Synology Introduces DS414slim with Marvell ARMADA 370
by Ganesh T S on May 28, 2014 11:50 AM EST
NAS units capable of only accepting 2.5" drives have been a rarity, but the launch of WD Red drives in that form factor has given a boost to vendors looking to cater to that space. Synology launched a 2.5"-drive only 4-bay NAS back in 2011 (DS411slim). This year, we have a refresh, the DS414slim.
The Synology OS (Disk Station Manager - DSM) has evolved into a very capable, user-friendly and feature-rich server OS in its own right. Its high-performance iSCSI features make it very attractive for virtual machines. The 414slim comes equipped with a very capable SoC (the Marvell ARMADA 370 running at 1.2 GHz, which we already saw in the LenovoEMC ix4-300d) and sports four hot-swappable drive bays, two USB 3.0 ports and two GbE links. Inside the system, we have 512 MB of DRAM. Since 2.5" drives don't consume a lot of power, the unit is able to do with a 30W external power adapter.
The small size of the system as well as the massive RAID-able storage capacity (4 x 1.5TB supported currently) and rich networking capabilities make it an ideal mini server for those experimenting with virtualization and have a space-constrained setup.
Source: Synology
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mpbrede - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
Seems like a fluff article - not much research at all. 4 x 1.5 TB in RAID isn't all that much - at most 4.5TB RAID 5 or the Synology-proprietary SHR. The space savings over a unit taking 4x4TB is surely not equivalent to the 166% increase in space of the 4TB NAS drives one would typically install.usernametaken76 - Saturday, May 31, 2014 - link
This is not an article, it is a pipeline story. Read the screen.Ettepet - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Why does everybody here assume this is just meant for hard disks? This is an awesome beast for SSD, and with this in mind the article is pretty spot on: massive storage and power in a compact form-factor.Joel Kleppinger - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Considering that one SSD already saturates 1Gbe and USB3 links, the only advantage of the enclosure would be for reliability for RAID SSDs. Thunderbolt 20 would be much more interesting for this as it can move around 2 GB/s.Ettepet - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
I was looking more at the USB 3.0 copying data while accessing the device through ethernet.But you are right about the slow ethernet. At home I use 2x 10GbE and several 1TB SSD's inside (UASP) USB 3.0 enclosures. Hopefully Thunderbolt will be getting (much) more acceptance soon, since 10GbE sure isn't.
imaheadcase - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Terrible design decision! Why only 2.5? 2TB drives are $150 each. This makes no sense. You can get the exact same setup with 3.5 bay option for more space, and it would be CHEAPER if you filled it up. $450 just to fill this with hardrives is beyond terrible design in this day and age.Before you spew about power savings, it would not be noticeable, nevermind the fact the person using this can afford it.
Ettepet - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Well, it will be far more transportable and easier to stack away somewhere in a small office environment.haukionkannel - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Exactly! Smaller can sometimes cost more. This is not the economy version, this is for small size and many disks.imaheadcase - Friday, May 30, 2014 - link
Not really, check the dimensions.fteoath64 - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
Yeah, such a smaller form-factor allows it to be carried to and from the office once a week far more easily than a 3.5inch 4 bay unit. Some people do a complete backup of the office machine on Fridays to work on stuff over the weekend then he/she can do a complete off-line backup on a 3.5inch USB drive in a cyclic basis. Such a practise is much better than a lot of enterprise backup that is troublesome to get data back when there is a failure in a disk/surface.