Exterior

The NAS has a plastic casing featuring a dark, matt finish of good quality. Contrary to QNAP that uses brushed steel cases, Synology prefers plastic cases because plastic reduces production costs and, as such, the final price-tag of their product. When it comes to reduced retail prices, especially for NAS servers, we don't care so much about the wrapping if it is of acceptable quality. We are more interested in what it hides and protects.

At the front, we find an USB port that is, unfortunately, only USB 2.0 compliant since the faster ones are located at the rear. We also find a SD card slot, the copy and power buttons, and the LED indicators at the front. Above the HDD trays are some dots used for enumeration; however, there are no numbers or dots on the caddies themselves, which is somewhat inconvenient if you remove them frequently.


The Synology logo is engraved into the sides of the case and serves as both ventilation and advertising.


The 92 mm diameter fan occupies most of the back's real-estate. All I/O ports, here two USB 3.0, a single eSata, and a gigabit port, are located at the bottom. A K-lock and the power-input socket are there as well.


Four rubber pads on the bottom provide the necessary stability on every surface.


A look at the inside with the caddies removed.


The caddies are made of plastic and can house 3.5" and 2.5" HDDs or SSDs since the price of the latter is decreasing at a fast pace. Like the rest of Synology products we have tested in the past, this NAS features removable HDD trays that are equipped with strips of soft material to absorb disk vibrations; the HDD mounting holes feature rubber grommets for the same reason.