Earlier this year I got my first look at the DS1512+, which was one of the first x12 series products and as such introduced the Intel Atom D2700 dual-core x86 processor. The DS1512+ is a 5-bay device and at present has a retail value of $840, making it quite pricey.

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Shortly after checking out the DS1512+ we received the cheaper and slightly slower DS712+. This 2-bay device still cost $500 in diskless form and featured the same design as the bigger DS1512+, but offered a smart upgrade path with the optional DX510 unit.

The new DS412+ on the other hand sits in the middle, offering support for four drives right out of the box while using the same running gear as the bigger DS1512+. This means the DS412+ gets the dual-core Atom D2700 processor which is clocked at 2.13GHz and supports HyperThreading for a total of four threads.

However unlike the DS1512+ and DS712+ models which feature the same design, the DS412+ uses the design introduced by the DS212 and DS212+. This design is not only very compact but it also looks very clean, as the hot-swappable drives are hidden behind a removable panel. Synology has also improved cooling, making the DS412+ not only quieter but also more reliable, so let’s check it out in greater detail...

Like the DS212+ we find the quick copy feature on the front of the DS412+, a feature which was missing on the DS712+ and DS1512+ units. Unfortunately like the DS212+ the quick copy feature is not supported by USB 3.0, and rather a much slower USB 2.0 port has been used. Additionally the SD card reader which was present on the DS212+ has been removed from the DS412+.

When compared to its predecessor the DS411+, the new DS412+ is slightly lighter tipping the scales at just 2.03kg, while the older model weighed 2.23kg. Yet despite being lighter and almost 20cm shorter, the DS412+ is actually 10% larger overall.

From the front the DS412+ is entirely black. The strip down the right hand side features the power button, copy button, USB 2.0 port and a number of imbedded LED lights which indicate system status, network activity and of course hard drive activity.

The front panel of the DS412+ is removable, as it is attached by four large rubber grommets that pop out when gently pulled. Behind the panel are four removable hot-swappable SATA cages which support 2.5” and 3.5” drives. There is a small push release latch at the top of each cage which allows them to slide out of the DS412+. This is a very nice design that is both aesthetically pleasing and highly practical.

Around the back the design is again very different to the older DS411+. The larger 92mm fans feature a new custom grill which can be removed without having to gain access into the case. The fans also have an added redundancy feature in case of failure. With both fans operating correctly they spin at a low, near silent RPM. However in the case of a single failure the remaining fan will spin up to cover the work load of the downed fan.

Also at the back users will find a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, a 12v 4-pin DC input, eSATA port and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. The addition of USB 3.0 means that the DS412+ will be able to copy data from external hard drives much faster than the DS411+ which is limited to USB 2.0.

Finally it is also worth mentioning that Synology has gone with a 100% solid capacitor design, making this a more durable product. The DS412+ also comes with a 2 year warranty and will support the latest 4TB hard drives.

Rather than soldering memory chips directly to the PCB, as was the case with earlier Synology NAS devices, the DS412+ features a SO-DIMM slot. This slot comes preloaded with 1GB of DDR3-1066 memory.

Also featured on the same PCB are two Intel 82574L network controllers along with a Silicon Image Sil3531ACNU controller and Intel ICH10R (82801JIR I/O controller hub).

The ICH10R debuted in November 2008 with the X58 (Tylersburg) chipset and the new Core i7 CPUs. The ICH10 has numerous iterations and the Synology DS412+ uses the 82801JIR I/O controller, otherwise known as ICH10R. This high-end version of the chip has AHCI and RAID support.

The 31x31mm chip uses just 4.5 watts and supports a host of features, such as SATA 3Gb/s and USB 2.0. It also supplies the five internal bays with support for a number of volume types including basic, JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 5+Spare, 6 and 10 -- all courtesy of Intel's Matrix Storage Technology. Synology uses the ICH10R to supply internal SATA support to the five bays, while the Silicon Image Sil3531 controller connects the DS412+ to the DX510 expansion unit.

Two tiny Intel 82574L controllers provide dual gigabit LAN support via the PCI Express 1.1 x1 (2.5GT/s) interface. They're built on a 90nm design process, measure 9x9mm and have a maximum thermal design power of just 0.727 watts.

Although the ICH10R supports twelve USB 2.0 ports, the DS412+ provides users with just one, used for the quick copy function. There is a separate smaller PCB which features an NEC µPD720200A controller providing a pair of USB 3.0 ports.

