Synology DS214play 2-bay NAS Review

Storage/NAS by stefan @ 2014-03-10

DS214play is one of the latest 2-bay NASes from Synology which has at its core the Intel Evansport CE5535 processor coupled with 1GB of DDR3 RAM; this product is capable of doing on-the-fly Full HD transcoding to DLNA-enabled devices and runs the latest DSM software version.

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A Closer Look Part II

The DS214play model comes with a chassis we are already familiar with, which is quite light (plastic externals) with good ventilation properties:

 

 

 

On the front we have the drive bay cover, but a lot of stuff happens on its right; let’s go in more detail:

 

 

 

On the top we will get to see the Status LED, LAN activity LED, but also the Disk Status LEDs:

 

 

 

Further down we will find the SD Card Reader (since this is a multimedia-oriented NAS for home use), but also a single USB 2.0 port:

 

 

 

Next we will get to see the media Copy button along with the On/Off button:

 

 

 

The left side of the drive bay cover also features the code name of the product:

 

 

 

The cover mounts to the chassis with rubber lugs:

 

 

 

After exposing the drive bays we will get to see the branded plastic trays:

 

 

 

A push sign is located on the top of each tray and with small white dots the manufacturer has marked the order of the drive initialization:

 

 

 

With the trays fully removed we will be able to see the daughter board more clearly:

 

 

 

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Comment from jmke @ 2014/03/10
Quote:
Since the NAS is mainly aimed at home use, we would have liked Synology to include a slightly modified design chassis in order to include a HDMI port in the back but also an IR sensor in the front (remote oriented) for being able to operate XBMC straight on our Full-HD television.
can't agree more with your assessment! this little device can easily be placed near your TV and be your one device, instead of having to rely on an external media player; I think QNAP does do HDMI and XBMC combo.

on a Synology related note, DSM 5.0 was released today!

live demo http://www.synology.com/en-global/products/dsm_livedemo

 

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