Exterior

The Synology DS-412+ has a black, matte finish and the external quality overall is decent although not top notch. We would highly prefer brushed aluminium or at least a steel casing to be used instead of plastic. On the front, a plastic cover hides the removable trays and you have to remove it to gain access to them. On the top of each caddy dots are used for enumeration, however there are no numbers or dots on the caddies so you have to number them by yourself once you install the HDDs, if you plan to remove them frequently at least. In the top right corner all five indicator LEDS can be found, for the status of the NAS itself and the activity of each of the four HDDs. In the bottom right corner resides the On/Off switch and the front USB 2.0 port.


On the side of the NAS we find the Synology logo engraved into the casing and on the rear side most of the real estate is occupied by the two 92mm fans. On the bottom left side all I/O ports are located, namely two USB 3.0, a single eSATA and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. Also the power input socket (12V) resides there along with a K-lock.


On the bottom of the NAS four rubber pads provide the necessary stability on every surface.


We removed all four caddies, to give you an image of the internals and the PCIe expansion card that houses all SATA connectors. The two fans are located right behind the HDDs in order to remove the generated heat.


The caddies can house 3.5" and 2.5" HDDs or SSDs (if you are rich enough or simply don't want high capacity). On their internal sides they are equipped with strips of soft material to absorb disk vibrations and also the HDD mounting holes feature rubber grommets for the same purpose.