The Basics:

The front of the DS415+ is shown in the two images below. The bulk of the housing has a matte black finish, while the removable drive bay cover is glossy, and susceptible to fingerprints and scuffs. This cover is attached by four rubber knobs which seat into the drive bay opening, which means gaining access is a tool-less operation. The front cover stands away from the housing a bit, so air can flow in around it, which should help to keep air flowing over the drives. Along the front's right edge you can see there is a bank of five LEDs (one for overall status, and one for each of the four drives inside), a single USB 2.0 port, and a power button.



One side fo the NAS server is shown in the below left image, where we see that the Synology logo is slotted, which will allow for more ventilation. On the back side of the device, we find that the most prominent feature is a pair of 92mm cooling fans which will draw air through the DS415+ in order to keep it cool. Other features out back include a pair of Gigabit RJ-45 network jacks, a DC power connection, a lock slot, an eSATA port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a manufacturer's data label. While I am pleased to see a pair of USB 3.0 ports, I would have prefered that one of them was located on the front of the enclosure in order to provide convenient access without having to reach around the back each time.



The next image shows the front cover removed, with the four bays populated with drive trays and drives.



The next two images show the drives removed from the enclosure so that we can see all the way to the back. The drive trays slide in tracks and lock to the frame with a catch at the front of each tray. At the back, the SATA data and power connectors are guided on to mating connectors on a daughter board that ties all of the drives back to the system. The design is simple, but effective, and leaves plenty of open area for air flow.



The next two images illustrate how 3.5" drives can be tool-lessly mounted to the plastic drive trays. For this review, we will be using four 3TB Seagate NAS HDDs. If you were so inclined to use 2.5" drives instead, you would then need to use the provided screws in or to attach the drives to the trays using the screws on the bottom of the drives. Everything would still line up so that the SATA data and power connectors would match up.