Small is nice on the subject of NAS packing containers designed to serve up audio and video over a house community. Synology’s 4-bay DS419slim, being constructed for two.5-inch drives, is considerably much less cumbersome than the common NAS field designed to accommodate 3.5-inch drives. The DS419slim is ideal for SATA SSDs (solid-state drives), that are practically noiseless and generate much less warmth than mechanical exhausting drives.
Being geared up with a cooling fan, Synology’s DS419slim isn’t as quiet as QNAP’s fan-less SilentNAS collection, however it’s additionally more likely to preserve your drives wholesome longer. And Synology’s field streams 4K UHD video with aplomb.
Design and specs
The DS419slim measures roughly 5.5 inches deep, 4 inches broad, and 4.6 inches excessive, together with its ft. There are 4 non-locking 2.5-inch trays (friction holds them in place) that slide out the again, in addition to a pair of gigabit ethernet ports and a USB 3.0 port alongside them. There’s one other USB 3.0 port on the entrance for fast copying, in addition to standing lights for the ethernet ports and drives. The energy button and standing gentle are discovered on the aspect of the entrance faceplate.
The friction of the SATA connections, in addition to between the trays and the slots, retains the drives contained in the DS419slim in place.
The DS419 is rendered in black plastic, and it has sufficient heft with drives put in (my take a look at unit arrived with two 512GB Seagate IronWolf NAS SSDs put in) to remain the place you place it. Without drives, it’d blow away within the wind. Hopefully, you’re not intending to make use of it exterior.
The CPU that performs the magic is a low-power, 5TDP, 1.33GHz Marvell Armada 385 88F6820 dual-core, supported by 512MB of DDR3 reminiscence. Low energy means much less warmth, and once more, a decrease system fan velocity. Said fan is situated on the underside of the unit and attracts in recent air to flow into out by means of vents on the highest of the unit, in addition to the gaps between the drive trays, which aren’t coated by a door or the like.
You can regulate the velocity of the fan, however you’ll be able to’t flip it off solely, and it’s not one of many quieter followers I’ve skilled. I stay in a metropolis and am used to white noise. If you’re not, the small quantity the DS419slim emits ought to stay beneath background ranges for those who place it out of the way in which. Just know that it’s not lifeless quiet.
SynologyThe DS419slim is barely slim within the vertical dimension. It’s concerning the width of a typical 2-bay NAS field designed for 3.5-inch drives, however it’s about half that top. Calling it the DS419quick could be extra applicable, however much less marketable.
Just like Windows or macOS
If you haven’t skilled a contemporary NAS field, configuring and utilizing one is rather like utilizing a pc, besides that the field’s desktop seems in a browser window. If your router assigns your DS419slim an IP handle of 192.168.1.150, for instance, you’ll merely sort that handle into your net browser’s handle bar and go browsing. You’ll be introduced with a display screen very like what you see beneath. If you’ll be able to’t discover the field’s IP handle, Synology offers a utility that may.
IDGThe desktop in a browser from DiskStation Manager 6.
You can attempt DSM—Synology’s NAS field working system—on-line at this link. The desktop in a browser was as soon as a rarity, however many NAS packing containers provide any such interface nowadays, though not all are as elegant or as feature-filled as Synology’s.
Multi-role marvel
The DS419slim (and different Synology NAS packing containers) have media options up the wazoo, together with DLNA and iTunes servers and proprietary video, photograph, and music server apps. You may also run Plex Media Server on this field. This NAS field can fill any variety of different roles, too, starting from e mail and net server (you’ll be able to host your personal website utilizing one thing like WordPress), to IP safety digital camera surveillance (Synology contains two free digital camera licenses to make use of with its Surveillance Station software program).
Incidentally, every part’s a station in Synology’s ecosystem: There’s the Video Station, the Music Station, the Photo Station, the Cloud Station, and extra. The packing containers themselves are collectively referred to as DiskStations, and the working system is called DiskStation Manager.
Props to Synology for the simple WordPress setup. It’s one routine the place QNAP sends you in every single place to get an set up to work.
IDGSynology has a ton of apps which you can obtain and set up, masking every part from content material administration to net, photograph, music, and video serving. It can be utilized for video surveillance, too.
The DS419slim can also be a virtually excellent backup vacation spot on your different computing gadgets, supporting a lot of distant entry protocols, together with Rsync and FTP, and even providing to backup your cellular gadgets by way of Synology apps. Synology additionally offers an online portal for simple entry to your machine whenever you’re away from residence.
One factor that I do discover a bit perturbing, nonetheless, is Synology charging additional to assist exFAT, the file system that nearly each new transportable drive comes formatted in. Nearly each different computing machine in existence can learn exFAT, however you’ll must cough up $4 to have a Synology NAS field assist it. I do know it’s a cutthroat market, and that’s solely the worth of a hipster cup of espresso, however significantly?
DiskStation Manager will learn drives formatted HFS+, and it will possibly learn and write NTFS-forfmatted drives. There’s no assist for APFS, however not even Macs use APFS for exterior storage.
Performance
The limiting issue for sustained throughput nowadays is mostly gigabit ethernet. The most you’re going to see is roughly 120MBps, although as you’ll be able to see beneath, small file efficiency can fluctuate fairly a bit. The DS419slim is a reasonably quick field, although the QNAP TS-253B I in contrast it to is way quicker with small recordsdata, although it’s utilizing two 12TB Seagate exhausting drives reasonably than SSDs.
IDGThe DS419slim’s reasonably tame efficiency with small recordsdata is probably going because of the comparatively small quantity of reminiscence onboard: simply 512MB.
The QNAP TS-253B makes use of a quicker Intel Celeron J3455 CPU, and it has eight occasions the RAM (4GB). More RAM means a bigger cache and a lot better efficiency with small recordsdata, however it additionally attracts much more energy and its sustained throughput is little higher than the DS419slim’s.
IDGQNAP’s TS-253B is quicker than the DS419slim with two drives, however the distinction isn’t value worrying about for the common consumer.
The DS419slim streams media extraordinarily properly, and it even easily delivered a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray rip that my older QNAP HS-251A choked on. Late-model CPUs positively have their benefits.
As for the noise I talked about earlier: There is a low-power mode for the fan, however it solely retains the DS419slim quiet when workloads are gentle. You can’t outline the temperature vary for the fan, as you’ll be able to with QNAP’s packing containers, so that you’re caught with Synology’s decisions. The workload is not gentle when it’s streaming, so the fan by no means turns off. But fan velocity by no means elevated past nominal, both.
IDGThe DS419slim’s fan has a low-power mode, however it nonetheless kicks in underneath load and it isn’t the quietest I’ve ever heard.
I’ve heard each louder and quieter followers, together with the a lot quieter one contained in the power-hungry QNAP TS-253B. I preserve my community gear in a distinct room, so it doesn’t have an effect on me; and to be sincere, it wouldn’t hassle me anyway. If you’re delicate to such issues, you’ve been warned.
A terrific field for SSDs
The DS419slim, configured with SSDs—and even with 2.5-inch mechanical exhausting drives—is a superb field for a wise residence—so long as you don’t thoughts a bit of fan noise. It’s small, it’s greater than quick sufficient, it’s an ace with 4K UHD video, and there’s a number of apps you’ll be able to leverage for different duties (consumer backups, safety cameras, and extra). Recommended.