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The Synology RackStation RS3412RPxs ships in a very large box which took some effort to move around the building.
Synology bundle a driver disc, user manual and mounting screws for all the hard drives. They also include two power cables specific to the region.
The RS3412RPxs is built to the highest standard and weighs almost 13 kg. The outer shell is heavy duty metal, which is what the corporate audience will expect for a Rack mounted device. It measures 88mm x 445 mm x 570 mm (H x W x D).
There are ten drive bays at the front of the RS3412RPxs . There are a series of 3×3 rows and a single drive bay underneath the front control panel which houses the LED readout display at the right. There is also a power and beep on/off button here.
The rear of the NAS server houses a power supply with dual power switches and ports for redundancy. There are four Gigabit LAN connectors with link aggregation on the rear alongside support for an optional 10GbE x2 add on card. Two expansion ports reside on the right side of the chassis alongside a reset button and several USB ports.
Synology really have cut no corners when it comes to the chassis design of the RS3412RPxs. It takes only two screws to remove the upper shell, ideal for an IT team who need semi regular access to the hardware inside.
There are very strong support beams running across the width of the chassis for added durability.
We can see that Synology are now using a passively cooled heatsink on the motherboard to keep the dual core 3.1ghz processor in check.
There is 2GB of Apacer branded ECC memory installed, although more can be added if the demand arises. Up to 6GB of ECC RAM can be installed.
Synology used a Seasonic 500W 80 Plus Bronze certified power supply in last years revision of this server, although this year they have decided to use a redundant 400W supply model designed by ‘Sure Star'.
Along the front of the chassis, between the main motherboard and the hard drive bays are four high grade 80mm YSTECH fans. These are responsible for driving cool air between the drives and main system hardware on the other side of the chassis.
Between the cooling system and the hard drives is the daughterboard which takes power from the 400w redundant power supply and feeds the data directly to the primary motherboards behind. This is a fantastic layout designed purely for 24/7 use in less than perfect environments. There is plenty of physical space to ensure that heat will never be an issue, even if a couple of the fans failed over time.
The drive bays are made from metal, which is tough and ideal for a Rack mount system. The main unit can accept 10 x 4TB drives, for a total capacity of 40TB internally.
