Exterior
The front looks ugly, and making matters worse is the lack of a USB port at the front. This will be a major issue for most users. Finally, there is no copy button, either.
A "Synology" exhaust grille is on each of the two sides, and you will find a label with the model number, manufacturing country (Taiwan), and power specifications on the bottom.
Around the back, two fan grilles take up most of the real estate.
With just a DC-in, two USB 3.0, and a Gigabit Ethernet, there are not many I/O ports. You will also find the reset button in a recessed hole here.
The plastic trays don't feature any noise dampening material. To install the drives, remove four screws on the rear panel. Synology was kind enough to send me a pair of Toshiba (NAS N300) drives for my evaluation. For comparable results with previous reviews, I use my own drives for all tests. That said, I will also use these for my multimedia tests (mostly with Plex).