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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.

Specifications



Category
The consumer who has several computers at home and wants to bundle several functions on a ”server” in the easiest possible way.

Hardware
- CPU: 1.06GHz, 64bit @ DDR533
- Memory: 512MB
- Hard drive: 3.5 "SATA (II) X2 or 2.5" SATA/SSD (II) X2 with hard drive container
- Max Internal Capacity: 4 TB (2x 2TB hard drives)
- External hard drive: USB 2.0-port X3, eSATA port X1
- Dimensions: 160mm X 218mm X 88mm
- Weight: 0.98kg
- LAN: Gigabit X1
- Fan: X1 (70mmX70mm)
- Noise level: 24dB
- Number of supported cameras: 12

Power:
AC Input Power Voltage: 100V to 240V
Power Frequency: 50 Hz to 60 Hz

Network protocols:
CIFS
AFP (3.1)
FTP
NFS
Telnet / SSH

Security:
Firewall
Auto-blocking
"FTP with SSL (explicit)" or "FTP with TLS (explicit)"
Encrypted Network Backup
Encrypted rsync
HTTPS-connection

File system:
EXT3
FAT (External Hard Drive only)
NTFS (External Disk Only)

File sharing:
Max User accounts: 2.048
Max Groups: 256
Max Shared Folder: 256
Max Concurrent Connections (Samba, FTP, AFP): 256

Price
About £320

Those are the specifications I found most important, but you can find the full list here.

Construction & Design

Here we take a look at what the package contains and develop a first impression before testing.

Package contents

- DS209+II NAS
- Installation CD
- Welcome folder
- Screw driver and screw kit for installation of hard drive(s)
- Power supply
- Power cable
- 2 Meter RJ-45 LAN cable
- 2 stk. Sata data cables for hard drives
- 2 stk. Sata power cables for hard drives



Synology ship this NAS in a good, sturdy box without any pictures or other things you do not need, just a limited amount of text and a hinge with which to carry it out of the store.



Here we see the front of the device, sporting six diodes so you do not have to check the computer to see if it works. There are also two buttons: one for backup and one to turn the device on/off. In addition there are 2 ports, eSATA and USB such that you can easily connect it when you need to back up data.



The side is quite plain, sporting only a Synology logo in the middle.



At the rear you can see ventilation for the fan, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 RJ-45 Ethernet port, along with the DC-in jack for power. There is also a reset button for when you forget your password or the setup gets messed up.

The two screws at the right side need to be unscrewed if you want to take the device apart.



Here we have opened up the unit so you can see the fan, hard drive mount and a glimpse the logic board at the rear.



We could not refrain from taking the entire device apart, so here we have the logic board. It is actually not that different from the ARM-based boards you can buy on the market, although it has been shaped to fit the casing.

The RAM module is not fixed, so you could always change it and get 2GB if you want, although that will void the warranty.

The most exciting thing about the logic board, however, is the passive cooling. The only way for it to expel heat is a small pad at the rear that transfers heat to the aluminium plate which collects it all.



Here we mounted the two drives to use for the test. There are no problems with mounting the drives, just four screws in each and plug them in, and you are done!

It may be a little tricky to fit the cables without bending them too much, but my installation (pictured) should not cause any problems.



Here we can see the cables included with this NAS.



You got to have a transformer; this one runs at 12V, so an old power supply from a computer would actually do the trick. 12V also makes it cheaper to use standard components for logic board and hard drive.



Manual, warranty certificate and a CD amounted to information included.

Software

Synology is known for including an extensive and exotic software package with their products. We will be talking about some of the better ones and the opportunities they provide with this NAS.

RAID:
There is support for several types without data encryption

- Basic
- JBOD
- RAID 0

The most exciting are the RAID that do have data encryption, however

- RAID 1
- RAID 5
- RAID 5 + hotspare
- RAID 6

To use RAID 5, RAID 5 + hotspare or RAID 6, you have to connect one or more drives of the same size as the existing ones, either via USB or eSATA.

Connecting external storage devices
As mentioned earlier, there are two ways to connect additional storage devices, namely USB and eSATA. That way you can actually connect more hard drives to a NAS, even though it only supports two as standard.

Backup

- Back up your NAS either by connecting an external storage device or over a network.
- Back up your computer directly on your NAS via a network.
- Do a quick backup with your USB pen or MP3 by pressing the backup button the server.

There are plenty of options, and many software makers charge tens of £’s for backup software that compares to what Synology offers.

Platform
Do not be afraid to change platforms, for it supports Windows, Mac and Linux. SMB and FTP can be utilized by all platforms, but CIFS, NFS and AFP are all optional as well.

