Gearlog.com has a short review of the Synology DS409Slim network-attached-storage (NAS) device. It measures about 5 inches in each dimension, but has a capacity of 2TB (1.5TB redundant RAID 5 storage). The appliance costs about $400 and a configuration with four 500GB drives would be just over $800:

“Synology says the DS409slim draws just 19 watts, 12 watts when it’s in hibernation mode. The unit employs a 1.2GHz Marvell processor and has 128MB onboard RAM. The back panel has a network connecton, a USB jack (another is ont he front panel), an eSATA connector allowing you to attach a fifth drive for more storage or more redundancy, and a 12-volt jack for the external transformer. There’s even a laptop-style locking slot on account of something that weighs just 2.5 pounds might be too much of a temptation in a small office or hotel room. There’s support for DLNA, UPnP, iTunes, and remote sharing of photos, music, and files.

The unit supports anything from RAID 0 (striped disks for performance) through RAID 1 (mirrored drives with two copies of every file) through RAID 5 (four drives with the ability to survive the loss of a drive) and with an external drive plugged in, RAID 6 (five drives able to survive the loss of two drives). If you’re looking to buy, you may as well go for the 500GB drives, which average $100 now, while a 320GB drive is only about $20 less.

The only downside to the DS409slim is capacity: A four-bay NAS device with 2TB drives would have 8GB of RAID 0f storage, 6GB of secure RAID 5 storage, useful in case your iTunes collection is getting out of hand.”

Read the whole review here (gearlog.com).

Synology Disk Station DS409slim is designed to provide users with a budget-friendly solution for easy file sharing and backup. The snap-in 2.5″ hard drive design brings low power consumption, quiet operation, reliability and easy disk replacement in a compact design. Its sophisticated software, Synology Disk Station Manager 2.1, delivers ease of use and variety of features.

• Basic, JBOD, RAID 0/1/5/6, RAID 5+Spare Support
• Cool and Quiet
• Power-Saving (12W~19W)

PCWorld has a more extensive review, I just found out (thanks James):

“Synology’s Disk Station DS409slim is one of the first network-attached storage (NAS) devices we’ve seen to make use of 2.5in notebook hard drives instead of 3.5 desktop hard drives. The use of 2.5in notebook drives allows the DS409slim to be smaller than most NAS devices on the market, and it will also consume less power. However, it also means that the maximum storage capacity of the DS409slim isn’t as high as NAS devices that use 3.5in drives.

The Synology Disk Station DS409slim has four drive bays, yet retains a small stature that makes it look like a toy. It even comes with a display stand. Nevertheless, it has the same connectivity you would find on larger NAS devices, including eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet and two USB ports. You also get a one-touch copy button that can be used to easily make backups and from external drives.

The drives are hot-swappable and can be formatted in a number of configurations, including basic (separate drives), JBOD and RAID levels 0, 1, 1+0, 5, 5+Spare and 6.

You will be able to access the drive from computers running Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, and it can be set up as an FTP server, too.

Media features like UPnP, iTunes and photo servers are available, along with a download station from which you can queue BitTorrent, HTTP, FTP and eMule downloads. Unfortunately there is no way to schedule download times for these.

The Disk Station DS409slim’s Disk Manager is similar to QNAP’s revamped Firmware 3.0 Web interface. It uses an icon-based interface and configuration wizards, which will help people without much experience of network-attached storage.”

Both reviews conclude that teh Synology DS409Slim is in a way limited by its use of laptop hard drives:

“

Conventional 2.5in hard drives are quieter than 3.5in drives, and solid-state drives are completely silent. This makes the DS409slim the perfect NAS if you want something that won’t make much noise. Power efficiency is also better than other NAS devices. During testing the Disk Station DS409slim (configured with three solid-state drives) consumed 11.5 Watts when idle, and a maximum of 14W when writing data to the drives. By comparison, the two-bay QNAP TS-219 Turbo NAS required 23W when running two 3.5in hard drives.

