Last year I was introduced to Synology when they asked us to do a review of their DS409slim NAS device. Although I have not looked at NAS units from other companies, I will admit that I love the user interface and reliability of Synology's products.

Over the last year I have used the DS409slim for hosting email, websites, large downloads (Download Station), streaming media to PS3 (DLNA), sharing photos (Photo Station), and redundant local file storage (with a RAID 5 volume). The up time is nearly 24/7, and I only had one minor issue so far. One afternoon the NAS started beeping and I investigated what had happened. By looking at the LEDs on the front, I saw that one of the hard drive LEDs was amber. The RAID 5 volume was degraded due to disk failure. I removed the disk and it tested out OK. I reinserted it into the NAS and rebuilt the volume, the drive wasn't faulty, but the DSM thought it was for reasons unknown to me.



This time around we'll be covering the DS411+, a network attached storage device that can hold up to four SATA hard drives (2.5" or 3.5"), which could provide you with up to 8TB of storage space, based on the capacity of currently available drives.

I am going to leave out the full features list and only show the new or updated items. For the complete list of features and specifications please visit the official product page on the Synology website.

The Synology DiskStation DS411+ is specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses who need a high-performance, easy to manage, and full-featured network attached storage solution to centralize data backups, protect critical assets and share files across different platforms. Synology protects your investment in the DS411+ with a 2-year limited warranty.

Features:

» 112.99 MB/sec Reading 103.07 MB/sec Writing
» Power-saving with only 60.5W in Operation
» Wake on LAN/WAN
» Scheduled Power On/Off
» Hard Drive Hibernation
» Includes Feature-Rich Synology DiskStation Manager 2.3 (DSM 2.3)

Specifications:

» CPU Frequency: 1.67GHz, Dual Core
» Floating Point
» Memory Bus: 64bit@DDR800
» Memory: 1GB
» Internal HDD: 3.5" SATA(II) X4 or 2.5" SATA/SSD X4
» Max Internal Capacity: 8TB (4x 2TB hard drives)
» Size (HxWxD): 168mm X 184mm X 230mm
» External HDD Interface: USB 2.0 port X2, eSATA port X1
» Weight: 2.23kg
» LAN: Gigabit X1
» Wireless Support
» Fan: X2(80mmX80mm)
» Wake on LAN/WAN
» Noise Level:22.5dB(A)
» Power Recovery
» AC Input Power Voltage: 100V to 240V
» Power Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, Single Phase
» Power Consumption: 60W(Access); 20W(HDD Hibernation)
» Operating Temperature: 5°C to 35°C (40°F to 95°F)
» Storage Temperature: -10°C to 70°C (15°F to 155°F)
» Relative Humidity: 5% to 95%RH
» Maximum Operating Altitude: 10,000 feet
» Certification: FCC Class B, CE Class B, BSMI Class B, VCCI Class B