Synology DS414 4-bay NAS Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Synology is known to have a very competitive pricing structure and the DS414 is by no means any different. With an astonishing price point of £342 inc VAT (~€405 EUR / ~$551 USD) the DS414 is amazingly good value for money and its price is even less than its predecessor the DS413 which is currently retailing for around £407 (~€482 EUR / ~$656 USD).

Overview

For many home users, two bay NAS systems typically are the systems of choice by the time you take the cost of drives into account. As highlighted above, the DS414 is considerably cheaper than its counterpart – the DS413. This means that if you are on a tight budget then a system like this is likely to be within your price range.

Looking at the style and build, I’m again going to mention just how light the unit is. The plastic build takes a lot of the weight that I’d typically see away, ideal for those who place their unit on a shelf for example. The gloss black front cover and tool-less design makes for a very user-friendly experience. Top this off with a typical five-minute setup where Synology’s latest DSM is installed and it’s easy to see that simplicity is spot on.

As for performance, with this not being a performance model (as would otherwise be indicated with a ‘+’ in the model name) the read and write speeds it has to be said are not that bad. The dual core ARM CPU does mean that RAID build times are not going to be blazing fast, but with this process being a once only affair in most cases, we can’t complain too much.

The DiskStation Manager UI is, as I’ve mentioned before, nice and easy to use, the only thing that I would really like to see is a set of default folders for a quicker setup process. The reason for this is that a number of users are going to be looking for a near plug and play experience and the process of having to setup each root folder with its own permissions may be a daunting process. Granted some people are going to prefer to setup their own folder structure, but when you looking for a user friendly experience, a set of basic folders will only add to the experience for novice users.

On the whole though I’m not at all disappointed with the DS414. Ok so it’s not the fastest 4-bay system in terms of read and write speeds that I’ve had to look at, when compared to the likes of the AS-604T from Asustor, but for a cracking price that is more than £100 less, you really can’t go far wrong. If you’re after a system that doesn’t need all the extras nor speed, just pure storage capacity, then why not consider a system like this.

Pros:

• Tool-free drive installation
• Simple to use GUI
• Lightweight build
• Competitive price point
• Quick first time setup process

Cons:

• Basic folder structure would better suit novice users
• Replacing all the drives at the same time requires the system to be setup again
• Slower CPU does increase initial RAID build times

“Synology have updated their popular SOHO NAS range with the competitively priced DS414, with performance that is very well-balanced for the price. With a tool-free installation process and an easy to use GUI, this system is ideal for the novice user who doesn’t want to pay over the odds for a 4-bay system.”

Thanks to Synology for providing us with this review sample.