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).