Synology DiskStation DS712+ NAS Review

Specification highlights

 Hardware

• 1.8Ghz Processor
•  this is a Intel Atom D425 ‘Pineview’ (45nm) single core processor designed to operate around 1.83GHz, although this processor is a single core chip it does operate using hyper threading which gives the ability operate in a similar fashion to a dual core. The processor is passively cooled with an aluminum heatsink. Overall the heat isn’t an issue – even stressing the system the processor rarely gets over 95 degrees Fahrenheit

CPU is on the right - removable 1GB dimm under the CPU. The left side is the ICH9R I/O controller

• Dual Gigabit Ethernet
• Two Intel 82574L network controllers handle the dual gigabit Ethernet using the PCI Express 1.1 x1 (2.5GT/s) interface.
• Wireless support
• full listing of supported wireless dongles can be found here.
• Support drive sizes UP TO 3TB
• 3TB drives are still new to the market, this cap will probably increase as larger size drives become available.
• Very low noise level.
• 19.2 dB from 1 meter away – this is between leaves rustling and a whisper, more examples can be found here.
• External USB/eSATA expandable
• Expandable by USB2.0 drives or an external device such as the DX510
• 1 GB of DDR3 Ram – this ram is upgradeable as well which would help if you were dealing with running multiple applications all the time under a high stress setup. DDR3 ram is cheap and you can easily pick up a 4gb stick for ~50 bucks.

Applications

• I will cover the applications in the next section.

General Specifications:

• Supported Os:
  • Windows 2000 onward
  • Mac OSX 10.3 onward
  • Ubuntu 9.04 onward
• Supported Browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 7
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Internet Explorer 9
  • Firefox 3.5
  • Firefox 3.6
  • Safari 4 (Mac)
  • Safari 5 (Mac)
  • Chrome
• Included Security:
  • FTP over SSL/TLS
  • IP Auto-Block
  • Firewall
  • Encrypted Network Backup over Rsync
  • HTTPS Connection
  • VPN application

   

Just having these features alone gives this device remarkable capabilities, and I haven’t even touched the extensive applications list yet. Covering virtually every operating system in wide spread use, every modern browser, and a plethora of security capabilities. Synology has ensured that no user will be left behind. Synology also regularly updates their DSM OS the DS712+ at the time of this writing has the latest version 3.2, most OS releases touch back several hardware versions so future releases are bound to add additional functionality to this already impressive device.

  Previous Page         1. Introduction2. A closer look3. Full Specs4. Specification highlights5. Applications and conclusion6. View All         Next Page