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Synology is one of the players on the market for NAS devices, and they have sent us their 209II+ - a two-disc NAS with Gbit network – to test here on Laptop-Review. With this unit, Synology have introduced a powerful product to the market that can compete with most home servers when it comes to performance, and at the same time is so user friendly that anyone can set it up.
With a history that only stretches back to year 2000, Synology is a relatively new player on the electronics market.

However, they quickly secured a strong position in the market for NAS units, and their software in particular has received a lot of praise for a user friendliness that means any consumer can use the products, but at the same time allows advanced users to access the functions they require.
The underlying system on their devices is Linux and they have traditionally used ARM-based systems; there are some models with Intel Atom, but those devices use a lot more power and the user rarely needs the extra performance.

At the moment there are more computers than households and more than one computer in each household, so having a home server has become more and more standard. In this connection, many have a computer turned on continuously so as to have constant access to documents and media for, for example, a HIFI-system, a media center or a simple printer server.

It is not just a way to share things, but also a way to centralise storage such that you do not have to look around 10 computers for the document you worked on last. Or it may be a way to access data when you are not at home, for example if you forgot that important document you needed for the presentation at school or work.

This is a particular interesting now that 3G modems are becoming more and more standard and you want to have access to documents on the go, which is possible via a NAS.



A NAS and a home server are not quite the same thing, so I will try to point out the differences:

A home server is often an older machine with Linux or Windows server installed, using up to 100W of power. The setup requires intimate knowledge of computers, and older machines are often very noisy. A Synology NAS is based on a Linux system in which the user never has to mess around with complicated settings – there is always a guide and the interface is very user friendly for certain tasks. The power consumption is very low, about 40W during load with two discs installed. There is not much noise either, although this model creates a little with its fan.

Generally speaking, a NAS is built for very specific tasks, which is why they were able to built a very user friendly interface, as well as use some power-saving components that exactly match the tasks it needs to carry out. The most important argument, however, is that you save power and the time to set it up, so unless you like to geek out several hours at night to set up your server, a NAS might just be worth looking at.