On the main PCB is another small PCB which features a tiny micro drive using the USBest UT165-L46 controller, which is often used in thumb drives. The controller is connected to a single Samsung K9F1G08U0C-PCB0 128MB memory chip that houses the DS412+ operating system install.

Now we're only missing one ingredient: hard drives. The DS412+ compatibility list is quite broad, supporting many Hitachi, Maxtor, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital drives, including 4TB units.

- Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 1TB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Blue 500GB (Serial ATAII)

- Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB (Serial ATAII)

The power consumption of the DS412+ was slightly less than that of the DS1512+ under load while it consumed 35% more power than the older DS411+.

The DS412+ was able to max out a single Gigabit LAN connection in our 6GB file download test with a throughput of 106.5MB/s. This was roughly the same level of performance seen from the DS1512+ and DS2411+ units, as well as the older DS411+.

The game download test saw the Synology DS412+ provide a throughput of 80.4MB/s which was again roughly the same performance seen from the DS1512+ and DS2411+ units. However when compared to the old DS411+ the new DS412+ model provided a 51% performance increase as it was 27MB/s faster.

The new Synology DS412+ also performed well in the program download test, sustaining a transfer speed of 38.2MB/s. This was roughly the same performance delivered by the DS1512+, while it was 76% faster than the DS411+.

The Synology DS412+ again maxed out the Gigabit LAN connection when measuring upload performance with a single large file. With a throughput of 108.8MB/s the DS412+ was right up there with the fastest NAS devices tested.

The Synology DS412+ again performed impressively, this time in our game upload test. Managing a transfer rate of 94.1MB/s meant that the DS412+ was only slightly slower than the DS1512+, while it was a fraction quicker than the DS2411+.

The Synology DS412+ managed to match the DS1512+ and QNAP TS-879 Pro in our program upload test. Again we found that the Intel Atom D525 powered DS2411+ crumbled in this test.

When measuring copy performance of the Synology DS412+ with our single large file test we were surprised that it only managed to match the older DS411+ with a transfer rate of 51.9MB/s. This made it much slower than the DS1512+ which was not the case in the upload and download tests.

Although the Synology DS412+ only managed a transfer rate of 51.9MB/s in our single large file copy test, it dropped to just 37.4MB/s in our game copy test. This meant that the DS412+ was again able to match the performance of the DS1512+, while it was much faster than the older DS411+.

The Synology DS412+ finished off on a strong note, beating the DS2411+ while only slightly trailing behind the QNAP TS-879 Pro and DS1512+.

The CrystalDiskMark sequential read/write test aligns with what we saw in our upload and download tests, as the Synology DS412+ provided similar performance to that of the DS1512+ and DS2411+.

The random 512K results tend to agree more with what we saw from the game download/upload tests and here the Synology DS412+ was 14% faster than the DS411+.

The Synology DS412+ performed well in the random 4K-QD32 test, providing strong write performance coupled with above average read performance.

The read performance of the Synology DS412+ maxed out at 114.5MB/s which was the same result recorded by the QNAP TS-879 Pro and this is the physical limitation of a single Gigabit LAN connection.

The Synology DS412+ again maxed out the Gigabit LAN connection when measuring write performance with the Atto Disk Benchmark. Again the performance was very similar to the QNAP TS-879 Pro and DS1512+ every step of the way.

When compared to its predecessor the DS411+ which still retails for $640, the new DS412+ is a steal at $680. Not only is the DS412+ considerably faster but the new design makes the installation and removal of drives considerably easier thanks to the hot-swappable bays.

That said, when compared to devices such as the DS712+ or DS1512+, access to the drive bays on the DS412+ is not quite as quick due to the removable door panel. That said, the door panel does give the DS412+ a cleaner look if that counts for anything.

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In terms of build quality for both the hardware and software, Synology is really only facing serious competition from QNAP at the moment. This places the DS412+ in direct competition with the similarly priced TS-459 Pro+, and that is a match up that should favor Synology as the DS412+ boasts a faster processor and more refined design.

For those seeking a high performance 4-bay NAS that is backed by award winning software then the DS412+ should be your first choice. Perhaps the only possible drawback for business users is that the DS412+ doesn’t provide the option to expand storage beyond four drives in the future. For that luxury consumers will have to fork out $160 more for the DS1512+ which can scale from 5 drives to 15 for an impressive 60TB storage capacity.