Synology DiskStation DS116 1-Bay Value NAS Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

We can’t provide actual shop prices at this time, as the review is written before the actual release and to be timed and published at the same time. But we do know the recommended retail prices by Synology and that’s just as good. The Synology DiskStation DS116 will set you back $183.60 in the US and £127.20 in the UK.

Overview

Synology’s new DS116 1-bay NAS has a lot more to offer than you would think when you hear that it is a 1-bay NAS that is being branded as a Value unit. Neither of those terms should scare you away in any form or way. Despite just having one drive bay, with modern HDD capacities up to 8TB and above, one bay may be all you need. While you don’t have the options for a redundant drive setup here, you still have plenty of backup options to other NAS devices, external drives, and even to various cloud services.

The Value tag refers more to the fact that we get a lot for our money here and it isn’t just a run-of-the-mill budget unit. Synology put a lot of effort into the system and the result is one that offers a great performance with business-like features but at a low cost. The low cost goes both for the initial purchase of the unit and drives, but also for the total costs of ownership over time. The low power consumption will barely register on your electricity bill.

The NAS in itself, despite its simplicity, has everything you’ll want from a device like this. Starting on the inside, we find a 1.8GHz clocked dual-core CPU and 1GB DDR3 memory. Externally we have two USB 3.0 ports and a single Gigabit Ethernet port and that is basically what makes up the DS116. The CPU features both a floating point unit that, for example, speeds up thumbnail creation and it also has a hardware encryption engine. These two features will help speed up more demanding tasks and provide you with a fluent experience.

Whether you want to connect with ordinary shared network folders on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows, or you want to use iSCSI – the DS116 has you covered. It also comes with a great backup, sync, and cloud station that will make backup jobs easy to create and manage. VPN, multimedia streaming, and mobile apps are also part of the deal. Overall, everything you want from a NAS.

We saw a solid performance throughout all the benchmarks and there is no doubt that this is a NAS that delivers what it promises. A great system stacked onto great hardware and packed with all the features you want.

Pros:

• Compact, quiet, and energy efficient
• Dual-core CPU with hardware encryption engine
• Dual USB 3.0 ports
• Brightness adjustable front LED indicators with schedule control
• DSM 6.0 operating system
• Comprehensive multimedia and backup solutions
• iSCSI support

Cons:

• None

“A powerful yet economical server that convinces through great hardware, plenty of features, and a wallet-friendly price tag.”

Thank You Synology for providing us with this review sample.