KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
As with all Synology products reviewed to date, the product is presented in a plain black box with the logo across the sides.
Inside the DS211 is protected under a felt wrap with cardboard padding on both ends.
Inside there is a power cable and adapter, literature, mounting screws, sofware disc and RJ45 cable to connect to your network.
The DS211 is finished in cream and black with the Synology logo on the side panels. it is an attractively designed product.
The front panel has LEDs for drive and network activity and there is a USB 2.0 port with USB copy button and a power button at the bottom.
The rear offers connectivity for two more USB 2.0 devices with a gigabit lan connector along side. Underneath this is a reset button and the AC input. On the right is a safety lock, just below the centrally placed cooling fan.
The case is a screwless design, you simply pull backward on one half to open. This is all plastic construction.
Inside is a traditional design with a SATA daughtercard handling both power and data transfer duties for the attached drives. Behind the drives is a PWM 70mm fan which is hooked into the motherboard below.
The hardware specifications of the DS211 are higher than the DS411j we reviewed earlier this week. The CPU is running at 1.6ghz (from 1.2ghz) and there is double the memory onboard (256mb) which runs at 1066mhz, not 800mhz. The DS211 however can only handle a dual drive setup, so 4TB total. Synology don't yet support hard drives bigger than 2TB each, but we would assume in 2011 this will change.
Drives are added by simply sliding into the metal rackmount in the center. These are then screwed into the side panels for stability.