However, there are still some disadvantages to using 2.5in hard drives. They typically cost more than 3.5in drives at the same capacity — particularly when it comes to solid-state drives — and the DS409slim’s total capacity is currently limited 2TB due to smaller individual drive capacities (the current maximum capacity of 2.5in drives is currently 500GB).”

PCWorld Review

According to a July 2008 report by research firm Parks Associates, the number of households worldwide with data networks will grow from around 170 million in 2008 to 240 million by year-end 2012. The firm also reports that the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2012. In addition, consumers indicate that the most important feature for a network-attached storage (NAS) device is the amount of available storage. With its massive 4 TB capacity, the My Book World Edition II network storage system will serve this rapidly growing need for home data storage.

The My Book World Edition II network storage system uses RAID 1 (Mirrored¹) technology to automatically and continuously maintain a second copy of user’s data. If one drive in the two-drive system ever fails, the system continues to run and the data is safe. In addition, the new My Book World Edition II network hard drive includes software that simplifies the task of setting up automatic and continuous data backup for all the PCs in the home. The My Book World Edition II storage systems ship in Mirrored mode and use half the capacity for file redundancy.

With its media server capabilities and fast transfer speeds, this high-capacity system makes it simple to build a centralized digital media library that everyone can easily share. Music, photos and videos can be streamed directly from the My Book World Edition II storage system to any PC, Mac or connected DLNA® media player (such as TVs, Microsoft® Xbox 360 and Sony® PlayStation®3 game consoles or wireless digital pictures frames) using the integrated UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) media server and iTunes® Music server software. Users can also securely access their files from anywhere in the world through the Internet using the free MioNet® remote access service included with every My Book World Edition II storage system.

“The latest example of the home NAS is Western Digital’s My Book World Edition II. Measuring 6.7″ tall, 3.9″ wide, and 6.3″ deep, the My Book is considerably smaller than the mid-tower server I have stuffed in the laundry room closet. Heck, it’s smaller than most Mini-ITX enclosures, which should make it easy to tuck out of the way, even in a small studio apartment or dorm room.

Encased in glossy white plastic, the My Book is clearly influenced by the styling of old-school Apple designs. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, although I would have preferred a riff off Cupertino’s more industrial brushed aluminum designs. At least the white finish doesn’t show fingerprints and smudges like glossy black coatings.

The ghostly theme spreads to the drive’s strip of face-mounted white LEDs. Thankfully, the lights emit a soft glow rather than a piercing beam. When the drive isn’t in use, the lights slowly fade in and out, like a slow-motion digital heartbeat.”

The storage capacity of the My Book World Edition II is 4TB, with 2TB of usable storage space and the other 2TB of space set aside for data redundancy. WD says that the high performance design of the device makes it ideal for use as a media server and it is compatible with PCs, Macs, and any other DLNA media player like the PS3 and Xbox 360.

“Families have more and more digital media like movies, photos and music to store, share and protect. Having two drives inside the My Book World Edition II network storage system, instantaneously and automatically duplicating data, offers consumers the peace of mind of double safe, real-time protection of their valuable content,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “Families can relax knowing their valuable media is backed up while enjoying the ability to stream their content to a plethora of different devices from PCs and Macs to PS3s, Xbox 360s and the latest connected TVs.”

Features:

• The new My Book World Edition II network drive features:
• Automatic, continuous backup for all the computers on your network;
• Dual-drive system that mirrors valuable data for extra safe data protection;
• Centralized storage and sharing for all of your family’s digital content;
• Streaming to any connected PC, Mac or DLNA certified game console or media player;
• Easy remote access to all your data from anywhere, anytime;
• Works seamlessly on networks with both Windows and Mac computers;
• Ability to centralize and stream music collection to a Mac or Windows PC using iTunes software;
• USB 2.0 port to turn any USB drive into an instant network drive or extra capacity for the My Book World Edition II;
• Cooler, quieter, eco-friendly design with drives using WD GreenPower Technology™ which run cooler, quieter and consume up to 33 percent less power2;
• User serviceable;
• Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on your drive;
• High-speed data transfer with Gigabit Ethernet; and,
• 3-year limited warranty.

Read a review over at rechreport.com

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