Specifications

A dual core Atom is the brain of the DS412+ and although this is considered a small CPU for a Windows PC, for a NAS it has sufficient computing power to cover all cases. The installed RAM reaches 1 GB and Synology doesn't mention anything about upgrading, however once we took apart the unit we discovered that the RAM is not soldered directly onto the mainboard, but loaded into a single RAM slot so if you find a compatible 2 GB DIMM you can probably upgrade it. Up to four hot swap drives can be installed in the NAS and the newest SATA 6 Gbps protocol is not supported. Normal mechanical HDDs cannot take advantage of its speed improvements so there will be no bottleneck even with SATA II. Also before you purchase any HDDs you better take a look at this HDD compatibility list provided by Synology.

The networking part of the DS412+ is equipped with two Gigabit NICs which support port trunking (or LACP); however in order to take advantage of LACP's increased speeds your switch support it too. The same applies for Jumbo frames which offer a speed boost for large transfers. The other I/O ports are two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 and one eSATA.

The NAS features compact dimensions and its weight is pretty low thanks to the extended usage of plastic, something we don't like that much, we prefer steel over plastic even though metal is much heavier.

Synology states that the DS412+ in sleep mode comsumes 15W while at full load only 44W are needed. These are very low values, so this NAS will save you lots of money in electricity bills.

Finally the warranty period is similar to QNAP's products and is limited to only two years while the price is on the high side reaching $680.