Synology DS414j Review

1. Introduction2. Synology DS414j (Packaging and Bundle)3. Synology DS414j (Page 1)4. Synology DS414j (Page 2)5. The Software and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

In essence the Synology DS414j is a no-frills steel box that holds four hard drives. Perhaps the most exciting feature is the single USB 3.0 port and to be honest that isn't especially exciting. You don't get hot swap drive bays or link aggregation but for many small office and home office users those features are frivolous luxuries that cost money without providing any benefit.

If you simply intend to fill the NAS with drives and park it in a corner of your office then I am confident you will be happy with your purchase. The status LEDs are informative without being too annoying and the DS414j is impressively quiet in operation. If you leave it idling for a while it will shut down and sleep until it is required and will then spring into action.

Synology has chosen the 1.2GHz dual core processor with great care. When I was uploading large movie files the CPU load crept just above 90 percent which is a red alert. Usually it dropped below 90 percent which is amber and for day-to-day use you can expect to see a CPU load under 40 percent – where the meter is blue in colour.

You get 512MB of DDR3 memory but are unlikely to need it all unless the entire office piles in and attempts to make a connection.

Overall I liked the DS414j but when I make a mental list of the people who should buy this NAS it is a very short list. Most people will find a two bay NAS is adequate as they can have two 4TB or 5TB drives in RAID. You get a lot of files on a 5TB drive and the second drive offers security.

On the other hand if you want four huge drives with RAID 5 (and that's a good call) then I think the DS414 gives you more options. It costs an extra £90 but that is only ten percent of the total once you buy four decent hard drives.

Provided you are certain you don't need hot swap drives or the extra performance of link aggregation then yes, the DS414j is the NAS you should buy.

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Pros

• Decent performance.
• Reasonable cost.
• One USB 3.0 port.
• Synology DSM 5 software.
• Support for 5TB drives.

Cons

• Old school styling.
• No hot swap drives.
• Only one USB 3.0 port – I want two.
• SATA 3Gbps rather than 6Gbps.
• No link aggregation.

KitGuru says: The DS414j is a basic four bay NAS but it does a decent job for the price.

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