Synology Cube Station CS407 NAS

Reviews: Networking

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Richard Poelling
Max
Synology
Jul. 19, 2007

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First Looks

The Synology NAS is small. For packing in so many features, and for that matter 4 hard drives, I was expecting a larger enclosure; the device uses an external power brick that would normally have taken up space in the case. This reduces the overall footprint and improves the enclosure's cooling. All in all, I think this was a very good design move.

Located on the front of the device is the power switch, as well as the drive activity lights. I will say that the smooth black paint job was aesthetically pleasing. A little ironic, since most people will put it in a closet or corner and then ignore it. Either way, if you have to look at it, then it is nice to have something with a bit of style.

Installation

Setup with the CS407 isn't very different from other NAS devices. After putting in the hard drives (mine were already installed) you basically fire up the unit and begin the configuration. By far the simplest method is running the Synology Assistant off the CD. With it you can either go through the one-click setup or the Step-by-step setup. No matter which method you choose, most of the nitty-gritty is performed through the web management page. The web interface is the heart of the unit. After setting your administrator password, you will be presented with a summary information page.

Once you're connected to the NAS, you need to set up your disks. The CS407 has the ability to run each drive separately, or in a RAID 0, 1, or 5. Going from one RAID configuration to another is not supported, so you probably want to plan your configuration before you fill the drives, otherwise you will lose your data.

The next step, creating shared folders, is simple and intuitive, and is also managed in the web interface.

The Cube Station includes a built-in guest account which you need to be aware of. If the NAS is for a small business or any restricted environment, then the guest account could pose a problem, since it allows unrestricted access to a lot of information.

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Page 2 of 7

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Page 1: Introduction & Features
Page 2: First Looks & Setup
Page 3: PhotoStation, Download Service & Backup Service
Page 4: Web Station, FTP Service, iTunes Server & Active Directory Services
Page 5: Testing
Page 6: Quality Check
Page 7: Conclusion

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5 User Comments

1 - Posted by NAS Shopper on August 23, 2007 - 11:40 pm

Thanks for the great review. I was all set to purchase a ReadyNAS NV+ until I discovered that diskless versions were no longer offered, so now I'm looking at alternatives like the cube station.

2 - Posted by Rich on August 26, 2007 - 10:53 pm

Yes, I was impressed with cubestation. Something I think I did fail to mention in the original review is the apparent lack of SMART info from the drives. I know my ReadyNAS X6 reports this information, but the cubestation appears to be missing it.

3 - Posted by Looking at a NAS on August 27, 2007 - 9:05 pm

I'm in the same boat as NAS Shopper, wanted a ReadyNAS until I found out I couldn't get a diskless version. Synology is a possibility.

4 - Posted by thany on August 10, 2009 - 9:52 am

Wouldn't you say it's rediculously slow for a RAID5 box connected via Gb LAN? I mean, any modern SATA disk can easily read in excess of 80MBps, and Gb ehternet is capable of running at a practical speed of mor than 950Mbps.

So I would expect transfer speeds around 80-90MBps.

5 - Posted by Max Slowik on August 10, 2009 - 11:41 pm

Sure, /two years from now!/ Wait. Shit. Something's two years off ;)

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