Synology DiskStation DS411slim review

The DS411slim is different to the majority of NAS enclosures. Instead of taking 3.5in desktop hard disks, it uses smaller 2.5in laptop hard disks. This allows it to be noticeably smaller than other NAS enclosures, but laptop disks tend to cost more per gigabyte and come in smaller capacities. For example, four 500GB 2.5in disks come to around £160, whereas a single 2TB disk 3.5in costs just £65.

We tested the DS411slim with two 5,400rpm hard disks and configured them as RAID 0, then as RAID 1. With a third or fourth disk fitted, RAID 5 can also be used. The disks are screwed into plastic carriers which slide into place at the rear of the NAS. It’s quick and easy to do.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the DS411slim would be slower than other NAS devices since we used disks with a 5,400rpm spindle speed rather than the desktop standard of 7,200rpm. However, disk spindle speeds are rarely the bottleneck for network storage – NAS circuitry and the network itself are more likely culprits. That’s why we weren’t surprised to discover that the DS411slim excelled in nearly all of our file transfer benchmarks. It fell behind the leaders when reading small files, but not by much.

The DS411slim uses the same sophisticated web configuration interface as other DiskStations. The slick interface resembles a computer’s desktop with icons and menus. You can even keep shortcut icons for your most frequently used controls on the desktop, or search for the controls you want by keyword.

Creating user accounts is quick and easy, with sophisticated options such as setting quotas and emailing the user their account details, all available from a single, easy-to-understand tabbed window. It’s one of the best NAS interfaces we’ve seen.

The advanced features are just as impressive, such as the ability to act as a web server, Dynamic DNS support so you don’t need a static IP address and an iPhone app for accessing files remotely. There’s even the ability to use the DS411slim as the recording and control centre for IP surveillance cameras.

More common features such as the iTunes and UPnP media servers worked well. We also had no trouble sharing a USB printer and the contents of USB disks with other users on our network. Files can be downloaded from websites, newsgroups or BitTorrent independently of a computer. Thankfully, the download interface is separate from the main admin interface, so you can give other users access to it without the risk of them altering settings they shouldn’t. Indeed, each user can be given differing levels of access to these extra features as you see fit.

As with other Synology NAS enclosures we’ve seen, we were impressed by the DS411slim’s performance, easy administration and treasure trove of well-implemented extra features. However, unless you have spare 2.5in disks already to hand, it will cost more to kit out than other NAS enclosures.