File Station
An interface to handle files and allows you to remote control. You can download, copy, move or delete files or folders via the internet, and the interface is easy to use with drag and drop.

Web Station
You can run your own website from the device, which comes with an Apache-web server along with PHP and the newest MySQL.

Audio Station
This program gives you the possibility to enjoy the music library stored on the NAS on any PC, as well as listen to music directly connected to the device via USB. You can create your own playlists easily with a single drag and drop. There is also a search engine that gives quick results, even with a large amount of music files.

Photo Station
With this program you can share photos and videos directly from the unit. An album is automatically created, to which you can add titles and descriptions. The slideshow is externally available.

Once a picture is opened, you have several options like rotate, zoom in and add comments. A search function makes it easy to find photos and videos by searching on specific words.

Download Station
This section allows you to download files. Even when the PC is turned off, you can use it as a download station for BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP, eMule, NZB and RapidShare. It is possible to configure things like limiting the amount of hours it can download, the amount of concurrent connections, schedule, and receive messages via mail.

Monitoring Station
This is a good solution for the guy who wants to monitor his office while away; all you have to do is connect IP-cameras and follow the simple steps to configure the web interface of the NAS. Adding a camera is very simple too – there are two types of settings, as well as quick and comprehensive search functions that automatically find the available cameras on the net. There is a wealth of options here, and you can even set it to record or film on a schedule.
Printer Server
Make your printer available on the whole network by connecting it with USB to your NAS.

3rd party applications
Synology has even allowed you to install programs yourself or use 3rd party applications.

Benchmark

We tested some different factors:

- Transfer speed
- Power consumption
- Hard drive temperature

The hard drives we installed in the device were:

2 * Samsung F1 500GB

They were connected in Raid 0 to achieve the greatest possible speed. In reality though, the bottleneck is probably in the network. Even though we have a 1Gbit connection, we cannot expect it to perform 100%. Professionals usually assume the expected transfer speed is 60 Mb/s on a Gbit connection, although we could actually expect 125 Mb/s.

First we will look at a test Synology carried out:



Here we see three different devices from Synology, all tested in the time it takes to transfer a 2GB file. The two older devices, DS210j and DS209, lose in practically all tests, and the hardware update does not even bring a rise in power consumption with it. DS209+II seems to be one of the quickest models made for two drives from Synology.

Here is our own test:



Here we tried to transfer a 4GB file over FTP and as a standard file transfer. The result turned out to be remarkably in tune with what Synology said, although we did not quite reach the level Synology promised. FTP transfer was by far the fastest, but with 55 Mb/s reading and 45 Mb/s writing, you can transfer even large data chunks via standard file transfer.

The next thing we looked at was the power consumption, which was lower than expected. That is measured with the two drives installed and load is calculated after we started two file transfers and created a web server.

The power consumption for this device can only be compared with other VIA and ARM CPUs. Intel Atom still has a power consumption much too large for the chipset, and why pay extra for power when you do not have to?

Hard drive temperature reached a peak after 3-4 hours of file transfer. The fan hardly made any noise, so it is actually rather silent.

Conclusion

All the functions of your server combined with a lower power consumption, good-looking design and silent operation – could you ask for more?

Why pick a NAS?
We are asked time and again whether a NAS is really worth the money, but most of those who ask do not consider all the extra features besides the hardware you actually get with a NAS, so the answer is absolutely yes! Unless you love to tinker with the setup, it is certainly worth considering.

The standard user may not be able to utilize more than perhaps 30% of the possibilities a NAS provides, but I personally used it for: safe storage of photos, streaming for my iPhone, external hard drive and hosting a website. To do all that with a home server would take much longer than it did with a NAS.

Where does Synology 209II+ stand in relation to competitors?
With 209II+, Synology has planted itself firmly in the market for smaller NAS devices for home use and smaller offices. With this NAS you get a user friendly interface, security in the form of encryption, stability in the form of a thoroughly tested solution and a speed that is comparable with other NAS devices.

One thing to keep in mind is that the price of this small box is some 50% more than what an Atom system would cost, but if you do not want to spend weeks installing, fine-tuning and buying software (which some of course love to do) to get some of the functions Synology offers with a single click, you have to consider whether it might just be easier to buy a NAS.    

Pros:
The software solution
Performance in relation to Synology’s promise
Simple installation
Power consumption

Cons:
No manual (included on the CD)

Construction:	4,5 / 5
Software:	5 / 5
Innovation:	4 / 5
Price:	4 / 5
Accessories:	4 / 5
Performance:	5 / 5
Overall:	4,5 / 5