Synology DS214SE NAS Box Review

Written by Antony Leather

April 9, 2014 | 09:17

Tags: #backup #best-cheap-nas-box #best-dual-bay-nas-box #cheap-nas-box #cloud #nas-box #raid #wifi

Companies: #synology

There are two parts to the cloud functions in DSM 5.0 - support for existing cloud services including Dropbox and Google Drive and Synology's own Cloud Station, which allows you to create your own Dropbox-style cloud based around your NAS. There's no online storage - instead, the files are simply synced between your PCs, mobile devices and even other Diskstations.



Download Station is pretty much the same but since we last looked at it, the ability to auto-extract compressed files has been added with the ability to set the extract location and delete the archived files upon extraction too.


Of course the main focus here is BitTorrent and Newsgroups, with little perks being the ability to set a folder to be monitored for torrent or NZB files, where the DS214SE will automatically start downloading them. This isn't new, and neither is the extensive download scheduler, but both are likely to be pretty handy.


Photostation 6 is the front end of Synology's photo server, which sits alongside its video and audio servers. It's received a revamp and now supports CRW files as well as TIFFs with thumbnails for both. Uploading photos can be done either by dragging them into the shared photo folder that's automatically created during setup, or by using a downloadable addon for Windows Explorer that allows you batch-upload photos by right clicking.


You're then able to create smart albums within Photostation based on date, tags or words, upload them directly to the usual suspects in terms of social media sites (Instagram isn't on the list, though) plus edit the photos in the basic viewer or open up Pixlr Editor, which sits level with programs such as Paint.net in terms of complexity.


Videostation is much the same as it was with a simple collection system of movies, TV shows and home videos. Whether you're accessing remotely or on the same network, you just need to install VLC's browser plugin, click on a video and you'll be streaming away, with the ability to select audio tracks and subtitles too.



Audiostation rounds off a fairly comprehensive list of features that audiophiles will no doubt find useful. There's USB speaker support in addition to mobile device streaming via its DS audio app, plus AirPlay, Bluetooth support, iTunes Server and Logitech Sqeezebox support.
Discuss this in the forums

Posted by YEHBABY - Thu Apr 10 2014 06:18

Great little box for the price, but I'd still pay the extra £40 and go for the next model up.

Posted by wyx087 - Thu Apr 10 2014 07:29

Wow, that's great performance gain for DSM 5.0 vs 4.0.

The DS212+ model has next level up processor mv6282, whereas DS214SE only have Armada 370, mv6281 processor with floating point co-processor. There is quite a large performance gap between the 6282 and 6281, which is the speed limiting component during file read and write in these machines.

Looking forward to updating my Ds213j to DSM 5.0 when I get around to it. It's essentially the same as what's been reviewed here, except it's got twice the RAM and 50% faster processor clock.



A word of warning for tweakers. Currently there is no IPKG bootstrap for Armada 370 processor. Meaning it's very hard to install packages via CLI. But most additional packages you will ever want are available through their package centre, you can even add third party repository to it, so it's all good.
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