Page 5: Performance, Video Review, Conclusion
Performance
Since we only have 100mb/s ethernet switches, the DS210j easily saturated our network bandwidth. You'll need gigabit to get the maximum throughput and we're in the process of upgrading our network to handle gigabit devices. The 800MHz ARM CPU is plenty fast for tasks that the DS210j was designed to do. It easily served PHP pages with MySQL and can function as a test web server and much more. ARM processors are very efficient. The hard drives didn't get hot and even while in use, they remained at under 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). Normally, the drive stay at around 95 degrees F (35 degrees C).
Power usage was excellent. Since this is a low power ARM device, at normal load it was using 16 Watts. Even on bootup, the DS210j got up to 29 Watts which is the peak we saw for power usage. There is simply no comparison to an x86 based server in terms of power usage.
Video Review
The text portion actually contains much more information than the video since we were up against the 15 minute wall. Still, it is handy to see how the web configuration works. Please check out the video.
Conclusion
The Synology DS210j really does it all. It truly is a Network Application Server. Move over other NAS devices, the DiskStation Manager software has you beat. We like to see healthy competition and the DS210j provides just that. The DS210 exceeded our expectations and at $200 (Amazon Link, Newegg Link), this is an excellent price for a feature rich product. It can do everything that any x86 server can do in a smaller size and power envelope. The DS210j is easily an Editor's Choice for the feature set and price. Synology has an excellent product line and the DiskStation Manager wraps it all up in an easy to use interface. Well done.
ASE Labs would like to thank Synology for making this review possible.
Since we only have 100mb/s ethernet switches, the DS210j easily saturated our network bandwidth. You'll need gigabit to get the maximum throughput and we're in the process of upgrading our network to handle gigabit devices. The 800MHz ARM CPU is plenty fast for tasks that the DS210j was designed to do. It easily served PHP pages with MySQL and can function as a test web server and much more. ARM processors are very efficient. The hard drives didn't get hot and even while in use, they remained at under 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). Normally, the drive stay at around 95 degrees F (35 degrees C).
Power usage was excellent. Since this is a low power ARM device, at normal load it was using 16 Watts. Even on bootup, the DS210j got up to 29 Watts which is the peak we saw for power usage. There is simply no comparison to an x86 based server in terms of power usage.
Video Review
The text portion actually contains much more information than the video since we were up against the 15 minute wall. Still, it is handy to see how the web configuration works. Please check out the video.
Conclusion
The Synology DS210j really does it all. It truly is a Network Application Server. Move over other NAS devices, the DiskStation Manager software has you beat. We like to see healthy competition and the DS210j provides just that. The DS210 exceeded our expectations and at $200 (Amazon Link, Newegg Link), this is an excellent price for a feature rich product. It can do everything that any x86 server can do in a smaller size and power envelope. The DS210j is easily an Editor's Choice for the feature set and price. Synology has an excellent product line and the DiskStation Manager wraps it all up in an easy to use interface. Well done.
ASE Labs gives the DS210j an Editor's Choice award.
ASE Labs would like to thank Synology for making this review possible.