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Today we have the DiskStation DS216+ on hand, Synology’s latest dual-core 2-bay NAS built around the Intel Celeron N3050 SoC. Key features of the DS216+ include AES-NI hardware encryption, BTRFS support, 4K UHD transcoding and of course the latest DSM 6.0 operating system... My first review of a Synology DiskStation feels like a life time ago now, amazingly it has been 7 years since we published our DS409+ review back in 2009. Even back then Synology’s NAS devices were more than just… well a Network Attached Storage device. Applications such as Photo Station, Audio Station and Download Station for example already existed, and although they have evolved beyond recognition, we got a glimpse of where things were headed 7 years ago. Today Synology’s DiskStation product line can’t even really be described as ‘NAS’ products anymore, rather they are full blown servers that can handle everything from Cloud based storage to 4K UHD transcoding. The scope of these products has become so broad that covering everything in a single review is virtually impossible.  That said today’s subject, the DiskStation DS216+, is Synology’s latest 2-bay device which is currently retailing for around $300. In their current DSx16+ series Synology already has the DS716+ ($450) and DS216 ($280) dual bay models on offer, so what does the DS216+ bring to the table? As you might expect this mid-range 2-bay model is designed to bridge the pricing gap between the DS716+ and DS216. As such you find twice the memory of the DS216 but half that of the DS716+. The SoC has been upgraded from the Marvell Armada 385 of the DS216 to the dual-core Intel Celeron N3050, while the more expensive DS716+ gets the quad-core Celeron N3150.  (Size comparison with standard ATX motherboard) The DS216+ is aimed squarely at small office and home office usage and frankly it should provide these users with a much better value option to the slightly more powerful DS716+. An exciting feature of the DS716+ which has been handed down to the DS216+ is support for the more modern BTRFS, B-tree file system. Previously Synology has relied on the EXT4 file system exclusively and this has upset enthusiasts who have been calling for better file system support for years now. Finally, they are getting it and thus far the DS216+ is the cheapest Synology device to support BTRFS. For this review we will compare the performance between EXT4 and BTRFS, while we also plan to check out the new features on offer from Synology’s latest DiskStation Manager 6.0 Beta software. |
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