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During my testing I could clearly hear the Synology DS415play working, however it was resting on the test bench next to me whereas most NAS are parked on a shelf out of the way. The two cooling fans are very quiet, the four WD Red drives are near-silent and the Synology chassis is superb. It ducts cooling air to the drives while keeping noise and heat levels at a minimum.
There have been subtle changes from the DS214play to the DS415play such as the ditching of the copy button and the addition of a second USB 3.0 port, plus a number of USB 2.0 ports – however these are minor points.
It seems unlikely that many companies will want to push the video streaming element of NAS so we are talking about a consumer NAS that costs £372 and requires three or four hard drives that will cost £400 or £500. That is a total spend of £800 or £900 which strikes me as an epic amount of cash for watching videos on your tablet or phone.
In the event that you are considering a 4-bay DS414 NAS for your home then I strongly recommend you spend the extra £20 for the Atom upgrade that comes with the DS415play compared to the basic DS414, although the much cheaper DS414j is also a contender.
There is no doubt the DS415play excels at its task of serving up media files but it strikes me as a sledgehammer to crack a relatively small nut. Perhaps you need 20TB+ of storage and require a 4-bay NAS but if you can cope with a ‘mere' 12TB then a 2-bay DS214play will save you a fortune.
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Pros:
- Good performance.
- Synology DSM5 software.
- Tool-free drive bays.
- Decent array of software.
- Two USB 3.0 ports.
- Quiet operation.
Cons:
- High price.
- No digital display.
- Both USB 3.0 are at the rear.
- No HDMI.
KitGuru says: The ultimate 4-bay NAS for serving HD movies to your mobile device but you will pay a very high price for the privilege of owning the latest model from Synology.
