Synology launches two brand new NAS products

There is a definite step-up feel in the air around Synology's UK offices in Milton Keynes this October. Hot on the heals of the DS214, we now have the DS414 and DS114 about to land. KitGuru fingers a pair of 4TB drives and wonders on the best place to stick em.

According to Joanne Plummer, marketing guru for Synology, the DiskStation DS414 is a “great advancement that includes a rich offering of technology into the Synology Value Series” with the specific aim of  “Supporting task-intensive small and medium sized businesses”.

OK – so that's one newly launched product ready to target the unsuspecting market, but what about the second?

Joanne pointed us in the direction of Mike Wang, Synology Product Manager, to help get the low down. He said, “The DS114 is a compact but versatile unit that promises personal users get the most with the least investment”.

It occurs to us that everything Synology offers seems to be geared around ‘baby steps' upgrades.

Mike agreed, saying “A little extra investment gets you a better, more advanced Synology product, bringing you the best overall NAS experience. Through this expansion, we help our customers to transform their IT infrastructures from a ‘cost centre' to an ‘asset' for innovation and success”.

That's the positioning over and done with, so what about the technical specifications?

DS414

• Dual core 1.33GHz CPU with floating point unit
• 1GB main memory
• Dual LAN
• Two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports
• Latest tool-free HDD tray design
• 4 Hard Drives up to 4TB each
• Complete with Hot Swap capability

According to Mike, with link aggregation enabled, the DS414 achieves over 135MB/sec write speed in a RAID 5 configuration with Windows – and over 207MB/sec read speed.

DS114

• 1.2GHz CPU
• 512MB main memory
• Gigabit LAN
• Two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports
• Single HDD up to 4TB
• Budget model – no Hot Swapy capability

Synology DS114 is, essentially, a compact, all-purpose NAS aiming at small business and home users with a read speed over 108MB/sec and a write speed of more than 71MB/sec.

Both products run Synology's famous DiskStation Manager software and, we're told, will be competitively priced. We're expecting an online price listing any time now.

KitGuru says: while having a single drive for backup is fine for regular users, here at KitGuru we're more interested in the beefed-up 414. Made especially tempting with the new 5TB drives on the near horizon.

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