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NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives are becoming increasingly popular and they do cost a pretty penny, for those that can afford them they are worth every last bit! Today’s review is focused on the 2-bay DS211 which proved to be much more than just network attached storage, it’s more of a storage server with a great deal of flexibility built in...
Already it has been 4 years since we reviewed the Cube Station CS407e, the first Synology product to be reviewed at Legion Hardware. The Synology Cube Station CS407e just seemed to have it all in one neat little package. The features list was overwhelming, offering amazing facilities for not only sharing data, but also backing it up.
Since then we have also looked at the Disk Station DS107, DS207 and DS207+ devices, which were found to be just as impressive and each has brought about its own advancements. All have been very software rich, offering an excellent user interface with loads of useful features. Along the way performance has also been improved, and while the DS207+ was still slower than a typical desktop system with Gigabit Ethernet it did close the gap. Still, at the time of release Synology was asking for $330 US for the DS207+ without any drives installed and we estimated that a 2TB configuration would cost around $800 US in total. As impressive as the DS207+ was, pricing made justifying this little unit quite difficult, as the alternative would be to purchase a mid-range computer system that could also be used for casual gaming for example. This was predominantly the issue NAS devices faced throughout 2008 – 2009, as they simply cost too much for the performance that they delivered. However since the last time we reviewed a NAS device quite a lot has changed, for one large capacity hard drives are considerably cheaper now. They have also become much more powerful, frequently featuring processors clocked well over 1GHz. The new Synology Disk Station DS211 for example features a 1.6GHz processor with 256MB of RAM, while it supports a pair of 3.5” or 2.5” drives. With a retail price of $290 US, it costs slightly less than what the DS207+ did back in 2008. However, the key difference being that 2TB 3.5” internal hard drives now cost as little as $100 US each, making the DS211 relatively cheap to populate. |
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ProX |
Posted on: 02/24/2011 11:49 AM
Nice review thanks. I have noticed that Seagate and WD are selling very cheap 2bay NAS servers now. Are they any good do you know? |
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bubba |
Posted on: 02/25/2011 02:28 AM
Synology make the bes nas hands down. |
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Hannibal |
Posted on: 02/28/2011 01:13 AM
great work with the review. Those QNAP NAS look fast, but they are expensive. I was hoping to buy one but the pricing is insane! The DS211 is much more reasonable. |
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Robbo |
Posted on: 03/02/2011 12:11 PM
Very cool looking device. This would be great for our office, might have to look into it thanks. |
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mracko |
Posted on: 03/20/2011 10:14 PM
Thank you for the very informative and thorough review. I found it very helpful in deciding which NAS to get. I am new to the whole idea of NAS systems, but with 2 desktops, 2 tablets, a laptop, and wanting to stream video content, I feel the time is now to secure all my digital information and streamline my setup. I had it down to the QNAP TS-219+, Synology DS211, and Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 2, with the DS211 in front with the Netgear a close second. After reading your review the DS211 pulled further ahead. |