
The front cover does include some rubber spacers to reduce vibration while the drives are spinning inside. Moving back up front, we can see that the glossy front cover pops off quite easily to expose the hard drives inside.
#Synology drive review serial number
Back here we also get the power port, a 92mm fan for cooling as well as some information about the unit itself, such as the serial number and MAC address. Moving around to the back we get two USB 3.0 ports which is definitely good for “future proofing” if that can even be achieved and we also get a single gigabit ethernet port as well. Probably not a lot, but every bit helps, right? Looks like they’ve carved out small holes through the lettering as well, which provide a bit of ventilation for the unit. As for connectivity, the DS212 comes with an SD card slot and a USB 2.0 port, which is definitely a nice touch.Īround both sides of the unit, we get the Synology logo stamped on the plastic casing. Otherwise, up front you also get your power and reset buttons along with a couple of status indicator lights as well. Up front we get a nice looking glossy front cover that as you can already see attracts a ton of dust and fingerprints, which isn’t something I particularly like. (It’s beyond me why you’d abuse such a beautiful thing though) One thing to note is that the entire unit is made of plastic however, the plastic is definitely of very high quality and I’d expect this thing to easily take some abuse if necessary. Overall, the design of the Synology DiskStation DS212 is very sleek, with a very modern look.
#Synology drive review software
Below that we get some screws for hard drive installation, a software CD, and some documentation. Up top we get all the cabling such as the ethernet and power cable. Since I like to begin with accessories, we’ll start with what’s included in the package. The box is quite brightly colored with many of the NAS unit’s functionality such as mail, website, file server, backup, surveillance, etc.
#Synology drive review full
That’s because NAS units these days are jam-packed with features as they are pretty much low powered computers and they’ll be able to handle many of the tasks full featured x86 servers can handle. Think I’m kidding? Check it out for yourself. Honestly though, the specification and features page on this device stretch for pages. Additionally, the system also has the maximum internal capacity of 8TB, which can be made possible by connecting 2x4TB hard drives,with possible support for larger hard drives most likely through future firmware upgrades. As expected, this processor will power the Synology DSM 4.0 software pre-loaded into the DS212 itself. You’ll also notice that the DS212 comes with a 1.6GHz ARM CPU along with 256MB of DDR3. This means that you’ll have access to no RAID (JBOD), RAID 0 and RAID 1 setups. USB 3.0 Port X 2, USB 2.0 Port X 1, SD Card Port X 1Īs mentioned earlier, the DS212 is a two bay NAS.

Marvell Kirkwood mv6282 1.6Ghz ARM Processor (Marvell ARMADA 300)ģ.5″ or 2.5″ SATA(II) X2 (Hard drive not included)ĨTB (2X 4TB HDD) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) ( See All Supported HDD) Synology DiskStation DS212 Specifications CPU

Below I’ve included some of the more important hardware specifications on the unit. The DS212 is a two- bay NAS unit primarily designed for homes or small business work group users. Today, we’ll be reviewing such a device – the Synology DiskStation DS212. These devices typically connect to your home business or network, and with a little setup, they pretty much can work as a hard drive that’s constantly on and constantly available to every computer on the network. Most NAS units are basically lower powered computers that serve as dedicated servers for your documents, music, movies, photos, etc. Luckily, there are solutions out there, and one of the more popular solutions these days are NAS units, or Network Attached Storage units. Most hard drives on the market today have a typical lifespan of 3-5 years and with drive capacities hitting sky-high limits these days it’s fairly easy to lose years and years of your hard work in a single drive failure. We all spend tons of money and tons of time shooting the perfect pictures, making those perfect videos, and writing the perfect term papers, but most of us don’t have a backup plan just in case that hard drive starts clicking.
