Conclusion:

The results speak for themselves and the hardware found under the hood of Synology's Diskstation DS415+ 4-Bay NAS server help it to perform at the top of the list of NAS devices to recently land on our test bench. With multiple tests confirming read and write speeds above 115MB/s, the device is definitely fast, and would be an excellent choice for use in a small to mid-size business, or even in a home full of people looking for uninterrupted access to their media. With two Gigabit LAN ports you can even aggregate you rconnections (if your network supports this) in order to achieve speeds that Synology documents as exceeding 220MB/s. Even though the network here did not support that, the speeds were impressive, and connecting both ports is still worthwhile.

DSM 5.1 is Synology's latest user interface and it continues to refine the experience and improve the value of the device it is installed on. These things can do so much more than a typical NAS server, with a variety of features designed for business and pleasure applications. The interface is appealing, smooth, and working with the system is overall very intuitive.

While the DS415+ is now the most powerful Synology Diskstation we have checked out - 2GB of DDR3 memory and a quad-core 2.4GHz CPU - it is nice to see that the energy efficiency is still quite impressive. It uses under 40W while in use, and can automatically drop down to about 12W while hibernating. Along with being energy efficient, the system is very quiet. I was concerned that two 92mm fans might be louder than one larger fan, but I have yet to notice the fan noise and the drives have all remained in a safe operating temperature range.



Checking the Bigbruin.com Shopping Pages doesn't turn up anything for the DS415+, but places such as Amazon.com carry it with a price tag of $585 (US) - without drives! That is the steepest price I have seen for an empty 4-bay NAS from Synology. If you want it configured as tested, with 4x 3TB drives installed, the price climbs to about $1480 at Amazon. That price is definitely out of whack, as you are effectively paying $224 per drive to have them pre-installed. Either a Seagate NAS HDD (as tested) or a popular WD Red drive runs about $115 for 3TB, so there is clearly no reason to buy the "bundle" since you will over pay by $400+.

In the end, the DS415+ is the fastest NAS we have tested, while also being fairly energy efficient, very quiet, and extremely easy to manage thanks to Synology's DSM 5.1 interface. It therefore earns the Bigbruin.com "Highly Recommended" and "Whisper Quiet" awards.



Pros:

» Very fast
» Energy efficient
» Quiet
» Plenty of horsepower with 2GB of DDR3 memory and a quad-core 2.4GHz CPU

Cons:

» $585 without any drives installed

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