A Look Inside

Cracking open this NAS was very easy since we only had to remove two screws to take one of its side covers off, and afterward, only a few more screws had to be removed to completely take it apart.


The power button is on a small PCB. The second photo above shows how the LED indicators are installed to appear at the face of the NAS.


The mainboard is really small. This is actually one of the smallest mainboards we have ever come across in a NAS.


A small heatsink without a fan is enough to cool down this low TDP SoC. The latter is by STMicroelectronics, and its model number is STiH412 (1.5 GHz, dual-core).


The RAM is soldered to the mainboard, and since there is no free slot available, its total cannot be upgraded, which is a great shame. Two DDR3 SKHynix chips with model number H5TQ4G63CFR equip this NAS. Each of these has a capacity of 4 Gb for a combined capacity of 8 Gb, or 1 GB.


We spotted two voltage regulation modules (VRMs) on the mainboard. One is on top of the SoC and the other on its side. These VRMs most likely provide power to the SoC and RAM.


Only polymer caps are used on the mainboard. These caps are of high quality since they are by Chemi-Con and Sanyo.


On the solder side of the mainboard is a PIC16F1829 8-bit microcontroller.


Close to the battery is the BIOS flash chip, a Micron 25Q064A.


The single PCIe slot is occupied by the SATA expansion card that holds the second SATA connector.


Right besides and on top of the SATA slot on the mainboard are two FDS4435 FETs.


Here is the SATA expansion card.


A Realtek RTL8211E is the Ethernet controller.


The fan is by Y.S Tech, and its model number is FD129225LL-N (92mm, 12V, 0.12A, 1900RPM, 36.3CFM). Its speed is kept low for as long as the unit operates normally, which keeps noise output quite low. According to Y.S Tech, the fan uses Sintetico bearings, which look to be of high quality. The fan header has three pins, and below it, we found an SK34C Schottky Barrier Diode (SBR). Right next to the SBR is a FDS4435 FET.