Synology DS112j Single Bay NAS Enclosure
By Alex Powell
Introduction
A NAS drive is the economical solution to backup your digital life within your home! As our
lives and more importantly our contents go digital, it is becoming
increasingly important for homes to have a sound digital structure.
Somewhere not just to keep backups, but also serve up our content in a way
we want. With that in mind we are looking at yet another excellent
product from Synology, the DiskStation DS112j.
Synology NAS enclosures are so much more than just storage as they provide numerous additional features. The Synology DiskStation DS112j is an energy efficient server that can manage media, print, downloads, surveillance and mail. If you are a proud Android or iPhone/iPod Touch owner you can remotely interact with the DiskStation as well via one of their downloadable apps. These apps I will come to later.
Contents
The DiskStation DS112j includes an Ethernet cable, software CD, several HDD mounting screws,
a welcome pack, warranty information and the AC power adapter. It is
packaged in an aesthetically pleasing box which is no bigger than it needs
to be. Speaking of packaging, I notice Synology have started paying a lot
more attention to their packaging across their products. An ethos
perhaps pioneered by Apple but seemingly being adopted by most companies.
Connectivity
Compared
to some of its bigger brothers like the DS212, the DS112j may seem on paper
to be lacking in the hardware store but you would be wrong. It is powered
with a powerful 1,0GHz ARM Processor with 128MB of memory. The front of the
unit has a nice, well placed on / off button and status lights. The rear of
the Synology DS112j features a 60mm fan to extract heat from the unit whilst
in use. Underneath the fan are 2 x USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit LAN (RJ45) and
an AC connector. Also on the rear is a small reset button. The DS112j is a really slim NAS box with a small footprint. It holds one 3.5” Sata hard
drive up to a capacity of 3TB or one 2.5” hard drive. If you wish to fit a
2.5” drive you will need a disk holder adaptor which is sold separately.
The DS112j is billed as a budget-friendly 1-bay NAS server for Home Users. It really does
deliver on its promise. I found it perfect for streaming music, photos and
HD content. Being designed for the home user the DS112j is really quiet. It
is sat on my desk and I can’t and hear it over my computer.
Build
The NAS box itself is extremely well built and sturdy with a clean, white glossy finish
and nicely rounded edges. The side panel comes off easily once 2 screws are
removed. Like other Synology NAS boxes the DS112j has the Synology logo cut
out on the side which is a great way to increase ventilation and lower
internal temps. In my opinion it also adds to the overall trendy appearance
of this box. Rubber grommets act as feet to reduce vibration and as a stable
stand for the NAS.
Setup
The DS112j was straight forward to get up and working within a couple of minutes. The included Synology Data Replicator 3 works well at backing up your data at any particular timed intervals that you request, and gives you multiple options to suit different types of backups.
What really sets Synology apart from other NAS devices has to be the straightforward web
interface which allows you to setup the DS112j through your web browser. As
I mentioned, Synology provides mobile apps that interface with the DS112j.
The DS Audio iPhone app works great. I was able to stream music on my iPad
and iPhone with no issues. Another great app is DS photo+ which is a really
neat way of viewing photos. I especially like the way it shows you small
thumbnails across the bottom of your phone with the larger photo on top.
DS finder is one of those apps that is really useful for when you want to
login to your box from a different PC and can’t remember the IP address, or
you just want to check how much storage you have left. Even the temperature
of the hard drive is displayed which on my particular box never got over 37c
/ 99F, which is actually cooler than the hard drives in my main PC.
As well as being able to operate with Linux, OS X and Windows, it functions as an
entertainment server through its DNLA enabled media backend and built in
iTunes server. The Download station allows Bit Torrents and NZB to run on
the DiskStation DS112j without any other computer being on within the
network.
Synology are in the beta stages of their DSM 4.1 and therefore I was unable to test this on the
DS112j, although I am hoping to give this a try when the DS112j is fully
released and supported with their new DSM.
My Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a powerful and very capable NAS box without the expense of a Dual bay NAS then the DS112j is for
you. It a great choice for the savvy computer user like myself, but also the
average home user will find it a breeze to set up and start using. The hard
drive that I used was a WD 6400AAKS-00A7B. Synology supports a wide range of
hard drives but be sure to check their compatibility list first if buying
new drives to be certain that they work. Also, if you have an existing hard
drive, remember to back up any data to prevent loss during the set up
process of the NAS box which formats the drive in its own file format.
Benchmarks:
Intel NASPT
The Intel NAS Performance Toolkit (NASPT) is a
file system exerciser and analysis tool designed to enable direct
measurement of home network attached storage (NAS) performance. Designed to
emulate the behaviour of an actual application, NASPT uses a set of real
world workload traces gathered from typical digital home applications.
Traces of high definition video playback and recording, office productivity
applications, video rendering/content creation and more provide a broad
range of different application behaviours.
HDD video Play and Record
Average Throughput: 62.043MB/s
File Copy From NAS
Average
Throughput: 68.194MB/s
on my website located on my profile.
