Synology DS414j 4-Bay NAS Review

Synology DSM5.0 User Interface, DS Cloud & Power Consumption

Over DSM4.0, the latest release of the DiskStation Manager brings a much more refreshing theme and layout with a colour palette that is not only more pleasing to the eye, it is also much easier to work your way through. This latter point is fundamental for a system that is targeted at the entry-level user. A dark and to-the-point GUI believe it or not can make a huge difference to the user experience. Warm colours and bold layouts make the process of managing the system psychologically less difficult and therefore less of a challenge.

Synology DS Cloud

One of the other key features that the DS414j has to offer is cloud based access to the file system. As i mentioned previously, cloud based storage is quickly becoming the way to go when wishing to have access to your data on the go. Whilst there are a number of options such as Dropbox and Google Drive that you can utilise, the amount of space that you have to work with is rather restricted (unless you wish to pay for more) and secondly, there is now guarantee that your data is not being scanned by any third parties. Home based systems that offer cloud properties break the mould and therefore offer up much more than Dropbox for example.

Unlike systems such as Western Digital’s My Cloud however, the DS414j is designed and built for local network and operation for the majority of its workload, whilst the ability to serve data to the cloud is a secondary add-on feature.

Power Consumption

Whilst Synology rate this system for a full load power rating of around 36Watts, during the testing stages I measured a full load power draw of just over 47W from the wall. Whilst these figures are higher than those quoted in the specifications, I will factor in the use of enterprise level drive which have a slightly higher level of power consumption. When using a set of Western Digital’s Red NAS drives for example, their lower power rating will result in a lower running cost overall when compared to the drives which I use for testing.