+ is a NAS device that is especially well-suited for home use. The support for two hard drives with a total capacity of 2 terabytes, and RAID modes 0 and 1, is more than enough for most home users. In addition, you get a nice Web-based interface, all for a low initial cost. If you’re thinking about buying a NAS device, you should definitely consider the DS207+.

• Advantages
• Disadvantages

• Low power consumptionVery good Web interfaceGood data transfer rates
• No racks for hard drivesHard drive connectors are more difficult to set upPlastic housing

Introduction

The need for storage space used to house digital media files is constantly increasing. Some people assume that even an average household wants to store up to one terabyte of data. This mass of information mainly consists of large MP3 collections, broadcast content preserved via digital video recorders (DVRs), and pictures/movies recorded with digital video cameras. Although you might not yet need 1 TB yourself, it always makes sense to future-proof anything you buy.

More Storage Space for Beginners and Enthusiasts

The question is what to do with all that data. Putting one or even several large hard drives into your own computer is simple a simple task for professionals, but less advanced users may be scared of this. And if you’re productivity-minded, then you already know that centralizing information is much smarter than spreading critical files all over your home network. If you want to access your data from different devices in a network—think of a Home Theater PC (HTPC) or a game console—there is only one alternative for many users, whether they be pros or beginners: using a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.

NAS devices are, at a most basic level, simple computers without graphics cards equipped with one or more storage interfaces that to connect hard drives. The operating system, usually a version of Linux, is stored on a built-in flash module. Accessing the data stored on a NAS device, as well as configuring the hard drives and setting up the NAS device, can be done over the network.

Most NAS appliances sport different RAID modes, which guarantee a certain level of data security if one hard drive fails. Another feature of NAS hardware is generally lower power consumption compared to average desktop PCs, creating a case for buying purpose-built hardware instead of using an old machine as a storage server. Depending on the model you’re looking at, expect to see consumption numbers between 20 and 70 watts.

Many Functions, Easy To Use

Although the main performance-defining criteria of NAS storage is usually it data transfer rate on the network, many manufacturers also focus on simple and transparent ease of use. This is because an increasingly long list of value-added capabilities, like integrated FTP serving, database storage, and media streaming, are being integrated into NAS devices.

All of these services need to be configured and customized. Even if the data transfer rate of a NAS device is very good, a complicated and confusing configuration can scare off potential buyers. We’re finding that Synology’s Disk Station DS408 is a good example of a device that combines high data transfer rate and functionality with an outstanding configuration interface.

Synology Disk Station DS408

The Synology DS408 is available in online shops for about $750 without hard drives. Purchasing an empty housing makes sense especially if you still have unused hard drives from a computer upgrade that you want to put to good use.

Although you can find the DS408 pre-configured through a number of VARs, we’re still going to recommend going for the empty enclosure and building up your own configuration that best meets your storage and expansion needs.

Build

Although purchasing a Disk Station DS408 is expensive, you will get a very nicely-built device for this price with a very good data transfer rate in comparison to other devices in this price class. More about this later.

The housing of the DS408 NAS devices is almost completely constructed of metal. Only the front is made out of glossy, black plastic, which doesn’t lower the overall impression. In contrast to other devices, the hard drives are installed into the DS408 by opening the back, and there are no movable plastic parts that might break off. The front is simple, functional, and gives information about the status of the individual hard drives, LAN activity and the device as a whole.

One negative is that you cannot use slide-out trays to install the hard drives in the DS408, which in this price class is pretty much standard. The hard drives are mounted in the device with screws, which means switching out a defective hard drive is a lot of work.

The back of the DS408 housing has a hinge and can be flipped open after removing four thumb screws. Once the rear of the DS408 is open, you have to remove the rest of the housing in order to install the hard drives.

After the hard drives are installed into the hard drive cage, you simply put the housing back together. The precision of the fit is very good, though connecting the single SATA power and data cables in this tight space is a real mess. Closing the case also requires attention and dexterous fingers. The 80 mm fan on the back is deep in the housing and when closing the lid, it’s easy to pinch some cables.

We noticed that, after a couple of hours, when we installed an additional hard drive, a passive cooler on the motherboard came loose. We think that the cooler must have come loose in transit. The increase in temperature caused the system to crash—something that should not happen in a storage device priced as high as this one.

Accessories

The Synology Disk Station DS408 comes with more bundled accessories than other NAS devices. This is not so much due to the generosity of the manufacturer, but rather because of how the hard drives are installed. This is the reason why there are four additional SATA power and data cables in the accessories, as well as the external power supply, an Ethernet network cable, a manual, and quick-start instructions. In an enclosure with a midplane, the cabling wouldn’t be necessary at all.

Don’t forget the CD, which contains the Synology Assistant application, as well as a copy of the firmware for the NAS device.

Technical Data And Features

The weight of the Synology Disk Station DS408 without hard drives is about 2.2 kg. It measures about 17 cm high, 18 cm wide, and 23 cm deep, which is dairly compact for a NAS device. You can connect the DS408 to a home network via a Gigabit Ethernet port and connect external storage media and printers to the two USB ports on the back of the device. The DS408 can also communicate with an uninterruptible power supply via USB.

Optimized For The Internet

The brain of the DS408 is an 800 MHz Freescale MPC8543 processor based on the PowerPC architecture. The 512 MB of onboard RAM not only guarantees fast response of the Web-based configuration interface, but this particular hardware configuration also accelerates other applications pre-loaded onto the DS408.

