The Synology DS212

Here we get our first look at the Synology DS212 NAS appliance. The piano black cover hides the two 3.5" hard drives that shipped with our system. On the right side a set of four LEDs light up and give the user a quick glance status update on the system. Further down we see the front USB 2.0 port and the SD card reader as well as the green icon button that allows you to copy the data from the two front ports easily. A power button is at the very bottom and is also lit by an LED.

The DS212 is as attractive as it us functional. On the sides Synology has their company logo.

The unit is cooled by one large fan to keep the audible noise down. The power supply is outside of the main box and comes in the form of a power brick. Dual USB 3.0 ports are on the back side as is the gigabit Ethernet port.

Here we see the front without the cover on it. The cover allows air to flow over the drives and acts as a sound diffuser as well.

Included in the package is the power brick, power cable and a decent length Ethernet cable.

After pulling the drives I was very excited to see SAS connectors in the DS212 since I have several 3TB SAS drives. The DS212 does not support SAS though, so my drives are back on the shelf.

One of the most overlooked areas on NAS servers is the drive sleds. Here you want plastic instead of aluminum or steel because the plastic absorbs vibration and doesn't transfer it to the drive like the metal sleds. Synology also uses rubber grommets between the drive and the sled, another vibration arrestor.