Synology DS212 NAS Server Review

[Rob Williams]

It's been a while since we last evaluated a NAS device, so to help kick things back off, we're taking a look at Synology's 2-bay DS212 NAS server. Synology has long offered not only robust hardware, but exceptionally good software, so let's see if that still stands today, as our last look at a Synology product was a full three years ago.

Read through Greg's full look at Synology's DS212 and then discuss it here!

 

[marfig]

At this price, definitely a home consuming device too. We are known to spend more on GPUs.

Thanks for the great review Greg! I'm a sucker for NAS devices. I've sold mine two years ago and ever since have been regretting it.

I'd love to have seen a picture of its innards. More importantly, can I upgrade the RAM? I'm probably not going with RAID. I need to use it for two purposes: One disk for full backups and another for virtual machines. I'd rather have a bit more memory.

 

[Glider]

I am still a proud owner of a DS410... Set me back quite a bit, but was worth every euro!

With the DSM4.0 it will be even better (Of course I am a beta tester! )

 

[Greg King]

At this price, definitely a home consuming device too. We are known to spend more on GPUs.

Thanks for the great review Greg! I'm a sucker for NAS devices. I've sold mine two years ago and ever since have been regretting it.

I'd love to have seen a picture of its innards. More importantly, can I upgrade the RAM? I'm probably not going with RAID. I need to use it for two purposes: One disk for full backups and another for virtual machines. I'd rather have a bit more memory.

Marfig,

I will try and get you a few quick shots of the insides if you would like. The new boxes from Synology cannot be easily opened like the older ones but I will try to get you something.

I have not attempted to upgrade the RAM on the DS212 but can tell you that bumping the RAM in another Synology NAS that I have here from 512MB to 1GB caused significant instability issues. I tried two separate sticks of SODIMM DDR2 but encountered the same performance issues. It could have been incompatibility with the memory I was trying to use but I would take caution in expanding the RAM. I doubt the performance gains by doing so as well but, after all, we are tinkerers and hackers. These are the kind of things we try out.

 

[Greg King]

I am still a proud owner of a DS410... Set me back quite a bit, but was worth every euro!

With the DSM4.0 it will be even better (Of course I am a beta tester! )

DSM 4.0 is slick isn't it? I'm excited for it to come out of beta.

 

[marfig]

I will try and get you a few quick shots of the insides if you would like. The new boxes from Synology cannot be easily opened like the older ones but I will try to get you something.

Oh! Don't do it then
Nothing's worth ruining your warranty, or worse damaging the case of this pretty device.

I have not attempted to upgrade the RAM on the DS212 but can tell you that bumping the RAM in another Synology NAS that I have here from 512MB to 1GB caused significant instability issues. I tried two separate sticks of SODIMM DDR2 but encountered the same performance issues. It could have been incompatibility with the memory I was trying to use but I would take caution in expanding the RAM.

Strange indeed. Must have been some sort of incompatibility. Unless... the memory controller is specifically designed to work with that amount of memory. But that's hard to understand why... or how.

I doubt the performance gains by doing so as well but, after all, we are tinkerers and hackers. These are the kind of things we try out.

Yeah. But The idea here was to be able to increase the cache size since using it to host virtual machines could benefit from an increased RAM cache. Backups... not so much.

Have to say however that I never understood exactly why NAS devices are always so set against customization, while DAS ones are not.