Thứ Tư, 19 tháng 6, 2019

Synology DS419slim NAS box review: A low-profile, power-saving media server for the smart home

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Small is good when it comes to NAS boxes designed to serve up audio and video over a home network. Synology's 4-bay DS419slim, being built for 2.5-inch drives, is significantly less bulky than the average NAS box designed to accommodate 3.5-inch drives. The DS419slim is perfect for SATA SSDs (solid-state drives), which are nearly noiseless and generate less heat than mechanical hard drives.

Being equipped with a cooling fan, Synology's DS419slim isn't as quiet as QNAP's fan-less SilentNAS series, but it's also likely to keep your drives healthy longer. And Synology's box streams 4K UHD video with aplomb.

Design and specs

The DS419slim  measures approximately 5.5 inches deep, 4 inches wide, and 4.6 inches high, including its feet. There are four non-locking 2.5-inch trays (friction holds them in place) that slide out the back, as well as a pair of gigabit ethernet ports and a USB 3.0 port alongside them. There's another USB 3.0 port on the front for quick copying, as well as status lights for the ethernet ports and drives. The power button and status light are found on the side of the front faceplate.

f ds419slim back Synology

The friction of the SATA connections, as well as between the trays and the slots, keeps the drives inside the DS419slim in place. 

The DS419 is rendered in black plastic, and it has enough heft with drives installed (my test unit arrived with two 512GB Seagate IronWolf NAS SSDs installed) to stay where you put it. Without drives, it might blow away in the wind. Hopefully, you're not intending to use it outside. 

The CPU that performs the magic is a low-power, 5TDP, 1.33GHz Marvell Armada 385 88F6820 dual-core, supported by 512MB of DDR3 memory. Low power means less heat, and again, a lower system fan speed. Said fan is located on the bottom of the unit and draws in fresh air to circulate out through vents on the top of the unit, as well as the gaps between the drive trays, which are not covered by a door or the like. 

You can adjust the speed of the fan, but you can't turn it off entirely, and it's not one of the quieter fans I've experienced. I live in a city and am used to white noise. If you're not, the small amount the DS419slim emits should remain below background levels if you place it out of the way. Just know that it's not dead quiet.

f ds419slim front Synology

The DS419slim is only slim in the vertical dimension. It's about the width of a standard 2-bay NAS box designed for 3.5-inch drives, but it's about half that height. Calling it the DS419short would be more appropriate, but less marketable.

Just like Windows or macOS

If you haven't experienced a modern NAS box, configuring and using one is just like using a computer, except that the box's desktop appears in a browser window. If your router assigns your DS419slim an IP address of 192.168.1.150, for example, you'll simply type that address into your web browser's address bar and log on. You'll be presented with a screen much like what you see below. If you can't find the box's IP address, Synology provides a utility that can. 

ds419slim2 IDG

The desktop in a browser from DiskStation Manager 6.

You can try DSM—Synology's NAS box operating system—online at this link. The desktop in a browser was once a rarity, but many NAS boxes offer this type of interface these days, although not all are as elegant or as feature-filled as Synology's. 



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