In addition to storing data, the Disk Station DS408 can also serve as Web server with PHP and MySQL support. The NAS device offers a simple way to post pictures and video on the Internet, a blog with integrated user management, as well as access to stored data via its Web interface.

UPnP Server And Network Protocols

The Universal Plug and Play-capable multimedia service and an iTunes server offer access to audio, video, and picture files on the network. All common formats are supported: MP3, WMA, WAV, MPEG2, MPEG4, VOB and XviD.

Currently there are still limitations when using the DS408 in a heterogeneous network. Although the protocols SMB/CIFS as well as AFP are supported, Linux users who want to get access via NFS have to remain patient: this feature is supposed to be implemented in one of the future firmware updates, which are already in the beta phase.

Active Directory Service support makes integration of the NAS device into a Window domain simple. With this, it is possible to authenticate users not only via SMB/CIFS or AFP, but also when requesting access using the FTP protocol.

You can activate the so-called CIFS recycle bin on the Disk Station DS408, so you do not permanently erase data that has been deleted unintentionally within Windows Explorer. This functions like the Windows recycle bin and can be emptied over the administrator’s interface.

Configuration with AJAX

Once you have installed the hard drives and the actual firmware using the Synology Assistant software on the NAS device, you can do the rest of the DS408 configuration by using the AJAX-based Web interface. This Web interface can be accessed via the Disk Station on port 5000, because port 80 is reserved for the integrated Web server.

Although you can argue the sense of using AJAX technology on Internet pages, Synology shows how to use this technology intelligently on a terminal. When configuring the Disk Station, you don’t feel like you’re working with a networked device, but rather a local Windows application.

The design of the Web interface is clear and simple, and assistants for different tasks—like creating user accounts or customizing file sharing settings—make life a lot easier for beginners. Advanced users will also get used to this in no time. For example, setting up an email notification when an error occurs is very easy.

Configuring the Web server, the blog, or the monitoring station—which can access and manage up to 10 IP cameras—is just as simple. Even setting up and managing data backups over the network is a breeze.

We could not find any incompatibilities with browsers in our test: the Web interface worked on Internet Explorer and Firefox without a problem. Even the Google browser Chrome didn’t cause any issues—far from it, in fact, as it loads the pages much faster and gives you even more of the feeling of configuring a local Windows configuration.

Power Consumption And Test Setup

Aside from its large variety of built-in applications, Synology focuses also on arming the DS408 with ample data security. The DS408 can be operated with several hard drives in RAID modes 0, 1, and 5. Using only one hard drive is also possible, but this, in addition to RAID 0, is not recommended in terms of data security. If one hard drive crashes, data loss is inevitable. Your data is only truly protected in RAID 1 and 5.

Power Consumption

We were a little surprised by the power consumption of the Synology Disk Station DS408. Our test system showed pretty low draw, 50 watts, when running a RAID 5 rebuild with four Samsung HD321KJ hard drives. When idling, it dropped down to 47 watts. If you configure the Disk Station in a way that turns off the hard drives after a certain duration of inactivity, the power consumption drops down to just 23 watts.

Test Setup

Like most of the new NAS devices, the DS408 supports jumbo frames, which we did not use for benchmarks across our Gigabit network. The benchmarks were executed on our reference platform. Details of the hardware configuration are shown in the following table:

The version number of the firmware on the NAS was DSM 2.0-0640.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We tested the Synology DS408 with the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. You can get a detailed description of the benchmarks in the article Benchmarking With Intel’s NAS Toolkit .

Benchmark Results

You’ll find further test results in our Picture Gallery

Benchmark Results - Continued

You’ll find further test results in our Picture Gallery

The data transfer rates of the Disk Station DS408 are very good; it only showed weakness in tests with many small files. As you can see from the images, using the DS408 in the RAID 1 configuration is not a good choice. When operating the Disk Station in RAID 5 mode it almost reaches the performance of a fast RAID 0 configuration.

Conclusion: Powerful And Fast

If you are used to the installation routines typical of other hardware vendors, where you install hard drives in a tray and slide them into the NAS appliance, you will see that things are a bit more complicated with the DS408. You have to take apart almost the whole NAS device to install hard drives. This is a task that can be handled by less advanced users because of the accuracy of fit of the housing and the included instructions with pictures.

If you don’t mind the additional effort, you will get a NAS device with a high degree of functionality that is also easy to configure and use. The design of the Web-based interface and its usability give you the feeling of navigating a local Windows application. In addition, the Web interface is clearly organized, and has an assistant for certain tasks that helps to set things up the first time.

The data transfer rate on the network is also consistently good; only when working with many small files does speed decrease. If you intend to buy a NAS device in the upper price class, you should definitely consider the DS408. For about $750 dollars you will get a solid NAS device with many functions that satisfy your every storage desire; and because of ADS support, it can even be integrated into the business sector.

Synology DS408

The Synology Disk Station DS408 is a solid NAS device with a lot of functions that stands out because of its very clever web interface. In a NAS device of this high a functionality, it takes a while to get used to the concept that installing hard drives is so complicated. However you are compensated for your effort with respectable data transfer rates.

• Pros
• Cons

• Low power consumptionVery good configuration interfaceFast data transfer rates
• Installing hard drives is complicatedConnecting the hard drives requires fumbling aroundHigh price for an empty appliance