Exterior

The KD22 is small and looks even smaller because of its black color. The finish is superb and the aluminum portion of its enclosure adds a good "heft" of quality to the product and is conducive to dissipating heat properly, which allows the fan to run lower RPMs. A plastic door at the front hides the HDD trays from plain view, and the power on/off button is in the top-left corner. At the bottom of the front are two USB 3.0 ports and the SD-card reader.


The bays are numbered, but lack distinctive markings, and the buttons on top of the them are for quickly removing the HDDs if you configured those in RAID 1. There are also several LED indicators at the front. These and their functions are given a thorough explanation in the user's manual. The trays don't feature any locks since this NAS is mostly for use at home, which makes them very easy to remove. You only have to pull their latches outward.


A useful description of all LED indicators located at the front of the KD22 can be found in the user's manual. Pressing the power button for less than a second will turn off its own LED. Simply press it for a second time, again for less than a second, to turn its LED back on. Shuttle says this feature to be useful because it allows you to turn these LEDs off, which prevents light interference in a dark environment (while you watch a movie, for example).


Photos of the NAS's internals without the trays. The HDDs compartment is completely sealed in by metallic plates.


This side is covered by a thick aluminum part that acts as a big passive heatsink. Its finish is fantastic and looks cool, too!


On this side are the series name in the middle and a quite long ventilation grill at the bottom.


At the rear, the fan grill occupies most of the space. On the bottom are the Ethernet port, a Kensington lock, a USB 2.0 port, a hole that hides the reset switch, and the power input plug.


The NAS's bottom has two large rubber feet and the power specifications label.


The trays are, thankfully, numbered and of good quality since they are made out of metal, not plastic. Shuttle deserves praise here since we have seen much more expensive NAS boxes with lower quality components out of plastic. However, not all is perfect as Shuttle should have used some anti-vibration materials (i.e. rubber mounts), which wouldn't have affected the price, but would have nicely absorbed any HDD vibrations.