Synology DiskStation DS415+ Four-Bay SMB NAS Review

Introduction

About six years ago, the NAS world changed with the introduction of the Intel Atom based NAS platform. Going back four years ago for myself, my first experience with an Atom based NAS was with the Cedarview platform found in the Thecus N2800. Moving forward to present day, the Intel NAS platform has evolved with the introduction of the Silvermont architecture and subsequent releases of the Avoton and Rangeley platforms. While the Avoton is targeted towards energy efficient server and storage, the Rangeley platform used in the Synology DS415+ which we have here today focuses on network and communication infrastructures.

The DS415+ is the latest four-bay SMB solution coming from Synology. As mentioned, it's based on the Intel Rangeley platform and more specifically the Atom C2538. Connectivity options for this NAS include a single USB 2.0 port, eSATA port, and dual USB 3.0 ports. Additionally, networking for this unit is controlled by dual gigabit Ethernet ports supporting link aggregation. While the internal drives are limited to the EXT4 file system and a theoretical capacity of 32TB, external drives can be accessed using EXT4, EXT3, FAT, NTFS, and HFS+.

The specifications above were pulled from the Synology website and show the DS415+ plus utilizing the Intel Atom C2538, a quad-core processor operating at 2.4GHz. System memory is listed at 2GB, while the platform as a whole can utilize a AES-NI hardware encryption engine. Adding to specifications, the DS415+ supports Wake-On LAN/WAN in addition to being cooled by dual 92mm fans that support both a cool and quiet mode. Noise level for this unit is rated at 20dBa while the included power adapter is set up for 100w. System power consumption is listed with a peak of 33 watts while with drives in hibernation we see just 15 watts.

Let's dive in now and take a close look over the following pages.